An invited supple

Supple aka ‘supplementary paper’ is a friend, most of the engineering students carry alongwith during their course tenure. Though mechanical engg students used to have enough such friends, we Rumboys never liked them to be with us during our first three semesters. Later we became used to it and our aversion to "supple" was totally taken away by MOM-II (mechanics of machines -2) where only 7 people got passed that too with marks between 40 and 45.

Many of us, who preferred to stay out of classrooms, bunked series exams and never submitted assignments, studied hard at the time of exams to obtain good grades. KD was one such guy who never attended the classes but aspired to get good marks. For him supple was considered an insult to his manhood.

It was the electrical machines lab of fourth semester. As usual, KD could not get enough time to study all the tests and hence was forced to skip two experiments; one, load test on three phase induction motor and second, OC and SC test on transformer. Being a mathematician who scored 85+ for both S1S2 and S3 and an adept in probability theorem made some calculations and found that the chances of getting these two experiments was less than 12% and with much confident on his probability calculations, marched happily to electrical lab.

KD was the tenth candidate as per alphabetical order and was the last one in his batch. When he approached the desk, there were three folded papers lying in the table which determined his fate in the lab. He looked around and saw no one standing near the 3 phase induction motor and transformer. He was now sure that the three papers lying in front of him had the two experiments he skipped and his winning percentage dropped down to 33 % from the earlier 88%. With trembling hand he took one paper and it read “Conduct Open circuit and short circuit test on transformer and comment on its characteristics”. KD, who didn’t know the primary and secondary of transformer, earnestly asked for a change in experiment. For him, as per the probability theorem, his success percentage would raise to 50% if he is allowed to take a test from the other two.

Seeing the sad looks of our KD, the external examiner agreed for a change in experiment. KD again with trembling hands took one paper. With high expectations he read “Conduct load test on three phase induction motor and plot its….”. He couldn’t complete as his eyes got soaked with tears. Totally ditched by the probability theorems, KD moved towards the three phase induction motor and stood there staring at the motor. It was the first time he saw a three phase induction motor in his entire 20 years. KD drew a circuit diagram based on his logic by connecting a voltmeter, ammeter, load, AC source, a switch and off course a motor. He also started writing a procedure which he believed to be the procedure for conducting the load test. As he didn’t know how to conduct the experiment, he was forced to stop after wrote how to give connections as per his circuit diagram. With this our KD felt sure of getting a supple for this lab. Deeply frustrated by the thought of his first supple, he went to the examiner and confessed that he didn’t know how to do the experiment and asked her to mark him absent. As the attendance was marked and experiment being allotted, the external examiner informed her inability to mark him absent and requested him to do what best he know on the load test.

After some more time, KD again approached the external and said “Madam, this is the first time I am facing a supple. As you cannot mark me absent, please be kind enough to give me zero for this exam. For me getting a zero is better that failing”. Examiner didn’t understand KD’s logic. Still in a composed tone, she checked the circuit diagram and little bit of procedure written on the answer sheet and told KD that the answer sheet in its present form itself will fetch him 25 marks. Upon KD’s silence the external added “Please go and make the connections as drawn and try to do something and depending on how u perform in viva I will try to make you pass” KD had learnt from his past not to trust anyone from electrical dept. Be it the girl who comes in her typical black jeans on all Mondays or a faculty, everybody had equal stand in his mind.

One more appeal from KD made the examiner angry. She shouted at KD which ignited the bruised feelings inside him. Suddenly everyone in the lab saw KD snatching the answer sheet from examiner and made a glamorous ‘strike through’ on the circuit diagrams and procedure. With the entire expectation of obtaining a zero, he handed over the paper back to the external and told “Madam, now you may please give me a zero”. Seeing this the externals’ face got red and she in a very scary tone told KD “You will get zero for this answer sheet, but I will give you 15 for your record and 5 for attendance and make your marks 20”.

KD was dumbstruck. Though the external was happy on not giving his desired ‘zero’, KD was disappointed with the examiners last words. If she told about the 20 marks before, he would never score the paper and would have passed with the 25 marks he deserved for the diagram and procedure. First ditched by the probability and secondly by the examiner, KD walked out of lab, face down, into the world of supple.