They thought revolution is just round the corner and they will lead them. The Communist Party of India (Marxists), first referred to as CPI(M) to distinguish it from the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI) and later coverted into CPM (with India gone), was formed in 1961, giving a special avenue of adventure for young college students in West Bengal. The dream of turning the Indian State into a Communist Command State to end the sufferings of all the poor and the weak was further blostered by the hands-down defeat of India in the short -duration Chinese aggression in 1962. Some of the brilliant students of Presidency College felt it more attractive to cultivate their aim of being in the forefront of the CPM-sponsored revolution to capture State power in (hopefully a separate, independent) West Bengal, if not India, rather than compete to beat others in the examinations for the University degree. They barely scrapped through and could not secure qualifying marks to get admission to the Presidency College for the Masters degree programme of the Calcutta University. They could have joined the University's own Departments, but they insisted that they continue with the Presidency College. So, they went into agitation of a nature that led to virtual stoppage of both academic and non-academic work in both the Presidency College and the University. They failed to realize their stated objectives and our Masters program classes started after a delay of two months. Unfortunately for the young aspiring revolutionary communist leaders, they could not realize their main objective of getting place of prominence in the youth or student wings of the CPM. We were forced to sacrifice our studies for two months .The youth leaders who with their poor academic credentials had served the party for over a decade were not going to let these upstart brilliant boys to snatch the leadership away. The upstart revolutionaries needed a new refuge. The became Naxalites or Naxals or part of Communist Patry (Marxist Leninist) or Communist Party Maoist. In these new parties they became the leaders as there were no existing leaders. We were destined for suffering more costs to be inflicted on us by the varying communists fighting among themselves to lead West Bengal's communist revolution that never took place.
Our classes started in November instead of July- August while the breeze of the impending revolution continuing to blow
To go from BA honors classes to MA classes is a great downward slide. You have about 100 classmates, most of whom were of average merit and just wanted to get a degree with above qualifying marks. The intellectual environment quality of the class was much poor as compared with the BA honors class.
There were of course brillant teachers who were brilliant students earlier. But they were catering to a different avearge standard of students and very few knew how to control and communicate in such a large class of 100 students. The exceptions were the teachers in the Specialisation classes. My specialisation of Econometrics & Mathematical Economics had a class of about a dozen of students: so the brilliant teachers could remain brilliant in the class as well.
In the Masters program we had eight papers each subdivided into two. The general papers were five. Classes for these had all the 100 or so students. Teachers for these classes were of broadly two types: (a) academically useless, uninteresting, unimpressive and pure time passing, and (b) impressive, useful and effective communicators and some even with a fair degree of control over the class. The first group of teachers were elderly, non-quantitative and had lost touch with what was happening in economics. Some of them made it plain that the students in the MA classes are expected to learn on their own. The teachers were only to give lectures on selected topics and was not responsible to cover all that is in the syllabus. They were responsible only for gining some references of books and articles in journakls which the students have to reade and gather knowledge on their own. One such teacher simply dictated notes from his own notebook for 40 minutes at a stretch: no question and no answer. Another discussed everything other than economics and ocassionally referred to some official reports like that of the Radcliffe Commission in the United Kingdom. A third teacher of this group looked at the roof and scribbled something in the black board while lecturing and did not appear to be aware of what he was teaching. A fourth spoke for all the 40-45 minutes giving an impression that he was explaining some deep scientific thought to himself rather than imparting any lessons to the students in the class.These four teachers covered nearly 5 half papers (like advanced micro-economics, money and banking, Indian economic problems and history of economic thought) of the 10 general half papers. Among the second group of teachers, one was a brillant mind and speaker. Though elderly, he taught something in every class with effective communication. He covered roughly two half papers: History of Economic Thought and Theories of Economic Development.
Then there were three relatively young teachers - all brilliant scholars who compleed their Masters about two to four years ahead of us. They were highly quantitative and appeared to be deepening their knowledge through teaching and preparaing for their forthcoming Ph.d poragms abroad. They were the most useful lot in terms effectiveness in helping students to acquire new knowledge. These three young teachers covered roughly 4 half papers (International Economics, Public Finance, Economic Growth Models and Planning Techniques) among themselves.
The youngest teacher, we were his first set of students at theMasters level, was the most enthusiastic, caring and hardworking teacher dedicated to ensuring that the students learn whatever he teaches. He took series of additional classes on Mathematics from Linear Algebra to Calculus, Calculus of Variations and Fixed Point theorems to prepare all the students who had no background in mathematics to follow his main classes on growth models, optimal savings, turnpike theorems, input-output systems, planning models and techniques, etc. He tried to change the way the students are taught in the Masters program and spent time to organise seminars every week where one of the students had to present a paper on some economics topic. I have not seen such an enthusiastic and competent teacher in my life, though I have been fortunate to get exposed to brilliant and competent teaching of many other competent teachers. However, he was mostly trying to spoon-feed the students and thereby discouraging brilliant students to excel in knowledge beyond what every student could acquire.
The six half-papers of specialisation were covered by eight or nine teachers, mostly from other campuses/ institutions like the Department of Statistics, Indian Statistical Institute, and the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (which at that time was located in the premises adjacent to the Kantakal premises of our Department of Economics of the University of Calcutta. Two teachers dealt with Mathematical Statistics from correlation, regression to probabilty distributions, analysis of variance to probality, testing of hypothesis and Inference). One teacher dealt with the Mathematics of Capital Theory including reswithing and Models of Sraffa. Another taught us Econometrics. Some teachers took a few special classes on econometrics and statistics. Still another covered Planning models, Linerar Programming and Non-linear Programming. Another teacher covered Leontief systems.
The teachers were unaffected by the emerging environment of communist revolution in West Bengal. Some agitations did take place in our campus but our Economics department premises on the northers outskirts of the city of Calcutta and away from the main University building in the heart of the city, remained congenial to learning. But everybody knew that all these bougeoise Economics learning would be of zero value during the Revolution and after the Communists capture the power. We were only concerned about the future use of all these that we were being taught. It was becoming increasingly clear that West Bengal or Calcutta may not provide a cogenial atmosphere for an academic career in the midst of fighting amongst the communist revolutionaries. The killings and murders were soon to start. In any case, if the Communist Revolution succeeds, all this knowledge of economics would be of any use to the country. My communist friends were convinced that economics that we had been learning is all unscientific, rotten garbage worthy of being drained out through the sewerage channels and had no relevance to a communist economy. Revolutionaries seemed to have the best idea of what scientific knowledge could be!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
It wasn't Cricket: My Unfolding Voyage 44
India and Pakistan have been great rivals in the game of cricket. But their cricketing spirit has been mostly limited to cricket only. Outside of cricket, the truncated and age-old Indian Nation and the spun-off, relatively young Pakiststani Nation seemed to be always engaged in non-competitive winning effort: they did not seem to enjoy open and fair competition -wins only counted - not the play. It did not matter if you had to depend on third country alms so long as you won and not lose.
In 1965, young Pakistan had assessed India as weaker, especially after India poor showing in the War of 1962 with China and had planned a grand plan of simultaneous border infiltration, inciting insurgency in Indian Kashmir and miltary aggression with India. Pakistan had been largely ruled by the military dictatorships that Pakistanis and the Americans continued to believe as democracy: the miltary junta had survived in Pakistan through a strategy of keeping the country in continuous trouble and revolving romancing bouts with the US and China. A great strategy for a small and young country In 1965, its military dictator thought of getting Kashmir into Pakistan's fold and teach India a military lesson through a military victory. International pressures abruptly ended the war when India was about the take over Pakistan's second largest city, Lahore and Pakistan had been counting days to surrender. Vanity prevented Pakistan to accept the international assessment that India was the victor in 1965. Yet, Pakistan's military dictatorship would never learn to play cricket as the Pakistani cricketers continued to do: cricket always meant competive performance - enjoying competition and rivalry: not winning by any means. In 1971, Pakistan got truncated by Indian Army, though as students we had lost a few days in anxiety in September 1965.
By January 1966, the final third year classes in the college were getting over. We were still a few days of winter left in Calcutta before Spring would set in. About 70 days were available before the university examinations would start. I had already prepared for the Economics Honors' four papers: only some polishing and final touches with the books and notes were needed. But I had to devote some time now to my mathematics (minor) paper with statics, dynamics and astrology. Dynamics with fine with applications of Calculus. Statics was drab for me except the concept of equilibrium and the ideas of torque, moment, force and etc had intuitive appeal. I was not going to be a mechanical or structural engineer and hence had only obtain some marks to pass the examination. Acceleration and relative motion were interesting for the economics student and hence a part of elementary dynamics was easy to handle. But astrology which would account for two-fifths of the third and final paper of Mathematics minor was an issue. Of the 40 marks, a single question involving dealing with a sphere diagram was the most confusing to me. I picked up a little of that but concentrated on chapters on twilight, Archimedes and the like. With ten days' of effort, I felt comfortable with the preparation. So, I thought of devoting some time for pleasure: practicing and playing in tournaments that would create some thrill and excitement. In any case, playing cricket is going to end soon as I get into Master program and then begin by career. So, preparing for the final BA examinations (Part II) combined nicely with enjoying cricket.
Unfortunately, the my cricket extended to late spring. And, I contracted chickenpox and had to be quarantined for three weeks. (Chickenpox or varicella, is a highly contagious and self-limited infection that most commonly affects children but also affects teenagers and even the aged, peak incident is generally during March to May in India. Lifelong immunity for chickenpox generally follows the disease -- over 90% of non immune individuals will develop chickenpox following exposure. It is communicable by both direct skin-to-skin contact and via respiratory droplets (coughing, sneezing) from the infected individual. While the average incubation period from viral exposure to onset of symptoms is 12-14 days and generally treated at home without medicine but full rest and controlled diet). Lost three weeks and was sad. But my preparation earlier had been sufficient enough to face the examinations within two weeks of the end of the quarantined period.
So, the Economics honors papers examinations went off without any problem or difficulty. The questions were rather easy and I had thought everyone would do well. I thought that I had done as good as I had done on an average in the Part I Economics Honors four papers. The fourth paper in Part II required us to write an essay on any of the four or five topics in the question paper. I chose Trade Cycle and wrote for nearly three hours a kind of a literature survey monograph on the subject: in the standard essay style, I had covered all aspects of trade cycle from the nature and incidence of such cycles and the earliest theories explaining the cycles including such crude ideas as Sun-spot theory, the periodicity, causes and socio-economic effects of cycles, the mathematical models like those of the Multiplier-accelerator model of Samuelson including the the range of values of parameters that could generate convergent and divergent cycles using difference equations and differential equations, the macro-economic policy to deal with trade cycles in a Keynesian economic framework, the counter-cyclical, stabilizing fiscal policies explained through a mathematical model, the counter-cyclical monetary policies and its limitations, and of course a short para of concluding remarks. I had thought it was a great display of whatever I had learned about trade cycles with mixture of both mathematical treatment and the standard economic logic. I had it was remarkable to cover all these aspects in less than three hours over so many pages. I had thanked the great speed of my handwriting keeping pace with my flowing mind.
There was a short relief for 10 days before the minor mathematics paper test was due. It also went off well. I tried to answer as many questions as possible, even if had not been able to work through each answer fully. The same old technique I had applied in Part I mathematics paper. This time also the technique paid rich dividend: I secured 67 out of 100 maximum marks despite the small allocation of time to study and practice sums in astrology, statics and dynamics.
With the examinations over, there was time to enjoy two more months of fun and frolic.
I had to walk around the busy roads for about two long hours before I could absorb the most unbelievable event in my unfolding voyage. I had gone to the college to look at the results. I stood second in the aggregate in Economics honors: the difference between us was about 20 marks, implying that he stayed where he was after Part I and I had to slip by nearly 40 marks. That was absolutely absurd. For a while, I though it was because of playing cricket that caused me to go out of commission for three weeks before the examinations. But, all sorts of analysis established clearly to me that it wasn't cricket. It wasn't cricket for many other classmates as well. Many of these bright students were disappointed and shifted to other universities to pursue their Masters. Some of my Economics honors classmates failed to clear their Mathematics minor - a few sought review and scraped through later.
I decided to stay on with the University of Calcutta. For me, playing cricket was more important than winning games. Yes, academics had lost its clean image in my vision. But I did not mind enjoying the game of learning economics from lectures of outstanding scholars while increasing the distance with them in terms intellectual interaction. I had known by then that I were in an unassailable position: it would be virtually impossible to get me out at low score and not to appreciate my accuracy in length amidst variation of my pace, flight and turns. I was firmly established on my path to acquire my Masters degree.
In 1965, young Pakistan had assessed India as weaker, especially after India poor showing in the War of 1962 with China and had planned a grand plan of simultaneous border infiltration, inciting insurgency in Indian Kashmir and miltary aggression with India. Pakistan had been largely ruled by the military dictatorships that Pakistanis and the Americans continued to believe as democracy: the miltary junta had survived in Pakistan through a strategy of keeping the country in continuous trouble and revolving romancing bouts with the US and China. A great strategy for a small and young country In 1965, its military dictator thought of getting Kashmir into Pakistan's fold and teach India a military lesson through a military victory. International pressures abruptly ended the war when India was about the take over Pakistan's second largest city, Lahore and Pakistan had been counting days to surrender. Vanity prevented Pakistan to accept the international assessment that India was the victor in 1965. Yet, Pakistan's military dictatorship would never learn to play cricket as the Pakistani cricketers continued to do: cricket always meant competive performance - enjoying competition and rivalry: not winning by any means. In 1971, Pakistan got truncated by Indian Army, though as students we had lost a few days in anxiety in September 1965.
By January 1966, the final third year classes in the college were getting over. We were still a few days of winter left in Calcutta before Spring would set in. About 70 days were available before the university examinations would start. I had already prepared for the Economics Honors' four papers: only some polishing and final touches with the books and notes were needed. But I had to devote some time now to my mathematics (minor) paper with statics, dynamics and astrology. Dynamics with fine with applications of Calculus. Statics was drab for me except the concept of equilibrium and the ideas of torque, moment, force and etc had intuitive appeal. I was not going to be a mechanical or structural engineer and hence had only obtain some marks to pass the examination. Acceleration and relative motion were interesting for the economics student and hence a part of elementary dynamics was easy to handle. But astrology which would account for two-fifths of the third and final paper of Mathematics minor was an issue. Of the 40 marks, a single question involving dealing with a sphere diagram was the most confusing to me. I picked up a little of that but concentrated on chapters on twilight, Archimedes and the like. With ten days' of effort, I felt comfortable with the preparation. So, I thought of devoting some time for pleasure: practicing and playing in tournaments that would create some thrill and excitement. In any case, playing cricket is going to end soon as I get into Master program and then begin by career. So, preparing for the final BA examinations (Part II) combined nicely with enjoying cricket.
Unfortunately, the my cricket extended to late spring. And, I contracted chickenpox and had to be quarantined for three weeks. (Chickenpox or varicella, is a highly contagious and self-limited infection that most commonly affects children but also affects teenagers and even the aged, peak incident is generally during March to May in India. Lifelong immunity for chickenpox generally follows the disease -- over 90% of non immune individuals will develop chickenpox following exposure. It is communicable by both direct skin-to-skin contact and via respiratory droplets (coughing, sneezing) from the infected individual. While the average incubation period from viral exposure to onset of symptoms is 12-14 days and generally treated at home without medicine but full rest and controlled diet). Lost three weeks and was sad. But my preparation earlier had been sufficient enough to face the examinations within two weeks of the end of the quarantined period.
So, the Economics honors papers examinations went off without any problem or difficulty. The questions were rather easy and I had thought everyone would do well. I thought that I had done as good as I had done on an average in the Part I Economics Honors four papers. The fourth paper in Part II required us to write an essay on any of the four or five topics in the question paper. I chose Trade Cycle and wrote for nearly three hours a kind of a literature survey monograph on the subject: in the standard essay style, I had covered all aspects of trade cycle from the nature and incidence of such cycles and the earliest theories explaining the cycles including such crude ideas as Sun-spot theory, the periodicity, causes and socio-economic effects of cycles, the mathematical models like those of the Multiplier-accelerator model of Samuelson including the the range of values of parameters that could generate convergent and divergent cycles using difference equations and differential equations, the macro-economic policy to deal with trade cycles in a Keynesian economic framework, the counter-cyclical, stabilizing fiscal policies explained through a mathematical model, the counter-cyclical monetary policies and its limitations, and of course a short para of concluding remarks. I had thought it was a great display of whatever I had learned about trade cycles with mixture of both mathematical treatment and the standard economic logic. I had it was remarkable to cover all these aspects in less than three hours over so many pages. I had thanked the great speed of my handwriting keeping pace with my flowing mind.
There was a short relief for 10 days before the minor mathematics paper test was due. It also went off well. I tried to answer as many questions as possible, even if had not been able to work through each answer fully. The same old technique I had applied in Part I mathematics paper. This time also the technique paid rich dividend: I secured 67 out of 100 maximum marks despite the small allocation of time to study and practice sums in astrology, statics and dynamics.
With the examinations over, there was time to enjoy two more months of fun and frolic.
I had to walk around the busy roads for about two long hours before I could absorb the most unbelievable event in my unfolding voyage. I had gone to the college to look at the results. I stood second in the aggregate in Economics honors: the difference between us was about 20 marks, implying that he stayed where he was after Part I and I had to slip by nearly 40 marks. That was absolutely absurd. For a while, I though it was because of playing cricket that caused me to go out of commission for three weeks before the examinations. But, all sorts of analysis established clearly to me that it wasn't cricket. It wasn't cricket for many other classmates as well. Many of these bright students were disappointed and shifted to other universities to pursue their Masters. Some of my Economics honors classmates failed to clear their Mathematics minor - a few sought review and scraped through later.
I decided to stay on with the University of Calcutta. For me, playing cricket was more important than winning games. Yes, academics had lost its clean image in my vision. But I did not mind enjoying the game of learning economics from lectures of outstanding scholars while increasing the distance with them in terms intellectual interaction. I had known by then that I were in an unassailable position: it would be virtually impossible to get me out at low score and not to appreciate my accuracy in length amidst variation of my pace, flight and turns. I was firmly established on my path to acquire my Masters degree.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Sounds of Communication: My Unfolding Voyage 43
Most Bengalis would write the spelling of the Bengali word for number One (1) as "a-k" pronounced as 'ache' but will actually say "ack" as one says 'pack' with silent 'p' or 'act' with silent 't'. Human beings seem to enjoy inconsistency and confusing variety while communicating. In the childhood days, when we were learning English at the primary school, some elder would jokingly ask if 'b-u-t' is 'baat' and 'c-u-t' is 'kaat', then what is 'p-u-t'? They expected us to reply close to 'paat' and not 'poot'. The Americans seem to pronounce the letter 'Z' close to 'Jee' or 'Gee' rather than close to 'jed' or 'razed' with 'ra' silent as they do in England or Pakistan or India or Poland. My Bengali daughter-in-law studied in London for sometime: she teaches my grand daughter 'Z' for 'Zeebra' and not something close to 'Jjebra'. My Mangalorean daughter-in-law pronounces the Bengali / Hindi word 'Bhooth" meaning ghost as 'Booth' as she is not aware that the Kannadi (her mother tongue) Alphabet does have the letter "Bha" (close to cursive 'w' with a waving hand on the right top and a dot below 'w' whereas 'ba' is written as plain cursive 'w'. My wife laughs at my Hindi pronunciation. I seldom pronounce Newark the way my son pronounces : I say something close to ' New Arc" while he sounds more close to 'Nooark'. Most people enjoy Buffet dinner along with little Miss Muffet sitting on a Tuffet but I do not enjoy whether the 't' in Buffet remains silent or not: some enjoy 'Booffe', some 'Baaffe' and others 'Baa-fet'. We soon learn to adjust to and enjoy sounding differences among us. It had taken me almost an year before I could understand what the Irish Father Principal in long, white robes used to express: what I used to hear the St. Mary's Principal say was a low decibel humming / buzzing sound that turned into English sentences with the passage of time.
It is occasionally that we land into problems or embarrassment, especially when you have little time to tune in the reception device to the transmitting device. It was early Autumn in 1965. I alighted from the bus as it slowed down at the crossing the Harrison Road (Mahatma Gandhi Road, after Rabindranath Tagore penned down his dream in which the Harrison Road moved like a snake, and after Tagore's death) and the College Street (the new name, I do not recollect). I crossed over to the western footpath of the College Street, entered the College and walked westwards along the pathway beside the big playground. I found a foreign gentleman slowly walking along the way. I was walking fast to reach the classroom in time. The gentleman asked about the location of the Department. I told him that I was a student of the same department and was going there and I would escort him to the particular professor of the department he had said he had to meet. As we were walking together we were having a conversation. I had difficulty in tuning to his accent, probably American. I had to repeatedly say 'beg your pardon' (something like 'come again, sorry' used nowadays) so that I could hear what he was saying at least twice. But I could not make out one particular question he had asked even after he repeated the same thrice. I did not know what to do but just said 'yes' on the assumption that the answer to his question could be either 'yes' or 'no'. He did not say anything thereafter except thanking me after I escorted him to his destination. Later that afternoon he would give a lecture to the faculty and students of the Economics Department of the Presidency College. I do not remember what he spoke about both because I might not have been sufficiently educated on the subject and my difficulty in tuning into his accent.
God is said to exist in everything despite differences in forms and shapes. God therefore must exist in sound despite the differences in the meaning of the sounds emanating from the transmitter and the capability of the receiver. The great diversity probably makes it virtally impoosible to get to God. My new colleague at my new employers' office in 1982 had once remarked and tried to convince me that I had lot of knowledge about 'cool'. It took me quite a while before I could understand that he had been referring to my previous employment with Coal India Ltd for five years. After the Tamils hit upon the idea of dropping the British name of the capital city of their state from Madras to Chennai and the Maharashtrian'ss changed over from the British Bombay to Indian Mumbai, the communist government repeated the revolution by dropping the British name Calcutta to rename West Bengal's capital city as 'Kolkata'. The Bengalis have a proud educated elite who dabble in languages and literature. Unlike Mumbai and Chennai - two names that were virtually unknown, Calcutta was popularly known as Kolkata since long among the Bengalis. The Bengalis would write Kolkata in Bengali, everyone would write Calcutta in English and the Hindi-speaking would refer to the same city as 'Call-kattaa'. So soon after Calcutta's English name was dropped and substituted by the Bengali name written in English letters as Kolkata, the airlines' flight-crew started calling the city as 'Call-Cata'. Once I had to suggest to one of the air-hostesses that in Bengali, Kolkata was pronounced as 'Coal -kaataa'. But they had their own non-Bengali accent habits not permitting them to pronounce Kolkata in the same manner as the Bengalis did. So the City has several names now: pronounced 'Callikaataa', 'CoalKaataa', Kolkata, Calcutta and 'Call-kattaa'. What's in a name: the City of remains where it was as Tagore after awaking from the dream had found: "Calikaataa Aaachhe Callikatataa -tei'. Nouns with differing pronunciations may not create much of a noise problem in the sound waves of communication.
But when verbs, adverbs and adjectives are also pronounced differently, the noise increases. The receiver may have problems in tuning in. Add to that the problem that the distance from the transmitter to the receptor may creates in the communication. In the undergraduate course, the number of students in minor subjects used to be about 100 against the strength of 10 -20 students in the class for honors (subject in which one would major). Mathematics was one my minor subjects: I needed to attend the classes to get the adequate percentage of attendance to be eligible to appear in the university examination and also to pick up knowledge in the classroom itself as I would not have time at home to allocate for studying minor subjects. For the second objective to be effectively served the sounds of communication had to be without disturbance or noise. But there were several reasons why this was not possible in the classes on Astronomy. There were about 100 students in a sprawling class room of the older variety; huge height and large windows that were kept open to allow air in along with all the sounds outside the classroom. Distance from the teacher was long. Second, the terms of astronomy are not very common except words like planets, stars, twlight, eclipse etc. The analytical tools are different from other branches of mathematics, so are the units of measurements. The major problem was one of dealing with location and movement and motion of planets in the n- dimensional space to be captured in the two dimensional sheet of paper in the books and note pads. Third, we had a brilliant young teacher to help us: he was very serious in teaching us. But the sound of communication was ineffective. I could not keep my receptive ears tuned to what he was trying to transmit verbally while drawing circular diagrams on the black board. What I would hear was a kind of low decibel humming sound with occasional emphasis on certain words pronounced to produce sound waves that my ears failed to attune to. The classroom's large open windows let more of external sounds in than allowing light to come: his skin color and the white chalk strokes were gobbled up by the black hole of the board.
Yet I had to attend his class to get my attendance percentage to the desired level. But one day, all of a sudden the entire classroom became silent midway through the class. I looked up to him and found that he along with all other students were looking at me. I stood up as he asked as to what I had been doing. He thought I was asleep in the class with my heads down. I told him the Truth: "Scribbling on my notebook, Sir". I did not know what he understood, nor did I understand what he said in response to my reply. He soon resumed his discourse. I had to learn astrology from the textbook on my own just because of the problematic sounds of communication.
Earlier, I had faced a somewhat similar situation. All of a sudden there was a pin-drop silence in the class and I had to stop gossiping in the low voice with my friend. Both of us looked up to the teacher. The teacher and the entire class of 100 odd students were looking at me. The teacher pointed at me and asked."What are you doing". I replied that I was sorry. He then briefly expressed his anger: he said that the classroom was not for gossiping and that if I had not found attending his class interesting enough, I should have left the class room. It was really very embarrassing. I immediately walked out of the classroom and did not cared to know what happened afterwards. That was the last time I had met my friend and other 100 studentas in the class.. The professor was teaching political science. My friend was my classmate in the school and was studying undergrad course in Manindra Chandra College, where my eldest sister had studied two decades before my friend took admission to that college. I had gone to meet my friend at his college. He said he had a class to attend and I agreed to accompany him in the class. The teacher started his lecture and the students in the back benches where we were sitting engaged themselves into activities other than listening to what the teacher was saying. My school friend and I had entered into a low-volume but intensive chatting session that had to end abruptly because the teacher had sharp eyes to spot us doing so. Thanks to the conducive environment that this Professor of Political Science had created through his lecture.
During my unfolding voyage in the future, I had to learn communication sound waves the hard way.
It is occasionally that we land into problems or embarrassment, especially when you have little time to tune in the reception device to the transmitting device. It was early Autumn in 1965. I alighted from the bus as it slowed down at the crossing the Harrison Road (Mahatma Gandhi Road, after Rabindranath Tagore penned down his dream in which the Harrison Road moved like a snake, and after Tagore's death) and the College Street (the new name, I do not recollect). I crossed over to the western footpath of the College Street, entered the College and walked westwards along the pathway beside the big playground. I found a foreign gentleman slowly walking along the way. I was walking fast to reach the classroom in time. The gentleman asked about the location of the Department. I told him that I was a student of the same department and was going there and I would escort him to the particular professor of the department he had said he had to meet. As we were walking together we were having a conversation. I had difficulty in tuning to his accent, probably American. I had to repeatedly say 'beg your pardon' (something like 'come again, sorry' used nowadays) so that I could hear what he was saying at least twice. But I could not make out one particular question he had asked even after he repeated the same thrice. I did not know what to do but just said 'yes' on the assumption that the answer to his question could be either 'yes' or 'no'. He did not say anything thereafter except thanking me after I escorted him to his destination. Later that afternoon he would give a lecture to the faculty and students of the Economics Department of the Presidency College. I do not remember what he spoke about both because I might not have been sufficiently educated on the subject and my difficulty in tuning into his accent.
God is said to exist in everything despite differences in forms and shapes. God therefore must exist in sound despite the differences in the meaning of the sounds emanating from the transmitter and the capability of the receiver. The great diversity probably makes it virtally impoosible to get to God. My new colleague at my new employers' office in 1982 had once remarked and tried to convince me that I had lot of knowledge about 'cool'. It took me quite a while before I could understand that he had been referring to my previous employment with Coal India Ltd for five years. After the Tamils hit upon the idea of dropping the British name of the capital city of their state from Madras to Chennai and the Maharashtrian'ss changed over from the British Bombay to Indian Mumbai, the communist government repeated the revolution by dropping the British name Calcutta to rename West Bengal's capital city as 'Kolkata'. The Bengalis have a proud educated elite who dabble in languages and literature. Unlike Mumbai and Chennai - two names that were virtually unknown, Calcutta was popularly known as Kolkata since long among the Bengalis. The Bengalis would write Kolkata in Bengali, everyone would write Calcutta in English and the Hindi-speaking would refer to the same city as 'Call-kattaa'. So soon after Calcutta's English name was dropped and substituted by the Bengali name written in English letters as Kolkata, the airlines' flight-crew started calling the city as 'Call-Cata'. Once I had to suggest to one of the air-hostesses that in Bengali, Kolkata was pronounced as 'Coal -kaataa'. But they had their own non-Bengali accent habits not permitting them to pronounce Kolkata in the same manner as the Bengalis did. So the City has several names now: pronounced 'Callikaataa', 'CoalKaataa', Kolkata, Calcutta and 'Call-kattaa'. What's in a name: the City of remains where it was as Tagore after awaking from the dream had found: "Calikaataa Aaachhe Callikatataa -tei'. Nouns with differing pronunciations may not create much of a noise problem in the sound waves of communication.
But when verbs, adverbs and adjectives are also pronounced differently, the noise increases. The receiver may have problems in tuning in. Add to that the problem that the distance from the transmitter to the receptor may creates in the communication. In the undergraduate course, the number of students in minor subjects used to be about 100 against the strength of 10 -20 students in the class for honors (subject in which one would major). Mathematics was one my minor subjects: I needed to attend the classes to get the adequate percentage of attendance to be eligible to appear in the university examination and also to pick up knowledge in the classroom itself as I would not have time at home to allocate for studying minor subjects. For the second objective to be effectively served the sounds of communication had to be without disturbance or noise. But there were several reasons why this was not possible in the classes on Astronomy. There were about 100 students in a sprawling class room of the older variety; huge height and large windows that were kept open to allow air in along with all the sounds outside the classroom. Distance from the teacher was long. Second, the terms of astronomy are not very common except words like planets, stars, twlight, eclipse etc. The analytical tools are different from other branches of mathematics, so are the units of measurements. The major problem was one of dealing with location and movement and motion of planets in the n- dimensional space to be captured in the two dimensional sheet of paper in the books and note pads. Third, we had a brilliant young teacher to help us: he was very serious in teaching us. But the sound of communication was ineffective. I could not keep my receptive ears tuned to what he was trying to transmit verbally while drawing circular diagrams on the black board. What I would hear was a kind of low decibel humming sound with occasional emphasis on certain words pronounced to produce sound waves that my ears failed to attune to. The classroom's large open windows let more of external sounds in than allowing light to come: his skin color and the white chalk strokes were gobbled up by the black hole of the board.
Yet I had to attend his class to get my attendance percentage to the desired level. But one day, all of a sudden the entire classroom became silent midway through the class. I looked up to him and found that he along with all other students were looking at me. I stood up as he asked as to what I had been doing. He thought I was asleep in the class with my heads down. I told him the Truth: "Scribbling on my notebook, Sir". I did not know what he understood, nor did I understand what he said in response to my reply. He soon resumed his discourse. I had to learn astrology from the textbook on my own just because of the problematic sounds of communication.
Earlier, I had faced a somewhat similar situation. All of a sudden there was a pin-drop silence in the class and I had to stop gossiping in the low voice with my friend. Both of us looked up to the teacher. The teacher and the entire class of 100 odd students were looking at me. The teacher pointed at me and asked."What are you doing". I replied that I was sorry. He then briefly expressed his anger: he said that the classroom was not for gossiping and that if I had not found attending his class interesting enough, I should have left the class room. It was really very embarrassing. I immediately walked out of the classroom and did not cared to know what happened afterwards. That was the last time I had met my friend and other 100 studentas in the class.. The professor was teaching political science. My friend was my classmate in the school and was studying undergrad course in Manindra Chandra College, where my eldest sister had studied two decades before my friend took admission to that college. I had gone to meet my friend at his college. He said he had a class to attend and I agreed to accompany him in the class. The teacher started his lecture and the students in the back benches where we were sitting engaged themselves into activities other than listening to what the teacher was saying. My school friend and I had entered into a low-volume but intensive chatting session that had to end abruptly because the teacher had sharp eyes to spot us doing so. Thanks to the conducive environment that this Professor of Political Science had created through his lecture.
During my unfolding voyage in the future, I had to learn communication sound waves the hard way.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Taking Others by Surprise: My Unfolding Voyage 42.
Matahari predicted correctly (or, Khokan was influence by rumours). I got the highest marks in Economics Honours Part I in the University - about 5% points ahead of my closest competitor. - a kind of unassialable position. We had undermined the strength of non-market competition: one could be pull down, if another could not be sufficiently pulled up. But that was later. I was a bit surprised with my results: I had secured more than 50% of the marks in the Languages and the strategy of not wasting time on English and Bengali paid off handsomely. But a greater surprise was the Mathematics score. The question paper was quite tough - this happens once in a while in the University Examinations. I had prepared only to the extent of getting 80 marks out of 200. I even did not know which paper of Mathematics had Calculus and wich had Algebra until the examination began. There was considerable murmur during the three hour period for each of two mathematics papers we were writing on the same day. I could turn my head around and see the examinnees looking deeply depressed. Many of them were frustrated in not being able to answer most of the questions and deposited their answer scripts in a hurry accepting their fate that they would fail in Mathematics.. But working on the clue that I had picked up during the final year at the Higher Secondary School, I adopted the strategy of answerin each and every question in the question paper although the requirenent was to answer only a sub-set appropriately chosen out of the possible alternative questions. I had to collect addition answer script paper to complete my endeavour. Only a few questions I could do correctly. I calculated fast and found that would bring me about 25 marks in each paper, while I needed at least 34 for in each to pass. My unswer script was full of solutions to each question in the question paper: mostly done a few steps and then given up stage: some may have been half done. When I had come out of the examination hall, all my friends inquired as to how I could do such a remarkable job of answering the mathmatics questions using sheets after sheets. They had been surprised that I had picked up Mathematics to such an extent that I could answer as many questions correctly. Little did they know as to what I was doing: I had been just making an attempt to do as many sums as possible even if could barely come to the final, correct solution to most of the questions. I told them theat they need not worry: I would definitely get 60 marks out of 200 and hoped that some how another 8 marks would come. After the examination, I tried a number of times to check how much maximum I could get based on whatever questions I had done correctly and fully.: the best estimate was 67.5 against my requirement of 68. I kept my fingers crossed. While many of my classmates had failed, I got 96 out of 200.: I presume that the evaluators fund it hard not to give some marks for the many half-done sums because at the University level often the mathematics teachers did not go merely by whether the last line in the answer tallied with the correct answer but on the correctness of each steps. Some steps to earn some scores!. The third paper in Mathematics due in Part II would bring me even greater surprise.
Surprised as they were with my Economics Honors unassailable marks, one of my teachers at the college mentioned that I was being invited to join the more prestigous Presidency College those days. I was reluctant at the beginning. But I was told to meet the Head of the Economics Department of Presidency College. I met him and suggested that I join his college and admitted that it had been a mistake that I had not joined the college two years back. Meanwhile, Dhiresh Babu and Prabudha Babu had gone on sabatical. I talked to Tihunagshu Babu and he had told me that I must make my own choice. My classmates informed me that with two outstanding teachers now not available, it might be worthwhile shifting to the Presidency College which had at that time assembled some of the brilliant scholars and teachers. I was in a dilemma and went to meet the Principal thinking that he would suggest me not to shift college. The Pricipal surprised me: he said that I must shift to Presidency College without delay. When my existing college did not show the warmth I though I would get, I thought myself: "Fine, Basu, let's experiement with another set of smart and brilliant people."
The Presidency College had in that year a number of brilliant economics mindd: Tapas Mazumder, Amiya Bagchi, Dipak Benerjee, Mihir Rakshit, Nabendu Sen, Ajit Sengupta and Sanjit Basu. The students were on an average appeared smarter. Why not enjoy the company of the brilliant people for a while? After all, based on my answer script and results, the teachers here had considered me to be recognised as potentially brilliant and sincerely wanted them to benefit from their teaching. They were wrong in their assessment again. They had gone by micro-economics and statistics papers' answer scripts that reflected more of Prof Prabudhha Nath Roy's masterly teaching that I could absorb and my presentation skills in knitting different pieces of learning of mathematics and economic logic together rather than my brillance or scholastic quest for economic ideas in their various intelectual ramifications. I was not brilliant and studious enogh to enjoy the lectures of most brillian scholars at the Prsidency College: I chose to pick up interesting insightful points that they would make on the Indian economy or macro-economic systems and controveries like those of over Say's Law. Don Patinkin's foumulation of Liquidity Preferece and the like. teachings. Dr. Tapas Mazumder taught very little during lecture of 40 minutes, but what he taught was so clear, concise and logically presented. I liked his lectures very much, especially those on Hecksher-Ohlin theorem. Prof Dipak Banerjee with his pleasant style attracted attention and brilliantly played on the Keynesian multiplier models. Prof Sengupta's coverage of Kindelberger's International economics, especially the mathematics of the effect of depreciation of currency on international trade was studentl-friendly. Other teachers appeared to be deeply engossed and immersed in the topis they dealt with in their and not that particular about their communication being received by the students in the manner they or the students would have wished. One of the girl students was inquisitive about the notes I had been taking during the lectures. She mustered courage enough to get herself and her friend introduced and borrowed my classnote book for a day. She returned the next day without comments seemingly happy that I was no better than her in taking notes in the classes of most of the teachers.
I knew what Ihad to do.: treat the class lectures as supplementary knowledge and concentrate on teaching myself with a kind of DNA scanning of the books. For the paper on macro-economic my primary teachers were Ackley, McDougal and Dernberg, Patinkin (selected Chapters), RGD Allen (Mathematical Economics) and some other referred books. In the second paper on Public Finance and Internationa Economic, the primary and very helpful teachers were Musgrave and Kindleberger. These authors had kind of mesmirsed me into learning. The third paper was on Indian Economic Problems: there were the usual text books authored by Alok Ghosh, Dutt & Sunderam, Bhabotosh Datta, besides referred articles and class notes of Prof. Bagchi and Prof Nabendu Sen. I prepared for any kind of questions that could come up in the examinations. The fourth paper was writing an essay on just a single topic in economics. Writing out an essay over a three yaer period would be simple if the idea was to test the depth and width of my knowledge in economics studied upto to undergraduate level. Only risk was that the evaluator of the essay may not like Mathematical economics and may look for a summary opinion in good English language rather that extent of knowledge and application of analytical tools.. But that risk I had no way of mitigating as I had no urge to limit expressing what I had picked up in the classrooms and the text books. But how would it matter: I am already getting slowly disenchanted with acdemics as a career.
Surprised as they were with my Economics Honors unassailable marks, one of my teachers at the college mentioned that I was being invited to join the more prestigous Presidency College those days. I was reluctant at the beginning. But I was told to meet the Head of the Economics Department of Presidency College. I met him and suggested that I join his college and admitted that it had been a mistake that I had not joined the college two years back. Meanwhile, Dhiresh Babu and Prabudha Babu had gone on sabatical. I talked to Tihunagshu Babu and he had told me that I must make my own choice. My classmates informed me that with two outstanding teachers now not available, it might be worthwhile shifting to the Presidency College which had at that time assembled some of the brilliant scholars and teachers. I was in a dilemma and went to meet the Principal thinking that he would suggest me not to shift college. The Pricipal surprised me: he said that I must shift to Presidency College without delay. When my existing college did not show the warmth I though I would get, I thought myself: "Fine, Basu, let's experiement with another set of smart and brilliant people."
The Presidency College had in that year a number of brilliant economics mindd: Tapas Mazumder, Amiya Bagchi, Dipak Benerjee, Mihir Rakshit, Nabendu Sen, Ajit Sengupta and Sanjit Basu. The students were on an average appeared smarter. Why not enjoy the company of the brilliant people for a while? After all, based on my answer script and results, the teachers here had considered me to be recognised as potentially brilliant and sincerely wanted them to benefit from their teaching. They were wrong in their assessment again. They had gone by micro-economics and statistics papers' answer scripts that reflected more of Prof Prabudhha Nath Roy's masterly teaching that I could absorb and my presentation skills in knitting different pieces of learning of mathematics and economic logic together rather than my brillance or scholastic quest for economic ideas in their various intelectual ramifications. I was not brilliant and studious enogh to enjoy the lectures of most brillian scholars at the Prsidency College: I chose to pick up interesting insightful points that they would make on the Indian economy or macro-economic systems and controveries like those of over Say's Law. Don Patinkin's foumulation of Liquidity Preferece and the like. teachings. Dr. Tapas Mazumder taught very little during lecture of 40 minutes, but what he taught was so clear, concise and logically presented. I liked his lectures very much, especially those on Hecksher-Ohlin theorem. Prof Dipak Banerjee with his pleasant style attracted attention and brilliantly played on the Keynesian multiplier models. Prof Sengupta's coverage of Kindelberger's International economics, especially the mathematics of the effect of depreciation of currency on international trade was studentl-friendly. Other teachers appeared to be deeply engossed and immersed in the topis they dealt with in their and not that particular about their communication being received by the students in the manner they or the students would have wished. One of the girl students was inquisitive about the notes I had been taking during the lectures. She mustered courage enough to get herself and her friend introduced and borrowed my classnote book for a day. She returned the next day without comments seemingly happy that I was no better than her in taking notes in the classes of most of the teachers.
I knew what Ihad to do.: treat the class lectures as supplementary knowledge and concentrate on teaching myself with a kind of DNA scanning of the books. For the paper on macro-economic my primary teachers were Ackley, McDougal and Dernberg, Patinkin (selected Chapters), RGD Allen (Mathematical Economics) and some other referred books. In the second paper on Public Finance and Internationa Economic, the primary and very helpful teachers were Musgrave and Kindleberger. These authors had kind of mesmirsed me into learning. The third paper was on Indian Economic Problems: there were the usual text books authored by Alok Ghosh, Dutt & Sunderam, Bhabotosh Datta, besides referred articles and class notes of Prof. Bagchi and Prof Nabendu Sen. I prepared for any kind of questions that could come up in the examinations. The fourth paper was writing an essay on just a single topic in economics. Writing out an essay over a three yaer period would be simple if the idea was to test the depth and width of my knowledge in economics studied upto to undergraduate level. Only risk was that the evaluator of the essay may not like Mathematical economics and may look for a summary opinion in good English language rather that extent of knowledge and application of analytical tools.. But that risk I had no way of mitigating as I had no urge to limit expressing what I had picked up in the classrooms and the text books. But how would it matter: I am already getting slowly disenchanted with acdemics as a career.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Spiritual Pastime: My Unfolding Voyage 41
The idea of spirits- both good and evil, made an early introduction.to me in the childhood days. Besides, there was the stories of Aladin and his lamp, the ghosht in the bottle and the like. In the secondary school, for four years, the classes started with a prayer to God and his son and the holy ghosh / sprit. But as we grew up, these faded away. It had become clear spritualism was for certain aged people trying to establish contact with God to ensure that thier spirit get properly taken care off after their physical death.
But enjoying the freedom of spirit was becoming a new pastime for us during the college days.
Since most weekdays we came back home from college too late to play soccer or hockey during summer and volleball or cricket during winter (we did not have flood lights in playgrounds those days, except for badminton games at certain places), an hours or so around sunset would go roaming and gossiping and sometimes sitting in the grass in the sprwaling soccer grond ad singing Rabindra Sageet. Two or three of us in the group could sing and others were happy listening. The songs were mostly love or God worship related. We probably understood very little of the real meaning of the lyrics of the devitioal or prayer songs. But the tune was attractive enough. We would sing loud enough and our spirits woulf fly in freedom danching in the soundwaves that we created. Bubul was one of the singers (he is no more). He used to sing a few songs like (Kante Aamaar Soor Ke deelo, deelo bhoolaaye', 'Hey, Nabeenaa '). Our favorite songs were 'Aalo Aammar Aalo Ogo', 'A e Aakashe Aamaar Mooktee'. Sometimes we used to sing in chorus. Occasionally, some one who could sing a Hindi film songs of Md.Raffi or Hemant Kumar would join us. The music would enthrall our spirits.
Such spiritual boost also occurred when we arranged picnics at farmhouses on the highway or group wholeday trips to temples. Our picnics were dry of course: nice late breakfast with eggs, samosas and loaves of bread followed by good tasty lunch with fish, vegetable curry and mutton curry with sweets and otrher dishes. Of couse there was an evening snacks before we were on our way back home, but no liquid spirits yet.
Once we went to Dakshineswar in a group, submitted our offerings and prayers to Goddess Kali at Dwakhineswar temple, roamed around the trees under which Sri Ramakrishna would have spend days on meditation, hired a small boat to ferry us across the Ganges (Hooghly) River to Belur Math and Temple of the Sri Ramakrishna Mission set up by Swami Vivekananda. Spirit-enchanting trips soon would lead us to organize annual Kali Puja under the banner of our school-day club Kishore Sangha. As usual I would be the Genral Secretary doing nothing except conducting meetings, typin out the official letters and notices and signing them and the control the bank account. The Treasuer, the Puja Secretary and the Cultural Secretary would do all the legowrk along with their respective member. On the Kali Puja night we would all be awake through out as the priest would conduct the worship ritual proceedings and some of the mebers would offer their blood at the alter of the Goddess.
Spiritualism had to be backed by readings as well. I read through two volumes of Bharater Sadhaks (Great Saints of India) narrating the life of about two - three dozen of saintly sadhaks (who follow a particular Sadhana, or a way of life designed to realize the goal of one's ultimate ideal, whether it is merging with God or Brahman or realization of one's personal deity: as long as one has yet to reach the goal, they are a Sadhaka, while one who has reached the goal is called a Siddha Sadhaka). These saints were from various traditions or schools from Hindu Vashnavites (worshippers of Vishnu or his associated avatars, principally Rama and Krishna, as the original and supreme God, addressed Narayana, Krishna, Basudeba or more often "Vishnu": the worship of Vishnu echoes monotheism in its devotion, but, as still under the pantheistic umbrella of Hinduism, makes reference to other Hindu deities, such as that Shiva, as the greatest devotee of their god Vishnu. to Faqurs ( A Hindu or Muslim Sufi mendicant who does not preach any religion but is in love with God, especially one who performs feats of magic or endurance) and to Hindu Tantriks (followers of Tantra beliefs and practices based on the principle that the universe experience is nothing other than the concrete manifestation of Shakti, the divine energy of the Godhead that creates and maintains that universe and therefore seek to ritually appropriate and channel that energy, within the human microcosm, in creative and emancipatory ways so as to achieve liberation from ignorance and rebirth: this also influence Buddhist and Jains). All these saints appeared men of great powers acquired through devotion and yogic meditation. Their lives appeared mystical and novel but did not enthuse me to follow the methods they had practised to become such great men.
It was around this time we got exposed to more mystical experiments to deal with sprits. Khokan (Pinaki), then a first year Science undergraduate student and son of our tenant of a flat in our Gurudham residence ground floor, suggested that we try with Planchettee to interact with spirits. We came to know that it is not so easy to get spirits to come to visit us for a chat and sometimes some evil spirits could come unsolicited and create problems. There were lot of reasons to fear doing an exercisennnn with Planchettee (A small triangular board supported by two casters and a vertical pencil that, when lightly touched by the fingertips, is said to spell out subconscious or supernatural messages). We did not have such a board and so we had to use a variant. But after lot of discussions among us, Khokan, my younger brother Suku and I settled down on a summer afternoon in our second-floor prayer room, stting down on the three sides of our carrom board, with a carrom coin the middle and the Entire English Alphabet A to Z and numbers 0 to 9 written in ink on small square pieces of thick paper arranged nicely along the four bands of pairs of straight lines where the striker was usually placed for the fingers to thrust the striker to hit at the coins. An incense stick burnt to provide an aroma for the pleasure of the spirit. Three of us touched the edge of the coin at the center of the carrom board ai if our arms allowing the fingers to rest on the coin. silently kept on inviting the spirit that we had come to know would easily respond, the spirit of Matahari (or, Margaretha Geertruida "Grietje" Zelle, a Frisian (Dutch) exotic dancer and courtesan: during World War I, the Netherlands remained neutral. and as a Dutch subject, Matahari was able to travelled between France and the Netherlands via Spain and Britain. Once when interviewed by British intelligence officers, she admitted to working as an agent for French military intelligence, although the latter would not confirm her story. On 13 February, 1917 she was arrested in her room at the Hotel Plaza Athénée in Paris, accused of spying for Germany and consequently causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers, was found guilty on trial and executed by firing squad on 15 October, 1917, at the age of 41).
Within minutes she would arrive and after exchanging pleasantaries she would start answering questions. We would ask questions only about our future and she would give us her predictions by making the coin move towards different alphabets with our fingers still on the coin. We tried various combinations to test whether the the resultant force of three fingers moved the coin or the coin moved on its own. We could not establish that the movement of the coins was the result of one or more of our minds' desire to move the coin in front of specific alphabets in the sequence to form words of our choice. We even asked us to answer questions that we did not ask but was being asked by one of us who had left the room and went downstairs to write down his question while two others were engaged with the conversation of Matahari. Each time she had corrdtly told us the question that our third member away from the session wrote down in the first floor without our knowledge. And, she gave the answers. Whether the answers she gave proved correct or not would be known later. And I do not rember all the questions we had asked. All that I rembers is that the predictions of a very short-term nature (with a couple of days or so) turned out to be correct. Among the predictions she made for which we would have to wait for one to 18 months, two I could recall later: Khokan had asked both the questions. First was how would my Economics honors result be in Part I (results were due in less than fiur weeks' time) and the second was what would be my Economics honors result be in Part II. She gave her prediction for the first question promptly but when the second question was asked by Khokan she wavered and did not give us a firm answer. We had a few sessions with her, before our spirtual pastime of this nature ended.
But enjoying the freedom of spirit was becoming a new pastime for us during the college days.
Since most weekdays we came back home from college too late to play soccer or hockey during summer and volleball or cricket during winter (we did not have flood lights in playgrounds those days, except for badminton games at certain places), an hours or so around sunset would go roaming and gossiping and sometimes sitting in the grass in the sprwaling soccer grond ad singing Rabindra Sageet. Two or three of us in the group could sing and others were happy listening. The songs were mostly love or God worship related. We probably understood very little of the real meaning of the lyrics of the devitioal or prayer songs. But the tune was attractive enough. We would sing loud enough and our spirits woulf fly in freedom danching in the soundwaves that we created. Bubul was one of the singers (he is no more). He used to sing a few songs like (Kante Aamaar Soor Ke deelo, deelo bhoolaaye', 'Hey, Nabeenaa '). Our favorite songs were 'Aalo Aammar Aalo Ogo', 'A e Aakashe Aamaar Mooktee'. Sometimes we used to sing in chorus. Occasionally, some one who could sing a Hindi film songs of Md.Raffi or Hemant Kumar would join us. The music would enthrall our spirits.
Such spiritual boost also occurred when we arranged picnics at farmhouses on the highway or group wholeday trips to temples. Our picnics were dry of course: nice late breakfast with eggs, samosas and loaves of bread followed by good tasty lunch with fish, vegetable curry and mutton curry with sweets and otrher dishes. Of couse there was an evening snacks before we were on our way back home, but no liquid spirits yet.
Once we went to Dakshineswar in a group, submitted our offerings and prayers to Goddess Kali at Dwakhineswar temple, roamed around the trees under which Sri Ramakrishna would have spend days on meditation, hired a small boat to ferry us across the Ganges (Hooghly) River to Belur Math and Temple of the Sri Ramakrishna Mission set up by Swami Vivekananda. Spirit-enchanting trips soon would lead us to organize annual Kali Puja under the banner of our school-day club Kishore Sangha. As usual I would be the Genral Secretary doing nothing except conducting meetings, typin out the official letters and notices and signing them and the control the bank account. The Treasuer, the Puja Secretary and the Cultural Secretary would do all the legowrk along with their respective member. On the Kali Puja night we would all be awake through out as the priest would conduct the worship ritual proceedings and some of the mebers would offer their blood at the alter of the Goddess.
Spiritualism had to be backed by readings as well. I read through two volumes of Bharater Sadhaks (Great Saints of India) narrating the life of about two - three dozen of saintly sadhaks (who follow a particular Sadhana, or a way of life designed to realize the goal of one's ultimate ideal, whether it is merging with God or Brahman or realization of one's personal deity: as long as one has yet to reach the goal, they are a Sadhaka, while one who has reached the goal is called a Siddha Sadhaka). These saints were from various traditions or schools from Hindu Vashnavites (worshippers of Vishnu or his associated avatars, principally Rama and Krishna, as the original and supreme God, addressed Narayana, Krishna, Basudeba or more often "Vishnu": the worship of Vishnu echoes monotheism in its devotion, but, as still under the pantheistic umbrella of Hinduism, makes reference to other Hindu deities, such as that Shiva, as the greatest devotee of their god Vishnu. to Faqurs ( A Hindu or Muslim Sufi mendicant who does not preach any religion but is in love with God, especially one who performs feats of magic or endurance) and to Hindu Tantriks (followers of Tantra beliefs and practices based on the principle that the universe experience is nothing other than the concrete manifestation of Shakti, the divine energy of the Godhead that creates and maintains that universe and therefore seek to ritually appropriate and channel that energy, within the human microcosm, in creative and emancipatory ways so as to achieve liberation from ignorance and rebirth: this also influence Buddhist and Jains). All these saints appeared men of great powers acquired through devotion and yogic meditation. Their lives appeared mystical and novel but did not enthuse me to follow the methods they had practised to become such great men.
It was around this time we got exposed to more mystical experiments to deal with sprits. Khokan (Pinaki), then a first year Science undergraduate student and son of our tenant of a flat in our Gurudham residence ground floor, suggested that we try with Planchettee to interact with spirits. We came to know that it is not so easy to get spirits to come to visit us for a chat and sometimes some evil spirits could come unsolicited and create problems. There were lot of reasons to fear doing an exercisennnn with Planchettee (A small triangular board supported by two casters and a vertical pencil that, when lightly touched by the fingertips, is said to spell out subconscious or supernatural messages). We did not have such a board and so we had to use a variant. But after lot of discussions among us, Khokan, my younger brother Suku and I settled down on a summer afternoon in our second-floor prayer room, stting down on the three sides of our carrom board, with a carrom coin the middle and the Entire English Alphabet A to Z and numbers 0 to 9 written in ink on small square pieces of thick paper arranged nicely along the four bands of pairs of straight lines where the striker was usually placed for the fingers to thrust the striker to hit at the coins. An incense stick burnt to provide an aroma for the pleasure of the spirit. Three of us touched the edge of the coin at the center of the carrom board ai if our arms allowing the fingers to rest on the coin. silently kept on inviting the spirit that we had come to know would easily respond, the spirit of Matahari (or, Margaretha Geertruida "Grietje" Zelle, a Frisian (Dutch) exotic dancer and courtesan: during World War I, the Netherlands remained neutral. and as a Dutch subject, Matahari was able to travelled between France and the Netherlands via Spain and Britain. Once when interviewed by British intelligence officers, she admitted to working as an agent for French military intelligence, although the latter would not confirm her story. On 13 February, 1917 she was arrested in her room at the Hotel Plaza Athénée in Paris, accused of spying for Germany and consequently causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers, was found guilty on trial and executed by firing squad on 15 October, 1917, at the age of 41).
Within minutes she would arrive and after exchanging pleasantaries she would start answering questions. We would ask questions only about our future and she would give us her predictions by making the coin move towards different alphabets with our fingers still on the coin. We tried various combinations to test whether the the resultant force of three fingers moved the coin or the coin moved on its own. We could not establish that the movement of the coins was the result of one or more of our minds' desire to move the coin in front of specific alphabets in the sequence to form words of our choice. We even asked us to answer questions that we did not ask but was being asked by one of us who had left the room and went downstairs to write down his question while two others were engaged with the conversation of Matahari. Each time she had corrdtly told us the question that our third member away from the session wrote down in the first floor without our knowledge. And, she gave the answers. Whether the answers she gave proved correct or not would be known later. And I do not rember all the questions we had asked. All that I rembers is that the predictions of a very short-term nature (with a couple of days or so) turned out to be correct. Among the predictions she made for which we would have to wait for one to 18 months, two I could recall later: Khokan had asked both the questions. First was how would my Economics honors result be in Part I (results were due in less than fiur weeks' time) and the second was what would be my Economics honors result be in Part II. She gave her prediction for the first question promptly but when the second question was asked by Khokan she wavered and did not give us a firm answer. We had a few sessions with her, before our spirtual pastime of this nature ended.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Preparing from Motherland Security: My Unfloding Voyage 40
Studying in the college took away an additional hour in the prime sports time on most days of the week. The regular soccer in the late afternoon had to be abandoned: games had progressively turned into a week-end and holiday affair.
Additional seven hours a week were being taken away preparing for Motherland security. The Chinese aggression in 1962 had humilated India, thanks to Nehru's leadership to promote Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai and peace diplomacy with Chairman Mao. In 1963, all first-year students were compulsorily required to join the National Cadet Corp (NCC) for para military/ self-defence training twice a week. For my classmates, the training ground was near the Fort William in the Maidans, about 30 minutes by bus in the early hours of the morning. I had to get up at 5 AM, get ready in full uniform with heavy-weight boots to reach the training ground by 6 AM. The training was for about 90 to 120 minutes. No food till I had come back home around 8-30 or 8-45 AM. Then have bath, quick lunch and go out aggain to reach college by 10-30AM. This two day training a week taught most of us very little, made us lose energy and time for nothing and did not enthuse us with patriotism. India had by that time completed more than a decade of national economic planning: but, the adminsistrative machinery was yet hopelessly inefficient and ineffective.
Some of us tried to avoid the training by taking advantage of exemptions granted but failed. I tried the excuse of being employed par-time in the morning. Nearly got a certificate to the effect from a factory employer, losing face to the elderly Gandian gentleman who had not expected youngmen to shirk the responsibility to get trained for emergency fighting to protect the motherland. But given the time consuming procedure gave up the effort and carry on the training. Some of us tried to help others. We went to a medical physicisn who would certify and recommed that my friend X's friend Y who had lived far away from us, had a very weak heath and chronic disease to permit him to withstand the NCC training. We visited a doctor in his clinic. He did not know us. We told him what was required. This doctor was interested in getting his fees (some Rs10 in 1963). Since Y was not with us, one of us had to impersonate as Y. The doctor asked for the full name of Y, the name of the college, Father's name and home address. Unfortunately the briefing was incomplete and by the time the doctor completed writing out the certificate, we knew thatr this certificate would be of no use as we had provided hypthetical name of the father and the hypothetical home address. We told the doctor we would come back in 30 minutes to collect the certificate as we have to arrange for the money for his fees. We did not ever come back to him.We could not go to reputed doctors who knew us for a false certificate either.
It was a funny experience but it was sad that we were trying to skip the NCC training: it is not that we disliked NCC training as such, but the scheme of training was administered in a manner that there was hardly any training and wastage of time. Except those whose NCC training ground were near their residence, others found it a useless burden. This compulsory NCC training Scheme was abandoned after a few years. But NCC training gave us an opportunity to see a rifle from close and hold rifles for a while. The usual parade and marching we knew from our primary school days. The mockery of training for us was over after about 60 / 70 days of training spread over 10 months with long holiday breaks in between.
Additional seven hours a week were being taken away preparing for Motherland security. The Chinese aggression in 1962 had humilated India, thanks to Nehru's leadership to promote Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai and peace diplomacy with Chairman Mao. In 1963, all first-year students were compulsorily required to join the National Cadet Corp (NCC) for para military/ self-defence training twice a week. For my classmates, the training ground was near the Fort William in the Maidans, about 30 minutes by bus in the early hours of the morning. I had to get up at 5 AM, get ready in full uniform with heavy-weight boots to reach the training ground by 6 AM. The training was for about 90 to 120 minutes. No food till I had come back home around 8-30 or 8-45 AM. Then have bath, quick lunch and go out aggain to reach college by 10-30AM. This two day training a week taught most of us very little, made us lose energy and time for nothing and did not enthuse us with patriotism. India had by that time completed more than a decade of national economic planning: but, the adminsistrative machinery was yet hopelessly inefficient and ineffective.
Some of us tried to avoid the training by taking advantage of exemptions granted but failed. I tried the excuse of being employed par-time in the morning. Nearly got a certificate to the effect from a factory employer, losing face to the elderly Gandian gentleman who had not expected youngmen to shirk the responsibility to get trained for emergency fighting to protect the motherland. But given the time consuming procedure gave up the effort and carry on the training. Some of us tried to help others. We went to a medical physicisn who would certify and recommed that my friend X's friend Y who had lived far away from us, had a very weak heath and chronic disease to permit him to withstand the NCC training. We visited a doctor in his clinic. He did not know us. We told him what was required. This doctor was interested in getting his fees (some Rs10 in 1963). Since Y was not with us, one of us had to impersonate as Y. The doctor asked for the full name of Y, the name of the college, Father's name and home address. Unfortunately the briefing was incomplete and by the time the doctor completed writing out the certificate, we knew thatr this certificate would be of no use as we had provided hypthetical name of the father and the hypothetical home address. We told the doctor we would come back in 30 minutes to collect the certificate as we have to arrange for the money for his fees. We did not ever come back to him.We could not go to reputed doctors who knew us for a false certificate either.
It was a funny experience but it was sad that we were trying to skip the NCC training: it is not that we disliked NCC training as such, but the scheme of training was administered in a manner that there was hardly any training and wastage of time. Except those whose NCC training ground were near their residence, others found it a useless burden. This compulsory NCC training Scheme was abandoned after a few years. But NCC training gave us an opportunity to see a rifle from close and hold rifles for a while. The usual parade and marching we knew from our primary school days. The mockery of training for us was over after about 60 / 70 days of training spread over 10 months with long holiday breaks in between.
Friday, December 11, 2009
In the Midst of the Brilliant: My Unfolding Voyage 39
I had been lucky sometimes to run into groups of academically brilliant people: sometimes amazed by their depth of knowledge that I was unable to gouge, sometimes awed by their intensity of efforts to gather knowledge, sometimes wonder-struck by their ability to explain, sometimes surprised by their strong memory and their wide readings. True, I could not get the best out of my such association with brilliant minds. But among them the best I experienced were the brilliant teachers: some of them were equally brilliant scholars as well.In the economics honors class, we had three students who had done better than me in the higher secondary examination: two of them were among the top 10 in the humanities stream. Another had secured the first position in the equivalent Pre-University Examination. A couple of my classmates had come over from science stream to study economics. One had passed the equivalent Indian Schools Certificate Examination with high scores. There were others who were just about average like me. I was a bit surprised that most of the toppers at the higher secondary examination did not come to study economics as the major. About 60% of my classmates did not sudy matyhematics beyong class X at the higher secondar school.
The brilliant students did not appear to be that brilliant after all as we went in to study economics at the undergraduate level. Some of them were handicapped by their inadequacy in mathematics, some in English and some who had come from districts far away from Kolkata just got carried away by the freedom they enjoyed after they started living in hostels. But I was amazed by one of the toppers at the higher secondary examinations while discussing with him something about price theory. He referred to without looking at any book to a specific page number of the textbook and described how the diagram on the top of the page looked like. It seemed to me that he could while looking at me could still see the image of the particular page of the book. What a tremenodously strong camera-like memory!
The faculty in economics was probably the best in economics in terms of quality of teaching among all the colleges at that time in West Bengal. All theteachers had top class academic record in economics and the graduate and post-graduate levels. Of the 6 teachers ( Dhiresh Bhattacharyya, Tuhinagshu Bhattacharyya, Amalendu Babu, Prabudh Nath Roy, Nabendu Sen and Ajit Sengupta), two were Phds and one was completing his Phd. All of them were oustanding teachers and took special care to check if the students were able to absorb and learning. Within a month after the classes started, they took a number of smallclass tests to evaluate the impact of their teaching and also the relative absorption capacity of their pupils. On that basis they formed ghrups of two each with one strong and one not so strong student for collaborative study. Not that such collaboration helped much for all the students, but we knew where we stood in the evaluation of the teachers and our future potential. It restored self-confidence that I had lost by my relatively diasspointing success at the higher secondary examination.
How nicely the faculty had organised the instructions for different papers. Tuhinangshu Babu meticuously took us through the entire micro-economics, except welfare economics, in the traditional way through diagrams and charts. Prof Roy took us through the same micro economics including welfare economics using only mathematics parallely. It was getting the lerssons done twice for most of micro-economics. It was a treat to watch the professor explaning the use of calculus and theory of equations to classmates who did not have the required mathematical background. Prof Roy also taught us the entire paper on Statistics using two different books for theory and one book for solving problems. Prof Diresh Bhattacharyya, the Head of the Department of Economics covered Indian econmy and its problems. Prof Nabendu Sen also covered the Indian economic problems from a separete, independent perspective. The history of economic development of four countries were covered by three teachers. Amalendu Babu who dealth with the economic history of United Kingdom spent 50% of his classes on the Industrial Revolution itself: I culd visualize the pastures and the coal miners and the miners deplorable working conditions ( 12 years later I would be working as a the Corporate Planner in a huge coal company).
The three years of groundwork in elementary economics at the higher secondary school was now on a long-distance discovery flight operated by the expert scientific crew of brilliant teachers who assembled at the college for those two years, as if only for my benefit.
The brilliant students did not appear to be that brilliant after all as we went in to study economics at the undergraduate level. Some of them were handicapped by their inadequacy in mathematics, some in English and some who had come from districts far away from Kolkata just got carried away by the freedom they enjoyed after they started living in hostels. But I was amazed by one of the toppers at the higher secondary examinations while discussing with him something about price theory. He referred to without looking at any book to a specific page number of the textbook and described how the diagram on the top of the page looked like. It seemed to me that he could while looking at me could still see the image of the particular page of the book. What a tremenodously strong camera-like memory!
The faculty in economics was probably the best in economics in terms of quality of teaching among all the colleges at that time in West Bengal. All theteachers had top class academic record in economics and the graduate and post-graduate levels. Of the 6 teachers ( Dhiresh Bhattacharyya, Tuhinagshu Bhattacharyya, Amalendu Babu, Prabudh Nath Roy, Nabendu Sen and Ajit Sengupta), two were Phds and one was completing his Phd. All of them were oustanding teachers and took special care to check if the students were able to absorb and learning. Within a month after the classes started, they took a number of smallclass tests to evaluate the impact of their teaching and also the relative absorption capacity of their pupils. On that basis they formed ghrups of two each with one strong and one not so strong student for collaborative study. Not that such collaboration helped much for all the students, but we knew where we stood in the evaluation of the teachers and our future potential. It restored self-confidence that I had lost by my relatively diasspointing success at the higher secondary examination.
How nicely the faculty had organised the instructions for different papers. Tuhinangshu Babu meticuously took us through the entire micro-economics, except welfare economics, in the traditional way through diagrams and charts. Prof Roy took us through the same micro economics including welfare economics using only mathematics parallely. It was getting the lerssons done twice for most of micro-economics. It was a treat to watch the professor explaning the use of calculus and theory of equations to classmates who did not have the required mathematical background. Prof Roy also taught us the entire paper on Statistics using two different books for theory and one book for solving problems. Prof Diresh Bhattacharyya, the Head of the Department of Economics covered Indian econmy and its problems. Prof Nabendu Sen also covered the Indian economic problems from a separete, independent perspective. The history of economic development of four countries were covered by three teachers. Amalendu Babu who dealth with the economic history of United Kingdom spent 50% of his classes on the Industrial Revolution itself: I culd visualize the pastures and the coal miners and the miners deplorable working conditions ( 12 years later I would be working as a the Corporate Planner in a huge coal company).
The three years of groundwork in elementary economics at the higher secondary school was now on a long-distance discovery flight operated by the expert scientific crew of brilliant teachers who assembled at the college for those two years, as if only for my benefit.
Two literatures Equal one Science: My Unfolding Voyage 38
The Bengali educationists responsible for our undergraduate instruction had thought that if one were to study Bachelor of Science, one must learn at least three science subjects: the usual combinations were physics, chemistry and mathematics or Biology or something. Of the three subjects chosen, one could be a major one with eight papers while the other two would be minors of three papers each. They were not required to learn literature or language any longer now: either they had no use of literature or they are presumed to be adequately strong in literature. However, if one were to study Bachelor of Arts, one must get more exposure to English and Bengal literature. So, he may study one honors /major subject like Economics of 8 papers, a minor subject, say Mathematics, of 3 papers as well as English and Bengali literature. Probably, the educationist had reckoned that such students were weak in literature or needed literature exposure to understand their major or minor subjects like economics, mathematics, geography, history, political science, etc. Even if one is majoring in English or Bengali, you had still to take the common literature courses. But since one was studying English and Bengali literature, one would not need to study a third minor subject as the science students had to do. It was an equivalence of two literature with one science subject.
But if one was majoring in Economics as I had done, it was clear to me that I needed only to attend 70% of the literature classes and need not study these subjects exceot for two-three days before the examinations in these subjects began at the end of the two year. Actually if you are majoring in a subject, you had very little time to study any other thing, least literature. Moreover, it was easy to find out that. your knowledge of English and Bengali at the higher secondary level was adequate enough to score a pass in these literature examinations if you could study the books, preferably, made-easy kind of note books, for about 15 to 20 hours over a period of two days before you sit for the examinations. That is exactly the strategy I and many of classmates had followed. There were to be questions that would call for writing essays and dealing with history of Bengali literature which we had covered at the higher secondary level. And, we were successful with our strategy. I had secured more than 50% of the marks in the literature final examinations at the end of the second year
Mathematics as a minor however needed some attention. There were three papers of 100 marks each: one for Differential and Integral Calculus, the second for Algebgra ( vectors, matrices, theory of equations etc) and geometry. These two papers were to be cleared at the end of second year. The third paper covered statics, dynamics and astrology to be studied during and cleared at the end of the third year of the Bachelor of Arts program. Except for geometry that I did not enjoy much, the rest of the first two papers I had to learrn to some extent any way for my Economics major and future pursuit of Masters' program in Economics. But dealing with the 4 Economics major papers in the first two years was a real tough job, unless you had no other interest in life. So, time and effort on mathematics minor papers had to remain limited. This strategy however proved risky for some of my classmates who failed in this subject while scoring high in the Economics major and had to reappear for Mathematics examinations.
The four papers in Economics major to be completed during the first two years (called Part I BA) were both interesting and and wide ranging. One paper covered Markets, Price & Distribution Theory (,or microeconomics including welfare economis). another paper aws entirely statistics covering descriptive statistics starting from survey, compilation. tabulation, measures of central tendency, disperpersion and skewness, correlation, regression analysis of variance, index numbers, statistical distribution and , Chi-square and t-tests of hypothesis and probabilty. The third paper was on Indian economic development and Indian economy in all its aspects. The fourth paper was on history of economic development of four countries: USA, UK, USSR and Japan. History still did not quite leave me: but this was a different kind of history - a form of empirical economics and the dates and names of the kings/ wariers and statesment were not important..
But if one was majoring in Economics as I had done, it was clear to me that I needed only to attend 70% of the literature classes and need not study these subjects exceot for two-three days before the examinations in these subjects began at the end of the two year. Actually if you are majoring in a subject, you had very little time to study any other thing, least literature. Moreover, it was easy to find out that. your knowledge of English and Bengali at the higher secondary level was adequate enough to score a pass in these literature examinations if you could study the books, preferably, made-easy kind of note books, for about 15 to 20 hours over a period of two days before you sit for the examinations. That is exactly the strategy I and many of classmates had followed. There were to be questions that would call for writing essays and dealing with history of Bengali literature which we had covered at the higher secondary level. And, we were successful with our strategy. I had secured more than 50% of the marks in the literature final examinations at the end of the second year
Mathematics as a minor however needed some attention. There were three papers of 100 marks each: one for Differential and Integral Calculus, the second for Algebgra ( vectors, matrices, theory of equations etc) and geometry. These two papers were to be cleared at the end of second year. The third paper covered statics, dynamics and astrology to be studied during and cleared at the end of the third year of the Bachelor of Arts program. Except for geometry that I did not enjoy much, the rest of the first two papers I had to learrn to some extent any way for my Economics major and future pursuit of Masters' program in Economics. But dealing with the 4 Economics major papers in the first two years was a real tough job, unless you had no other interest in life. So, time and effort on mathematics minor papers had to remain limited. This strategy however proved risky for some of my classmates who failed in this subject while scoring high in the Economics major and had to reappear for Mathematics examinations.
The four papers in Economics major to be completed during the first two years (called Part I BA) were both interesting and and wide ranging. One paper covered Markets, Price & Distribution Theory (,or microeconomics including welfare economis). another paper aws entirely statistics covering descriptive statistics starting from survey, compilation. tabulation, measures of central tendency, disperpersion and skewness, correlation, regression analysis of variance, index numbers, statistical distribution and , Chi-square and t-tests of hypothesis and probabilty. The third paper was on Indian economic development and Indian economy in all its aspects. The fourth paper was on history of economic development of four countries: USA, UK, USSR and Japan. History still did not quite leave me: but this was a different kind of history - a form of empirical economics and the dates and names of the kings/ wariers and statesment were not important..
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Riding Naps: My Unfolding Voyage 37
He will go out, start the engine and then come back to arrange things to be carried along: laptop, the lunch box, a bottle of health drink and the like. He will go back and forth a number of times to ensure that all that he wanted to carry are inside the vehicle. Then, he will finally go out, place these things on the seat adjacent, place himself on his seat, plug-in the belt and close the door. Now you have to wait for a while before you can see any movemennt. He will now check the controls, meditate for few seconds, use the reverse gear and step on the accelerator. He is readying to take-off.. His Mercedes rolls out of the house and on to the street, turns , straigtens and then slowly moves ahead to gather speed. He is on his way to the office . He will now drive for an hour at least and he will not fall asleep. When I sit beside him when he is driving us, I would tend to fall asleep if the car in on the highway for more than 15 minutes. He will stop me from taking that enjoyable nap by getting me into a convesrsation.. Nowadays, I sit in the back and my wife sits beside him so that he has difficulty in noticing and interfering with my nap. As a child, this person, my younger son used to fall asleep while in a bus or cab or car: now he cannot because he is always on the driver's seat.
Nap while on moving automobiles is one of the wondeful things I have enjoyed throughout my life, because, except for a brief period of about four years, and that too at sporadic intervals and for durations of maximum 20 minutes, there was someone else who would be driving the automobile. I have been moving in personal cars only during the last 20 years or so. Earleir, I had to travel by charterd busus or public buses, trains or trams or cabs for commuting to work place or travelling to anyway where else within the city of residence or nearby suburbs. I had always tried to take the opportunity of a refreshing nap. The seeds of this napping behavior started early when I started going to college. Those days it used to take about 35 minutes from my residence to the college gate during morning peak hours: five minutes on foot and waiting for the vehicle, 10 minutes on bus and 20 minutes on tram (now, it may take between 50 to 60 minutes because traffic has grown, passangers and pedesterians have exploded, road crossings have remained the same in number and the roads have failed to expand). I would get a comfortable seat at the tram terminus at Belgatchia for a 15 minute nap as the tram would go first to Shyambazar, then take the Cornawallis Street and College Street on its way to the Esplanade, on the north-east corner of the sprawling greenary of the Maidan Region. For three years I had to travel on this route for the colleges I had attented, but the rides were not as smmoth as it were in the beginning because of the explose growth of passangers and pedesterians. Still later for about seven long years, I had to experience the increasing agony of traveling to my first emplyer's office in the 1970s.
But going to college from home and coming back provided enjoyable napping rides in 1963. But studying in the college involved a bit of travelling within. The first year Bachelor of Arts class had about 80- 90 students. But only time they would sit together is when the classes were for English and Bengali, generally for about 10 /11 hours a week. But they were majoring in different subjects. For example I was major in Economics with another 10 / 11 students. We would have classes together for about 3 hours a day or about 18 hours a week. But all of us would not be having the same mionr. My minor was Mathematics : we were about 35 students in Mathematics attending together about 6 hours a week. So, unlike in the school we would be shifting from one class room to another, the class rooms spread of three floors. The classrooms, and the class hours had to be so assinged that no student had to be simultaneously present in two classrooms dealing with two different subjects of his choice. This assignment problem solution would necessarily result in some students having no classes during a particular hour of the day and some rooms remaining vacant. These off- the class periods were for gathering in student common room for plaing chess or table tennis or doing some roaming around. This also provided an incentive to skip classes: for example, if one had an off-period or two, followed by a minor or language/ literature class and then nothing else, one would think of leaving college as soon the off-perio starts. In any case for the students, the scores in the major (honours) subject was what counted for their future studies and employment: in the minor and language papers they had just to pass. But you could not afford to stay away from all classes for minor and language subjects as there was a minimum (possibly 70%) attendence requirement for each subject.
After 4 to 5 hours at the college, I would earn a justified nap returning home. An additional justification would specially arise for skipping language/ literature classes at least one day a week. My elder brother disliked my taking a nap while in the moving car. Do did my wife till reluctantly she had to tolerate this: and, she found a good way to voiding my soring: listening to Hindi flim songs and RabindraSangeet of her choice. But I always felt that if Napolean could take short naps of 10 minutes or so while riding on a horse, why not I give my mind unrestricted freedom while I am asleep on a moving car.
Nap while on moving automobiles is one of the wondeful things I have enjoyed throughout my life, because, except for a brief period of about four years, and that too at sporadic intervals and for durations of maximum 20 minutes, there was someone else who would be driving the automobile. I have been moving in personal cars only during the last 20 years or so. Earleir, I had to travel by charterd busus or public buses, trains or trams or cabs for commuting to work place or travelling to anyway where else within the city of residence or nearby suburbs. I had always tried to take the opportunity of a refreshing nap. The seeds of this napping behavior started early when I started going to college. Those days it used to take about 35 minutes from my residence to the college gate during morning peak hours: five minutes on foot and waiting for the vehicle, 10 minutes on bus and 20 minutes on tram (now, it may take between 50 to 60 minutes because traffic has grown, passangers and pedesterians have exploded, road crossings have remained the same in number and the roads have failed to expand). I would get a comfortable seat at the tram terminus at Belgatchia for a 15 minute nap as the tram would go first to Shyambazar, then take the Cornawallis Street and College Street on its way to the Esplanade, on the north-east corner of the sprawling greenary of the Maidan Region. For three years I had to travel on this route for the colleges I had attented, but the rides were not as smmoth as it were in the beginning because of the explose growth of passangers and pedesterians. Still later for about seven long years, I had to experience the increasing agony of traveling to my first emplyer's office in the 1970s.
But going to college from home and coming back provided enjoyable napping rides in 1963. But studying in the college involved a bit of travelling within. The first year Bachelor of Arts class had about 80- 90 students. But only time they would sit together is when the classes were for English and Bengali, generally for about 10 /11 hours a week. But they were majoring in different subjects. For example I was major in Economics with another 10 / 11 students. We would have classes together for about 3 hours a day or about 18 hours a week. But all of us would not be having the same mionr. My minor was Mathematics : we were about 35 students in Mathematics attending together about 6 hours a week. So, unlike in the school we would be shifting from one class room to another, the class rooms spread of three floors. The classrooms, and the class hours had to be so assinged that no student had to be simultaneously present in two classrooms dealing with two different subjects of his choice. This assignment problem solution would necessarily result in some students having no classes during a particular hour of the day and some rooms remaining vacant. These off- the class periods were for gathering in student common room for plaing chess or table tennis or doing some roaming around. This also provided an incentive to skip classes: for example, if one had an off-period or two, followed by a minor or language/ literature class and then nothing else, one would think of leaving college as soon the off-perio starts. In any case for the students, the scores in the major (honours) subject was what counted for their future studies and employment: in the minor and language papers they had just to pass. But you could not afford to stay away from all classes for minor and language subjects as there was a minimum (possibly 70%) attendence requirement for each subject.
After 4 to 5 hours at the college, I would earn a justified nap returning home. An additional justification would specially arise for skipping language/ literature classes at least one day a week. My elder brother disliked my taking a nap while in the moving car. Do did my wife till reluctantly she had to tolerate this: and, she found a good way to voiding my soring: listening to Hindi flim songs and RabindraSangeet of her choice. But I always felt that if Napolean could take short naps of 10 minutes or so while riding on a horse, why not I give my mind unrestricted freedom while I am asleep on a moving car.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Grooming Up for Exapanding Boudaries: My Unfolding Voyage 36
One of my favourite Tagore songs during the high secondary and college education days was: "Amar Mukti Alo-ye Alo-ye A-e Akhashe, Amar Mukti Dhula-ye Dhula-ye Ghas-e Ghas-e. Deho-moner Sudur Pare Hariye Pheli Apanare, Ganer Surey Amar Mukti Urdhe Bhase. Amar Mukti Sarbo Janer Moner Majhe, Dukhho Bipod Tuchha Kara Kathin Kaaje. Biswa Dhatar Jagna Shala Atmahomer Bahni Jawala, Jibon Jeno Dae Ahyuti Mukti Aashe." Translated into English: In the light filled sky above I find my liberation, I sense my liberation in the grass and dust filled on the surface below. I free myself floating high with the rythmic waves of my songs high beyond the reach of my body and mind where I get lost and bounded. I seeh liberation in the monds of the people at large and in difficult activities defying all disappointment and dangers. In the Creator's Dynamics of creative process, I sacrifice my ego in search of liberation.
I did not care to know from some one the meaning of the song and realise that I had perhaps been doing the opposite of what I was singing. But the lyrics, tune and the music created a great appeal of my heart. I was not looking for Salvation (Mukti), Nor were I aware of my body and mind constraining in any way my urge for freedom to express and explore. But the song (Ganer Surey) would tend to beckon freedom (Mukti) that the light ( Alo) spread all over the sky (Akash). Singing this song would indeed give a feeling of spreading the boundaries of freedom (Mukti) across the sky as well as the surface of the land filled with lush green grass (Ghas) and particles of dust. I was indeed looking forward to mixing with a larger section of the population of my age, but would not have thought of sacrificing my ego for salvation. I did not know that I was getting increasingly lost to the clutchesof my body and mind.
Going to college was to expand the limits of my horizon in some sense: it would limit however the application of my mind to a fewers subjects of study. The immediate priority was to get dressed up for the movement withing an expanding domain of operation. I needed to get over from shorts to full-length tousers on a regular basis. Shirts remained the same. But as a variation and acquiring an intellerctual flavour, I had to copy the Bengali intellectuals those days in general and the leftist intellectuals in particular used as their inform: Dhoti and Punjabi. Managing dhoti was clearly difficult: but I did not use the style my father adopted and adopted the style my elder brother, Mejda followed - it wasa a more robust to faster legwork actions. But dhoti-punjabi was not a regular attire. For the shrit and truser attire, a leather belt was felt to imaprt a degree os smartness but I disliked the use of belts. Innerware remained the same but at home along with the Pyajamas I started as my own style use of discarded sarees of sister-in law and mom worn in the style of lungis (rather a kind of two-layered lungis). One kad to become more careful about cleanliness and ironing of clothes.
Part of the clothes would go be collected by the washerman vendor for 3- 7 days service. Part of the clothes were as usual washed at home - by the maild or the sister-in law or Mom, who would wash them before noon usinng dtergent cakes ( poweders/ flakes were yet to become so popular and were expensive, sometimes a bit of starch (drained water from rice cooked in the portable oven fired by soft-coke, strips of wood and cow-dung cakes), robin blue ( available in packets that showed the picture of Robin bird and used generally for white clothes) and occasionally bleaching powder - especially when the clothes were boiled to gether in water before scrubbing and washing. Men folk had little use of fluffy bathroom towels: we continued to use Gamchaas to dry our body after bath, wash the Gamchhas ourselves daily. The washed clthes were hung up on platic coiled ropes fixed in to hooks on the terrance or the backyard garden for drying throughout the afternonn and then folded and placed on the Alnaas (colthe-shelve stand made out of wood but without covers). Ironing was done using iron heated up on the oven - soon however electric irons replaced the old irons. The Rarely we would give clothes for dry cleaning to laundry shops.
Groomig also needed shaving beards, to start with once in three days and the frequency increased with time. Elder borthers and Dad was skillful in useing the traditional rajors used by barbers - they used their own specific rajors. But I prefered to use the safety blades and saftey rajors made of stainless steel. The plastic rajors and cartdges or disposable rajors were yet to come into Indian market.
You needed something else as well. A good pen and a wrist watch. I had got a Parker pen from Mejda (but it was picked up from my pocket in a crowded bus soon. So, I had to be content with cheaper varities of pen. These were still ink pen, using ink manufactured by Sulekha works in Kolkata (their factory closed down later when the dot or ball-point jotter refil pens arrived and flodded the market). How nice it was sporting a brand new wrist watch presented by my elder brother Dada on my success at the higher secondary examination.and going to college with hankerchief and comb in the pocket with an ocassional puff at ITC's Wills Navy Cut plain (costing less than a Rupee for a packet of ten ( filters were yet to come).
I did not care to know from some one the meaning of the song and realise that I had perhaps been doing the opposite of what I was singing. But the lyrics, tune and the music created a great appeal of my heart. I was not looking for Salvation (Mukti), Nor were I aware of my body and mind constraining in any way my urge for freedom to express and explore. But the song (Ganer Surey) would tend to beckon freedom (Mukti) that the light ( Alo) spread all over the sky (Akash). Singing this song would indeed give a feeling of spreading the boundaries of freedom (Mukti) across the sky as well as the surface of the land filled with lush green grass (Ghas) and particles of dust. I was indeed looking forward to mixing with a larger section of the population of my age, but would not have thought of sacrificing my ego for salvation. I did not know that I was getting increasingly lost to the clutchesof my body and mind.
Going to college was to expand the limits of my horizon in some sense: it would limit however the application of my mind to a fewers subjects of study. The immediate priority was to get dressed up for the movement withing an expanding domain of operation. I needed to get over from shorts to full-length tousers on a regular basis. Shirts remained the same. But as a variation and acquiring an intellerctual flavour, I had to copy the Bengali intellectuals those days in general and the leftist intellectuals in particular used as their inform: Dhoti and Punjabi. Managing dhoti was clearly difficult: but I did not use the style my father adopted and adopted the style my elder brother, Mejda followed - it wasa a more robust to faster legwork actions. But dhoti-punjabi was not a regular attire. For the shrit and truser attire, a leather belt was felt to imaprt a degree os smartness but I disliked the use of belts. Innerware remained the same but at home along with the Pyajamas I started as my own style use of discarded sarees of sister-in law and mom worn in the style of lungis (rather a kind of two-layered lungis). One kad to become more careful about cleanliness and ironing of clothes.
Part of the clothes would go be collected by the washerman vendor for 3- 7 days service. Part of the clothes were as usual washed at home - by the maild or the sister-in law or Mom, who would wash them before noon usinng dtergent cakes ( poweders/ flakes were yet to become so popular and were expensive, sometimes a bit of starch (drained water from rice cooked in the portable oven fired by soft-coke, strips of wood and cow-dung cakes), robin blue ( available in packets that showed the picture of Robin bird and used generally for white clothes) and occasionally bleaching powder - especially when the clothes were boiled to gether in water before scrubbing and washing. Men folk had little use of fluffy bathroom towels: we continued to use Gamchaas to dry our body after bath, wash the Gamchhas ourselves daily. The washed clthes were hung up on platic coiled ropes fixed in to hooks on the terrance or the backyard garden for drying throughout the afternonn and then folded and placed on the Alnaas (colthe-shelve stand made out of wood but without covers). Ironing was done using iron heated up on the oven - soon however electric irons replaced the old irons. The Rarely we would give clothes for dry cleaning to laundry shops.
Groomig also needed shaving beards, to start with once in three days and the frequency increased with time. Elder borthers and Dad was skillful in useing the traditional rajors used by barbers - they used their own specific rajors. But I prefered to use the safety blades and saftey rajors made of stainless steel. The plastic rajors and cartdges or disposable rajors were yet to come into Indian market.
You needed something else as well. A good pen and a wrist watch. I had got a Parker pen from Mejda (but it was picked up from my pocket in a crowded bus soon. So, I had to be content with cheaper varities of pen. These were still ink pen, using ink manufactured by Sulekha works in Kolkata (their factory closed down later when the dot or ball-point jotter refil pens arrived and flodded the market). How nice it was sporting a brand new wrist watch presented by my elder brother Dada on my success at the higher secondary examination.and going to college with hankerchief and comb in the pocket with an ocassional puff at ITC's Wills Navy Cut plain (costing less than a Rupee for a packet of ten ( filters were yet to come).
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Economics of Success: My Unfolding Voyage 35A
I just left the main road: and began strolling along the lane within the neighbourhood.towards home. A neighbour was in his first floor balcony looking at the virtually empty lane that afternoon. He asked me, " Hi, Basu, have the school got the results of the last Higher Secondary Examination today?" I replied to him in the affirmative. He inquired, " So you have passed". I nodded again to indicate that I had passed. He further inquired, " You passed in the third division?" I knew that he had known me as a smart footballer and cricketer and would have expected that I could only be weak student as good players generally were. I did not want to disappoint him but I had to say, "No". He promptly commented, " So, you got Second Division!". I had to say again. "No.". He exclaimed, " That great. You passed in the First Divion". I nodded in the affirmative. He congratulated me on my success achieving a First Dision (Class) result.
I knew that he did not see in my face the glory of a good success and was wondering. I was returning from the school after getting to know the results and getting congratulatory remarks from many classmates and teachers. But deep inside I felt cheated for shortchange. I was unhappy with the marks that I had got. I thought my productivity had got a jolt. The time and effort that I had put in was disproportionately much higher than the results that I have got in retrun. It was certainly bad economics of the project of giving higher secondary examination: this was the first project with low expost return and,later I would experience similar bad economics projects again and again. I had no assessment of what I could have aspired for but what I had got could have been secured with much less effort. I had gone through the marksheet by then and found that the scores were no better than what I used to get in the school with much less effort and time. I knew that I am an instictive participant in any thing and now how to display my qualities through my actions, moves and expressions. So, I could not fathom how I had failed to entice and lure the unknown evalators of my answer scripts into giving me extra-ordinary marks. I would certainly get an understanding of this later. But this issue bothered me even as I had carried the message of my first class success at the Higher Secondary Examinations to my parents, siblings, everyone at home, the relatives and close neighbors and friends. There was thrill, excitement and happiness in the air.
But now I had to get busy in applying to various colleges for admission to the three-year University Bachelor of Arts examinations. I selected for colleges to try: the Presidency College (the most presitigious one), Moulana Azad College (which at that time had the best Economics Faculty), the Scotish Church College and the Belur Ramkrishna Mission College (fully residential). The last one was of course not my choice but my father felt that this college would be able to train me up properly as a human being. I picked up the forms from the Moulana Azad College and the Prsidency College and the Scotish Curch College and filed the forms in the first two colleges. The Presidency College however would not go by the marks we had scored in the Higher Secondary Examinations because it would admit some students who had passed the Indian Schools Certificate Examinations. So the College would take a test in English for screening: not clear as to why they did not think of taking a maths test as well since the College would not admit to Economics honors course any student without having passed in Mathematics at the schoo; leaving examination. I appeared for the examination that apeared to me as a simple affair. Dad took me to the Belur Ramkrishna Mission College. The Pricipal looked at the marksheet and said this was fine. Took an examination in English essay writing on the spot and after evalating gave me the form for admission. We went back home sayin that we should returnl soon with the monies required to get admitted along with all that I needed to stay in the college hostel. Meanwhile the Presidency College published the first list of students to be admitted which did not inclufe my name. But the first list issued by the Moulana Azad College included my name. Without dalay I took admission there and settled for the same as final.
The college would start in a few days. So, I decided to meet my school teachers. They were happy with my results but some of them felt that I could have done better. The Economics teacher met me separately. He said that he was happy also but felt that I have not been assessed properly. He also said that this was a matter of luck and depends on how the students in my school scored on an average and the evaluators general tendency of being cautious in avoiding too much dispersion in the marks alloted students coming from the same svchool. Besdies, unless one is from a school recognised for having outstanding students, the evalators could be conservative. This is what he called the school effect. Then he wanted to know what books I would like to have in the forthcoming prize distribution ceremony for having topped the list in the school. I told him that I will tell him after I find out from the College what books would be worth acquiring for a long-term student of Economics.
I have to get prepared for newer projects in the years to come and succeed irrespective of the economics of the costs and benefits.
I knew that he did not see in my face the glory of a good success and was wondering. I was returning from the school after getting to know the results and getting congratulatory remarks from many classmates and teachers. But deep inside I felt cheated for shortchange. I was unhappy with the marks that I had got. I thought my productivity had got a jolt. The time and effort that I had put in was disproportionately much higher than the results that I have got in retrun. It was certainly bad economics of the project of giving higher secondary examination: this was the first project with low expost return and,later I would experience similar bad economics projects again and again. I had no assessment of what I could have aspired for but what I had got could have been secured with much less effort. I had gone through the marksheet by then and found that the scores were no better than what I used to get in the school with much less effort and time. I knew that I am an instictive participant in any thing and now how to display my qualities through my actions, moves and expressions. So, I could not fathom how I had failed to entice and lure the unknown evalators of my answer scripts into giving me extra-ordinary marks. I would certainly get an understanding of this later. But this issue bothered me even as I had carried the message of my first class success at the Higher Secondary Examinations to my parents, siblings, everyone at home, the relatives and close neighbors and friends. There was thrill, excitement and happiness in the air.
But now I had to get busy in applying to various colleges for admission to the three-year University Bachelor of Arts examinations. I selected for colleges to try: the Presidency College (the most presitigious one), Moulana Azad College (which at that time had the best Economics Faculty), the Scotish Church College and the Belur Ramkrishna Mission College (fully residential). The last one was of course not my choice but my father felt that this college would be able to train me up properly as a human being. I picked up the forms from the Moulana Azad College and the Prsidency College and the Scotish Curch College and filed the forms in the first two colleges. The Presidency College however would not go by the marks we had scored in the Higher Secondary Examinations because it would admit some students who had passed the Indian Schools Certificate Examinations. So the College would take a test in English for screening: not clear as to why they did not think of taking a maths test as well since the College would not admit to Economics honors course any student without having passed in Mathematics at the schoo; leaving examination. I appeared for the examination that apeared to me as a simple affair. Dad took me to the Belur Ramkrishna Mission College. The Pricipal looked at the marksheet and said this was fine. Took an examination in English essay writing on the spot and after evalating gave me the form for admission. We went back home sayin that we should returnl soon with the monies required to get admitted along with all that I needed to stay in the college hostel. Meanwhile the Presidency College published the first list of students to be admitted which did not inclufe my name. But the first list issued by the Moulana Azad College included my name. Without dalay I took admission there and settled for the same as final.
The college would start in a few days. So, I decided to meet my school teachers. They were happy with my results but some of them felt that I could have done better. The Economics teacher met me separately. He said that he was happy also but felt that I have not been assessed properly. He also said that this was a matter of luck and depends on how the students in my school scored on an average and the evaluators general tendency of being cautious in avoiding too much dispersion in the marks alloted students coming from the same svchool. Besdies, unless one is from a school recognised for having outstanding students, the evalators could be conservative. This is what he called the school effect. Then he wanted to know what books I would like to have in the forthcoming prize distribution ceremony for having topped the list in the school. I told him that I will tell him after I find out from the College what books would be worth acquiring for a long-term student of Economics.
I have to get prepared for newer projects in the years to come and succeed irrespective of the economics of the costs and benefits.
Schoolboy Marathon - The Last Leg: My Unfolding Voyage 35
The last leg in the Marathon race, participants run or walk the fastest. The time flies as did the ten weeks prior to and during the Higher Secondary Board Examination. It was three sessions of study of three hours each daily with an hour and a half play between the morning and afternoon sessions and afternoon and evening sessions and six and half hours of sleep at night. The study sessions were tightly scheduled with morning and evening ones staffed with alternative subjects and the afternoon sessions of mock examinations with model question sets. The first 30 days were for going through the entire syllabus of the five subjects (English, Bengali, History, Economics and Mathematics). The next 20 days were for 4 days each for each subject and the finally 10 days allocated to the same subjects @ of two days each in the reverse order of the subjects scheduled for examinations. Bengali was the first subject to appear for in the Examinations: so you studied Bengali for two days just before the examinations. Examination was over in 7 days with two days off in between and two papers of the subject tested for 3 hours each in two sessions with an hour's break for lunch.
Two days before the examinations started I took a bus that traveled for 15 minutes before I alighted, crossed over the road and walked for two minutes to reach the examination center. This trip was just a rehearsal so that I had no problem in reaching the examination center in time. During the lunch break father or brother of some students would come. One day, one such passerby stranger showed interest in the examination question paper. He quickly glanced through it and commented " very easy paper".
My cousin who had come to provide mental support to his younger brother and my classmate immediately quipped," Question papers appear easy to those who are not to appear for the examination". The passer-by quickly quit the place. We generally had a very light lunch at a restaurant nearby, had a last minute look at the relevant books and notes before entering the examination hall for the post lunch session.
The marathon of schooling had at last come to and. We became free for a few months with nothing to worry and a new phase of life to look forward to. We have now to spend our time till the examination results would come out and get busy in getting admission to the university undergraduate course in an affiliated college. That is about another 7 weeks or so- plenty at disposal. Football and other games would get the highest allocation of time for about 4 hours a day in three sessions, one in the early morning, late morning and before dusk would set in. Evening roaming and loitering with friends would take another one and half hour. Two to three hours in the afternoon would go in reading story books, listening to radio, and things of that kind. Night sleep, bathing, breakfast, newspaper reading, lunch, evening snacks and dinner would consume another 10 hours. That would still leave 5 to 6 hours of surplus time available to something or the other: indoor chat/ games session, new hobbies, an occasional movie.
Fortunately, an uncle visited us at that time and proposed that I come with him to visit one of our relatives in Durgapore. I bought, for the first time, two full-length pants for me and some travel kits and went with him to Durgapore by train. He stayed there for a day or two and then proceeded to his base in Burnpur (about 3 or 4 hours journey by bus from Durgapore). I stayed with my cousin who lived there with her husband, two daughters (slightly younger to me), her son and my elderly aunt. Though I had been missing Mom being away from home and her, I did enjoy fun, frolik and food and special attention of my aunt who loved me much and my cousin. The neices had their annual cultral show programme at the school during my saty there. The invited me to the show. Bein an uncle of two participating girls, I got direct entry behind the stage in the green room, till a lady teacher questioned my prsesnce along with the girls. I had to quietly slip out into the balcony seats to witness the show from the front. I had very good time there for two weeks' gossiping and playing with the neices before returning back to Kolkata on a Saturday afternoon that witnessed a terrible gale resulting in trains running behind schedule. For quite some time, I thought traveling on a Saturday was not good.
Playing tricks was under exploration during the last days of the long holidays.. My cousin and classmate used to buy butter from a particular shop while shopping for groceries items he was entrusted to purchase by his mother. On these purchases he had been managing to have some few coins a discounts from the shop keeper who had a small horse-shoe shaped magnet that he used to test if the the high value coins (like a quarter or a Rupee) were genuine of spurious becuase the genuine ones would have metals that would be easily pulled in by the magnet, while the spurios ones would not stick to the horse shoe. A number of times, some of us accompanied my cousin on his shopping rounds. The discounts that he would obtain while shopping were his own earninh. He uwould occasionally buy us some cookies to eat with his shopping earnings. That was a common practice among friends to do. But he was also using his earnings to play the gambling wheel game peddeled by the roadside vendor. The gamble-vendor a wheel a person needed to turn with a push with the side of a finger. The light-weight weal would rotate with its marker facing a circular dial pad marked with 1 to 24 along the circumference. When the wheel would stop its roation, the marker would be close to or on the numbers marked on the circumference of the dial. The player would pay an entry fee of a quarter of a rupee and get a chance to push the wheel to riotate with the push of a finger. If the marker happened to face certain pre-specified numbers on the dial when the wheel comes to stand still, the player wins a prize.: if the marker happens not to face any of those pre-specified lucky number, they player gets nothing.The value of these prizes in the form of a pencil or a pen or an untensil or a framed picture, varried from less than a quarter of a rupee to about two rupees. My cousin had been trying his luck rotating the marker-wheel made of steel but in most occasions he had got no prizes or at best win something that was worth less than the quarter of a rupee that he had pay for each try. He shared a plan with us to win the highest prize by making the wheel stop its rotation when the market just faces the specified number for that highest prize. Three of us knew what exactly we had to do. We were to cazole the marker to to come to the specified number as the wheel starts losing its strength for roational movement by shouting and directing with our fingers from a distance without touching the dial, the wheel or the marker. This particular evening, in the dimly lit street pavement, we kneeled down near the game vendor's wheel to [play.We tried but failed to achieve our objective and lost two quarters. This was part of our plan so that the game vendor did not suspect foul play. In the third atempt we succeeded in geting the wheel to stop when the marker stopped exactly facing the specified number for the highest value award. We rejoiced, just snatched the big prize on display and deserted the scene of the act. We would not know what the vendor or other spectators thought. But we knew that we could skillfully use the small u-shaped magneticdevice that we had borrowed for a few minutes from the butter-vendor's shop and kept it hidden with in one of our palms to control the final movement of the wheel and the marker so that it stops slowly but exactly where we intended it to stop. We did not try this again because we had no intention to cheat the vendor again and run the risk of getting caught. A winning end to the schoolboy marathon!
Two days before the examinations started I took a bus that traveled for 15 minutes before I alighted, crossed over the road and walked for two minutes to reach the examination center. This trip was just a rehearsal so that I had no problem in reaching the examination center in time. During the lunch break father or brother of some students would come. One day, one such passerby stranger showed interest in the examination question paper. He quickly glanced through it and commented " very easy paper".
My cousin who had come to provide mental support to his younger brother and my classmate immediately quipped," Question papers appear easy to those who are not to appear for the examination". The passer-by quickly quit the place. We generally had a very light lunch at a restaurant nearby, had a last minute look at the relevant books and notes before entering the examination hall for the post lunch session.
The marathon of schooling had at last come to and. We became free for a few months with nothing to worry and a new phase of life to look forward to. We have now to spend our time till the examination results would come out and get busy in getting admission to the university undergraduate course in an affiliated college. That is about another 7 weeks or so- plenty at disposal. Football and other games would get the highest allocation of time for about 4 hours a day in three sessions, one in the early morning, late morning and before dusk would set in. Evening roaming and loitering with friends would take another one and half hour. Two to three hours in the afternoon would go in reading story books, listening to radio, and things of that kind. Night sleep, bathing, breakfast, newspaper reading, lunch, evening snacks and dinner would consume another 10 hours. That would still leave 5 to 6 hours of surplus time available to something or the other: indoor chat/ games session, new hobbies, an occasional movie.
Fortunately, an uncle visited us at that time and proposed that I come with him to visit one of our relatives in Durgapore. I bought, for the first time, two full-length pants for me and some travel kits and went with him to Durgapore by train. He stayed there for a day or two and then proceeded to his base in Burnpur (about 3 or 4 hours journey by bus from Durgapore). I stayed with my cousin who lived there with her husband, two daughters (slightly younger to me), her son and my elderly aunt. Though I had been missing Mom being away from home and her, I did enjoy fun, frolik and food and special attention of my aunt who loved me much and my cousin. The neices had their annual cultral show programme at the school during my saty there. The invited me to the show. Bein an uncle of two participating girls, I got direct entry behind the stage in the green room, till a lady teacher questioned my prsesnce along with the girls. I had to quietly slip out into the balcony seats to witness the show from the front. I had very good time there for two weeks' gossiping and playing with the neices before returning back to Kolkata on a Saturday afternoon that witnessed a terrible gale resulting in trains running behind schedule. For quite some time, I thought traveling on a Saturday was not good.
Playing tricks was under exploration during the last days of the long holidays.. My cousin and classmate used to buy butter from a particular shop while shopping for groceries items he was entrusted to purchase by his mother. On these purchases he had been managing to have some few coins a discounts from the shop keeper who had a small horse-shoe shaped magnet that he used to test if the the high value coins (like a quarter or a Rupee) were genuine of spurious becuase the genuine ones would have metals that would be easily pulled in by the magnet, while the spurios ones would not stick to the horse shoe. A number of times, some of us accompanied my cousin on his shopping rounds. The discounts that he would obtain while shopping were his own earninh. He uwould occasionally buy us some cookies to eat with his shopping earnings. That was a common practice among friends to do. But he was also using his earnings to play the gambling wheel game peddeled by the roadside vendor. The gamble-vendor a wheel a person needed to turn with a push with the side of a finger. The light-weight weal would rotate with its marker facing a circular dial pad marked with 1 to 24 along the circumference. When the wheel would stop its roation, the marker would be close to or on the numbers marked on the circumference of the dial. The player would pay an entry fee of a quarter of a rupee and get a chance to push the wheel to riotate with the push of a finger. If the marker happened to face certain pre-specified numbers on the dial when the wheel comes to stand still, the player wins a prize.: if the marker happens not to face any of those pre-specified lucky number, they player gets nothing.The value of these prizes in the form of a pencil or a pen or an untensil or a framed picture, varried from less than a quarter of a rupee to about two rupees. My cousin had been trying his luck rotating the marker-wheel made of steel but in most occasions he had got no prizes or at best win something that was worth less than the quarter of a rupee that he had pay for each try. He shared a plan with us to win the highest prize by making the wheel stop its rotation when the market just faces the specified number for that highest prize. Three of us knew what exactly we had to do. We were to cazole the marker to to come to the specified number as the wheel starts losing its strength for roational movement by shouting and directing with our fingers from a distance without touching the dial, the wheel or the marker. This particular evening, in the dimly lit street pavement, we kneeled down near the game vendor's wheel to [play.We tried but failed to achieve our objective and lost two quarters. This was part of our plan so that the game vendor did not suspect foul play. In the third atempt we succeeded in geting the wheel to stop when the marker stopped exactly facing the specified number for the highest value award. We rejoiced, just snatched the big prize on display and deserted the scene of the act. We would not know what the vendor or other spectators thought. But we knew that we could skillfully use the small u-shaped magneticdevice that we had borrowed for a few minutes from the butter-vendor's shop and kept it hidden with in one of our palms to control the final movement of the wheel and the marker so that it stops slowly but exactly where we intended it to stop. We did not try this again because we had no intention to cheat the vendor again and run the risk of getting caught. A winning end to the schoolboy marathon!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Mathematics of Love & Hate: My Unfolding Voyage 34
My encounters with Mathematics has all through been a relationship of love and hate. It was similar to my relationship with football. Football was all excitement about dribbling past opponent defenders, accepting passes and forwarding passes to potential scorers in advantageous position, about kicking or placing the ball into the nets of the opposition and about snatching balls away from the feet of the opposition players. But it was equally painful that would make one hate football: the bruises from the falls, the gasping for breadth after repeated runs down the flanks or the middle, the pains from the pulled muscles, the loss of heart from missed scoring chances or waste of sitters. Mathematics was like that. You solve problems to score wins and get the scores in examinations, you enjoy the thrill of newer concepts and their applications, the speed with which one solves the problems: you love them. But there are those silly mistakes and the concepts that are dull and abstract and laborious to deal with. You hate them.
Simple or advanced mathematics had both. Continuous introduction to newer concepts that are exciting and the work that was boring.. Form the use of operators of + , - , x , divisions, the three brackets and of to the dull additions involving counting as if one were a calculating machine in the sales desk and the memorizing of tables, from application of unitary system and fractions and decimals to using non-decimal systems of measurements of values, weights, areas and volumes (the use of Milli, centi, deci, deca, heca, kilo for liters, meters, and 100 paise to a Rupee came only when we are midway in the secondary school but the measurement of time still remained in units of 60, 60, 24, 7, 364 and 365 while the angles are still measured in units of fraction of 360 degrees: I do not know why they never think of introducing decimal metric system of 100 seconds a minute, 100 minutes an hour, 20 hours a day by adjusting the downwards the time counted as second, 20 hours a day, 10, 35 days a month and 10 months a year with adjustments made every fifth year as a leap year. while making the circle made of 100 degrees making 25 degrees of a bigger size than now as right angle). Then there was interesting concepts of decimals but the recurring decimal was a sore, the LCM and GCF ere boring but useful to a certain extent, the concept of number line with zero in the middle was so simple but mind boggling. The application of interest and compound interest was interesting as was the profit-loss sharing on capital invested, but why ask so much of multiplication of compounding interest for 5 years with half-yearly rest involving boring multiplications and additions until you learn logarithms at the higher secondary stage. Geometry involved boring drawings of interesting regular shapes of curves and areas. But unnecessary exercises with equilateral triangles and right angled triangles, Solid geometry further complicated things with repeated use of pi and radius though measuring volumes was interesting but conic sections were best left to those design engineers who would use them.
Trigonometry was fascinating and made you dream that you could calculate the height of mountains you would never be able to climb to their peaks. Algebra became increasingly interesting removing the need for arithmetic, the interesting formula that need to memorized but can be derived from first principle even if one forgets them unlike the complicated trigonometry formula that would take more time to derive from first principles.
Surd's in algebra was fine up to a point, so was factorization. Permutations and combinations opened the gates to imagination as did the solving of simultaneous equations. Coordinate geometry opened up another vistas of imagination, though became complicate as you started learning about hyperbolas, their axes and asymptotes.
I loved something and enjoyed, for some things I had to labor hard and yet cannot master them developing hate. Yet, I needed to score. From class X onwards, I had to learn every part of mathematics myself from the books and the class hours of teachers' instruction at the school. Despite my weaknesses in a number of areas of mathematics, I could maintain high scores at the school. In Class XI, there were two papers in Mathematics : one completely dealing with Algebra while the other covered all sorts of metrics - coordinate geometry, solid geometry and trigonometry. The last examination that I had appeared for in the school on the first paper was an eye opener for me. There were no more classes after the examination. After enjoying few days of leisure and games, I went to the school one afternoon to know the scores of any of the papers that the teachers might have evaluated. A few papers have been evaluated and the teachers told me the scores I secured. The mathematics teacher who was to evaluate the paper on Algebra greeted me well and told me sit down beside him along with some other students because he would start evaluating our papers in front of us. He searched out my paper and started evaluation. I was getting all correct - no mistakes in the sums I had solved page after page. The teacher was as excited as I were. He raced down to the last page and was thrilled that I got all sums right. He was convinced that I got the full marks: 100 out of 100. Then he started adding up the numbers in case if I had missed doing any sum I was supposed to do as a cross check. He added up and we were proceeding towards 100 but at the end it totaled up to 114 or so!. The he started checking with the question paper to find out which sum I have done in excess because the question paper gave options at various places: so you could chose to do one particular sum as an alternative to another one. By cross checking he found that I had indeed done more sums than were required, but I had missed doing a sum - a small one carrying two marks given the choices I had made. So ultimately he gave me 98, the highest in that paper in the school, This incident had told me that keep attempting all the sums in examinations if you were fast enough: you might get the best of the marks out of the alternatives that you would attempt given that you might get a few some wrong somewhere. It was a lesson that I would apply in future. But for the present the teacher was extremely happy with my performance, notwithstanding missing 2 marks. But I was unhappy that yet another time I had missed the opportunity of a perfect score by not being careful about choices of questions and getting carried away by the sums that I could solve easily and not rechecking the answer script before submission if I had any omission.
Classes for higher secondary had got over and now we were to prepare over the next two months at home before we appear for the Final Higher Secondary Board Examinations. The School Principal met my father and advised hum to arrange for special coaching to guide me for the final examinations. My father asked what I would like him to do. I was not inclined to give time for coaching. So, I had to tell him that I would manage myself. He still insisted. Then we settled for mathematics coaching for an hour a day twice a week for the two months so that I can sort out some problems that I might have not been able to manage. I did not want my father to spend further money for my studies at this stage and wanted all that I succeed in scoring in the Final Examination as my own credit or debit.
I knew if I had a Guru it would have helped but I did not know who could have been an ideal guru/ teacher to coach me. I preferred to depend on my own efforts, capabilities and luck. But I knew that I had keeping weaknesses in my mathematics unattended to.
Simple or advanced mathematics had both. Continuous introduction to newer concepts that are exciting and the work that was boring.. Form the use of operators of + , - , x , divisions, the three brackets and of to the dull additions involving counting as if one were a calculating machine in the sales desk and the memorizing of tables, from application of unitary system and fractions and decimals to using non-decimal systems of measurements of values, weights, areas and volumes (the use of Milli, centi, deci, deca, heca, kilo for liters, meters, and 100 paise to a Rupee came only when we are midway in the secondary school but the measurement of time still remained in units of 60, 60, 24, 7, 364 and 365 while the angles are still measured in units of fraction of 360 degrees: I do not know why they never think of introducing decimal metric system of 100 seconds a minute, 100 minutes an hour, 20 hours a day by adjusting the downwards the time counted as second, 20 hours a day, 10, 35 days a month and 10 months a year with adjustments made every fifth year as a leap year. while making the circle made of 100 degrees making 25 degrees of a bigger size than now as right angle). Then there was interesting concepts of decimals but the recurring decimal was a sore, the LCM and GCF ere boring but useful to a certain extent, the concept of number line with zero in the middle was so simple but mind boggling. The application of interest and compound interest was interesting as was the profit-loss sharing on capital invested, but why ask so much of multiplication of compounding interest for 5 years with half-yearly rest involving boring multiplications and additions until you learn logarithms at the higher secondary stage. Geometry involved boring drawings of interesting regular shapes of curves and areas. But unnecessary exercises with equilateral triangles and right angled triangles, Solid geometry further complicated things with repeated use of pi and radius though measuring volumes was interesting but conic sections were best left to those design engineers who would use them.
Trigonometry was fascinating and made you dream that you could calculate the height of mountains you would never be able to climb to their peaks. Algebra became increasingly interesting removing the need for arithmetic, the interesting formula that need to memorized but can be derived from first principle even if one forgets them unlike the complicated trigonometry formula that would take more time to derive from first principles.
Surd's in algebra was fine up to a point, so was factorization. Permutations and combinations opened the gates to imagination as did the solving of simultaneous equations. Coordinate geometry opened up another vistas of imagination, though became complicate as you started learning about hyperbolas, their axes and asymptotes.
I loved something and enjoyed, for some things I had to labor hard and yet cannot master them developing hate. Yet, I needed to score. From class X onwards, I had to learn every part of mathematics myself from the books and the class hours of teachers' instruction at the school. Despite my weaknesses in a number of areas of mathematics, I could maintain high scores at the school. In Class XI, there were two papers in Mathematics : one completely dealing with Algebra while the other covered all sorts of metrics - coordinate geometry, solid geometry and trigonometry. The last examination that I had appeared for in the school on the first paper was an eye opener for me. There were no more classes after the examination. After enjoying few days of leisure and games, I went to the school one afternoon to know the scores of any of the papers that the teachers might have evaluated. A few papers have been evaluated and the teachers told me the scores I secured. The mathematics teacher who was to evaluate the paper on Algebra greeted me well and told me sit down beside him along with some other students because he would start evaluating our papers in front of us. He searched out my paper and started evaluation. I was getting all correct - no mistakes in the sums I had solved page after page. The teacher was as excited as I were. He raced down to the last page and was thrilled that I got all sums right. He was convinced that I got the full marks: 100 out of 100. Then he started adding up the numbers in case if I had missed doing any sum I was supposed to do as a cross check. He added up and we were proceeding towards 100 but at the end it totaled up to 114 or so!. The he started checking with the question paper to find out which sum I have done in excess because the question paper gave options at various places: so you could chose to do one particular sum as an alternative to another one. By cross checking he found that I had indeed done more sums than were required, but I had missed doing a sum - a small one carrying two marks given the choices I had made. So ultimately he gave me 98, the highest in that paper in the school, This incident had told me that keep attempting all the sums in examinations if you were fast enough: you might get the best of the marks out of the alternatives that you would attempt given that you might get a few some wrong somewhere. It was a lesson that I would apply in future. But for the present the teacher was extremely happy with my performance, notwithstanding missing 2 marks. But I was unhappy that yet another time I had missed the opportunity of a perfect score by not being careful about choices of questions and getting carried away by the sums that I could solve easily and not rechecking the answer script before submission if I had any omission.
Classes for higher secondary had got over and now we were to prepare over the next two months at home before we appear for the Final Higher Secondary Board Examinations. The School Principal met my father and advised hum to arrange for special coaching to guide me for the final examinations. My father asked what I would like him to do. I was not inclined to give time for coaching. So, I had to tell him that I would manage myself. He still insisted. Then we settled for mathematics coaching for an hour a day twice a week for the two months so that I can sort out some problems that I might have not been able to manage. I did not want my father to spend further money for my studies at this stage and wanted all that I succeed in scoring in the Final Examination as my own credit or debit.
I knew if I had a Guru it would have helped but I did not know who could have been an ideal guru/ teacher to coach me. I preferred to depend on my own efforts, capabilities and luck. But I knew that I had keeping weaknesses in my mathematics unattended to.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Mid-teen Exciting Gambles: My Unfolding Voyage 33
Mid-teens’ Struggling Gambles
When my elder son was in class IX, he had asked me, “Dad, what do you like me to be?” I tried to guess the motive behind his question. I did not want to show preference for any particular future for my son: really I did not have any such preference: as a father, my only concern had always been that my sons lived a life that they could enjoy without worries and fear. I had replied to him, “Son, I would like your future to be one that makes you happy.” He had responded immediately, “Oh, no. Dad, I am trying to know whether you want me to be an engineer or medical doctor or an economist or business executive.” I had guessed it right: he had a problem of choice of future career. I had replied to him with utmost sincerity and honesty that I wanted him to develop capabilities and mental strength to remain happy under all circumstance irrespective of what career he would ultimately choose and land in. “Because, that is what my experience tells me. Any career that you may choose or land in future will be an experience of dealing with various positive and negative phases due to external environment not under your control. You must from now on develop the capability to remain happy irrespective of whatever happens. Build yourself for the best of career you may aspire for, give the best try that is possible but also be simultaneously prepared to face a future that you would have wished to avoid. The key to all this is developing an attitude of remaining happy irrespective of whatever circumstances that you may face in future. But, coming to the immediate concern you have, I advise you to keep your options open till you get into class XII. For the present target that you do well in Mathematics, English and General Science so that you can get into Higher Secondary in Class XI with all science subjects like Physics , Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics. If you do not like to study biology, you may forgo your option to study medicine. After you pass XII, you can go into engineering or you can study humanities with mathematics and economics. If you choose not to study engineering, you can major in Physics or Mathematics or Statistics or Chemistry or Economics. After you get you bachelor’s degree, you can decide to go for Administrative services or study Master in engineering or the subject of your major. Even after getting a master in Mathematics, you can study engineering or Economics or Statistics at the Ph d level or even go for a Management study or go for Government Administrative Services. Equip yourself with knowledge as much as possible before you get into a particular career. You have time to make your final choice: keep your options open as long as you can.” He would come back to me again on this issue later. Because, it is in the teens that one’s mind attracts the most questions about one self and the most difficult questions.
I had therefore had to reply to him more responsibly as a friend as he would be sixteen in a few years. My father used to say, “prapte too shoroshe borshe, putrang mitra badacharet” – translated from this Sanskrit to English: ‘Treat your son as a friend when he attains the age of sixteen’. But even if the father would behave with his son like a friend, son may not be willing to be a friend willing to share everything. The son would like to solve his questions himself by accessing more information and acquiring skills to sort out questions. The son might not even like to share some issues with the father just because some issues are entirely private personal issues one may not like to share with the same person.
When I was still in the school, my father had made me known that he wished that I go for Government India administrative service. I had told him that I did not like the idea, though I would keep the options open till I graduated with the Bachelor’s degree. My mind was still working on what career would make me happy and whether the process of getting into a particular career would make me happy. As I entered the middle phase of my teenage period, I could observe it was becoming an exciting game of struggle: a struggle between the sudden burst of exposure to and interest in ever expanding variety of aspects of life on the one hand and the pace of building capability - physically, emotionally and intellectually/ mentally, on the other, to fully explore, deal with, experiment and experience these aspects. It was not merely a question of career. It was rather a question of what interests me, what faculties I feel I have and how far I should be making efforts to cultivate my different faculties and interests. I wanted to be mix of many types of persons but with a difference. What combination of a romantic person, an athlete, a singer, a poet, an actor, a clown, a juggler, a magician, an educated person with knowledge in various disciplines, and etc should I try to be? And, how do I arrive at that decision?
The concerns were so many. Had I been able to get physically stronger and agile enough to deal with bullies? Had my looks become attractive enough to attract attention of others? Whose attention would I try to attract? What kind of hairstyles and clothes would make me distinctive and smart enough? How would I acquire these capabilities? Was something special happening within my body and how do I deal them – the beard, the moustache, the hair on the legs? But these were only questions related with the physical body.
What about the emotional tendencies and capabilities? Was fear getting control over my behavior or I needed to strengthen my boldness and courage? And, how would I do that? Was getting sentimental alright and to what extent? Do I want to share each one of my thoughts with someone or the other? Or, should I have some thoughts only to myself? How would I keep my secrets to myself? Should I be sharing some issues and thoughts with some others, and, what with whom? How would I decide what’s best for me and how would I develop these competencies I had thought I needed? Why was that most girls as they walked to and from school in their uniform skirts-blouses or saris looked secretively attractive to get friendly with but there would be nothing really to share with them as friends or acquaintances. Would it be better to ignore them till I grow somewhat older? How much should I get influenced by others’ views?
There were deep intellectual thoughts. Some were purely academic and hypothetical in nature. Could history have been different? What could have made be a citizen of India that had never been invaded and ruled by foreigners? Or, why had the Indians not invented the steam engine or electricity or the telephone or the air plane? What would have happened to my living conditions had my father not lost his property due to the partition of the country into India and Pakistan. What risk had I taken by not opting for Science stream in the higher secondary?
Then there were questions about pursuit of knowledge. How could I become more knowledgeable in physics or Chemistry or biology or engineering or philosophy or geography – the subjects that I would not have any further formal academic opportunity learn in the school or the college? I had to test various methods of trying to acquire further knowledge in these areas with out much success though. But I had to struggle and decide when to give up and why.
There were issues with regard to testing my skills and aptitudes in areas that I liked. Could I continue to develop my faculties as a composer of poems and stories or as a singer or as a juggler or magician or as an actor?
How far could I try doing this and when would I give up these one by one and for what reasons?
What would be the problem if I had chosen to be associated with the student wing of a political party?
I had to find answers to these questions mostly by myself. Rather, the answers had to spring form within my own self reacting to the external environment. Experiments, logical arguments and trade-off in the light of constraints within me and without solved these questions for me. I had been surprised that these got settled without the influence of others or unconsciously. The result or outcome was just a gamble. It was just a stochastic event that the outcome was what I happened to be with a mixture of different things in varying proportions and zero of some other things I was interested in. I had to give up active pursuit of many things as I went along: for example, athletics, cricket, football, all games that I could play – indoor or outdoor, composing poetry and stories, magic, singing, acting, science subjects, subjects like logic, philosophy, and politics had to stop as one of more of the following came in the way – lack of time, constraint of energy, scope for improvement through training, monetary investment involved, domination of poor quality of known persons in my locality pursuing the same interest, sudden decline in interest and realization that my natural ability in these areas were poor. In some areas of interest, activity had only to be temporarily suspended or kept low in the hope that these activities could be revived later. These included But in each of these I explored and experienced my interests and naturally abilities for quite a while but difficult to accommodate for constraint on time or money or energy or training/ coaching.
Now in retrospect, I am not surprised. These answers had sprung up largely independently with little or no influence of others but virtually due to the interaction of the properties that I had inherited or naturally cultivated without any choice. The struggle that I had experienced was essentially among the properties and tendencies that I had genetically inherited. The solving theme had been one of sustainability of capabilities, of interest, of independence. It seems to be now at this old age that the teen age struggle was to sort out inconsistencies among the properties that I genetically inherited as also between them and the external environment that these properties perceived that they were facing. Nothing that had happened then was my choice or decision: all answers had been the outcomes of the interaction of the properties or natural tendencies inherited genetically or otherwise.
Next: Playing Mathematics
When my elder son was in class IX, he had asked me, “Dad, what do you like me to be?” I tried to guess the motive behind his question. I did not want to show preference for any particular future for my son: really I did not have any such preference: as a father, my only concern had always been that my sons lived a life that they could enjoy without worries and fear. I had replied to him, “Son, I would like your future to be one that makes you happy.” He had responded immediately, “Oh, no. Dad, I am trying to know whether you want me to be an engineer or medical doctor or an economist or business executive.” I had guessed it right: he had a problem of choice of future career. I had replied to him with utmost sincerity and honesty that I wanted him to develop capabilities and mental strength to remain happy under all circumstance irrespective of what career he would ultimately choose and land in. “Because, that is what my experience tells me. Any career that you may choose or land in future will be an experience of dealing with various positive and negative phases due to external environment not under your control. You must from now on develop the capability to remain happy irrespective of whatever happens. Build yourself for the best of career you may aspire for, give the best try that is possible but also be simultaneously prepared to face a future that you would have wished to avoid. The key to all this is developing an attitude of remaining happy irrespective of whatever circumstances that you may face in future. But, coming to the immediate concern you have, I advise you to keep your options open till you get into class XII. For the present target that you do well in Mathematics, English and General Science so that you can get into Higher Secondary in Class XI with all science subjects like Physics , Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics. If you do not like to study biology, you may forgo your option to study medicine. After you pass XII, you can go into engineering or you can study humanities with mathematics and economics. If you choose not to study engineering, you can major in Physics or Mathematics or Statistics or Chemistry or Economics. After you get you bachelor’s degree, you can decide to go for Administrative services or study Master in engineering or the subject of your major. Even after getting a master in Mathematics, you can study engineering or Economics or Statistics at the Ph d level or even go for a Management study or go for Government Administrative Services. Equip yourself with knowledge as much as possible before you get into a particular career. You have time to make your final choice: keep your options open as long as you can.” He would come back to me again on this issue later. Because, it is in the teens that one’s mind attracts the most questions about one self and the most difficult questions.
I had therefore had to reply to him more responsibly as a friend as he would be sixteen in a few years. My father used to say, “prapte too shoroshe borshe, putrang mitra badacharet” – translated from this Sanskrit to English: ‘Treat your son as a friend when he attains the age of sixteen’. But even if the father would behave with his son like a friend, son may not be willing to be a friend willing to share everything. The son would like to solve his questions himself by accessing more information and acquiring skills to sort out questions. The son might not even like to share some issues with the father just because some issues are entirely private personal issues one may not like to share with the same person.
When I was still in the school, my father had made me known that he wished that I go for Government India administrative service. I had told him that I did not like the idea, though I would keep the options open till I graduated with the Bachelor’s degree. My mind was still working on what career would make me happy and whether the process of getting into a particular career would make me happy. As I entered the middle phase of my teenage period, I could observe it was becoming an exciting game of struggle: a struggle between the sudden burst of exposure to and interest in ever expanding variety of aspects of life on the one hand and the pace of building capability - physically, emotionally and intellectually/ mentally, on the other, to fully explore, deal with, experiment and experience these aspects. It was not merely a question of career. It was rather a question of what interests me, what faculties I feel I have and how far I should be making efforts to cultivate my different faculties and interests. I wanted to be mix of many types of persons but with a difference. What combination of a romantic person, an athlete, a singer, a poet, an actor, a clown, a juggler, a magician, an educated person with knowledge in various disciplines, and etc should I try to be? And, how do I arrive at that decision?
The concerns were so many. Had I been able to get physically stronger and agile enough to deal with bullies? Had my looks become attractive enough to attract attention of others? Whose attention would I try to attract? What kind of hairstyles and clothes would make me distinctive and smart enough? How would I acquire these capabilities? Was something special happening within my body and how do I deal them – the beard, the moustache, the hair on the legs? But these were only questions related with the physical body.
What about the emotional tendencies and capabilities? Was fear getting control over my behavior or I needed to strengthen my boldness and courage? And, how would I do that? Was getting sentimental alright and to what extent? Do I want to share each one of my thoughts with someone or the other? Or, should I have some thoughts only to myself? How would I keep my secrets to myself? Should I be sharing some issues and thoughts with some others, and, what with whom? How would I decide what’s best for me and how would I develop these competencies I had thought I needed? Why was that most girls as they walked to and from school in their uniform skirts-blouses or saris looked secretively attractive to get friendly with but there would be nothing really to share with them as friends or acquaintances. Would it be better to ignore them till I grow somewhat older? How much should I get influenced by others’ views?
There were deep intellectual thoughts. Some were purely academic and hypothetical in nature. Could history have been different? What could have made be a citizen of India that had never been invaded and ruled by foreigners? Or, why had the Indians not invented the steam engine or electricity or the telephone or the air plane? What would have happened to my living conditions had my father not lost his property due to the partition of the country into India and Pakistan. What risk had I taken by not opting for Science stream in the higher secondary?
Then there were questions about pursuit of knowledge. How could I become more knowledgeable in physics or Chemistry or biology or engineering or philosophy or geography – the subjects that I would not have any further formal academic opportunity learn in the school or the college? I had to test various methods of trying to acquire further knowledge in these areas with out much success though. But I had to struggle and decide when to give up and why.
There were issues with regard to testing my skills and aptitudes in areas that I liked. Could I continue to develop my faculties as a composer of poems and stories or as a singer or as a juggler or magician or as an actor?
How far could I try doing this and when would I give up these one by one and for what reasons?
What would be the problem if I had chosen to be associated with the student wing of a political party?
I had to find answers to these questions mostly by myself. Rather, the answers had to spring form within my own self reacting to the external environment. Experiments, logical arguments and trade-off in the light of constraints within me and without solved these questions for me. I had been surprised that these got settled without the influence of others or unconsciously. The result or outcome was just a gamble. It was just a stochastic event that the outcome was what I happened to be with a mixture of different things in varying proportions and zero of some other things I was interested in. I had to give up active pursuit of many things as I went along: for example, athletics, cricket, football, all games that I could play – indoor or outdoor, composing poetry and stories, magic, singing, acting, science subjects, subjects like logic, philosophy, and politics had to stop as one of more of the following came in the way – lack of time, constraint of energy, scope for improvement through training, monetary investment involved, domination of poor quality of known persons in my locality pursuing the same interest, sudden decline in interest and realization that my natural ability in these areas were poor. In some areas of interest, activity had only to be temporarily suspended or kept low in the hope that these activities could be revived later. These included But in each of these I explored and experienced my interests and naturally abilities for quite a while but difficult to accommodate for constraint on time or money or energy or training/ coaching.
Now in retrospect, I am not surprised. These answers had sprung up largely independently with little or no influence of others but virtually due to the interaction of the properties that I had inherited or naturally cultivated without any choice. The struggle that I had experienced was essentially among the properties and tendencies that I had genetically inherited. The solving theme had been one of sustainability of capabilities, of interest, of independence. It seems to be now at this old age that the teen age struggle was to sort out inconsistencies among the properties that I genetically inherited as also between them and the external environment that these properties perceived that they were facing. Nothing that had happened then was my choice or decision: all answers had been the outcomes of the interaction of the properties or natural tendencies inherited genetically or otherwise.
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