Blissful Ignorance and Powerful Knowledge

Today was the day of my end semester practical exam on fluid mechanics.I had a healthy prelims score of 68/75.I needed to score 23 /25to secure an S grade.

The experiment part was damn easy.I was hoping to get one of the pipe flow expts or turbine expts.I got a turbine and completed it in no time.While praveen vied with ganguly to see who gets out first,I mentally vied with sehwag to see who completed faster.I was the first in the lab to finish.I handed over my paper to the lecturer and he told me to take my record.I found it amidst a pile.He showed me the first page and I saw that I hadnt filled up the bonafide certificate.He filled all the details for me including my name(which he spelt without the 'h').He gestured me to a stool near him.

Now this is the worst part in any practical exam--the orals,famously known as viva.I've never answered any viva sessions properly during my past 3 semesters.I reel off my own answers.On most occassions I get away with it while on others,I frankly say "I dont know,sir".This one was a mix of sappa questions and hard-to-crack ones.And I got the most number of questions-10 since I finished first.I later learnt that the others had got just 4 or 5.These were the sappa questions posed to me:
* What is a turbine?
* Is it an impulse turbine?(I said no)
* Then what type is it?(I replied "reaction type".there r only 2 types)
* To what sub class does it belong to?(Y's he bringing in OOPS here,I wondered.I remained blank)
* I mean does it belong to radial flow or axial flow?(I replied axial)
* Axial??(I said "No No.Radial)
* Inward flow radial or outward flow radial???(Blank stare)

Then came the yorkers:
* Draw the velocity triangle for the inlet.(He handed me a paper.I cracked this one)
* Draw the VT for the outlet.(I was bowled by this one.I simply drew a triangle)
* And the last wicket.What is the maximum power delivered?(I ran myself out i.e I replied "Dont know sir")

He looked at my face with his usual smile and said "U can go now.Be prepared for the seminar tomorrow."That was when I remembered that I was to present a seminar the next day.I planned the usual strategy of Copy and Paste from some book.But to my luck none of the damn books carried info on rotary pumps.When luck runs out try Googling,I thought to myself as I walked towards the parking lot.And that's what I've been doing now at 11 in the night with blogging going on in parallel.