A Seance with Murphy's Ghost

December 17,2007 was nothing less than 9/11 for me(i may rechristen it since i hvnt yet received my board and CAT results bt it stands till then).

The day began on a disastorous note when I was late 4 school. It was only because of the genial English teacher that I averted a fine. I was nonetheless sent out of the class to tie myself with the tie(all rite, I did that myself b4 entering the class when I saw a classmate being sent out 4 d same 'crime')The other periods were pretty routine but dat was b4 it was 12 noon(yeah!I kno what you are thinking;please rein the horses of ur imagination). It was then that the worse that could happen, happened.


The whole class had assembled outside the chemistry lab when I just realised that I hadn't got the most under-utilised, nonetheless essential component of chem pracs-what else but the LAB COAT.I was surely in for a scolding and may be a fine but the drama that followed was unexpected. I had never been such a thing through my entire school life, but as they say everything new happens for the first time.


We(I had three others for company and I was certainly not banking on my companions' rep) were promptly sequestered from the rest of the class and turned out.Nothing extraordinary, of course but then the succeding events took the wind out of my sails.I was aghast when we were told that we could leave.This single sentence worked as a knockout punch and the irony was that I could not even lie down, so we ran from pillar to post from the omnipresent Mohanji to Mr. O.P. to finally the administrator who immediately(that was amazing, i hadn't expected anything short of a harangue) gave us the permission to appear for the exam(at our own risk though!)But Ms.David(oops!Mrs.Menezes)was apprently not yet satisfied. So we, began the exam half an hour later(a total of one hour since half an hour had already passed)


Anyway, once inside the laboratory, my mind started working frantically but alas! the more it worked, the more it confused me.I could write any other test at that time barring the analysis for phenol-the one required.Thankfully, as soon as I opened salt packet no. 44, I breathed a sigh of relief(yeah, I breathed,Kunal was right after all). The amorphous power with a pinkish hue in front of me gave me a high comparable to what cocaine must have done to Rahul Mahajan or Fardeen Khan(hold your horses).It had to be manganese and the subsequent confirmatory tests ruled out any other possibility.The anion too was worked out in a jiffy and the mystery of packet 44 was decoded as manganese sulphate.

Now it was time for titration.I cursed the balance, the funnel, the solution and practically evrything I could(due to lack of time) but finally measured the volume of KMNO4 required.Now, I wanted to breathe again[funnily, some things never change ;)] but there came the dreaded viva. A group of 5-6 boys was given sheets with different questions.So much so good. I was able to answer majority of questions but den I came face to face with the examiner(I wonder what effect will the external have on me!)


(..............to be continued,sometime after I reach Mars)