So I am an engineering student suffering from the idiosyncrasies of a quirky ,almost to the point of being non-sensical, institution (and by that I mean my college is crap. Really, really crap).Like all students, I too am faced with regular assaults on my well-being and sanity-the omni-potent (or the impotent, whatever you may) exams. Now a regular, inseparable and almost comical feature of the exams is the supervisor.

In my misfortunate journey as a student so far, I’ve come across a huge number of supervisors of various kinds-the sharp ones, stupid ones, downright lazy ones, the I-am-waiting-for-you-to-talk-so-I-can-screw-your-case ones, the I-am-interested-only-in-the-free-chai ones, the I-will-keep-staring-at-the-pretty-girl ones-different attitudes towards approaching a downright worthless job(really, how fruitful are those 3 hours for these guys, apart from the time-killers mentioned above, they really haven’t got anything to do)

However the only thing that unites these people is the bloated feeling of extreme power they get while supervising a class. Supervisors generally are junior teachers/lab assistants/senior clerks (which basically means they are frustrated little mongs) who don’t have much of importance in the college administration. Add to that a bit of awkwardness in speaking English, a low salary, a horrible dressing sense (we’ve got a junior teacher in the college who wears horribly low waists jeans. I am always under the mortal fear that somewhere, sometime, ’kaanta lagaa’ might play in his audible range and he might be possessed by Shefali Zariwaala’s finished career’s spirit and start showing off a strap or two. So much so, for having an active imagination!) and what you have is a picture perfect loser-a young 30 something man, with all the sense of self-respect lost trying to pucker up to senior professors’ backsides. So logically what does this man do to regain self-respect?

Yeah. Takes it out on the students while the exam is in progress. A round of supervision almost seems the perfect way of nursing a hurt ego and balming tired lips. Shout at a kid or two. Rattle off that fake mix of Australian/Mexican/Haitian accent that he has acquired recently to impress the Barney(the dinosaur, not Stinson, not Stinson at all, you sitcom-fed geek)lookalike from the comps department. To really make an effect, smack a kid moderately in the back of the head. Mission accomplished. Students will now fear him like they feared Shaktimaan’s villains when they were in 2^nd std. For the next three hours, supervisor is the king!(I can almost see them doing a rendition of SRK’s “I am the king” in the class, although most of them have got the charisma of Mimoh Chakraborty’s face while trying hard to take a dump ) .A look from them is enough for a student trying to copy from a chit to pee in his pants.

Once the exam finishes, though, it’s back to square one. Students might just pee laughing at them.And they return back to dingy staff rooms, with the same fragile ego,just polished and disted from the outside.