18th November: Sir arrived this morning. Read some books in the library for sometime. Then did a bit of soil sieving and then did burning of soil in a bunsen burner. In the afternoon, I watched a very comic film called "Junior Shylock".
19th November: Started preparing my report in rough. In the evening I went with Babu to buy a film roll for taking photographs for my report.
20th November: Did burning of a second sample of soil. After that Jagan, Sir and I photographed microarthropods with the help of the compound microscope that has a camera attached to it. After lunch, I attended a seminar conducted by one of the students.
21st November: Ate a Perionyx excavatus earthworm in the morning. Then weighed some soil samples to find out the waterholding capacity of different soils, weighed burnt soil, also learnt how to calculate and find out soil texture of different samples of soil. Continued writing my report.
22nd November: Sat and wrote the final parts of my report. Then I gave it to Chitra who corrected it. After she finished, she gave it to Sir who also made some corrections.
23rd November: Wrote my report in fair in the new notebook I had bought. Then Jagan and I stuck the photographs we had clicked earlier in the various spaces in the notebook. Then Sir said that I would have to prepare a vermi-bed on my own. He gave me a bucket and I made a vermi-bed in it. Sir checked that I had done it correctly.
24th November: Drew some diagrams that remained to be done in my notebook. Then gave it to Sir for final approval. He made me write a few lines about each photograph. He said I should come and collect it after a week or so. After that I said bye to everyone and left at 4.30 for home.
10 days later…
5th December: Today was a holiday, so I went to collect my report book from New College where I had given it to Sir for his signing. Met all my friends there. All of them wrote their remarks in my report book and then it was stamped. Sir gave me a certificate for the earthworm course I had finished at the Institute. Then Chitra dropped me in her Fiat car near the Panagal Park bus stop.
Field Notes on Vermiculture:
Turning Garbage into Gold