Of Back-Benchers and Mobile Internet…

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It was a regular day in class. And when I say regular, I mean, boring. Staff coming in, saying stuff no one really gives a damn about, asking questions no one knows the answers to, scolding, advising, face-palming at the ignorance and alleged arrogance of the students and finally going back in utter dismay. Then, the next ‘teacher’ comes in and repeats the cycle.

But usually, we back benchers have something better to do with ourselves. We draw, we write, we create poetry, we craft out 3d cartoons, in-fact, the back-benchers of any class are supposed to be the creative bunch of the whole class. The fastest and the greatest minds are that of the back-benchers.

“The best brains of the nation may be found on the LAST BENCHES of the classroom”

-APJ Abdul Kalam

 And on one such eventless day, when an extra class for two hours had been arranged by our ‘respected staff’, we were bored to our very core. We almost ran out of ideas, and had half a mind to run out of the class, too.

It was during this time of duress, that we noticed this fellow sitting right in-front of us, whom we designate, for the time being, as V, going berserk on his phone. Now, we, the law abiding morons that we are (were), didn’t use phones in our class. One of the benefits of being a back-bencher is that, the further away from the first bench you are, the more afraid/respectful, people are, of you.

Using this to our benefit, we snatched the phone from the poor guy and started fiddling with it. Now, don’t get me wrong here, V was our friend and we treated him to an extravagant treat afterwards, for his lifesaving kindness.

He had the Internet pack activated and was playing games online (!) while the ingenuous professor babbled on about chemical bonds and other chemistry… related… stuff.

We turned the boring mundane day into a tournament. We took turns at it and competed within ourselves for the highest scores. The seemingly dull day was turned into the start of an era of mobile internet gaming. The days of looking painfully at watches, sleeping in class (which was frowned upon even by our peers.) were over and thus began our in-class gaming session.

The next hour, to our utter dismay was a pop-quiz! Now, here’s another tit-bit about us, back-benchers. We can pass/clear any quiz/exam, as long as it is foretold. But if you decide that you can just barge in to our class and ask us mind-numbing queries, you’ve got a whole another thing coming!

Here’s our reaction to the pop-quiz announcement: We look at each other, as if we do not comprehend the very meaning of pop-quiz. Then, there is the look of contempt at the professor, and then again to each other, this time questioning each other of the veracity of the situation.

But not this time! By the powers of discretion and world-wide-web vested on us by the back benches and by Vodafone (God Bless them and V, for activating internet.) we answered almost every question correctly, referring of course to Mr. Know-it-all (Wikipedia) and pretty strategically answered some questions erroneously, to avoid any controversial doubts on the professors’ blessed minds.

Well, long story short, the looks on the faces of the studious first benchers were priceless as we, the back benchers, again triumphed over them after the results. So, thus Vodafone Internet saves the day as V came to our rescue as our knight in not-so-shining armour!