Usually I boast of a mind far
from being inquisitive. I sustain on spoon-fed knowledge, hardly very
nourishing. So it was more due to want of options than interest I became a
LASER specialized student. Since then I and Lasers had become intimate enemies.
No amount of humiliation at laboratory viva or spooky experiments involving
exorbitant apparatus were able to impart my inertial mind a touch of
acceleration.
So when our teacher offered us
non-compulsory mini projects last semester, I knew what I was going to do.
Under his persisting insistence, I presented my best resistance and won. It was
only later I was appraised of the fact that one of the mini projects might have
been the 3D holographic images. A feeble flutter arose in my brain, but the
looming semester exam swiftly slayed it before I could further analyse the
foreign premonition.
Three months passed by with my
mind safely in hibernation mode. Last week, for Reflections 2014 (a scientific
event organised by our Dept. of Physics on the occasion of National Science
Day), I heard, my fellow classmates were trying to develop the same 3D
holographic image. My ugly conscience roused itself and sure enough my indolent
brain was in deep trouble. An unusual amount of a certain kind of emotion
called ‘curiosity’ started getting the better of me. One must appreciate the
amount of effort I put in to say ‘no’ to my laziness. Due to the obvious demand
of pitch darkness of all LASER labs, the experiments were shifted to night
time. So even harder was to tell ‘no’ to my slumber beckoning me at 10 of
clock. Convincing my friend to give me a lift on her bicycle (of course mine
doesn’t have pressure in the wheels- credit goes again to my sluggishness), in
the slightly cold night I and five more classmates gathered at the department
to carry out our nocturnal experimentation.
Our guiding faculty was not one
to beat about the bush. The Optical table (on which the set up was
established), he told, was not a company made product- rather another Master Degree
project of one of our senior constructed with barely a few thousands of rupees.
He assured us of zero help from his side (being busy with the organising of the
event). So we were supposed to start from the scratch, which was exciting yet
not promising; especially for someone always ready to shirk from duties. With
only numerous packed boxes to start with, I admit I was pleasantly surprised to
see, my friends had already achieved the required complicated alignment by the
time I joined them. In Laser experiments, alignment is the most important and
tricky section. The first time they had tried to test the alignment, the laser
beam had diverged into infinite number of beams, illuminating the whole dark
laboratory momentarily. To have finally minimized them all into that one high
intensity coherent beam with subtle manipulations is a sure call for
commendation! Oh, how many lab classes I had let pass without any results
thanks to the requirements of precautionary alignment! Forget about the lost
marks.
The set up fixed magnetically
on optical table, we fumbled through with cutting of photographic plates (which
cannot be taken out in light other than in the presence of dim green wavelength
photons as specified by the manufacturer)and clamped it in place without
disturbing the object (a small cute white elephant of dimension approximately
3x2x1 cm). Forget about all the tripping over each other’s feet and the legs of
the screens blocking our path. Withstanding the impending huge yawns and loud
snores, we ploughed on with our trials and errors with the exposure and
developing time of the photographic plate. Each failure was a little heart
breaking followed by insane ideas on improvement, chitter chatter nonsense and
some prophetic visions. It was all frustrating with drooping eye lids and
painfully slow procedures, but we had to try once more.
One night ended with the 3D
image of a beheaded elephant while the other with an elephant head without
body. Eight attempts later, the third night finally produced the desired image
on the photographic plate. The clinging fatigue, dark circles around sleep
deprived eyes forgotten, an excited clamour followed that marked the success of
our project. Undoubtedly, a huge turn up was there at the entrance of Laser lab
for Reflections the very next day.
Besides the excitement of the
nights, I finally got to know my friends better before I finish the course two
months hence. Turned out, they are not as terrible as I thought after all.
Laser had gone and hooked my
attention. I decided to finally go read the text book we were prescribed the
previous semester for Laser Theory, and for once my laziness was too lazy to
put up any fight at all.
