Invigilation Idiosyncrasies

How does three hours of continous walking, distributing paper, thread and collecting answer scripts everyday for a week feel....let me tell you, BORING!!
Add a stray student who thinks that she can get away referring a book hidden under her kameez....yawn!!
I never really appreciated what my invigilators underwent all these years when we all gave countless semester exams and not to forget those terrifying boards......trust me, today as I stand in their place or hobble (owing to marathon invigilation sessions) I completely empathize with them. God bless their souls!!
And also understand why the research scholars at the University looked so haggard.....doing invigilation for our profs must have seriously addled their research findings.
So, how does one enliven these sleepy times.....Applied Research comes in handy. Say for example....36 students out of 44 in a hall wear jeans (Whoever said dress sense at colleges are creative??!!).
And then the primary colours of the chumki clad brigade.....bright pink, shocking yellow and bright blue, with default silver or gold chumkis ofcourse. (Courtesy- a colleague who shares similar academic pursuits)Other hypothesis that have been proved right are that:
1. for every 10 students there is one who carries a cell phone inside the hall.
2.creativity runs riot when there are law and history papers, so be prepared to give each one a dozen additional sheets.
3. when you are totally on the verge of dropping asleep and decide to check that three months old frayed newspaper at the back of the hall, the dean or the controller will walk in to check on some question paper.
4. You burn more calories by simply invigilating rather than giving the actual test.
5.Once has to retie atleast 7 out of every ten answer scripts, as the students never learned their knots as girl scouts.

After heavy academic research the other activity that provides some relief is snooping answer scripts.....where else can we glean valuable information like Gandhiji started the Indian National Congress or that Prasar Bharati is the secretary to the Vice President Vajpayee or TOI stands for Trust office of India and UNI for United Nations of India.
Actually after this first ordeal of mine, I would wish invgilation only on someone I really want to torture painfully and slowly.Doesn't one envy that blessed student in the last row who completed her paper in half an hour and is now enjoying blissful dreams??!!
sigh, sigh!!
romila.