February 12, 2017 Sunday
Bedtime Story
Why Write on Mathematics?
The story gets very interesting as we proceed.
Now why do I say it gets interesting?
Let me explain that to you very carefully.
That is simply because I realized that everything is
interconnected.
Let me elaborate on that.
It all started when my best friend very slyly ordered a book right
there sitting in Mountain view, California and got the book delivered to my
home in Parel, Bombay city (population of over 21 million in an area of a mere
603 square kilometers vs. Shanghai’s population of over 15 million in an area of
6340 square kilometers).
This harmless incident probably took place some years back,
perhaps three.
The book was:
Poincare’s Prize: The Hundred Year Quest to Solve One of Math’s
Greatest Puzzles.
Like all of you, initially it was the sheer fear that made me even
prevent from having a second look at it.
The way mathematics is taught to children in high schools is the perfect way
of destroying their interest in it eternally.
The traumatic scar it leaves on the psyche of children is so devastating
and irreparable that till our very demise we dare not even have a second look
at anything that has even a morsel of symbols and figures.
This holds true even for the very intelligent and the extremely
successful.
Yet, there is one thing that I have with this guy, and it is
trust.
So if he had taken the pains to get the book to me, it became my sacred
duty, well cut out the word sacred as it has religious connotation, it just
became my duty to read that book.
Well, to my surprise the book was very enjoyable though I admit
that this book is a popular type with almost no mathematics in it.
Yet, for the first time I found mathematics not scary and
mathematicians not daunting.
After all, I was not being asked to give exams or solve hundred
mathematical problems in three hours on which my very future depended.
Further, the book made me curious about mathematics and
mathematicians.
Who are they? What are they like? How do they think? Why do they
think what they think?
Don’t they love wealth? Why pursue mathematics when it is almost a
certain way to end in both poverty and unrecalled?
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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