16th July, Thursday, electrical department room number 10......
For the first time I was attending a lecture seriously since I entered engineering. Generally you would expect the first day at college to be a dull,boring one with no happenings.But as always, our department was an evergreen exception,(cause according to our sir,there cannot be energy transfer without any friction?!) first lecture starting at 12:30 instead of 9:30 was a relief. First lecture went well(Electrical machines-2), I could note down all the major points, without getting bored(which I usually get) and most importantly, remaining completely awake. Then came the news- The lecture which was supposed to be at 9:30 was postponed to 1:30. Damn! Another hurdle in my way! Since I had decided to attend all lectures attentively, I had to sit for this one too. Sitting on last bench was the best possible arrangement I could think of.
The lecture was regarding the subject power systems-1(PS-1). It begun with a good introduction from sir as to why we need to study power in terms of electricity and why most of the power used today is in electrical form. 20 minutes passed. First symptom- I started feeling weird. Sir wrote down something on the board,it was supposed to be something related to conventional and non-conventional energy sources. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not figure it out as what was written. The words written on the blackboard looked like some ancient Mayan script! A look at all others..Stern faces, all facing the blackboard,complete silence- an indication of total attention and understanding. I tried again and again, but all attempts in vain.
Sir again scribbled something on the board, this time the script looked similar to Japanese symbols I learn. Again a look at the class- no change in faces. That forced a doubt in my mind, may be I was not feeling well, may be there was a problem in my eyesight. 50 minutes gone. I had succeeded in writing only 10-15 words till now. Then the second symptom- till now I was able to figure out what sir was saying,now it was hard to do so, every sentence seemed like a code to be deciphered. I tried my best to understand what sir was trying to convey, only thing I could understand was basic words like power,grid,some regions,etc. This time I decided to take a break from lecture,and pay attention to the class for some time. While I could not figure out what was there on blackboard I could clearly see every classmate,first benchers to last benchers. But the most troubling fact was that everybody was constantly looking at the blackboard and then nodding in affirmation. Now I was sweating- They can see everything, they can hear everything. I can't! There has to be a problem with me! I was terrified, perspiration all over my face.The lecture was supposed to end at 2:30, when I looked at the watch it was 3:30,so there had to be a problem with my senses.....
After the lecture I came out, only to discover my senses were still intact. Nobody had paid attention,they all were just pretending. There was no fault in my eyes, sir's handwriting was indeed mysterious. What I thought as notes in everybody's notebooks were paintings of him,or comments passed about him. Nobody had got what sir had said, they were half asleep to notice what he was saying. Everybody had thought sir was observing them,so they preferred nodding at certain intervals to avoid being caught. The only thing I missed was that earlier Japanese symbol was actually a diagram of simple power system. One hell of freaking misunderstanding!
PS:- Third symptom - If you start doubting your eyesight or your hearing abilities, consult the nearest psychologist as quickly as possible! Start doubting your brain instead of your senses... :|
