Games we played in class

Sometimes your mind drifts off on a tangent spurred by the most innocuous of thoughts but the end results are worth the effort. Was washing my hand with soap and as I observed the soap bar I wandered back in time…


I remember the prank that I used to play on others in school having been the victim initially I decided I should share the joy.
Step 1: Find an unsuspecting soul willing to explore the latest personality mapping / or astrological mumbo jumbo for themselves.
Step 2: Draw a grid on the palm of the victim’s hand (the more intricate, the better)
Step 3: Ask a set of pertinent questions like “A favourite person of the opposite sex…”
Step 4: Write the answer somewhere in the grid and proceed till you complete most of the spaces except for one small section.
Step 5: Look sufficiently thoughtful and ensure that you write as randomly as possible. Step 6: Ask the killer question, “What soap do you use?”
Step 7: Write the answer on the vacant space, start scoring out your labours till you have totally covered the palm
Step 8: Pronounce loudly, “You will have a healthy and clean future if you use this soap regularly and wash yourself daily starting with you hand from today”.
Step 9: Scoot!




Another time pass that spared few was the great romance tracker called FLAMES. I know many of you may have a smile on your face, if you have played it. For the ignoramus among us FLAMES stands for 6 options:
1) Friendship (not always desired)
2) Love (tops the list of results yearned for)
3) Affection (a poor second to friends, who needs affection anyway)
4) Marriage (a long term goal for many)
5) Enemies (this has broken a few hearts)
6) Sisters!!! (a surprising option considering that the parties involved are generally of opposite sexes, I suspect the inventor ran out of feelings for S, now I guess it would be renamed as Sex)

Anyway the task involved getting the names of two individuals and checking out what is on between them. To explain let me take the example of Surya and Jyothika.
Step 1: Write the names one below the other. (Back then gays were not in vogue, so it always was a boy and a girl)
SURYA
JYOTHIKA

Step 2: Cross out the common letters in both the names
SUR
J OTHIK

Step 3: Count the total number of letters
9

Step 4: Write the magic word
FLAMES

Step 5: Starting from L to R cross out the ninth letter of the word iteratively
FLAMES
FL MES
L MES
MES
ME
E

Step 6: Announce the results!!! (OMG the fans are going to lynch me!!!)

Step 7: If you decide to proceed further despite the heartburn and quantify the depths of the feelings, you can proceed to this step. Write down the number of each vowel in both the names.

A E I O U
2 0 1 1 1

Step 8: Now progressively divide this number by two till you reach a two digit figure, rounding it off to the next number when you reach an odd number.

20112 (+1)
10056
5028
2514
1258 (+1)
630 (+1)
316 (+1)
158
79

Step 9: This ladies and gentlemen is the true feeling between the two parties and that too @ 80%

This never ceased to amuse us back then in school.

Ah!!! Those good old days!


PS: D & I would be E @ 65%!!!!