Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Analysis of LTA


What used to be one of the time pass during boring lectures in college?
For us mechies (and I am sure for many many others), one of the Lecture Time Activities (LTA) was Paper Ball Bombing – done usually by the back benchers. It included:

  1. Precision Bombing – Targets were generally of 3 categories:

    • One who got irritated by such things. Of course how in the world can you leave such a target alone

    • Who had the reputation of hitting back. This was to start world wars- mostly between 3rd and 5th rows. What better ways for a time pass than being involved in a World War.

    • Teachers – Not exactly Teachers but Teacher’s Area – going beyond the first benches. Sometimes this was to add thrill and excitement to the proceedings.(Yes, even world wars can get boring at times). At other times, it was accidental. It happens during a war – sometimes civilian areas get hit by off target missiles. Once, one such thrilling shot had landed quite close and prompted the ‘not so adept at English’ teacher to say “Who put this paper here??”
      Put???? Some body tell her we are not in Olympics playing Shot Put here. This is a Damn Bloody War going on here!!!
      OK.OK . This Olympic Shot Put thing is a bad PJ..

  2. Carpet Bombing - This involved throwing several small paper balls in air which landed all over the class, quite often leading to mayhem as everyone, including the third world countries.. I mean the first benchers.. were armed now.
    One reason for this was to show it to the world (the class) that back benchers are still the super powers.
    Second reason, to start wars between smaller nations.
    And of course world wars were always the favorites.
    Some times some dare devils in front also attempted carpet bombing on the super powers. The response varied.

    • It could be taking out the enemy completely by precision bombing so that he could not raise his head for another 10 lectures.

    • Or it could be again a start of Big War.

    An interesting amendment to the carpet bombing once took place during Holi. Half the class had been immersed in the vibrant colors of the festival while many who had shied away were sitting clean. In fact it was due to them that the class had not been mass bunked. So these clean people had to be taken to the cleaners.
    Hence, it was the yellow, blue, green and red colors of life those were used to carpet bomb the whole class. But this unusual warfare had resulted in some big time casualties for the Super Powers - by the teacher of course... but who wants to be sitting all colored up in the class ??


What Future may Hold for such LTA's with Technology so rampant in Colleges

Paper balls from the era of vasco-da-gama...
Bas naam le ke fire karo...and it hits the target
(refer Andaz Apna Apna)

Thanks to Fleiger for bringing to my notice an important weapon which I completely missed out - Chalks... They were the Tomahawk missiles - guaranteed accuracy as almost all of the superpowers were also very good cricketers..They were many times the decisive factors in deciding the war and unlike real expensive missiles, came free of cost...

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is really amazing...and everyone surely enjoys all these activities inside a classroom...thanks for sharing your wonderful memories...and well since the festival of colors is just round the corner just take a look at my blog on Holi Festivities sometime and enjoy all the fun and colors it's filled up with!!!

Unknown said...

For a change once in my life, I second Vish's opinion!!! Too good... sachi main your best... Maaza aa gaya....

Amey said...

Nice analysis of the paper warfare...

On the rare occasions we found ourselves in the classroom and bored, we employed the nukes of classroom warfare scene, namely chalk pieces. They have several advantages:
1. Even a glancing blow leaves its mark.
2. If you find yourself in "Day of The Jackal"sqe position, the chalk piece landing in teacher's area need not be explained.
3. It's an easily replinishable and cheap source. Kind of like using UN peacekeepers' arms to wage war ;)

So, if you can take care not to get caught (sometimes literally) red-handed, it's good :D

SiD said...

@vishesh , amrut: thanks dudes!!

@fleiger: How in the world could I forget the chalks.. Thanks a ton for adding those invaluable points...
Appending this to the post as well...
Kind of like using UN peacekeepers' arms to wage war ;) hahahahahaha.... i am still smiling!!

Cuckoo said...

Hmmm I went out for sometime and you have so many posts. :P
BTW, read all your posts and will start commenting from this one.

One of your best. :)

Waise we girls are always shareef except for that chalk part. Ha Ha.. done that.
Moreover, I was firstbencher & class was small so I think I missed on these wonderful activities.

SiD said...

@cuckoo: that is why i say that mechanical is the best class to be in, in a college... that masti cannot be replicated...

NehaPandey said...

Ahh this was warm. I could remember all the Chalks fight n the paper ball fight we used to do at school and man how crazy we were.. !!
Nice to relive them once again.
Good stuff.. thanks again..
Have u ever tried exploding a bomb in class??.. well..!!!! :)

Amey said...

There was an ET (emergent tech not the movie) warfare we tried in Infy training. The attacks used to be surgically precise, with no liabilities...

When on monday morning, it was not so rare to find snoozing people in the class, somebody would give him a ring or two on his cell. If it was on vibrate, the person would wake up shaking, otherwise it would be even more embarrassing for him ;)

SiD said...

@neha: bombs in bathrooms was common.. but in class - too much isn't it... would like to know ur literal bombing of the class

@fleiger: interesting that you mention the ET... i was planning to bring the mobile effect in LTA part 2.. we have had some gr88 mobile experiences in the class... but in college only - not much in infy :)

Amey said...

LET part 2 coming up? Good...

We didn't have any cells in the class till about final year, when 2/3 of us got cells. So we didn't want to play with untested tech then, preferring conventional forces ;)

NehaPandey said...

Ohm yea that was when I was in 10th and just before our winter breaks n pre boards exam(just after diwali). Wasn’t truly my idea but there was this real mischievous guy who got a bomb (our local aaloo bomb if u aware) n timed it nicely operating thru its thread and placed it well in the classroom opp to ours n luckily it was an empty one. And it was physics period after tea break and it exploded accurately just after 5-10 min as timed... N we all ran as innocently as we could!!
Later we had to stand the whole day in front of principal’s office which was quite embarrassing but fun :). The whole class stood out in sun as no one said who it was who did it..

Anonymous said...

Yeh pratha abhi bhi jeevit hai.
With minor additions of Mexican Waves & "Sound" Effects, its bound to get better.
--------------

Too good a post yaar... maza aa geya.

SiD said...

@fleiger: yes.. trying to collate some good mobile cases for the part 2

@neha: wow!! that is something.. i must say 2 things... amazing guts(in the guy) and tremendous unity (of the class)

@sukhjot: thanks dude!!
and mexican wave - that sounds really interesting!!

Cuckoo said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amey said...

Good... But where is the next post? You have been missing for the quite a long time.

SiD said...

@fleiger:
was busy in some other kind of writings ;)

I am back with a video though!!!
dedicated to indian cricket team