Lab travails

It was the day of the class X biology board practical exam. The last ever biology-related experiment I had to do was nearing. I was delighted – biology and I never really went together.
I had broken innumerable number of cover slips (isn’t that what they’re called? I’m confused!!), test tubes, dropped drops of the pink reagent on my classmates’ white, white kurtas, etc. I was never successful in placing the cover slip on the mounting without air bubbles. Best was the whole hungama with the dissection needles – losing them every other practical class. All this was coming to a close!
Our biology teacher had been kind enough to give us the food constituents test’s chemicals before the exam – we knew the combinations that were possible.

After the exam started, things did go quite smoothly – I even managed to put the cover slip on the slide successfully with just a couple of bubbles.
It was when the testing for food constituents that my woes began. I was convinced that one of my reagents was starch – God only knows how and why I had that idea. The rest of the ‘foods’ tested positively, properly; starch was the only one giving trouble. No matter how much Iodine I poured into the test tube, it never turned violet.
People were finishing their exam and getting out. I was getting tensed. For all the desperation I had to finish the practical and enjoy my minutes of to-be-found-soon freedom from Biology practical, I was getting negative reactions with my damned starch. As more people slowly started trickling out, I decided to use the last ‘lifeline’ to save myself: the lab attendant.

‘Akka!’ I called, in a tone that would have convinced her I would burst out crying any minute. This was enough to make her hurry and come.
‘Iodine work aagamatengudhu, akka!’ I said. Iodine’s not working!
‘How do you know for sure that I have given you starch, ma?’ she asked.
I was perplexed. I had no rationale for such a belief. Gut feeling.
‘Thonicchu, akka’ I said.
She smiled and looked at the numbers she had written in her left hand. Combinations, I knew.
‘39, unakku starch vechurken, correct daan’ she said, much to my relief. Yes, I have kept starch solution for you.
That meant I wasn’t wrong – the starch solution was just refusing to co-operate with me. Akka offered to help too. She took my solution and poured a generous helping of Iodine into it.

Pale, colourless. Just as it had been before.
She eventually emptied the whole starch solution trying to make it work with Iodine. I felt a knot sinking into my stomach. The Biology teacher, who I think never liked me that much, was giving me one of her glares. I was irritated so much, that I gave her one of mine back.
Things now really seemed to be slipping away. Akka was also staring at me helplessly. No more starch solution, she said.
I then looked at number 40’s table, my best friend’s table. She had left ten minutes after throwing me some quizzical ‘what are you still doing’ looks. Neat girl that she was, all her test tubes were neatly stacked in the rack, each showing the test’s results.
My idea bulb lit up brightly (yeah, finally it worked!!).
Just a small enquiry from the akka was enough.

‘Ma’am, this is the test for Proteins, this for fats, and … this for starch,’ I said, showing my rack.
She lifted the test tube containing the starch solution that had turned violet.
‘Hmm, correct... You may leave,’ she said. Those words were enough to transport me to the heaven on earth, if there is one.
I gave akka one of my most generous smiles ever. Lab akkas, our ever helpful friends. Our partners in crime, too.
And yeah, you would’ve guessed by now that my friend 40 had a perfectly violet result for her starch solution test.
God bless: this is my 100th post!!