 |
| From left: Sleeping Vivienne, Jacinta rubbing her sleepy eyes |
“If readers fall asleep while
reading your sales letter, then something is wrong…”
This is neither my personal opinion, nor is it a philosophical
saying. It is just a statement that I managed to quote from the recently-ended
lecture – Writing Sales Letters in
Mr. Mbengei’s Specialized Writing
Course on the afternoon of 12th June, 2013. However, this statement
quickly turned out to hit back at the lecturer unfortunately!
The irony started right from the class attendance. Only
13 members of the 3rd year Media Science class turned up for today’s
lecture session, out of a possible 28. Of course noticing the absence of
somebody like Irene equals to zero, as opposed to Chrispinus which is news. Anyway,
the beginning never seemed to predict the end, as everyone looked attentive,
wanting to know all about writing a sales letter.
However, all hell broke loose when a cloud of
sleeping spirit started descending upon a few members as the session proceeded.
The first to drive away to a far away land was her Excellency, Vivienne spp, who upon giving up with the
struggle to stay awake, danced to the tune of a comfortable sleep, but opted to
maintain an upright posture like a hen would do.
As if that was not enough to create humor and
probably encourage the rest to stay awake, it did not take long before Hon.
Kiathi joined the battle. He started by eliminating his jumper for reasons best
known to himself. As soon as he noticed my suspicion about his wake, he devised
a tailor-made approach at least to hide something from the journalist me. He constantly
changed and modified his sitting position and this went on for the rest of the
session. Thank God he escaped the blast.
Then it was time for the M.U FM Director, Mr. Lang’at
to show his mighty. You could not realize this by anything tangible, but from
the look of his drowning eyes. His effort of wanting to keep them open was
eventually futile and the man quietly walked out, just as a cover up for the
defeat. Or maybe he was going to attend to an urgent delicate issue arising at
the studio – who knows?
 |
| Victor supporting his head against chest |
Major General Nyakachunga emerged as the man of the
match. He took advantage of his far proximity from the lecturer to give in to
the situation. Using his chin, he successfully supported his little-sized head
against his chest in a manner unlikely to pose any doubt about his full
concentration on the lecture. After failing to notice any kind of movement of
his body for more than 30 minutes, it prompted me to be keener on him and surprisingly,
Victor had already drifted away from the world of reality. He too, upon the
return of Lang’at, opted to vacate the class and never came back. The next
venue I spotted him was in the computer laboratory after the class, updating
his friends on facebook and twitter.
I would therefore like to express my sincere
congratulatory message to those who managed to struggle with me, just to keep
our eyes open to the very end:
The likes of Agak, Tom, Sugut, Brioo, Wambua and
Jeff; without forgetting my sisters Jacinta and Cynthia.
“If
students fall asleep while attending your lecture, then something is wrong…”
