The Last Lecture

Note: Melodrama at its best. Facts have been played around with.

To Prashant for the idea. He saw me in a trance after I came from my last lecture - and suggested that I write a post on it.

I looked at the clock. It was ten minutes to five. Ten minutes to the end of an age. Ten minutes to, perhaps, freedom. Ten minutes for the last lecture of MY LIFE to get over. (The 'of my life' addition makes the event look so big and spectacular right)

The professor was expressing some final thoughts about the current trends in databases. Some of us in the class were staring at the stack of mid-semester papers kept on the desk. Some of us were typing text messages on our phones. Perhaps to each other. And oh ya, many of us were listening. (Do not ask me what the total number of students in the class is. :p)

"So, all the best. The mid-semester papers are not evaluated yet. So, I will call you all to my office after that's done."

The geeks staring at the papers looked frustrated as if they had been told the Turing machine was only a myth and the computer was modeled by an entity called God. One of them broke into tears..

As the professor started to walk out, everything seemed to go on in slow motion. I could hear heavy sighs at half their actual speed but double their volume - just the way Shahrukh Khan walks in slow motion in the climax of every movie of his. But no, I was not going to start any long senti speech here - there is obviously some difference between me and him.

I saw flashes - of 'periods' back in school... the Social studies periods where the teacher sat on the desk and read out from the textbook. Hers was a very unique 'let's read the textbook together' method of teaching. The 'period' grew into a 'lecture' in college. There was a Biology teacher who cracked a joke and laughed uncontrollably herself. I am yet to understand the joke. I also saw flashes of the teachers at Somaiya - a teacher who left no opportunity to catch hold of people not paying attention and asking them if she was talking to the walls and the benches. No one ever gathered the courage to tell her the truth. And then, some lectures here at IIT when I would only stare at the board blankly without understanding a single word. In such cases, the fact that no one else understood used to be the only relief.

I saw it all - all the lectures in fast-forward. It was over. I did not have to attend any more lectures....

They say, when you are about to die, you see a recap of your life...