One session @ the SRM Lab!

Hi all!

On 21st February I had one of my most funniest, thrilling, boring, fascinating lab sessions ever. And I am sure most of the people like me (mostly OD people) will have similar feelings inside any lab. Read on to find out more... :)

We had cycle tests in the morning which meant that we would have our lab sessions for just two classes. One class is for 50 minutes, so total 100 (ya, I am good in Maths when it comes to time calculation!). Thank God, we had cycle test, otherwise I would have had to put up this action for eternity!

It was the highly annoying Artificial Intelligence lab, something that I hated not because of the subject but for the faculty. I have poor record in her (the lady faculty's) subjects in her previous subjects (she came for the 4th and 5th semesters also, this is our 6th!) and moreover, her subjects were always the toughest - that does not help my cause either. So, she likes having fun with me by asking me questions that I have never heard of! Usually, all students have their respective 'seats' and my number is 31. I repeat - THIRTY ONE!

All batches usually have only 30 and I am the 31st (included in 1st batch by fate). So I was unfortunately seated (ya only in this lab, I did not attend the previous ones. Today I sat in number 14, but she had regained common sense, so I was sent to system number 34!) right next to her (The Faculty)... There's no chance to escape and I am all screwed now. I have to type some program and do some acting. I knew FOR SURE she was watching me! I saw the time (she came late. Instead of 10.40, she came around 11.00)... the watch showed 11.05 AM! ****! I have to write off 1 more hour... 12.15 is the finishing time!

I thought to myself ... 'God! I have so much time left... I must not fuck up my 'reputation'... Come on ak... Do something...' I opened the already saved C program file from the Z drive.

"How nice it is to complete a program and display the output!" Wow! But I did not have the nerve to show the output and get the verified signature from her. She would definitely ask me questions unless otherwise I would be saved from some divine intervention of the third kind. I looked at my watch... 11.06! How quickly a file opens! Damn!

Teacher started to sit on her comfortable rotating chair and opened a biiiig book which would easily substitute a pillow. She buried her face inside it. I looked at my watch... 11.08 AM

"Can't notice a professor for more than 2 minutes of course!"

I pressed the space bar! The cursor moved one line space but that was all. How long? How long can I keep on going like this. Yeah, I forgot to say. There were 3 computers to my right. But nothing was used. Why me??? I was not sure if I was uncharacteristically over-tensed or something, but I found it interesting whatever I was imagining and doing! I looked at my friend... 11.15 AM

I looked at my friend Arif (one of the fortunate guys to be seated on the other side of my table, with the monitor facing him and he was facing me and the teacher! Needless to say, the teacher can look at my monitor like an old tamil man looking at the middle pages of a tamil magazine... and evaluate my brains!). He "something something" to Aravindhan and both looked at me and smiled in mocking fashion. True, any one would laugh at me at that time. I was sitting like an idiot who never looked like 'belonging' to the lab! I looked at everyone. There was no face that was unhappy. I looked at the sky and bent down again... 11.20 AM. God... they say time waits for no man. But this time around, I was waiting for time!

"Patience brings great rewards!" True!

After a minute, the 'scary person' left the lab (I knew it was for a short walk, still, some success!)... Unconsciously, I shouted, 'Yeyyy!'. Thank God, not many heard it. I felt like I just came out of prison! I looked at the watch which now seemed to work. 11.25 AM! I wanted to grab this chance...

"Sir, can you please sign OUTPUT VERIFIED?" He hesitated for a moment but then, fortune favours the brave. He signed and I heaved a huge sigh of relief! Yo man! Done for the day!

Five more minutes passed as I looked romantically at my watch. 11.30 AM. She came back for a stern round to monitor... other students. They are also like everyone of course... I mean, they didn't give much of a damn to the lab sessions!

She came back to her seat when the time was 11.40 AM. I don't really understand what happiness they gain by supervising what the students are doing. If we are not doing something, it does not mean that we are not 100% disinterested, it simply means that there was something else more interesting to do!

Now I did something even more interesting... I thought 'If there were a mirror in my front, I could monitor what the teacher was doing... How nice would that be!?' My friend Aravindhan wore spectacles. I did not forget to notice that! I looked 'into' it and saw a not-so-glorious spectacle. Well, I just got it confirmed that the teacher was back to her reading business. I looked gleefully at my watch... 11.45 AM

Now came the worst few minutes of the lab session. She started for her second walk. And after going the traditional 'round', she stopped near me! Why me? Did I attract you in any way? After all, I was seated like the 'silly old man'! Probably she wanted to have some fun looking at a Computer retard meddling with C programs! 'Everyone has sense of humour after all!' I looked in a way that she would not notice, at my watch. It showed... 11.48 AM. Well, she took a short round!

She had told a little earlier "Stoodentts! Try a 3 by 3 matrix something..." So I drew a 3X3 square (that was all my creativity could come up with...) on the third last page of my notebook (classmate notebooks, so the last 2 pages were printed!) and wrote (0,0), (0,1) and so on till (2,2). I saw her by the corner of my eye. She was having a bored expression on her face. 'Yes Arun! Come on... Keep going! Nothing is impossible!' Now I did the master stroke - I pretended to think by scratching my head in a disgusting fashion so that she could hear the noise. Phew! My mission was successful. She ... walked away! Took another round and went back to her seat. These thrilling moments were enough to write off ten golden minutes as I was going closer to the finish line. I looked at my watch triumphantly. It showed 11.58 AM. I looked back and forth. The time was 12 noon!

I could not help smiling. I looked at a few more friends all around the lab. A few smiles! :) I was sweating on my forehead in the air-conditioned lab! Now I did the master stroke that I could not believe it was me doing it all! I opened a new file! I started typing as slowly as possible...

#include<stdio.h>

#include<conio.h>

And that was all. I did not know what to type next. I opened the previous window and then opened the output window. In short, I was getting more ideas when I would actually have run out of ideas on any other day. Today, I was in full flow! Ak, the genius! I looked at my TITAN friend again - 12.08 PM

"When AM became PM, I knew I was on course!"

The last few minutes were like a stroll in the park... I opened the file again and again. Turned few pages of my observation note vociferously (Deep down, I was laughing my ass off!) with no reason. I scribbled something again on the third last page. I simply wrote my register number, the file name, the password and something else which I don't remember now (I don't want to look at it and type here - I copy only during exams!) and then scratched my head again. My watch that had been working patiently came up automatically and announced 12.12 PM. I looked up. The sir said 'Switch off your computers...'. That was all I paid attention. My ears did not work anymore. I switched off and left!

Too much entertainment for a worthless lab session. That's me for you - LIVING EVERY MOMENT!

Until next time... Have fun! :)

Keep smiling!

Arunkarthik