BLESSED ARE THE BACK BENCHERS

“Swami and Friends” was the first fiction of R.K.Narayan I read. Being R.K.Narayan Centenary Year, I thought, perhaps a Narayan inspired piece would be more relevant.

Swami was essentially a back bencher. Being a little studious and not very tall and explicitly mischievous, I did not have the privilege of lording over the last bench. A little impetuous in raising hands to answer known questions, I didn’t know how to hide myself when I had no answer to a question or was unsure of my answers. Those were precisely the moments, when I used to count the Blessings of the back benchers.

Back benchers can enter and exit the class room at their will without being noticed by anybody. They would not be asked embarrassing questions and even when asked, can escape with irreverent answers. When escorted by the tall back benchers, nobody would dare tease us and the timid boys of the first bench would suddenly find a Halo around them. Generally good in sports, not necessarily in Cricket and football, but often in Kabadi, Kho kho and pole vault, the back benchers would constantly look for and win over admirable glances from the giggling girls. Endowed with ready wit as revealed in the numerous names with which they christen their class teachers, these boys are good at graffiti too and school walls would bear testimony to their skill. As they generally spend more than a year in some of the classes, the back benchers are in back slapping intimacy with their teachers and often they command as much respect as teachers and what more, are looked upon with awe. Like a kitten cherishing the desire to blossom into a panther, the front bench boys, though they abhor the antics of the back benchers, often have the lurking desire to have their macho looks and domineering traits. Back bench, certainly seems to be a prerogative of the boys and girls would readily concede this concession. Some of the world leaders like Winston Churchill, R.K.Narayan himself and Bill Gates would comfortably trace their genius to their back bench days.

If the back benchers in schools are the Monarchs of all they survey, the back benchers in our various legislatures suffer in comparison. Lacking in debating skill, asking searching questions and leadership qualities, the backbenchers in the legislatures would only lend their heads for counts. Unlike the back benchers in the classes, they cannot command and have their commands obeyed. Perhaps, a little initiation at the school back benches would provide potential leadership qualities to budding politicians. A Laloo Prasad and a Mulayam Singh certainly champion this cause.

And finally, back benchers of the world unite. You have nothing to lose and a world without front benches and teaching distractions to gain.