so how does it happen?

Yesterday at home Jispa happily showed me her brand new geometry compass box. In Jispa’s school, the fees cover these basic things. I guess they do that so that all the kids have uniform tools. This helps eliminate kids who could possibly be tempted to get Ferrari geometry boxes (wouldn’t that be a cool product). While she showed me the same, I recollected that as a kid I rarely ever got a brand new geometry compass box. Being the third in line I would invariably get hand-me-downs. So I picked every piece from the box one by one. The divider, the compass, the protractor, the two angles and ofcourse the free pencil. The pencil has improved form my days. Now they give a pen-pencil. Yes the lovely Camlin compass box.

Then I saw her geometry book. I remember my first class in geometry very well. The same things were taught. A point, a segment, a line and a ray. The same bloody things. The definitions were also the same, the drawings were also the same. It brought back nice memories. A point – it is something that does not have any length breadth and height. It’s just that – a point. A line is nothing but a series of points. I was good at geometry always. I loved it and I just couldn’t understand how anyone would get anything wrong in geometry. Possibly because I was good at visuals so I enjoyed geometry. I remember getting all the sums right in my final tenth standard exam. They cut 2 marks for no bloody reason and I ended up at 73 out of 75. The theory was that if they give you full marks then they have to give you a medal or something, which the board reserved for students from Marathi medium schools. Well who cares. Add that to the 74 I scored on Algebra, I finished at 147 from 150 in Math at school.

In morning while dropping Jispa off to swimming class, I told her that I loved Geometry and I would always get great marks in that. She then decided to test my skills. “So tell me – which is longer – a ray or a line?”. Aha… “Nice one Jispa, both are same – they both go on till infinity”. Hehe. Nice try kid. Then something just struck me. “Jispa – a point has no length breadth or height, correct?” “Yes” she replied. “And a line is nothing but a series of points, like a thousand points together?” “Yes” she said again. So then I asked “how come that a point which is like zero length, multiplied a thousand times has a length when zero into thousand is zero. So if nothing is put together a thousand times, how do you get something?”. I felt her bulb light up in her head “Fascinating” she said. ‘Fascinating’… that’s a nice term to use, I thought. I got her thinking. The truth is that I thought of this conundrum for the first time myself. How come this shit works? I can understand that a point can be infinitesimally small. That can help denote a starting point for math. Hence it will be zero otherwise you would need to consider the size of the point as well when you calculate the distance between two points to get the length of the segment. All this I assume… I know nothing of this. But how can nothing add up to something? Jispa was right. It’s fascinating. So I asked her – “so you are going to ask your teacher about this?” “Nah, she will just reply that” “it’s too advanced” I interjected. “no, she will just say that you will learn it in higher class”. Ok same thing.

I love having these conversations with Jispa. I keep telling her. When you grow up, do something nice. Become a geologist and then I can come with you to different places. Or study History – then we can do to all the palaces together and you can teach me. Or do zoological studies and I can come to various forests with you. I love learning from anyone. My nephew is a whacko. He is a lizard and snake super freak. So every time I meet him, I ask him stuff about snakes or other creepy crawlies. He studies in Doon school and he comes down for his vacations. This time around on a friend’s BBM he learnt that there was a snake found along with the stuff that was being shifted. He caught a friend and went there to catch the snake. He was coolly telling us later that it was a rat snake and hence not poisonous. Ya sure. He did catch it. What a complete mad man. What I wonder is that the adults around let me do it. He would have shown some attitude there for the others to trust him. I don’t know if I would have let him do it I was around.

Whatever, it’s fun to learn from him and it’s fun to learn from Jispa. I guess its sweeter when someone younger is teaching stuff to you. I actively try and learn from them. Of course some stuff you don’t want to learn from them, your ego gets in the place. But for the most, I guess, I like to learn from them. There is something that the youth has that you can never ever replicate. Teaching has put in touch with them and I really do learn a lot from them.

a little less sleep, a lot more thought

I have been getting all sleepy these days thanks to a little less sleep everyday. The reason - two back to back fantastic books. One I finished was called Logicomix – a graphic novel that traces Bertrand Russel’s quest for the foundation of mathematics. As dense as it sounds, I guess most the book I could not really claim to have understood in depth. Most of it would have been understood in spirit. I basically understood what the premise is and what the large issue was. But I know only enough to know of it and nod enough to speak of it. But that’s also a big thing.
Maths and physics were easily my favourite subjects. Scared stiff by the engineering competitions I choose to take up commerce and reduce all possible future tension. For the next five years at least. Till I figured that it led no where and I did my MBA. That the MBA also went no where is another matter altogether.
So whenever I get my hands on a half decent physics or math book which is written in a manner that a tenth pass can understand then I am completely keen and sold on. Some of my interesting books have been the dead famous series on Newton and Einstein along with the book that is essential the biography of the equation e=mc^2.
Once Logicomix got over, the book I picked was the Singapore story by Lee Kuan Yew. I have been a great admirer of his, especially after I had personally seen for myself the amazing city of Singapore. While there are enough critics but there is no reason to doubt the integrity of the man and the progress of the people.
I have just started the book and it is immediately a compelling read. He talks about his teachers and the effect they have had on his thinking. It made me sit up and think. Have I made a contribution to the kids I have had the chance to teach. As I have grown I have tried to teach what I think the kids really need to imbibe as a mindset. Much more than mere theory.
If I have been able to inculcate a mindset that enables them in the future to attack various situations and be able to keep their thinking clear, then it would have been well worth it. that’s why its always nice to meet old students. Some of them come upto you and tell you what they have learnt from you and how it really helped them. It is the same in office with my subordinates. That is how I guess I must judge myself and act in a manner that best allows this to happen. It’s not a popularity contest wherein the votes count immediately after the display of ‘skill’. This is a slow burn. Years and decades later if someone remembers you for the value you have added to them and not merely helped them at an unfortunate moment, then you have really done your job.
It also set me thinking on education opportunities. Instead of choosing the commerce stream, if I had taken the arts stream and got into the best college with the best teachers might have enjoyed my education better. Arts was for the women and the men who wanted to be near women. I am not so sure if my parents would have been happy to have their son in arts. Especially after my brother’s lost way in the education system. I was my dad’s final hope. He wanted me in science, an engineer perhaps but being principled that he would not influence choice of stream, commerce was still ok. At least I was not threatening to fail a la big bro.
Teachers have the ability to affect the minds of their wards. It’s a pity that they don’t see it as thus. But then at 200 bucks an hour that I get for teaching, I am ok as it’s not my bread and butter. I would be happy to pay. But how can it motivate a genuine talent to make it a profession. With good women now going to corporate life even the last hope of them joining the only “respectable profession” of teaching is fast diminishing. What’s good for the corporate may not be good for the country. But you can’t really do anything about it. The invisible hand of Adam Smith will transfer the best resources to where it will see the maximum value.
Only issue is that he talks about the long run and we live in the short run.

one big leap of faith

Yes. I managed one big moral victory. Ever since we bought our first car over six years ago we have been playing ganapati bhajans the first thing we get into the car. Even if I get in at night or in the morning. The first time you get into a car for the day you have to play bhajans – old jungle saying. Now jasmine and I are not that ritualistic so there is no real reason for us to play it. One day many years ago I did not play it and my car’s bumper got damaged. Ever since I have not had the guts to not play it. And we like to play the specific ganapati bhajn from the specific album. We have now expanded it to play one more album – the scared chants of shiva. But then that’s Ganapati’s dad, so that’s ok.
I have wanted to get rid of this superstition from my brain for sometime now. I haven’t had the guts. Just listen to the mind play here. I used to get worried that in case I don’t play and by chance if something happens that day which may be unrelated then the dam superstition will stick in my brain forever. Hence I never did try that stunt. But this Sunday I thought about it and took a chance in life. It required me to think of the worst case happening that day and take that chance. Four days hence… I live…

lovely tree

Ficus trees such as pipal are important for a forest is what I learnt at one of the nature walks I had been for. They encourage bird life etc etc… I too noticed a lot of birds around such trees, eating fruit, nesting etc.. I loved these trees and I wished for them to be everywhere. But they come with a small caution. What caution? I parked under one of these for around 36 hours. This is what happened. Well it probably is the wrong season, I guess.. must be fruits blossoming, attracting more birds hence more poo… I don’t know.. Not that I mind too much. I just pity the poor guy who washes the car. Though visibility was an issue later.

it's your flame

I am not convinced of the dynastic tendencies that are prevalent everywhere, whether they are in corporates or in politics. Our tendency to eulogize and patronize them leaves me a little unsure. Is our need for predictability and order forcing us to follow and be led by them? I don’t know. I understand the paternal and conservationist instincts of the leaders who promote their kin. But what is our excuse for blindly accepting them? In politics the current heir apparent to the first family of India seems to be taking the right steps to get his party out of the quagmire it finds itself in. In a party that lost its way briefly largely due to the infighting and territorial tendencies of its second rung, it probably required a surname to unite it and talk crucial decisions. Sometimes being decisive in battle is more important that weighty argument that follows turfism. Should the logical heir be a blood line? Who does the organization belong to any ways? Normally the sharply analytical Tarun Tejpal from Tehelka is pretty incisive with his searing insight. But to see him write these lines for the current Congress head was largely disappointing:
“And yes, as I bid you speed and strength, with the extra god by your side, may I make a final plea. You have given us of yourself, and of your son. Now will you kindly also give unto us your luminous daughter.”
Not that I have anything against the daughter joining in. Sure all able hands and heads are welcome. But only if he had read Shoma Chaudhury’s piece in the same issue where she talks about Rahul and the systems he is bringing in, to the once beleaguered party. She writes:
“In an innovative move geared to revive the dead old party root upwards, he hired a firm run by JM Lyngdoh and KJ Rao — former election commissioners and men of impeccable reputation — to run intra-party elections for the Youth Congress and the party’s student body, the NSUI. In the recruitment drives preceding these elections, threeand- a-half lakh new members have been signed on in Punjab; more than six lakhs in Gujarat. Sixty-five thousand new student members in Uttarakhand. Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry are next. Oxygen is coursing through the party.
“You get a true measure of Rahul if you ask the bright young people around him why they have given up brilliant futures to work in his core team,” says Lyngdoh. “As for intra-party elections overseen by an independent body, why has no party tried this before in 62 years? Every party should follow this now. It will strengthen the roots of democracy in India.” Says Rao, “We told Rahul people with criminal records should not be allowed to stand for party posts. He agreed immediately. He has also supported independent audits and complete transparency. What this means is that people doing actual grassroot work now have a chance to get elected into positions of power.”
That’s my point. Work at the grassroots and enable a system that allows, no, pushes able leaders to emerge. Those who have performed under harsh environments and worked for the cause while seeing the real bottom. That is the challenge. I wish Tarun had asked for system for more such leaders to emerge. One lucky dynastic roulette does not make a rule. Surely easier said than done, but running a country is not for the faint hearted.
I would want Jispa to take her own call, do her own thing and follow her own calling. Should she look at us as role models? May be for some traits/ behaviors, but career? I don’t think so. Look out beyond. Sometimes parents want their child to follow in their footsteps or reverse – be what they aimed for but never could be. Among the things that I thought I could have been but never could be was a nuclear physicist. I loved physics and still love it. Why dint I follow it? Too lazy, severely limited ability… hehehe. But that is one career option I would like to see. But when did what I like begin to count in any way!