To Three Years

I am traversing the same contour since three years,
still a scalar, only magnitude with no direction,
not sure when will I find my divergence to become
a vector in some directions, and hope to have zero curl
that is being irrotational.

It seems that I have taken enough of this precipice in
my Region of Convergence, though a stable system,
tangled in the damped oscillations of human emotion.

At times I feel that my being very human is to do everything
with the impedances in the network. To be fair,
I am trying to amplify and filter noise from any signal, but lately
I have been receiving no information but noise. The channel itself
through which I am receiving these signals is doped as I see,
Money being the filthy DC source trying to conquer my charecteristics.

Been always missing or I must say negelected, the voltage disturbances*
in my way. But I agree some have made me experience beautiful property called levitation. Time, the medium which I am in, has been always adjusting the permitivity, permeability coefficients in its favour, and forcing me to believe that someting more strong is waiting up ahead. I know when I meet the other half, it will just be a freefall.

This contour has so detested me that it started adding insult to my injuries.

Never-the-less, I now see some twigs to this contour, which have left me with the hope
of finding some independent sources of happiness and heal me atleat at the speed of light.

To Three Years.

(* - I guess you might have figured out what it refers to! )

Hall Of Fame in a Government School

Due to insufficient preparation, last weekend I couldn’t take any class in the school. But I had a small relevant presentation which I wanted to share and did so, also promised to get more good training videos* and share them on Monday.

I found some good material and went to school to share them on Monday. As I was getting late to office, I briefly explained about each of the videos to HM, she agreed to take a class with those. There I met a volunteer from Indian American Council, who has come to explain the teachers on how to use computers as teaching aid rather than seeing it as a subject/curriculum. I was glad to evidence such an initiative. The volunteer and I had a small chat, discussing each other’s duties; he understood that my service was implementation of his guidelines.

After that, HM and I moved out, having a chat about my next topics. On reaching a common room, HM showed me a chart almost on top of the wall, having the names, scores, Photos of toppers from each class and said that we trying to fill some encouragement in our students with this. I was very happy seeing such a move in a Government school; I said that it reminded me of the Hall Of Fame in our organization, where we do similar kind of stuff for appreciation and encouragement. For which she replied ‘we are doing that to our students from this stage itself’.

I thus concluded ‘Hall Of Fame in a Government School – super!’ and started off to my office.

*: videos were related to Organic Chemistry for 10^th standard J

My first class on Electricity

I have been thinking of teaching since long time after I finished my graduation. This Teacher’s Day I did something other than just thinking. I took a resolution that I shall teach at the nearby Government High School for 2 hours on every Saturday. With the same intention I went to the school and talked to HM there. She was very much encouraging and allowed me to take lectures for any class, on any topic I want. What I liked the most at that moment was, HM openly said that their school doesn’t need money as they have enough funds from government and other organizations, so money was not they were actually looking out for.

I asked her whether I could take classes for high school students, and she readily agreed and asked me if I can take physics for them. I said I’m very much interested in that and shall surely take class on any topic which was required.

As one of my friends said: “‘Teach’ in the real sense of the word”, which I just did. I kind of hope that if I can change the mind set of at least one student and bring him to a level where he actually understands the subject for life, then I think my attempt has conceived some result. But nevertheless I'm happy that I made an attempt.

As said I took the lecture for 2 hours (with just one break), and I saw that students were really enjoying it and asking questions, cracking jokes yeah I think they had fun. I thought the real challenge would be teaching in English to a class of Telugu and Marathi medium students, but situation was good as I expected they didn’t had any problem to communicate with me. After the class, students asked me to come on every Saturday like that, for whom I'm very much thankful; HM and I discussed what lectures I should take on coming weekends.

Yes, it was liberating in the sense that I pushed myself to improve the situation to the extent possible by me. And I see there is a lot of scope for improvement every time. I think now maybe I have found some real purpose to not kill time consistently on Saturdays from now on.

Yeah, today I took ‘My first class on Electricity’.

World of Faith

(click on the image to enlarge)


An image showing 'Percentage of people who say that Religion is an important part of their life-Vs-GDP Per Capita'.

The big gray circle on the top represents India; our worthy competitor, China, is missing though.

Sources:
Gallup

Keep Pushing

We have seen many teachers, lecturers, professors in our life, and some of our friends are also in that role. But did you ever think, what does it take to teach a class of Ph.D. students...

Matthew Might, a computer science professor at the University of Utah, writes: “Every fall, I explain to a fresh batch of Ph.D. students what a Ph.D. is. It’s hard to describe it in words. So, I use pictures.” Here it goes. Matt’s Illustrated Guide:

Imagine a circle that contains all of human knowledge:

By the time you finish elementary school, you know a little:

By the time you finish high school, you know a bit more:

With a bachelor’s degree, you gain a specialty:

A master’s degree deepens that specialty:

Reading research papers takes you to the edge of human knowledge:

Once you’re at the boundary, you focus:

You push at the boundary for a few years:

Until one day, the boundary gives way:

And, that dent you’ve made is called a Ph.D.:

Of course, the world looks different to you now:

So, don’t forget the bigger picture:

Keep pushing.

You can find Matt’s Illustrated Guide hosted on his web site.

(This guide/reality check is published under a Creative Commons License. You can also buy a print version for $6.50. (The money goes to charity.) Matt offers more insights for Ph.D. students here.)

A letter to the future, by Tejaswee

I wanted to start this blog with a testimonial to Tejaswee, the first ever, which I wrote to some person.
I somehow found out IHM's blog and started following it on my google reader.

Came to know about Tejaswee there. I too hoped and believed that miracles happen, and prayed for her.

You can shed tears that she is gone,
or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she’ll come back,
or you can open your eyes and see all she’s left.
Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her,
or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her only that she is gone,
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back.
Or you can do what she’d want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

-David Harkins – Thanks CAT.

I was kind of into psychological blackout (for some personal reasons) and I read this 'A letter to the future', I was moved, I felt better, I felt it made me a better person for that just moment.

I understand

Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live. -Norman Cousins

Tesjaswee, you will live in our hearts. We will never loose you...

Thanks,
Dev