My trusty ol’ scientific calculator
Recently, I dug deep into my cupboard (the one with old books racked in it, just to remind myself that I got an education) looking for something and for once, my eyes fell on my calculator. Scientific calculators are the true friends of engineering students – they never back out during trying times (tough luck if you didn’t have a solar, ha!). They help fight boredom. And oh, of course help in doing calculations that our already maxed-out engineering minds could not.
It brought back a sense of nostalgia, something I’ve been yearning for ever since I finished college five months ago. Countless lab hours had passed away like minutes as we furiously punched away at their keys. Calculators, as unsuspecting as they look, were often vehicles for.. uh.. confidential information. I hate to break the secrecy, but I’ll give you a clue – the information was connected to exam answers
And almost everyone had to borrow a calculator from either hostel students or juniors for a semester exam. And it was another irreplaceable tool for passing time. We used to find out words that can be typed in them. Try pressing the Alpha key + A to type in A. Then press the sin key. Voila, you have the name of the girl who stole the hearts of the Hindi-speaking people in Aamir Khan’s Ghajini. Oh, the glory days!
And everyone held on to their calculators as dear life – every guy I knew lost his and was only using one that was either a friend’s or “borrowed for an infinite period of time”. I lost mine in the first week of college in my Chemistry lab, and never got around to reunite with it. But I braced myself and infinitely borrowed a senior’s calculator – skillfully erasing all traces of his ownership and replacing them with my own graffiti. Oh yes, marking one’s calculator with his or her name was an important rite of passage for every engineering student. Most prefer a permanent marker, but my dad knew better – he taught me to engrave mine with a compass. And I never lost it! Thank you Dad.
Sometimes I used to think of returning the calculator to him. But it’s not been with him for so many years that it might almost be happier with me. He probably infinitely borrowed someone else’s calculator anyway! And having graduated from college, it has faded into obscurity now. When will I get to slide open the cover and turn its precise circuitry on once again? Not anytime sooner. But I will, like all engineering students, always remember how much of a good companion it was – its charismatic presence throughout my four years in college, its unfailing accuracy and it’s never-say-die attitude. Remember, I have a solar!
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Tagged as college, creative, nostalgia + Categorized under Scraps | »
Ya everyone has their own episodes with the sci calci’s!…Reading this post makes me remember my first sem lab and the wonderful MACHINES lab in 4th semester!..Great post da
It brings back some of the best college life memories…I miss them a lot! 
Nostalgic — yeah how i killed most of my labs with my calculator which was different from others.
, so i had two calc but i usually carry my ES version which was different from everyone..Hope i too had my own way of showing my ownership of my very fav calc 
..Nice post man .Really , i recollected how much time i used to kill even in exam halls !!! 
…
And i still remember how i laid my hands on my first scientific calculator 991 ES which my dad bought me . For my surprise our coll gave one the following week
U r so true about the fact that every student must have lost atleast 1 “calcy”(u missed this part,dats what we called it)….BUT i LOST 2 AND BROKE THE 3RD…BEAT THAT..
@Hari and @Venkat: Maybe I should write a “Going back to college” series. What do you think!?
@Namrata: Ah, calcy, yup. That’s what we used to call them. Well at least we returned each others’ safely
indeed nostalgic………..In fact the one which I got from college started to function in an awry manner with the display of it having a glitch…….Anyways, I got a brand new one which I lent to somebody else and funnily I couldn’t recollect to whom I gave that…….Anyways long live my calcy wherever it is………
I’m still in the pursuit of searching my piece after reading this post
.
@Raghuand @nlvraghavendra: Anyways I don’t think we’ll be needing them again!
Fortunately i haven’t lost one yet
! Doesn’t mean that i’m so careful about things.
I own a 991 ES too machi! And yeah they were just introduced and i just couldn’t stop bragging on how powerful my calci was compared to other amateur versions
.I still use if regularly 
hey pras… gud one da… those were golden days when we found out ASIN in our calcys
well u might not need them now… but i m badly in need of one as i lost mine too and my borrows were only for short period of time (lucky you)… I shud have bought one while coming frm there… a basic ES with solar is 10 pounds here 
can u send me urs 
@Karthik: Sure! Just give me numbers of a couple of UK girls
@Pras: Worstu comedy
Dei emotiona kora da dei
@Anand: Mudivoda irukeenga
good one! i still remember the countless minutes spent during problem-oriented papers typing out 1+1= and staring furiously at it, scratching my head, shaking it and scoring out an imaginary equation in my paper..the examiner used to look at me hopefully that any moment i wld go ‘eureka’! and walk out with a nobel prize! God only knows that i was only desperately trying to push those 3 hours clearly stumped by the flow rates velocities and other such scary items in the question paper!
my calcy was always my good buddy!
my tryst with my calcy continues…using the same strategy of 1+1 even here!
“We used to find out words that can be typed in them.”
Now we do the same, when teacher is in the class we are busy with calculator, Mine is the new version of it.