“Practical”ly
speaking
Practicals
– the unsung, easily forgotten experience of an engineers life,
almost slipped the documentation of PCT experiences, but courtesy Amoli
Pathak who refreshed our memories, the practical sessions will now find
a mention.
Practicals, or tutorials for subjects in which there were no experiments, mostly served as time during which we could finish assignments and journals. Alternate utilization of the time was to socialize with other people. Never mind the fact that we spent ALL the time at college doing that anyways. Ofcourse, some profs got offended by this and would resort to juvenile punishments like making us stand facing the wall, or walk from the door to the table on our knees, or at worse snatch away the assignments.
Technically, during the practicals we are supposed to be doing experiments in a thorough and scientific manner. But the sight of a pot-bellied prof sleeping with legs on the table, and saliva drooling from his gaping mouth (this is not exaggerated a lot) was hardly inspiring. And there were always ways to show the prof the desired output by manipulating the circuit a little here and there. Mostly we got away with these little criminal acts. Though there were repeat experiments, punishment experiments, it was all taken well in the stride. Most profs didn’t have an issue in blindly signing the rough readings; or the journals which were an exact replication of the previous batch. So it was never a lot of sweat.
Computer practicals were slightly more interesting. In the first year it was marked by olfactory tortures for the brief period when we removed and put on our shoes. The standard modus operandi was to get the completed program from the batch which has had the practicals and type away during our own practicals. There would be sporadic threats by the prof that everyone’s login should have all the programs. And the enterprising and the wannabe hacker would try and find ways to copy programs from others login. It made life a lot simpler for everyone. Because when we did not have the login-to-login copy command, we would sit in twos dictating programs to each other, a fruitless activity which helped in nothing more than building our finger muscles.
On the day of the drawing practicals, equipped with a bazooka-look alike drawing sheet holder, and a AK-47 look alike drafter, we looked all set for the third world war. These were the only practicals in which we actually did something we were supposed to do. Things spiced up when people fainted due to lack of oxygen to the brain (remember Sonu) or when a careless, over-smart freak announced about lost bags (yours truly). Otherwise it was as boring as academic life is meant to be.
Workshop was one of the highlight of our engineering careers. Filing away to smoothen a piece of iron, or bending an aluminum sheet into a box, or welding two rods, or using a lathe machine to make handles was a different experience. A tryst with menial labour was something we weren’t really anticipating when we joined engineering. And without electricity, donning aprons, we were basically sweating ourselves to the point of dehydration. There would be some helpful guys who would help others finish their work. And there were times when trusting students found their lockers broken into and their jobs gone. The workshop would usually end with students getting their jobs made from outside. Even during engineering we had learnt the lessons of outsourcing. MBA was a side lesson we learnt at PCT.
All in all, practical sessions were some of the lighter moments in our college. There would be profs breathing down our neck at times. But that never made life really difficult. And Maurya’s sense of humour usually peaked during these practical hours. That meant plenty of entertainment for some of us. And the 3 or so hours passed quite painlessly as we engaged in friendly banter, pointless experiments, and chaotic passing of assignments and journals.
Practicals, or tutorials for subjects in which there were no experiments, mostly served as time during which we could finish assignments and journals. Alternate utilization of the time was to socialize with other people. Never mind the fact that we spent ALL the time at college doing that anyways. Ofcourse, some profs got offended by this and would resort to juvenile punishments like making us stand facing the wall, or walk from the door to the table on our knees, or at worse snatch away the assignments.
Technically, during the practicals we are supposed to be doing experiments in a thorough and scientific manner. But the sight of a pot-bellied prof sleeping with legs on the table, and saliva drooling from his gaping mouth (this is not exaggerated a lot) was hardly inspiring. And there were always ways to show the prof the desired output by manipulating the circuit a little here and there. Mostly we got away with these little criminal acts. Though there were repeat experiments, punishment experiments, it was all taken well in the stride. Most profs didn’t have an issue in blindly signing the rough readings; or the journals which were an exact replication of the previous batch. So it was never a lot of sweat.
Computer practicals were slightly more interesting. In the first year it was marked by olfactory tortures for the brief period when we removed and put on our shoes. The standard modus operandi was to get the completed program from the batch which has had the practicals and type away during our own practicals. There would be sporadic threats by the prof that everyone’s login should have all the programs. And the enterprising and the wannabe hacker would try and find ways to copy programs from others login. It made life a lot simpler for everyone. Because when we did not have the login-to-login copy command, we would sit in twos dictating programs to each other, a fruitless activity which helped in nothing more than building our finger muscles.
On the day of the drawing practicals, equipped with a bazooka-look alike drawing sheet holder, and a AK-47 look alike drafter, we looked all set for the third world war. These were the only practicals in which we actually did something we were supposed to do. Things spiced up when people fainted due to lack of oxygen to the brain (remember Sonu) or when a careless, over-smart freak announced about lost bags (yours truly). Otherwise it was as boring as academic life is meant to be.
Workshop was one of the highlight of our engineering careers. Filing away to smoothen a piece of iron, or bending an aluminum sheet into a box, or welding two rods, or using a lathe machine to make handles was a different experience. A tryst with menial labour was something we weren’t really anticipating when we joined engineering. And without electricity, donning aprons, we were basically sweating ourselves to the point of dehydration. There would be some helpful guys who would help others finish their work. And there were times when trusting students found their lockers broken into and their jobs gone. The workshop would usually end with students getting their jobs made from outside. Even during engineering we had learnt the lessons of outsourcing. MBA was a side lesson we learnt at PCT.
All in all, practical sessions were some of the lighter moments in our college. There would be profs breathing down our neck at times. But that never made life really difficult. And Maurya’s sense of humour usually peaked during these practical hours. That meant plenty of entertainment for some of us. And the 3 or so hours passed quite painlessly as we engaged in friendly banter, pointless experiments, and chaotic passing of assignments and journals.