Standing desks cost ₹20,000. I have ₹200. But I have books. Lots of books I pretend to have read. I decided to build a "Zero Cost" standing desk using only Encyclopedias, Cookbooks, and my college textbooks.
> THE ARCHITECTURE
The problem is finding books of equal thickness. My left stack (Mouse) was "Harry Potter." My right stack (Keyboard) was "Calculus." Calculus is thinner but denser. Harry Potter is thick but softcover. My desk was tilted 3 degrees to the left. My mouse kept sliding off. I fixed it by jamming a folded piece of paper under the mousepad. Engineering.
> THE TYPING EXPERIENCE
Every keystroke made the tower wobble.
It was like typing on jelly.
I had to type gently. This made my emails sound very polite because I couldn't hammer the keys.
Keyboard Feedback: Mushy (due to the "Joy of Cooking" absorbing the impact).
> THE PHYSICAL TOLL
// HOUR 2: "My feet hurt. Do I have flat feet?"
// HOUR 4: "My varicose veins are throbbing."
// HOUR 6: leaning entirely on the book stack. The stack shifts.
// CRASH.
> THE DISASTER
At 4:30 PM, I leaned too hard on "Organic Chemistry." The friction coefficient failed. The stack slid. My laptop slid. I caught the laptop mid-air (Reflex save: 20). But "French Cooking" fell on my toe. A hardback cookbook is a lethal weapon.
> CONCLUSION
There is a reason standing desks are made of steel, not paper. Books are for reading. Maybe for pressing flowers. They are not structural components. I am back in my chair. My toe is purple. But hey, I saved ₹20,000. (And spent ₹500 on ice packs).