A small, overclouded world of a scrabbled desk, a mobile underneath, zillions of pending assignments and a carefree self and an even carefree neighbour on the face of all the world affairs we brushed and chewed aside like a matter of practice… the last bench was something and more. The bench often veiled us (the glorified lot) from the lousiest of the faculty and the spit lectures of the same (virus repellent). It also gave a sweet view of that one girl in the classroom I had (tense imperfect) an eye on (dopamine propellant) and as many girls on the corridor we had our eyes on (jaw opener).
Maapla bench… it was from our very be hated Babu manoharan did I learn the term. Very vividly do I remember the very first day of the college, he visited and asked the whole lot (the same glorified) to shift out of the maapla bench. The etymology ends here and so did his diktat.
The Director’s mandamus was just a one way return ticket to the back bench, so was the lure and luxury of it. The bench offered timeless sleep, the option of an enduring text messaging (often from last of the first row to the last of the last row until the jammers came in), innumerous mokka games of pen fight.. nikkal kunthal , the comfort of finishing off assignments at leisure, the deluxe of doodling under the pretext of taking notes, the pleasure of the FM radio/mp3 tucked inside the full sleeve and ofcourse the plump opportunity of being the first to be sent out of the hall (yet again, the virus repellent).
Heaven had another name in a college often dubbed as hell.
Creativity spurred and lived happily in the shelters of our kadaisi bench. Many inventions and innovations took birth. The most notable were the ways to hide one’s mobile during inspection (if you happen to be a reader who has not studied under Anna University… machan.. free-ah-vidu). The mobile found its way to all possible untraceable parts of the body (self explanatory) and not to forget the false ceiling, shoe socks, wallet(the slim ones alone),under the cuffed sleeve and inside the folded sleeve and what not… but I must admit, the safest was to hand it over to a girl. It was also the birth place of the department’s dance and skit performances (ahem!) (The notebooks’ only use came in the sketching and planning during our cultural).But the best is the bits (teja!! n jk!!).. I would have still not cleared any of the computer practicals had it not been for Jaya's eraser! Owe my degree to it!
But the outside world (read the virus spitters and their immediate victims seated under the virus’ stooped nose) had always had a cynical view of our divination. We were seen as a band of uncivilized, lethargic, carefree, callous, lackadaisical and even ill spirited souls. But, did we care?
But, it would be rather ungrateful if I don’t thank the same outside world for every single sleep inducing lecture (nothing short of heaven), for being very understanding and sending us(in group) out (when we were craving for a break!), the next levels of sending us to the office in-charge (truly adventurous), safeguarding our ID cards (many a thanks not enough), advising us for a life(sure we had a laugh) and for making us what we are( a honest thank you!). And also to the other half in the hall for bearing with us and still helping with assignments/records and et al ... After all, we are a class… aint?
Just miss it… the maapla bench and the maaplae makkal …. Karuvayan (the rapper), uk(lp the origami-ist), jayakumar(darling/joker jaya), binny and jai (Guinness is yet to wake up to the duo’s record sleeping hours), kavi (all in the name), kevin(every desk has his name.. err oliver khan), amirtha, balaji and mani (the world is still spell bound by the trio’s philosophies aka mokkais), chaku (the complete entertainer and a wizardly poet), gnanaprakash(machan), vathuvayan (was he part of the maapla bench?), teja(ghajini), mad(jolly boy), mano(guru) and ofcourse all the lateral entries(they just had to be here or where would have been all the fun?)
Just miss it!
2005-09 batch.
