The Last Bench Leitmotif.-Decade of Undecayed Friendship-Part III

The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

I have no doubt that John Milton was very much our kinda person. We the EcCEntereic guys. Dictionary defines eccentric as deviating from the recognized or customary character, practice, etc.; irregular; erratic; peculiar; odd: We were all of that. To start off in Laloo style if sitting in the last benches was a crime or a demeaning act no class room should have last bench. But as much u can't do away with those last benches, so can't you with people who relish them. Relish for what??. Damn the tamil movies for always showing the college lives in a poor taste and the last benches in even deceitful taste. They are all but just cinematic and we never induldged in anything of that sorts.

We knew what we wanted out of each class we attended. Coincidentally it was the same that we were expecting from each and every class we had attended.ATTENDANCE. It is a ceremony which usually happens at the end of the class or sometimes at the very beginning. In any case of a one hour class you just need to wait for that one second to answer up ur called name. so you are still the recluse for the remaining 3599 seconds. Now being a recluse within certain boundaries sitting in a paradise of our own without getting disturbed by the hell surrounding you for a time period of almost an hour is no Joke. It is in a art by itself.

Many a professor have this habit of throwing intermittent questions to the classroom while teaching. And any time such questions prop up and before he completes the question only his eyes will drool over the last benches and the constant adage would append any question "Anyone from the last benches". Now you have to be intact like the Gladiators. All last benchers will bend down and see very much seriously into the diaries, notebooks, whatever they managed to grab it up for the class. You will have to create a impression as if no last bench exists. You will not relent until the professor goes to the next step of calling out individuals. Now if you are wearing a bright colour shirt or have a tonsured head sort of things there is a very much chance that you will get caught. Because no professor likes calling out names of the last benchers. they simply call "you yellow shirt", "you mottai" etc. Now if it is you who get fixed you will slowly raise your eyes from those empty pages of ur diary and rise slowly from your seat. You don't get excited or frightened of any kind. We just hold the attitude "Okay you want to play this again. Well am game". You do not give any definitive expression of knowing or not knowing the answer. You will just be as numb as possible. Never ever try to understand the question. There is a possibility that u totally misunderstand the question and goof up with stupid answers. So just apply the simple rules. Be expressionless, do not utter a word. May be the best choice is stare at the wall. You know no sorrow is not passable. All this only till your neighbour friend who all this while was a bit laughing outside and praying inside to not to be called gets caught. Now he also stands and you got a companion. Now you can transfix your stare from the walls to your neighbor friends eyes. And the routine continues till the whole bunch of last benchers are on their legs. Now you have every right to loosen up your body language and stare straight in to the face of the professor literally asking "When the hell would you guys grow up"?????". Now this is kind of battle. You keep winning each battle until the final war of degree is won. At any point of time you never lose your heart. Be assertive enough to Tame any professor. The ultimate achievement is when professors understand that we want nothing but attendance and they could grant that with only looks and not calling out the names. But what is important is that many a front benchers too will not know the answer. They always lived under our shadow.

When all these drama gets over you get back to your business. You open you diary and start refining your signature. You keep practicing and refining them by signing your name page affter page. When that gets a bit tedious and you feel you are tired of that, you pull up one of your neighbour friend for a game of word building. Now that is a highly literary game. In any case do not forget to give the regular momentary glances at your professor. Only just to mark your presence in the class. Meanwhile you sort out various issues like whether or not to attend the next class, prvious night dinner accounts settlement, wherzz the destination for lunch, why some gal is looking too good today, pursuing your artisitc abilities by trying to draw some meaningul figures and logos, wrting down your name in bold, italics, etc.

There are lot of activities happening there. somtimes something can really get so good.
Crosswords. simply the best. Just shows the height of literary activities happening at the top of the class. kavithaihal. Now that you have professors, pandus all around you , you simply have enough reasons to shun this materialistic world and enter your own utopian world. Then words flow out to create all those memorable poems. Still remember the poem by this guy duniya who was yet again nicknamed "Loosu". The poem was about his infatuation (or was it the real love?) for another real loosu. the poem was touchy, comedic and classic. No doubt that such gems would have never seen the light of the day if it was not for the Last bench leitmotif. So much the last bench has become an integral part of our college life. In any classroom and any circumstance our legs would only move towards the last benches. because that is where exactly our hearts are. The divine place where we had enough time for everything but to study. But who the heck wanted to study. The holy place where we learnt the virtues of patience. The place where we learnt every sorrow is passable, as every class will have to end. The place where we dreamt of all those unattainable loves. The place which definitely made us being more knowledgeable if not for being more educated.