In a seemingly bizarre continuation of recent events, a prestigious college in Pune has announced that the cut-off for admission this year would be 102%, due to the brilliant performance displayed by students in their Class 12 examinations. Complete confusion marked the announcement at the college premises today afternoon, with bewildered students wondering whether their math fundamentals were really so bad that they couldn't work out the numbers behind this scenario.

'I knew I should have gone for the coaching class my friends were suggesting. My teacher kept insisting that the maximum I could get was 100 on 100. Now I am guilty of the worst possible sin – aiming too low. My god, what have I done?' wondered a disappointed student.

The president of Against Affirmative Action (AAA), the youth body against reservations, insisted that this mess was a result of divisive politics being played by the country's politicians since independence. 'They keep adding quota after quota for different sections of the people. I guess they must have missed out a community or two while adding it up, and thus you have a total over 100. Divisive politics is wrecking our country!' When this reporter pointed out that quotas had nothing to do with mathematically challenged cut-offs, Mr. Sharma thundered that his views should be take in the right spirit, and not debated on technicalities.

When contacted, Mr. Damle, the principle of the college stoutly defended the allegations of mismanagement leveled against him, arguing that there was little he could do about things: 'All we do is make a list of students with their grades in descending order. Yes, we do take care to ensure that we don't end up formatting the percentages column in isolation, but beyond that, what can we possibly do wrong? If the cut-off is 102, it means that there are students who have scored higher than that! Who am I to ask how or why they've done so?'

Speaking to Faking News, a member of the School Examination Board clarified the situation: 'There is a policy that students who have participated in national level sporting events are given 2.5% additional marks over what they actually score in their exams. Until last year, students scoring more than 97.5 were exempted from this rule. However, this was challenged by an exceptionally brilliant all-round performer. When the matter came up for review, we felt that the maximum limit of 100% was anyway a notional figure. How would it matter if somebody did get more than 100%? After all, the student deserved the score. Aren't we all always urged to challenge our limits? As an examination board, we decided that the first place to apply such an inspiring philosophy was our system. Yes, it was tough to convince all those mathematicians on board, but then what is really perfect in real life? We also discovered that nowhere had we really stated that the maximum overall percentage a student could get was 100%, so technically too, there was no issue. This problem has simply been noticed due to this year's phenomenal results.'

Piyush Chopra, a student who had cleared the cut-off, explained things from his perspective: 'I worked really hard all year. It's so easy for the students who just study. I had to balance my studies with cricket coaching, badminton coaching, my flute classes and yoga sessions . Today I can recite the multiplication table of 243.5 while demonstrating how to hit the perfect cover drive and performing a flawless rendition of Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam on my flute, all at the same time. Now tell me, is it right for a mere number to stop me? In fact, they should give me further points for my other extra-curricular achievements too. But the system is indeed engineered to promote mediocrity,' he ended with a sigh.

With the 100% barrier being finally broken, Faking News believes that we have entered a new era. Sky is the limit for the next generation, it seems.

(reported by Harshad Karandikar)