July 6 2012
School days! Most memorable days of our life unless and until you have been a last-bencher all your school life. I have been a last-bencher all the days of my school life. Looking front from the last bench, the last bench students like us would look scary. We are the rowdies of the class. We are the ones who will speak all bad words in class, eat our lunch during class hours, read sleazy magazines during class hours.
The first bench will be full of the learned scholars, future IT, IIT, IIMs and good boys and girls of course failures like me too. I was made to sit in the first bench not because I was a good boy nor because I was a future IT product. I was there for the simple reason for being a failure student and I was in control of my teacher. I would often think why I am not brilliant like others. But then my childhood hero Rajini would flash across my eyes and I would feel happy.
Sometimes I would feel like sneaking to the last bench to see what the notorious boys like me doing in the class. But I would control by inhibitions because of three reasons
1) My dad told to my class teacher to sit in the front row and to be watched carefully.
2) Anitha did not like the last bench boys.
3) The last bench boys were scary and rowdies.
Anitha used to sit in the second row. One day Anitha did not come to school. So I decided to go to the last bench when the teacher was not around in the class room. I gathered all my courage and walked slowly towards the last bench to be with my friends. It was like walking towards a lion's den. The last bench boys stared at me with a scornful look because I was sitting in the first bench and acting like a smart student. I smiled at them. It didn't work. When I reached the last bench, One of my friend told me " Nee nallavanave Iru, Nanga ellam kettavangalave Irunthutu poram" which in English translates to " You always act like a smart boy, We always be bad fellows". That was the last time I went closer to the last bench in school.
Through out my school days, Though I was always seated in the first bench, my heart was always in the last bench. All my last bench dreams came true, when I entered college. Because I was a full time-yapper, I became an automatic candidate for the last bench when I entered college. The criteria for a last bench candidate in college are listed below
1.Ability to whistle with fingers folded inside the mouth
2.Ability to create rhythmic music by hitting at the wooden benches.
3.Ability to throw chalk pieces at the first row benches.
4.Ability to rag first time lecturers.
5.Ability to rag juniors in college.
6.Ability to walk out of the class midway through the lecture.
As I fit into all these useless criteria I became an eligible candidate for the last bench. I will write about my college day stories in another post. But let me come back to the school days. School excursions are again a memorable thing for everyone
This is how a school excursion seating would look like. All the innocent, calm and good students will be seated in the first few rows. The love birds will occupy the middle seats and the notorious ones will sit in the last two rows of seats. I have no clue how they bring in alcohol and cigarettes. The students will be accompanied by two school teachers (one will be a physical education teacher and the other will be an English ma'm). The bad students will enjoy the excursion very much. They will tease all the love birds. The good ones will have to just sit and look at the scenery. As the journey goes on, they doze off.
Being a first bencher is one of the greatest banes of being in a school especially if you are a mischievous and hyper active kid like me.
