Good Luck!

Off you go, back to school,
A place which you call, super cool!
It’s time to learn and have some fun,
For a long run has now begun.
Here comes another year to see you grow,
Flipping every page that life has, to bestow!

As you welcome a whole new start,
At the one place that’s close to your heart,
May the smile on your face
Add some enchantment to the place.
May the excitement in your voice
Make us jubilant and rejoice.

Spread your wings, chase your desire,
For that will lead you higher and higher.
Fear not the heights as you rise above,
For you’re wrapped in our love.
Remember, your sparkle will never shine any less,
For you both are the precious sparkles in our eyes!

The Key to Obliterate the Math Abomination

Recently, upon fulfilling my daughter's desire to look at a childhood pic of mine, I happened to see a family picture taken when I was about 6 years old. Suddenly, I felt a gush of memories flooding in my mind giving that nostalgic feel about my childhood. I am sure, most parents experience this nostalgia during Various phases as their child grows. Somewhere out of the blue, from the huge ocean of memories, popped out this word- "MATH" that put me in deep contemplation. I must say, if at all I was ever in love with something then, it was definitely this subject - Math! Unfortunately, it remains to be one Subiect, despised by most children till date!

As a child, I had always wondered as to what's behind this "Math Abomination"! But, I gradually realised that it's only with people who look at it as just numbers, losing focus on visualising the bigger picture behind the numbers. These magical numbers forming an inherent part of our everyday lives all the more involuntarily makes it even more astounding. Apparently, while at school / college, I could hardly fathom the depth of applied mathematics as much as I did with respect to Science.

The "Algebraic phobia" amongst school children and the "calculus phobia" amongst the teens deserve a special mention here. I feel lucky to have loved them both in spite of not knowing the extent to which these concepts were exploited in real life. But when I look back now, I could hardly think of a day that did not involve the concepts of Math we learnt all along. There has seldom been a Sector of work that doesn't involve Math. Science and Math go hand in hand indeed!

(Image courtesy: XKCD)

1. Let's consider your daily life. It is time (simple numbers from 0-24), the so called precious, that marks the dawn of your new day. Your growth in life is determined by how effectively you manage it. Your sleep cycle follows the time involuntarily. This fundamental concept of Math when linked with various other attributes of Science like gravity/ speed/ distance, forms the basis to advanced concepts like Time travel. It is mind-boggling to note that our scientists are working towards developing time machines to enable travel to the future. The base to this was laid by Einstein's General/Special relativity theory back in the 20th century. This wouldn't have been possible had Einstein not visualized the link between the measures of different physical quantities.


2. If we look at the health and fitness of an individual, it involves simple cooking and exercise. But trust me, it is not as easy as it sounds particularly to the ones with Math phobia. Basically, Cooking involves, mixing of ingredients and heating them if necessary. Aren't these tightly coupled with the concepts of ‘proportion’ and ‘temperature’?!
   
   Here goes my personal experience on this. In the beginning, when I first learnt cooking, the recipes that I used were for hardly 4 people. But thanks to my understanding of ratio and proportions! Given a situation, I can very well cook for 400 people now. If one could get hold of these concepts and put them to right use with financial concepts, he/she transpires to be a restaurateur!


3. Something similar explains Math and fitness as well. People adhere to exercise to reduce weight/burn calories. By extending their knowledge on how Math is incorporated in all areas of exercise like BMI [Body Mass Index), BMR [Basal Metabolic Rate), Body fat calculations and Heart rate, a fitness trainer or a Dietician is born.



(Image courtesy: Dilbert)


4. As we move on to finance, an adequate understanding of Algebra would make a world of difference to a normal person managing it. While the concept of Simple/compound interest comes in handy for loan/investments, accounting helps to track expenses. Here's where the statistics, graphs and curves come in to play. It is interesting to note that Math serves as a backbone to the blog chain algorithms in the world of crypto-Currencies.


5. Few years back, while I served as a software engineer, many a times I've felt this question scrape through my mind - "Are all those higher Math concepts learnt as Engineering Mathematics only for the purpose of exams?!" The answer to this came to me years later. Recently, I happened to do a course on Machine learning, which is all about predictions based on patterns found in the statistical analysis of Big data. I was amazed at how the concepts of Differential/Integral calculus and probability modelling were incorporated into various algorithms for automated data analysis.

Apparently, in the eyes of a child, finance happens to be nothing more than arithmetic. Ultimately, the magic behind the numbers remain hidden until they grow up and unfold the mystery themselves. It then dawns on them that, what was abhorred all along deserved to be adored after all!

Math plays all the more crucial role in the field of medicine/pharmaceuticals as well. Could you even imagine what would happen if a wrong dosage of medicine is prescribed or consumed by mistake?! Math in music - counting, rhythm, frequency/pitch, intervals, etc. is simply splendid in the field of art. Our farmers get to play with rows and columns while planting in their agricultural land, exploiting the concepts of Matrix. If not for the Trignometry and Differential geometry behind architecture, the great wonders of the world would be non-existent. Had our astronomers not perceived the Math behind Space science, a space shuttle’s rendezvous with its space station would have remained an impossible event.

The practical applications of math to everyday life is truly endless. The whole point of this article is to elucidate that Math is something beyond just numbers and formulae. After all, in our times, we never used Math as a language during our Math sessions. It was more of numbers and formulae that we saw on board. Most importantly, we never raised the question of 'why?" while we were taught a formula. Our childhood does seem to have a seasoning of Science experiments but not many of us experimented Math while we learnt it.

So, the next time if at all you hear your child say "Oh no! Why am I learning all these?!" during a Math Session:

1. Please do cite a few of the above examples.


2. Make Sure to involve your child in all possible activities at home right from cooking to financial planning that would best illustrate the magic of math.


3. Let's give them some thoughts to ponder while they look at shapes/curvatures of toys/buildings around them, deal with quantities at the Super Market and lot more of what their curious minds could comprehend.


4. Let them question math the way they do science and find out for themselves the way Math and science are intertwined.


5. Let's create opportunities for them to err using Math in real life. These errors will feed their curiosity, making them more inquisitive while developing their self-inclination to perceive the real picture behind the simple numbers.

You'd soon realise the abomination transforming into passion!

The Dark Side of Hope

At some point in life, when all that's left is only a 'little hope', ever wondered what makes it feel little? Read on to find out!

Along the hedge, behind a bush,
It laid curled up in a tranquil hush.
The harder it tried to outgrow its fear,
The tiny soul felt a deep despair.

Amidst the agony growing miserably,
It sensed a shadow kissing it gently.
Along came a ray of hope to unfold,
While it lifted its head up to enfold.

The sky looked serene, yet bizarre!
A promising sight to behold, by far.
Miles away, the glimpse of a flock of its kind,
Sent a chill deep down its spine.

 Fluttering its crippled wing,
As though it's the final fling,
In the air it went, with all its might,
Only to realise it's fear was put to blight!


(Image Courtesy: Hopefinn )

This poem goes to say that behind every hope there's always a fear as to a shadow hidden behind every object in the path of light. As long as one doesn't step out of the shadow (fear), the enchantment in a ray of light (hope) cannot be realised completely!

The one mistake - A blessing in disguise!

We seldom feel happy when something goes wrong. But I felt so happy about a tiny mistake that my lil' boy made yesterday. While brushing his teeth before bedtime, he accidentally dropped the circular toothpaste lid in to the open wash drain which went in and placed itself comfortably with the flat face facing upwards. There was just enough space for a knife edge at the sides. All our efforts to pull it out using two knives at the sides went in vain! All that I told him was to stop panicking and to think of a solution if he could. That's when my 7 year old suggested that we use a straw and hold it with air and pull it out! Awe..... ! He took me by surprise! What a presence of mind! Then we improvised it further and added a fully blown balloon to the straw and tried pulling it out. Believe me, it worked indeed! although couldn't pull it out fully. He felt glad that the lid was rising slowly and his idea worked! Meanwhile our 4 year old girl who was a silent spectator of all our experiments brought a glue stick from their stationary kit and suggested that we use it to pull the lid out. Finally their dad used super glue and accomplished the mission! They felt so happy that we improvised their ideas and made them work. I perceived it more like a foundation to creativity in young minds.

Thanks to all those science experiments based on aerodynamics we did together thus far. Looks like he has got hold of the crux! The real pleasure in life lies not in gaining knowledge but when it is put to use in real time. And problems provide us the opportunity to experience such pleasure!

After all a small mistake/trouble instigated the tiny brains to think and come out with a quick and sensible solution. Isn't our life's journey similar?!  If only we learn to perceive every problem in life as an opportunity to extract the best out of us. The more we think about the cause the more it leads to stress and worries which tend to pull you down further. Hence, we fail to think of a sensible/feasible solution! Instead if we could attain that level of control wherein we could overcome all the emotions and focus only on best possible solution with an open mind, I'm sure it will lead us there!

It was a silly mistake  that happened, may be not worth bragging about. But I would call it a "Blessing in disguise"! 

The glistening dew at dawn

As it trickled from the heaven,

It was enshrined by the mist

That hung around in the night sky,

Carried away by the joy of being special.

The cold breeze whispered the secret

About the mighty river that adorned the Earth.

The tiny dew was swayed by the swirling breeze

And it ran down only to be caught by the tiny rose bud.

There it stayed, all night long

Wondering, if it were special at all.

When the golden rays unfolded,

The gentle wind scattered the Morning mist.

The silence of the night was broken

By the tweet of chirping birds and buzzing bees.

The lovely spring flowers danced while

Getting drenched in gentle kisses by the sparkling dew.

The dew that glistened on the flower bed which

Never realized the blissful feeling of being alive,

Rolled on to the ground sacrificing itself,

Giving up to the glory of dawn.

A new day dawned and at the end of it,

It trickled down from the heaven again

Wondering if it would be lost in the breeze,

Failing to live the few hours that nature spared.

Never did the dew sense that

It had a silent admirer up in the sky.

The moon shined all night

Staring at the ignorance of the gleaming dew!

A Day of Accolades

A day of trophies, medals and certificates - a terrific day indeed! We expected one for sure, but the rest took us by surprise. Truly a memorable day in life! Wondering what's all this about?! That's about my little Champ Navi and the surprise factor - "the junior champ", his sweet sister Nia winning accolades at an inter school competition conducted by The Preschool of India at Porur, yesterday. Wow! What a day it was - worth a write up. Maybe when the kids grow up and get to read this, they would be surprised if it were really them!

It was around 2 AM and I woke up with a severe ear pain. When it became quite unbearable and prolonged for an hour, I thought I was going to end up at the hospital instead of the competition spot. It took me off the bed. I definitely started to feel drowsy but the pain didn't let me sleep. Amidst all this, I was clear about one thing - that I should not be the one to spoil a good opportunity for my kids to showcase their talents. After all, it was their efforts to learn whatever we parents taught them. Thanks to the on-call doctor, who recommended me the pain killer; probably my body sensed the determination of my mind too, and the pain changed its state - unbearable became bearable. That eased me up a bit and gave way for a little sleep. After an hour's sleep, I got everything ready to spend one whole day at the competition spot. Kids were excited as usual as they realized they get to go out for the day.

We reached on time - thanks to my husband's driving skills. Both the kids participated in three competitions each. To start with, it was the "Fancy Dress" contest for both. Navyah was dressed up as little Krishna and to mention, this was her first performance on stage. Probably because this was the only competition in recent time that gave opportunity for toddlers to compete. They got her up on stage and held the mike in front of her and she was wondering what it was! She said the 4 lines of Bhagavad Gita I taught her. Though not very audible, she recited it neatly. Her brother went up next.

Navneet was dressed up as Bharathiyar; special thanks to his classmate's mom for lending us the black blazer for a day. This time when he was up on stage, he seemed to have learnt from his past mistakes. That showed up on his face. He rendered his speech/ song with such confidence. It was loud, clear and he showed conviction. We were admiring his voice modulation. The minute he finished it we knew he nailed it!

Followed by this, Nia had her "Show and tell" and "Rhymes" contests. She was getting a little fussy as it was almost noon and she is after all just two years old. Somehow this little girl managed to do whatever she was supposed to do. Navi went for "Book Reading" and "Sloka Recital". He recited "Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam" for two minutes. The way he recited was quite satisfying for us. But many kids were equally good at that.

We left home at eight o'clock in the morning and by the time all these contests got over it was almost 4 PM. We were asked to wait for another hour to know the results. While we were completely exhausted, the kids were playing around in the play area, which by the way, was just one slide. We wanted to leave for home but something stopped us both from leaving - a little hope that Navi would win some prize. Finally the chief guest arrived and the prizes were announced. We eagerly awaited to hear his name and we were not disappointed!

He won the second place in the "Fancy Dress" contest. He received a certificate, medal and a small trophy for that. This time he seemed to realize that he had received something really prestigious. Me and my husband were extremely delighted. We were actually waiting for the results of Navi's next contest, while we heard the name "Navyah Rajesh". She saw one trophy in her brother's hand and when she got one for herself she was happy. She must have been thinking, may be everyone got one. She won the second prize for "Fancy Dress" contest in her age group. Soon we heard her name again, She won the second prize in "Rhymes" contest. She was up on stage with her previous trophy in hand and when they gave her another she modestly said "no need - I have one and that would do". Such is the innocence of a two year old kid!

The chief guest smiled. I collected it on her behalf. Once again they called out her name and we were totally surprised. This time I took both the trophies in her hand and she got the one they gave along with the certificates and medal. That was for third prize in "Show and Tell". She competed with about 10 to 12 kids, almost of the same age as hers, in all categories and won them. I really wonder if I would have spoken one full sentence when I was 2 years old. We returned home with hand full of accolades - The two little kids gave us parents a priceless gift - the pride of being their mom and dad! Love you both - my little achievers!

Basics of Carnatic Music

My first article in Scribd

Basics of Carnatic Music by Pavithra Rajesh