Polished Pebble at the side of the road
Ever had that feeling when you see something strange and funny happening in front of you, passively knocks your conscience as you empathize being in the same situation yourself? Back in 2003 I met this old gentleman, wearing a skull cap covering his gray hairs punctuated by old fashioned ethnic beard. He seemed kind of a meek fellow. The kind of person you would otherwise ignore if you were too young to recognize the existence of old people. I was looking for a friend of mine when he came up to me, and asked if I was looking for that guy who plays good cricket. I was taken aback when I realized that he can actually speak, and had an opinion about someone I knew. He pointed his finger at a nearby park and said he last saw him there moments back. As I was about to nose dive back to reality where old people are encouraged to stay away from the younger generation, he asked me if I liked mathematics.
A quick flash back startled me how my life revolved around this subject. Back to the time when I was punished for not knowing what parallel lines are, to the era when my parents would beat me with a ruler if I wrote something wrong to the time I finally cracked fooling people into believing that I am actually good at this. The trick was simple, spend more time in the theory, go through the solved questions and try to get the answers for the unsolved parts. I never really touched the ones whose answers werent available. It is amazing how once after gaining interest in a new field, one tries to mingle and weave it with everything else one cares of. Soon I was drawing more and more parallel lines while sketching, started using some of the theorems as jokes and also tried to make a small bridge connecting a pure but dead subject with chaotic but real real-life.
To the question, I said that I liked mathematics and turned my face towards the park. "How would you prove sin²x + cos²x = 1?" I said, "Well there are numerous ways of proving it. Like the unit circle method, graphical method, Pythagoras theorem, etc." He asked, "Can you prove it in two lines?" I said,"Well not two but how about four and I promise I wont use too much ink writing it?"
What happened next was simply epic. He said that he invented a new method to get to this identity. As I was a self proclaimed maths enthusiast, I tried to show off concern. He said, "You know the formula, sin²x= 1 - cos²x ?" I knew where it was going. I swear, I already felt bad. He continued, "Now just rearrange it to get sin²x + cos²x = 1." I wish I could laugh at it. To be honest, I just felt intimidated. Here is one person, not much left in his life, trying to drift pebble on river bed.
Whenever I find myself in the same chasm, I tell myself, I am not alone. There are many more engineers.
A quick flash back startled me how my life revolved around this subject. Back to the time when I was punished for not knowing what parallel lines are, to the era when my parents would beat me with a ruler if I wrote something wrong to the time I finally cracked fooling people into believing that I am actually good at this. The trick was simple, spend more time in the theory, go through the solved questions and try to get the answers for the unsolved parts. I never really touched the ones whose answers werent available. It is amazing how once after gaining interest in a new field, one tries to mingle and weave it with everything else one cares of. Soon I was drawing more and more parallel lines while sketching, started using some of the theorems as jokes and also tried to make a small bridge connecting a pure but dead subject with chaotic but real real-life.
To the question, I said that I liked mathematics and turned my face towards the park. "How would you prove sin²x + cos²x = 1?" I said, "Well there are numerous ways of proving it. Like the unit circle method, graphical method, Pythagoras theorem, etc." He asked, "Can you prove it in two lines?" I said,"Well not two but how about four and I promise I wont use too much ink writing it?"
What happened next was simply epic. He said that he invented a new method to get to this identity. As I was a self proclaimed maths enthusiast, I tried to show off concern. He said, "You know the formula, sin²x= 1 - cos²x ?" I knew where it was going. I swear, I already felt bad. He continued, "Now just rearrange it to get sin²x + cos²x = 1." I wish I could laugh at it. To be honest, I just felt intimidated. Here is one person, not much left in his life, trying to drift pebble on river bed.
Whenever I find myself in the same chasm, I tell myself, I am not alone. There are many more engineers.
posted by A.D. @ 12:03 AM
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