Sir, Do You Know What You Are Talking About?

"Sir, as a student, I am asking you, do you know what you are talking about?"

And there was a stunned silence.

There are some things that happened that become indelibly etched on your mind and this (question) was one of them. We had just got back our 'A' level prelim Economics paper and there was one troubling question where none of us could agree with the teachers' answer. So there was much 'lively arguing' coupled with increasing frustrations.

Finally, Syed Ahmad stood up - and he was tall - and asked, "Sir, as a student, I am asking you, do you know what you are talking about?"

And he remained standing with his eyes fixed on our teacher. I thought our Economics teacher, Mr Nathan was going to explode. But amazingly he kept his cool as he turned slowly and deliberately away, walked a few steps and then turned back again to face Syed Ahmad. Whatever else was said after this was lost but that question remained.

Audacious? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But we were thinking students.