A shocking encounter

 One of my friends and my senior in REC (Now NIT) Rourkela who is presently in a very high position in one of the most prestigious Institutes of Technology, narrated this funny episode which also reminds me of a scene from the epic movie "3 IDIOTS".

Hailed from a village in Odisha, there was no electricity in his village until he was in Class VII (7th Grade). When he was in Class III (3rd Grade) his father gave him a flashlight (torch) bulb and two batteries to play with. My friend used to enjoy lighting the tiny bulb. Slowly he graduated to tuning into the local radio station by connecting crystal to telephone. These activities provided him with an affinity towards Electrical Engineering from his childhood.

After his village came under electrification he started playing with electrical equipments and got used to the terms like phase, neutral, earthing etc. He noticed that many were making connections from phase to earthing to light incandescent bulbs. In addition, they used to conduct electricity through a big iron rod (called SABALA in local parlance) coating it with salt. So in order to carry further his experiment with electricity, my friend connected a bulb to the wire on the phase side and connected the other end of the wire to the ground. The bulb didn't emit any light. Then someone advised him to pee on the earthing so that the saline water will make it glow. Well, the bulb certainly lighted, but my friend got a lightening shock of his life and till this day considers himself lucky to see another day.