A short and informal post

********
Ok, due to time constraints, this post is going to be short and snappy. It is going to be a departure from the usual.You can argue that this could have passed off as a couple of Facebook statuses, but lets not think about it.
******* 

 

If any of you were expecting anything on the recent Test match at Johannesburg, sorry to disappoint you. My mandai is slightly 'cricket mazhungified'(meaning my mind has slightly lost its sharpness in cricket matters[at least according to me :p]) at the moment, as you all are already aware. Despite yours truly watching every single ball of the match in question, no emotion, I repeat, no emotion was felt that would have been felt by any cricket fan on this earth who would have watched this match. Nothing could cause a single scratch on this stone-like heart of mine. This was partly because of the wonderful Maths exam that I had to appear for on the 23rd. I just wish I did not have anything to study during this match. I would have been able to enjoy it thoroughly, then. The joke is, I could not do much justice to the studying either and might just salvage a pass mark in the exam. As Sambit Bal once said, once a student of the game, always a student of the game. 

What to do. Sigh.

Anyway, I can give you a small and cliched verdict on the result and the forthcoming match that can occur to even the most 'mandai mazhungified' person on this planet:

 It was an absolute humdinger and probably one of the most exciting draws in history. Shame that there can be only 2 Tests in this series. A festival of T20 cricket is hardly a compensation for a proper New Year's Test at Capetown. However, the Test match that is going to begin tomorrow at Kingsmead promises to be an exciting one with South Africa forced to make some changes due to the injury to Morne Morkel and the poor showing of Imran Tahir in the first test. When India last came to Durban to play Test cricket, they did very well to win a closely-contested encounter. The sight of Cheteshwar Pujara running out Lonwabo Tsotsobe to clinch the victory still remains fresh in memory.
 I was surprised that South Africa went for the draw with 16 runs to win and two overs to spare. At that stage of the match, it made sense if India were playing for the draw because they had 3 wickets to win with 2 overs to spare. On India's part, the decision to not bring Shami Ahmed on immediately after the tea break on the 5th day was questionable as he had been India's best bowler by far in South Africa's second innings. When JP Duminy got out, there was a sense that much water had flown under the bridge, though we were in for some drama later. Had Shami Ahmed been brought on earlier that session, he could have had an impact on the game earlier. 

 Anyway, it was a great match.

Merry Christmas and a happy Boxing Day Test match eve.

Like there are Boxing Day Test matches in cricket, I have a Boxing Day exam tomorrow...... 
And the worst part is, I don't even feel like studying.

Peace at last...

The past 2 months were gruelling for me. Ever since I emerged from a 5 day-not entirely unprecedented-holiday 2 weeks before the Pre-Annual examinations, I did not have time to breathe. Initially, I divided my time between making up for the missed portion and studying religiously for the forthcoming and very important Pre-Annual evaluation. The amount of mental stress created by that little(?) escapade added to the existing problems. Tempers flew here and there. The Pre-Annuals came and went and the Annuals were soon to follow, so you can imagine the kind of life I led from the end of January to the middle of March. I received my results a few days ago and while I was happy that I had passed grade 11 with some good results, I was surprised by the inexplicably good Chemistry marks that I had received. I had somewhat expected them to be on the lower side. My struggles with Chemistry are not new to people who take some time off to read my blog. Well, I am happy that I did well;there is no point in breaking my head over all that now. I am now a Grade XII student, sitting right on the last step of school life. One more year and I will be in college. Hard to imagine life outside the walls of a place meant for kids/adolescents aged between 3 and 17. College life will be an entirely different cup of tea.

 

Well, I guess we are digressing from the topic, so lets come back to the point. During the past 10 days, I tasted what life really is. No studies, just fun and cleaning up the place. A lot of trash has gone out of the house and more trash will follow during the course of the next 2 days. Due to practically wading in dust, I had a mild cold for a few days. All this cleaning up was not just badly required, but also necessitated by the fact that I will be vacating my house in a few days. So, a lot of stuff is being arranged in cartons. I will be beginning Grade XII in the other house. Of all the houses we have lived in in India, this has been the best house. I began watching cricket in my previous apartment, but it was here that I developed my interest. I can't imagine watching cricket in some other house. I had come to this house as a new member of the cricketing fraternity and will leave it as someone who has completed a good three years watching the game. This house has witnessed the crests and troughs of Indian Cricket;from the highs of the World Cup victory to the lows of the whitewashes in England and Australia and again back to the high of the 4-0 whitewash of Australia, it has witnessed everything.

 The cricket also has been good. For the first time in 2 years, I watched Test Cricket in peace. Ever since studies began to dictate things in my life, I haven't been able to watch cricket in peace. The last test that I watched in peace before the recent Mohali test match was the Capetown test between India and SA. I did not do anything; I just watched cricket. I had kept myself mentally free till the 26th of March, but unfortunately, the pitch at the Feroze Shah Kotla had other plans and determined the result of the last test between India and Australia within 3 days. So, to keep myself occupied, I followed the NZ vs England test at Auckland keenly. What a test match. Prior and the lower order wrenched England from the jaws of defeat. Things had got really tense post tea on the last day. There is something about Matt Prior and England getting saved from difficult situations. Whenever England is in trouble, Matt Prior is always there to save the day. Can't forget that amazing partnership that he had with Cook in Ahmedabad not too long ago that saved England from losing by an innings.

Just heard about that shocking incident involving Jesse Ryder. He is now in a critical condition in hospital and hopefully he gets through unharmed. 

 
That effectively brings about the close of this season of International cricket.

The IPL is next. The IPL and ICC events present the perfect opportunity for the rest of the world to wake up from their slumber and join us at the cricket. Last year, I was not sure whether I was going to watch the IPL or not because I was put off by the injuries during the tour of England. In the end, I ended up watching it and had no regrets because it had many last over, if not last ball finishes. This time, I am quite sure that I will be watching it. The season hasn't even begun and it is already making headlines for the wrong reasons..

Overcoming an obstacle

The chemistry lab, until a few weeks ago, was my least favourite place to be in. How people could pipette out was a mystery to me and concentrated sulphuric acid was my sworn enemy(well, the thought of heating anything with it and passing the ghastly orangish red fumes evolved into another test tube containing something else still somewhat terrorises me). I was the butt of ridicule and harassment for being unable to pipette out. My first practical exam left nothing but a sour taste in the mouth with me being given a big lecture by a teacher about the importance of volumetric analysis in chemistry practicals. This was because I could not pipette out on the big day as well. They just blew it out of proportion that day. The authorities treated me as if I was not pipetting out on purpose. Just because of not being able to pipette out, it was assumed that I could not do anything in the chemistry lab. Everything in the chemistry lab seemed to be against me. The chemicals, the authorities, my class-mates, everything.

The second term arrived, but my anathema towards chemistry practicals remained. Well, how else do you expect it to be? The first practical session of the term had an excessive blast of concentrated sulphuric acid with us being required to perform the manganese dioxide test for the presence of bromine and iodine in a salt and the copper turnings test and the brown ring test for the presence of nitrate in a salt. Since we were performing the tests for the first time, we were provided with a bromide, an iodide and a nitrate so that we could see the desired results. I gasped on coming to know that all the tests involved concentrated H2SO4. But,I somehow escaped the MnO2 tests that day as I was able to complete only the copper turnings test and the brown ring test by the end of the practical session with my brown ring hardly taking shape. My teacher complained of not enough diluted sulphuric acid. Sigh. Well, I had not completely avoided the MnO2 tests, as my test for iodide was a failed attempt as I had added MnO2 in excess slightly. That drew another complaint from my teacher. Sigh again. After I returned to my desk, she announced that the session was over and I gleefully washed my test tube and hands, took off my lab coat and left the lab. However, the effect of the lab session still lingered due to Mr. Concentrated Sulphuric acid and the amazing smell that he gives off. We are instructed to drink water after every lab session, but despite doing that, my chest felt tight, my head throbbed and whatever smelt bad, smelt like conc. H2SO4. It took 2 periods after the lab session to come back to normalcy. I swore to never enter the chemistry lab without a handkerchief thereafter. First lab session of the second term, nothing different. 

The Dusshera/Navaratari/Puja holidays and the holidays due to Cyclone Nilam came and went and the second practical session of the term arrived. Surprisingly, I left the lab that day with a smile on my face as I had, for the first time, been successful in whatever I did in the lab. The tests for acetate, sulphate and phosphate went on smoothly. Similarly, the next 2 lab sessions went on smoothly with sulphide, sulphite,oxalate, the basic radical tests(the golden spangles formed after performing the potassium iodide test for the presence of lead were wonderful to look at) and the practices that the lab people gave us to find out the unknown acid radical in a given salt. Salt analysis had never been much of a problem for me,but the fear receded and I grew in confidence. I mastered boiling distilled water with the given salt and sodium carbonate to prepare the sodium carbonate extract for wet tests. I also mastered heating solutions in a test tube. I grew to like Salt analysis, not fear it.

But, there was one thing that had yet to be conquered. Pipetting out. The words that haunted me in the 1st term. But, I was determined to set that one right as well as being able to pipette out is very crucial in volumetric analysis. The day my teacher taught redox titrations in class, I went home and told my mother that I had to practise pipetting out at home to set that problem right. So, my mother bought two pipettes and I practiced. I was able to pipette out the first time I did it at home and even had a few episodes of tap water going into my mouth. I practised and practised and finally grew in confidence. My mother assured me that despite the pipette at home being thicker than the pipette in school, I would be able to pipette out during the exam as it is easier to pull a liquid through a thinner medium than a thicker one. If I was able to pull it through the one at home, then I would definitely be able to do it during the exam. My mother also assured me that due to the in-built defense mechanism of humans, NaOH would not go into my mouth.

The day of the chemistry practical exam dawned(last Wednesday). I was thorough with all the salt analysis procedures and entered the lab in a good frame of mind. I took my seat, noted down the questions and began my volumetric analysis. The sight of NaOH racing up the pipette filled me with joy. The first time I did it, the colour of phenolphthalein did not disappear despite the reading on the burette going past 17(disappearance of the pink colour denotes the end point), so I washed the conical flask, refilled the burette and pipetted out again. This time, I ended up with a value of 19.1. I was very happy. Before entering the chemistry lab, I had told my teacher that I was able to pipette out. She was happy and asked me when she called me for my viva assessment how I practiced pipetting out. I told her how. The viva was not that good; I got 3 and a half, but a lot was learnt. The teacher had asked the same core experiment(study of shift in equilibrium) as she had asked before and I creamed it. I could not believe my eyes when a white precipitate was formed and a brisk effervescence was produced when I added diluted HCl to my salt. My salt was a carbonate; the radical which requires the easiest test to confirm its presence in a salt. The salt looked like baking soda and when I added dil. HCl, it was confirmed that the salt was a carbonate. I had avoided Mr. conc. H2SO4. Let him rest for a while. I am not that afraid to face him. I went home with the satisfaction of having had a great chemistry practical exam.

I am no longer afraid of the chemistry lab. I am happy that I have finally overcome this obstacle.

(Also posted on the blog "Pursuit of Boredom")