“I want that, when you leeve this lab, you know sometheeng about circoots and gain baseec knowlege about wireeng…”
I still remember those words our wiring instructor told us on our very first wiring class, in his funny English. I thought then,”He seems to be really dedicated though his english is funny…I really must learn something when I complete this lab.” That was 2 months and 3 days ago. A lot happens in 2 months and 3 days. It is now my heartfelt opinion that wiring instructors ought to be electrocuted in their own wiring labs for causing unbearable mental agony and tension to innocent first year engineering students. No, its not like I didn’t learn anything…here’s a list of what I learnt from attending wiring classes:
- One sweats like a pig in wiring lab. There is only one table fan and it is focused on to the instructor’s table.
- The ‘drinking’ water in the container there ought to be labeled ‘liquid chlorine’.
- You ought to get your observation notebook signed within one week of doing the experiment.
- A lot of people don’t do that.
- You are asked to get a letter signed by the chairman tutor for mass bunking wiring.
- Only over-sincere specimens do that.
- The chairman tutor’s signature is easy to forge.
- The best way to escape writing the wiring test is by not completing your ‘project report’. The wiring guy usually sends you out in that case.
- Sometimes, as in my case, he scolds you heavily and makes you write the test if you don’t submit the ‘project report’.
- If you’ve lost your wiring observation, the best thing to do is pinch someone else’s.
- Be careful, lest someone pinches yours (mine got pinched).
- And again, it’s easy to forge the instructor’s sign.
- If you intend commit any kind of fraud with wiring observation, do it when he’s most busy.
Those were the things I learnt in wiring lab. Well, yeah, I concede that readers might have expected me to mention something about wiring somewhere in the previous statements. After all, wiring lab is meant to teach people wiring. Unfortunately I would be deceiving the readers if I said that.
Why?
Because, the focus was more on completing the observation and record, the assignments, and the project, that we got very little chance to learn something at all. At the end of the wiring lab sessions, these are the skills I’ve acquired:
· Forging the wiring instructor’s signature.
· Manipulating observation notebooks.
· Enhanced creativity in inventing excuses.
Indeed, the workload was so heavy that we didn’t give a damn about understanding why the tube lights and bulbs glowed, as long as they did glow.
But then, if you come to think about it, why do we need to know how it works? Agreed, we’re ‘engineering’ students, but let’s face it; we really aren’t going to do much of engineering, are we? I mean, about 80% of us are going to sit in some 4”x4” cubicle staring at a monitor and typing away on a keyboard for 9 hours a day at the end of 4 years, earning 40k a month, approximately, aren’t we? Maybe on one odd day, the tube light glowing above our head will stop working…and as we’re waiting for the electrician to show up, we might think,” maybe if I’d had shown more interest in wiring workshop, I might have repaired it myself…sigh”
Deviating…again…well, I’d better sign off before I get too preachy…
P.S. Whoever’s reading this please do scribble a few comments, even if all you have to say is how you hate this blog…
