Bang! again

The title won’t make any sense to you unless you have read Bang! Now that you have read that, gear up for this.

16/06/07 12:00 hrs
It seemed like just another usual day. I was busy living my boring and monotonous life while the Earth revolved around the sun, spinning happily. Everything was fine. I was checking scraps and other such crap…

I take a detour from the original topic to bore you with something I learnt in my Biology textbook but never believed. We possess quite a few reflex actions most of which are vital to our survival but there’s this one reflex action that is just plain weird - The Patellar Reflex. In simple words, if you give a light tap on a particular point on the knee, your leg involuntarily kicks. Is that weird or what? What the hell is the use? Some kind of self defense? I just think it is highly improbable. Do let me know if any of you have experienced this first hand.

As I was telling, it was just another day. I was listening to songs on Real Player. Just then, I clicked on Eject instead of Play and Bang! The CD platform pushed itself out of the CPU and smashed into my knee. Damn those computer-table manufacturers! Thanks to the countless racks they designed on the table, my leg had no room to kick and ended up colliding with the bottommost rack. Ouch!

The pain dominated the enlightenment. The swelling didn’t make things any better. Swellings always freak me out and this was no exception. I was in too much pain to realize what had happened. The reflex action I was just telling you about; it really does happen and it happened to me.

A Blast of a Birthday! - Act 1

Disclaimer:
The following post describes in vivid detail the convoluted ways in which the mind of a certain UTD ( Ulti Torture Devil ) works. So, proceed only if you think you can handle it. Oh, by the way, this is just a teeny tiny glimpse of what goes on in her mind.

Caution:
I don’t have the permission to disclose who Devil really is… and I advise you not to bother either.

A few words before I begin.( well I guess I already began but anyway…)
Thanks to Postman for the idea to write a b’day blog.
Thanks to Crazy gal for the crazy idea to blog about this particular incident.
This is a big one.. so here it goes.

This blog post is dedicated to a plucky ( henceforth addressed to as Plucky in this post), a hopeless person ( henceforth addressed to as Hopeless in this post ) and a ziddi (means stubborn in Hindi) person ( henceforth.. blah blah blah... Imp)

Narrated by Devil:-

Act 1 Scene 1

(x,,y,z,t) – (Orkut, 12/06/07 : 22:00 hrs)

I should admit that I get a lot of satisfaction from the innumerable sadistic things I do. I cannot explain why or how but it has been this way for quite some time now. This greed for sadistic happiness was heightened today for some reason; maybe because Imp didn’t come online today at all ( that’s the reason he gave… what a reason! Lol ) or because of the inspiring episode – the one which focuses on Megan and her evil self - of Drake n Josh I saw just a few minutes back, which is my reason. The point; I was on top gear. Time to attack somebody’s scrapbook. Hmm.. who shall be my victim today?? I went profile-hopping in my friends’ list and voila! Who better than Imp? Ego freak to the core and a self-proclaimed cool guy… Time for some ego-deflation. Here’s what I did to his about me column. evil laugh

Scrap 1: “well i havnt figured out much abt myself yet like what i really want. a couple of years back i had an obsessive desire to get to IIT but now that i am here and i find that it is just another college i guess i need to find a new goal.so as of now i am aimlessly killing time and that brings me to orkut.my frends say im very composd n never get angry,i njoy spending time wid frends,watching movies n generally chilling out. so add moi!!”
Scrap 2: thts more about mr 1001.. his about me column
Scrap 3: see wat I told.. give up person. Hasn’t figured out abt himself in th first place!
Scrap 4: “obsessive desire to get to IIT” couldn’t hav gt th next train kya??any moron with a ticket can do it!
Scrap 5: “just another college” duh! Wat du expect? Hogwarts?!
Scrap 6: “need to find a new goal” hopeless and goalless!
Scrap 7: “aimlessly killing time” wata murderer! No wonder ppl lik me don’t get nuf time to carry out our aimful activities. Sheesh!
Scrap 8: “that brings me to orkut” oh no! more murders abt to occur.
Scrap 9: “generally chilling out” wonder wat’s non-generally chilling out?!
Scrap 10: “so add moi" ya sure! After all this? nice try! PS: ta da ta ta taa! I'm luvin it.. ulti thing to do on my bday!

10 scraps.. as always.. 1 orkut page :D Mission Accomplished.


Act 1 Scene 2

(x,y,z,t) – (Gmail, 12/06/07 : 22:30 hrs)

Wow! That felt great! One of my masterpieces! That’s when I got my birthday compliments… the best so far…

“u evil wiked gal..
i dnt cum online 1day nd u act so smart..
litter my scraps ldat..
utd is an understatement
ur unbelivably mean
:x
:x”
LOL!

“wat abt u havnt even gt nething 2 write in ure abt u section..
except dat u cn pain infi..
d name says it all it seems..
:x
:x”
LOL!!

“… d grt whose name says it all...(wonder if it means devil personified)”
LOL!!!

And get this… I made a calm n composed guy slaisha pissed! clap Achievement! Hardwork pays and it pays handsomely. (Chap didn’t even reply once that night)

For the record: He’s just the most amazing guy I have ever met. :)

( So that was Act 1. The damage:-
Devil : “How dare he get pissed? How can he stay angry like that?? And wats with the not messaging??? Wait till I get my hands on him!”
Imp : “ So innocent, yet so evil! Nobody messes with my ego! Wait till I get my hands on her!”)

A Blast of a Birthday! - Act 2

Note : If u happen to work at a CCD, this is an imaginary act played by imaginary actors at an imaginary CCD in an imaginary city.. ah! you get the imaginary picture don’t ya?

(x,y,z,t) – (Corner sofa @ CCD,13/06/07 : 12:00 hrs)

Act 2 Scene 1

They call it Cool Blue Granita… we call it Surf Excel. It is basically half-melted blue coloured crushed ice that somehow even tastes like Surf. The drink was in my hands when my eyes fell on the cream coloured trousers Imp was wearing. Time for torture.
Devil : “ Is that a new pair of trousers?”
Imp : puzzled
Ah! Wat the hell! As if I care if they were new!
“Splash!”; a strawful of Surf Excel all over the right leg of the crisp cream pants!
Devil : “Score!”
Take that you chocolate chip snatcher!
Imp : puzzled (Chap has a huge reservoir of these puzzled looks!)

“Splash!”; another strawful of Surf Excel all over the previous stain!
Boing! The spring on which Imp was sitting springs up! Poor fella! Tries his best to wipe his pants clean.
Hopeless : “ Thank God I am on the other side, far away from you.”
Devil : realizes that he too is wearin a pair of cream trousers “My lucky day! You’re wearing cream too.”
Hopeless : takes the newspaper to save his pants from the potential danger it was in
Devil : evil smile
“Splash!”; Surf on the big-mouthed fella’s pants! “Man, this straw is good. What amazing range!”
Hopeless : speechless
Fella surrendered then and there. Smart boy!
It is so satisfying to put your physics fundaes to use!

Next stop.. Plucky! Well, what do you know… she was wearing cream coloured pants too. My lucky day indeed. :D
Plucky : “No, not me.”
Devil : “Hmm, okay. She does have a class to attend after this. Besides I have no grudge against her. My first partner in crime, after all!”

One fleeting look at Imp’s look of ego and defiance and I knew I had to act again.
Devil : “Oh! Look.. Your left leg is totally clean.. Let’s give a finishing touch to this painting, shall we?”
I took one strawful and Boing! The spring goes up again! LOL! Just imagine a 6 foot tall fella jumping out of his seat as though poked with a pin. Tom & Jerry style!
One more sip from the straw and Boing! Double LOL!!
I just reached for the straw and Boing! Triple LOL!!!
I could do this forever!
Sip! Boing! LOL! Lolz!

Before long, he got the idea that I was just taking sips and had no plans of splashing but boy, was he wrong!
“SPLASH!” the biggest one so far! I just keep getting better at this!
Ah! Sweet Sadistic Satisfaction! It was an exhilarating feeling. The pant was crying and I was laughing.

Imp tried his hand at my game! An attempt to pour the last drops of Cold Chocolate over me but I was not ready to give up without a fight. It was a weird version of a tug of war.
Imp : “You wont win at this. This is all about strength.”
Devil : “ But you are supposed to be a chivalric guy…”
Imp : “No chivalry today.”
On mutual consent, or so I think, we decided to spare the Cold Chocolate.. or maybe the waiter appeared out of nowhere.. ;)

I was ruling and no one dared to revolt. I loved being in power… the power to splash! I had no idea what was in store for me; no idea that I had aroused a naughty little imp. He struck and he struck quick. I had no time to react. Quick as lightning, his long hands reached for the glass I had just placed back on the table, and the next thing I know I was drenched in Cool Blue Granita! Soaked all over. Wonder how that half filled glass managed to make me wet from head to toe. Freakish! He must be an expert; one with no plans of slow torture. He had set his mind on it and he did it! No straw.. no nothing. Just the Surf Excel and me.

It was Payback time, for all the torture he has been through ever since he knew me, for yesterday’s scrap-book decoration, for being my imp, for all the times he has put up with me and my evil self, for everything.

Of course, two can play at this game but right now it’s time to clean up and stop the hooliganism for the time being. The waiter must have thought that we had started to eat tissue paper too. Sparing just one tissue for Imp, I began wiping all the Cool Blue Granita and man, was it cool! And sticky too. Argh!

Hopeless : “Did you get that on camera?”
Plucky : “Ya… kind of.”
Hopeless : “ You missed the best part, the Payback time.”
Plucky : “These people don’t warn us before they attack. Next time give me a signal, ok?”



Act 2 Scene 2

(x,y,z,t) – (Same sticky, Surf Excel spilt sofa with torn newspaper soaked in Surf Excel and cushions trying hard to mask the mess, 13/06/07 : 13:00 hrs)

There was tension in the air. Who shall strike next? Who shall be the victim? Are the CCD guys going to throw us out? Are we going to be banned forever? Who should be given the camera?
So many questions, yet so little time to ponder.

Hopeless and Plucky didn’t get much to eat since the two of us were kind of preoccupied with Payback time. So we decided to order a Veg Burger just for them.

Devil : “ Aww! The colour doesn’t stay!”
Imp : “That’s right.”
Devil : “ That’s bad. It doesn’t look colourful at all.” evil smile “ You know, the veg burger is served with tomato and mustard sauce.”
Imp : evil smile
Devil : evil smile
Hopeless : worried
Plucky : busy on phone

The veg burger had hardly landed on the table when I aimed for the sauce packets. Ha ha! Sucker! They were in my custody and I was not going to give them away. Hopeless and Plucky didn’t even ask me for the sauces. They just ate away mechanically fearing the worst!

Maybe I am acting paranoid. Why am I clutching on to these sauce packets anyway?
Imp wont be so evil. Let me place it back. Maybe those two might want to have sauce with their burger. What a host I have been! I am supposed to be giving the treat.

Thus, I made the foolish decision of placing back the weapon I had. The war wasn’t over and I placed my weapon down. How will I ever forgive myself? As if he was just waiting for me to act foolishly, he did his long hand act again, and the sauce packets were in his hands. Damn!
Imp : “Self-defense” evil smile
Devil : “Hmpf!” bemused

Oh! Look at him. Staring away at nothing. Those two sauce packets tossing from one hand to the other while he listens to the music. That smile on his lips; the smile of victory. The charming smile that is contagious most of the time but not right now. No time for smiling. Focus! Focus on the packets. Ah! His hands relax their grip periodically. Hmm. Now, if only I could figure out the time period. Focus! That’s a nice song. Hey that smile again! Does he have a girl in his life? One that I don’t know of? Interesting! Cut the crap! Focus!

Sick of not able to focus on the weapon of mass destruction, I made my move. A silly, hasty move. Call it insecurity or ego, I don’t care. Imp had a metallic grip and would not be letting go of his self defense that easily. The excessive pressure he applied on the flimsy packet coupled with my sharp nails spelt inevitable destruction. Mustard all over the place; our sofa, my brand new dress, his old crappy trousers, the adjacent sofa, the kid on that sofa, everywhere.
Imp : “ That was suicide!”
Devil : “ Duh! I know. Shut up.”
Imp : “ Mustard stains are hard to remove, right?”
Devil : :shutup
Devil : “ Even on my hair!”
Imp : LOL

That’s the story of how I got bright yellow mustard stains on my brand new birthday dress. If you, by chance get any mustard stains, take my advice and never google on how to remove them. It’s a scary world out there! A dye, it seems. Just what I wanted to hear!

You think that was it? Wait till you hear this. I smell like mustard! Yeah! That’s right. I smell like one huge mustard packet and the worst part is my hair smells like it too, even after a good wash with loads of conditioner. Argh! to say the least.

Mine and Mine Only..

Let me introduce you to somebody. Somebody whose elegance is beyond par, whose very sight brings a smile to my face and whose embrace is positively electrifying. There’s something in that look that keeps me engrossed in every class, something in that touch that makes it irresistable. Bryan Adams must have composed this just for me! :)

“Sometimes I think that I’ve not been looking good,
But there’s only one thing that fits like it should.
The only thing I want,
The only thing I need,
The only thing I choose,
The only thing that looks good on me…
Is you.”

Ah! The sleek build, the sharpness, the metallic shine; all rolled into one attractive package. The stainless steel back and base metal bezel, definitely male! The way I fell for him the minute I saw him, the way his charming hands shine, the way I pleaded with my parents to let me keep him, the way I try to see the reflection of my face in his, the way I feel that his presence amplifies the beauty of my hand, the way this blog post is scribbled in phrases rather than full sentences; undoubtedly a new addition to my crush list! That’s right – a new addition; my brand new Q&Q Quartz water-resist wrist watch. ;)

I AM BORED

5/17/2007 5:03:11 PM

It’s day 14... A fortnight into the summer vacation… It’s official… I AM BORED. Most of my friends have already reached this stage. There was something or the other to keep me occupied for so long but here I am in a posture that I am dead sure is bad for the stature but what the heck! I am bored. I will do what I want. My best buddy...my Lappy is here of course and Microsoft Word… guess I haven’t got bored of that as yet. Listening to the ABBA music CD that I wrote for my dad with all his favourite songs. At 2600W, my music player redefines ROCKING! It seems more like the room is resonating! I wonder what will happen if I play Linkin Park.

The phone buzzes to life. Is it ringing? I must be hearing things. The things a bored mind concocts! It WAS ringing. Yay! Someone else is alive too and bothered to ring up. I wish you could see my excitement. I stopped typing, jumped out and paused the song being played. Actions just mentioned don’t just happen. The seriousness of the issue is, hence, clear, I presume. Oh! It was Dad! Checking up on me I guess. Not so dejected coz it was an event after all. Somebody called.

That brings me back to square one. I AM BORED. It’s not that I have nothing to do. I have a lot of movies on this very Lappy, a few magazines lying around, a couple of books waiting to be read, a desktop with net connection, a television with quite a few channels, a DVD player and DVD’s, my cell phone, some cooking fundaes etc.. There is simply no enthu to do any of these activities today. Till yesterday everything was fine. I was proud that I am not feeling bored when the entire world was complaining of being bored but today; I am surprised at myself. I AM BORED.

What exactly leads to this ‘I AM BORED’ syndrome? I thought it was lack of things to keep you occupied but clearly, that is not it. What is, then, the cause? I stop here but the song plays on.

Bang!

There I was sleeping peacefully on my bed. Ten hours into slumber and no plans of waking up. No surprise there! When was the last time I had plans of waking up anyway? I generally sleep with my face down and today was no exception. I lifted my face up, albeit half awake, just to check up if the world around me was still the same as when I left it. It was. That means I can afford to continue my sleep. I would probably have continued anyway. Fair enough! So I brought my head down on the pillow or so I thought.

Sometime between the point when I woke up and now, something eerie occurred. The iron railing of the bed shifted by some finite distance towards me. I came to know of this the hard way though. My forehead met the railing instead of the pillow. Bang! That ought to have hurt and you bet it did. My roommate got jolted in spite of the fact that she was watching a movie on her computer with headphones. She must have got freaked out and more so when I gave a weird dorky smile in return for the confused look on her face. I mean, what else did you expect? The fact that you are going to continue with that well deserved sleep increases your approach velocity towards the pillow and it is far from bliss to end up on the hard iron railing instead of the soft pillow.

That, I would say, is the worst possible way to wake up.

Making inroads into sports.

[ The original version of this was written for my hostel magazine but I didn't submit it to the editors. I am not very sure why though! ]

It is said that we discover our true identity during teenage. Life has been quite ordinary till date but all of a sudden I find myself transforming into a totally different person exploring newer dimensions. The fact that I’m presently living in a hostel, far away from home, is mainly responsible for this. The unrestricted freedom, the tremendous amount of resources and, of course, the brand name IIT is the perfect combination for a wonderful hostel life.

One of the most drastic changes that took place was sudden interest in sports. I wanted to master as many as possible. A thrilling urge to become a sport enthusiast. I started with the one sport I used to play decently; Badminton. The enthusiasm in sports activities in my hostel is quite high, that is, when RG’ed with other spheres. I got to play with my batchmates as well as seniors. It was a nice way to get acquainted with the seniors especially since I was new to the place. Technically speaking, I was playing baddy only but tennis and cricket also found their way in. ;)

I then ventured into athletics. It requires a lot of stamina, they say, but I wanted to try my hand at it anyway. What was there to lose? I cannot possibly get any lighter than I already am. [;)] Well, jogging does wonders to your body. I am not talking about all that standard information that fitness trainers brainwash their clients with. What I felt is that this boosts up your stamina or in technical terms, takes the “yield point” to a new high. (not that kinda high! ).

It was time to give the next sport a go. Tennis - I’ve always liked watching the game but never got the chance to play. You need lots of energy to play tennis it is not just a high-funda version of badminton as is the general opinion or at least my opinion. :D It was nice to get the basic fundaes from experienced seniors.

The next one on the list is Throwball. It is like playing Volleyball, with lesser probability of injuring your hands. I don’t have any comments on this one because I don’t classify it as a sport in the first place. :|

Basketball – truly a magnificent sport - I wanted to try my hand at this also. The only difference was that this was not a passing attraction like most others; I wanted to master it from day one. Form trying out a few shots to dribbling, I also got fundaes from a senior who was all smiles to hand down the tricks of the game. It turned out that there was a particular way of orienting the ball before shooting it. Who would’ve guessed that there might be such rules to this game? There is even a way of dribbling the ball. It is not just arbit up and down SHM!

The thing is I put a lot of enthu when I play and what do I get out of all this? A swelling, and that too, double the diameter of my arm thanks to badminton, a numbing sensation in the legs after running all over the athletics track, a chance to, almost, but not quite, fracture my finger during tennis, a scar having run into a pole while following every twist and turn of the basketball with utmost concentration and an excuse to get a Gurunath tea to pep me up!

Making inroads into sports, indeed!

My ID110 notebook

Okay... I admit it. I had a notebook and that too a 200 pages unruled one for ID110. (FYI this is a course I had in First Semester titled Concepts in Engineering Design. A weird course, with professors changing every week or so, this is the kind of course for which people count their attendance very carefully to just make it across the 75% barrier. Of course, I don't belong to that type. I attend classes regularly.) :)

A couple of days back I found this book in my shelf. At first glance, I was amazed at the amount of notes written. You will be amazed too. Twenty pages back and front! Now that is serious news. It even had one of those "topics covered" zones. I wondered if this was really my own book. I got freaked when I saw that I had even used a black pen to underline the subtopics. Whoa! The book was totally crammed with graphs and figures and technical terms. After all, the professors were only trying to make engineering design as theoretical as possible but it is a totally different issue that they ended up making it as boring as possible.

Flipping through the pages ( twenty pages back and front, remember!) , still flipping... Yawn.. nothing much for some nine pages; just plain boring notes until a blank page! Now that was slaisha surprising. A blank page! I guess I was absent for a lecture and left a blank page to write down what was taught in that class. Oh yes! now I remember... I asked so many people for that day's notes but sadly (?) that page is still blank. Wow I have changed so much since first semester. Not a single book is as well maintained as this unique ID110 book.

Even more surprises in store for me! Last month of semester one. I guess I was no longer the same person who joined IITM or may be I felt like going back to school days. Either way, what the book had in store was that the notes written on that day were not like the ones written usually.The topic was Philosophy of engineering design. The professor put a lot of emphasis on the aesthetics aspect of design and was trying to make the class interesting. This is how it begins.
"Should've sat in the last benches! "
"Nice time to realize that! At the end of the course."
Aristotle supposedly put forward a theory named,"Theory of Causation":-
"Phew! Optimism: At least Aristotle didn't teach us ID110!"
Observation: The professor chooses one particular arbitrary word and uses that in all his sentences till it gets monotonic. First word of the day was "aesthetic" and the second one was "potential".
'Aesthetic expression and quest for perfection.', 'Intellectual and aesthetic needs.', 'What do we do in design? (er.. design??!!) Technology and aesthetics' (lol)
"Whats up with th prof,da? Babbling on and on with the aesthetics funda."
It was a part of that Aristotle's theory. Potentiality and Actuality. Whatever! :-
"How pessimistic! Don't remind me of potential! PH101 Argh!"

That brings us to the last written page of the book. Ciao!

Lived another quiz.

Yeah! lived another quiz. Wait a minute, technically speaking, there is one more subject left but since it is three days away most of the normal people will agree with me. How better to start the celebration than attend all classes with a broad smile?! (I am not being sarcastic) so here it begins-freaking out after quiz2, or so I thought.

There was nothing out of the ordinary with most classes today, except, of course, the one class I like to blog about - ED- a course about engineering drawing, graphics and CAD. It is supposed to be interesting and fun. Note that the emphasis is on "supposed". Anyways all that you need to know is that (x,y,z,t) is (classroom for ED theory, just after a heavy lunch).

It all started ( Herge style! ) when a friend of mine interrupted us when we were busy watching a movie to remind us about the class. Argh! the guts to disturb and remind about this class! It took a lot of determination to ditch the movie and make the long ( er.. not that long. This is just to add to the dramatic effect) journey to class.


I thought that the three of us can rock the class as usual but it turned out a big time flop. One of them starts behaving like a geek and began doing next week's assignment with my stationery. I tried to snap her out of it but ended up complaining to the girl next to me who ( another geek at times) takes her stationery out saying ," Hey, good idea"! Imagine my situation. In a desperate attempt to save them ( and myself in the process), I snatched all the pencils lying around and then needless to say there were some vain attempts to snatch them back. One of the guys behind us passed a lazy comment," Sir, girls are doing mischief in class". He said that it was good entertainment for him and far better than listening to the lecture. Entertainment it seems! The arrogance!

For a change I listened to the class and actually understood what he was trying to draw but after some time the board was overflowing with lines and planes and that's when I officially gave up. Having learnt the important lesson of not playing silly games in class ( refer previous post), I decided to put my pencil to work today. I felt my artistic skills needed rekindling and ended up filling the page with random sketches ranging in diversity from tortoises to ducks. The proffessor must have suspected my unusual interest in the assignment book I was drawing on and asked me for a pen (to explain planes? Fishy, don't you think?) I got some compliments for my sketches too, from my pals, of course.

When I am thoroughly bored, I start scanning the class. I thought I'll start with the fellow who passed the entertainment comment. His arena would be visible only through the corner of my eye. Wait a minute, he was not there! He had crashed on the desk, head down! From uncontrollable bombarding of doubts five minutes back to dozing off peacefully; he sure has a unique ability to change moods in a jiffy. There was this other guy on whose desk the professor placed a cardboard model of a pyramid. This lone wolf was actually staring at the pyramid as though it had just landed from Mars. My eyes then drifted to a trio who were discussing ( ED? ) all over the assignment book in front of them. I wonder why everyone was interested in ED, of all subjects.

I guess this habit of inspection of the class is contagious. My usually blind friend seems to have taken to my ways. I did not witness this though:
I turned back because some jobless fellow asked the equally jobless professor, who could have found something better to do than bore us with ED, a doubt. These guys were holding strips of paper, bent at different places and at different angles. It seemed like they were planning to build Eiffel tower out of those strips. I guess it is a part of some projection of solids funda. Who knows, who cares?

Boredom, at its best

I took some time to digest the fact that I had arrived early to class. The class was just starting to get filled up and I was already there in the not-so-usual second bench. You might be thinking this is some high credit course which I would not miss for anything in the world but you are sadly mistaken. This lecture is very much in the competition for most boring lecture of the semester and I am sure it will win too. I saw that my friends had already arrived. I asked them if they were out of their minds for having arrived so early and one of them replied that there was nothing else to do and so she came early. Excessive studying is not good for health. I was firm in my decision to not listen in this class for I had no plans of losing my sanity.

As soon as the professor entered the class my brain started processing ways of staying awake. It might have been the result of this excessive thinking but I ended up deciding to play a silly kindergarten level game of join the dots with lines. I know that this is the height of being bored but as always I had no plans of dozing off in class. A few minutes into the game and I felt this was the most boring game of the century, in spite of the fact that I was not losing. I got distracted for a while as I paid attention to some few minutes of the lecture for no particular reason. I asked my pal ," What did u do?" I actually meant to ask which line she had drawn and she answers with a straight face, " I drew a line." This is what happens to people who are taxed with uninteresting classes all day long. I, however,lost the game because I overlooked an obvious winning move. I declared that this was the most boring game and not worth playing under any circumstances no matter how bored one might be. I gave up the idea of playing games during a lecture (well, I would have played NFS during any lecture) and sought other ways of keeping myself occupied.

I could see the entire class from where I was sitting. The positioning of the bench relative to the other benches as well as the angle of sight was just right. There were some people who were as disinterested as ever while some others who seemed to be doing other nerve-wrecking work. There were others who were listening to class but the sensible people among them gave up halfway. I realized that there was quite a substantial number of students in class which is quite odd for such a lecture. They must have calculated their attendance earned till date and not been satisfied with the observations.

My eyes fell on a guy whose beard was singularly different from beards that I have seen. It resembled a lawn that was half mowed at arbitrary places and watered for a few days. My attention then switched to another guy who seemed to be engrossed in a sword fight using his palm as the sword. On closer observation, it turned out that he was listening to class intently and was trying to visualize the projections and elevation views (it being a drawing class). The next person I set my eyes on was nodding his head so badly that it seemed very likely that it might fall off. Eventually the class came to an end, officially. It was time for the much-anticipated attendance sheet. It turned out that the professor had forgot to bring the sheet.