Curtsy

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Curtsy

1980: IIT KGP:

Once upon a time in the 1980s I was made the In-Charge of II Year B Tech Lab at KGP. At that time all B Tech students had two years of Phy Lab and there used to be the impression that "Phy Lab is Peace!"

They were comparing it with the Electrical Technology Lab where the norm was that the Teacher, whoever it was, would first fling the Lab Khata of the student out of the second floor window and threaten that the student would soon follow suit.

And the Chemistry Lab stank..

On the other hand, the Second Year Phy Lab then was the most well-organized, courtesy our Colonel.

Students were allowed to take their Lab Khatas home and work on them till the next class; and you don't have to be Feluda to guess what happens during that week...all the Hall Libraries had Lab Khatas donated by seniors.

There were well-written cookbooks of a decade vintage that had a set of typical viva-questions appended to each. Most of the 'teachers' were Research Scholars and they were happy with the 'set' questions whose answers could perhaps be found in the Research Scholar's BC Roy Hall Library :)

Since the lab was running smoothly, I didn't feel like tinkering with the system all at once. But something had to be done to dispel the notion of absolute Peace and replace it with occasional War. So, I decided to begin with skipping the 'set' viva questions and ask mine own.

I distinctly recall one tall, fair, and bespectacled student of II Year ME who had this habit of starting his answers with "Sir, Regaaading..." while he was thinking up.

The first day he came to me for Lab Viva it went somewhat like this:

"What did you measure?"

"Sir, regaaading...refractive index of water using Newton's rings"

"How?"

"Sir, regaaading...the rings contract"

"Why?"

"Sir, regaaading...water has a refractive index..."

"Why?"

"Sir,...regaaading...speed of light is less in water"

"Why?"

"Sir...regaaading...light bends towards the normal"

"Why?"

"Sir, could you please take my Viva next week?"

"Sure...if it makes any difference..."

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His next experiment...

"What experiment?"

"Sir....regaaading...Post Office Box"

"Why?"

"Sir, regaaading...it was used in British Post Offices to measure the resistance of telephone cables"

"How?"

"Sir, regaaading... it uses the principle of Wheatstone's Bridge"

"Why?"

"Sir...regaaading...this bridge is very sensitive"

"Why?"

"Sir, regaaading...next week, sir?"

"Fine"

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A fortnight later my friend Vinod visited my room and said, laughing aloud:

"GP! I overheard one fair bespectacled lad on his pushbike talking about you in the most foul terms"

"How?"

"He was saying to his friend: 'There is this new Research Scholar to whom I was allotted for my viva...I don't know...they call him GP or something...he is the greatest b*****d I have ever seen'..."

I laughed and said: 

"No more silly talk of Peace in the Phy Lab...Good!"

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