arbit-

Its a life that invites,
That pulls,pricks and mocks,
A set of scenes strung together,
A thin strand of memory flipping past them all,
The anticipation of the next moment,
Is determinedly washed down by the previous,
To put a stop to it all,
To paint black over them all,
To think of nothing for just a moment,
To feel the emptyness throbbing thro the body,
To respond to all that with nothing at all,
To be at peace with the mind for once!

NOD along everybody!!

This one's for all of us poor mortals who indulge in that masterful practice of "eyes wide open-head goes up -head goes down-eyes still open" during class. And no- I'm not talking about the much over rated -cliched- much discussed (and frankly a trifle too boring?) set of sleepers-This blog is for the few of us uncool ones- the ones that stay awake and do the head bobbing.

I mean -Enough has been said about all other stereotypes- enough people belong to them- we- the less discussed -the less thought about.We, who have taken the tough decision to stay awake and battle it all out- this blog takes our cause!
And the rest of the world can just pretend to screw up their noses in disgust for all we care but this is who we are- and we know you'r squirming in your seat right now.We'v known it all along ppl! Its official- WAR has been declared!Not us Vs you- silly! Its us Vs them- the ones with the chalk and the walk and the talk-

They declared the war- i maintain-They start with a word, add another word, and then another, and then may be a cuple more and then do it all again!By the fourth round you will find most victims shifting restlessly and another 3-4 rounds later each is into

• humming her/his own tune in the head
• Turning around to see who bunked class(Lucky them!)
• Lovingly patting the edges of ones cell phone
• Wondering what day of the week it is
• Comparing bracelets with ppl 1 row away
• Reminiscing about how one shouldn't have missed that day morning's Dosa in the mess and how one should wake up in the morning the first time the alarm goes off (In my defence- the alarm was soothing to the ear)
• Wondering why the word why meant why

This could like go on-victims are too many- oppurtunities -even more - but the point is that "Ms/Mr Lovingly patting cell phone" by now picks up her/his cell phone and starts punching out the keys with lightning speed,mind numbing accuracy and all this without moving even a single muscle in the rest of(excluding the hand) her/his body.And that, we know, is when the victim recognises herself as being victimised- the first sign of failure!

We, on the other hand, we r still bobbing,let them plough on relentlessly- word after word that they throw at us- we give it back to them.Nod after nod we swallow their weapons, take it with a straight face and still end up looking brave and ready for the next word.I mean, we'v set our inds on staying awake through the entire ordeal-and by staying awake I refer to the "not acting out" of the following acts:

*No shut eye- primary rule.

*No half opened eye that could pass off for the above option either.

*No dropping the head down on the table- it is vital that there be intense eye contact between the victim and the perpetrator in order for both sides to continue waging this hideous war.

We recognise, at this point, that we do take a lot of stress whilst bobbing- and assume that if the bobbing were to become irregular- it would result in the victims(who have by now totally switched off)-not the bobbers- being questioned at random- and that is a scary prospect!(However much we may differ by principle- it all amounts to the fact that we r all students dosnt it!)

And thats why people, that is why we still go on- in the larger interests of the community!

In extreme cases of wartime danger, the bobbers are allowed to doodle on the extreme corners of their notebook's to their hearts content whilst still bobbing the head and looking extremely intrested in the weapons that whiz by.

A word of advice, to prospective bobbers- notes taking is a red herring for the perpetrators and comes as a major relief given the fact that you can avoid eye contact for a while.Also extremely useful is the 3 phase "dropping the pencil-bending down to pick it-never coming up again" act that brings immediate and effective release to prolonged eye contact.However these respites are against the principles of head bobbing and are frowned upon by true blue loyalists!

Meanwhile-Happy bobbing!

The defense rests.