nostalgia

it was the second day of our three day practical examination.
the first day went in a whirlwind of activities which included hurried completion of experiments which left us harried,the teachers screaming at us,eyes popping out due to our attempts to isolate cells underneath microscopes,writing all that we had stuffed into our brains regarding the experiment,praying to all possible Gods to make our organism grow on the media we had selected,the five minute lunch break in which all i remember is sitting cross legged in front of the lab and stuffing things into my mouth and trying to keep my "oh so white"lab coat out of the way...

back to the second day......the day went well.

to start with all our organisms grew,thank God for micro mercies.... :P pun intended

a hilarious identification session followed with people crashing their brains out wondering what that minuscule thing in the eppendorf was.....

(well,for non bio people,this session is where stuff is kept out for us to recognise and write about..this particular specimen i am talking about was kept in a small plastic tube with a cap which is called eppendorf tube..generally used when micro scale stuff is used)

well,people who could see it ,thought they would write about filters....
people who couldnot see it wrote about eppendorf tube.. :P
people who had lost it wrote about miniature gold coins from a pirate's treasure which had found its way to our laboratory.....

eventually ,it was some disc used in electron microscopy....sheesh..whatever...

(the photo is of the"gold coins"aka "electron microscope grids" kept in the tube..they are very very very tiny....)

the day passed pleasantly with the 9 of us winding our main experiments ....though we had a three days work pace of "the fast and the furious" from 9 in the morning to 6 in the evening..we were all pretty relaxed...the general consensus was "practicals" achcha gaya....

the teachers were pretty happy with us for all of us had managed to find the causative organism for our respective patients...so..they left us to wind up our work.

now,a few lines about the layout of my lab...
my lab..or the masters lab is one spacious,airy and bright lab,with huge windows opening into bright skies and CST's skyline...our examination was conducted in the undergrad lab,as we had medical micro experiments and sterile conditions are a must..for these experiments..
.the undergrad lab and post grad labs are connected..the post grad lab is like the balcony of the undergrad lab...and huge glass windows and doors connect both the labs...

now,back to winding up our work,we were performing certain tests which did not need much hard work except a tightly closed mouth,sterile conditions and a thin wire with which we pick some organisms in liquid media and jab them into other liquids and solids....
due to the nature of the work,there was silence in the lab..
twilight had fallen..the time of the day for memories and nostalgia....it was windy outside..our lab doors were closed,but we could see through to the masters lab and make out it was breezy....
all of us were working seriously but the mood was relaxed...

i don't know what overcame me..but i guess,the wind,the time of the day,the mood,the work..made me realise that, that was the last time i would perform any experiment in the lab as a student....
a rush of memories overcame me..as i looked out to our lab....where the wind was playing havoc with everything movable...
i looked at all my friends working quietly at their tables...a bittersweet pleasure trickled down my heart as i took in all the sights..that had become dear to me...that would now become memories that would take a timeless quality.....

i looked across my table at Sam.....i could see her staring at something in our masters lab...
i turned to see what was holding her attention..
it was the piece of paper we used to write our weekly schedules on..scrawled,scribbled,doodled on it were schedules for autoclaving,electrophoresis,lectures.....the paper was dancing in the wind.....

i turned towards her..she was looking at me...in her eyes i could see the reflection of my thoughts..and in that reflection i could hear her thoughts.......
both of us smiled at each other and continued with our experiment...........

(related link: http://iceprincess-gypsyheart.blogspot.com/2009/03/am-really-gonna-miss-this-placeam-gonna.html )