Simple Math II

Hello friends, hope you celebrated friendship week or two with your family or friends and had a great fun. Couple of holy festivals too, added more flavors to whole last fortnight or so. And it would continue as generally we have a series of festivals to celebrate which start from month of August till the year end. For younger generation, this package of celebration usually concludes on the eve of 31 st Dec. and so the life goes on with the new year. Good.

Well, dear friends, we were talking about our math’s class in our college days. We had another math’s teacher Mr. VDK who used to teach us trigonometry. While Mr. BPJ would divide the board into two halves with a single line in the middle of the board, this fellow used to draw (only) a framework of three axes. And to tell you what friends, like BPJ, with this guy also I never understood three things.

First, he never ever came to conclusion for what axis to be called as what. The three axes were always there and he kept telling us ‘ phar tar X mhana, phar tar Y mhana or phar tar Z mhana ‘.  Ho sir, but which axis to say x and which to y and oh dear, z was like an orphan. He continued to do so till we left the college.

Second thing dear friends, there was a great amount of prejudice with this guy. That, this guy was the strictest teacher in the college. My dear friends, this wasn’t the case in real scenario. Agree, his personality like a western film character would justify that prejudice prima-facie, but never ever there was an incidence which would prove so.  So, I never understood why that air was there with this guy.

On the contrary, I could see, while there was nothing ever on the board besides those three arrows of axes, this period was always an exchange of arrows of stolen glances (sadly broken dreams later on) between boys and girls. Well, phar tar off period mhana!!, phar tar fun period mhana,  phar tar …..ah forget it.  

And lastly, a usual scene with the entry of this so called strictest teacher. As soon as he would start walking towards stage, the boys on back benches hurriedly go out of the classroom. In spite of care taken, there would be a noise as a whole bunch of boys were practiced to go out. And I realized later on, that this guy had an idea about that but never caught a single student red handed. (rather red footed). To me, he seemed to claim his wine as old in a closed bottle. In Marathi, we call it as ‘zakli muth savva lakhachi ‘. Phar tar adich lakhachi mhana!!

My dear friends, do you remember that incidence? One boy couldn’t succeed in first attempt with the mass of boys to go out of classroom. So later on he tried in single, with soft feet like cat and unfortunately dashed to the door. With that noise, he turned back swiftly and asked Mr. Khade ‘May I come in sir?’ and Mr. Khade pleasingly allowed him in. Dear friends, please bear in mind, the scenario in a Marathi film ‘Ashi hi Banvabanvi’ where Laxmikant Berde asks Sudhir Joshi, ‘Dhananjay Mane ethech rahtat ka? ‘was pitcturised seven odd years after this incidence happened in our college.  Is the script writer of that film from our batch? If not, then phar tar what a coincidence mhana!!

So dear friends, it’s a beautiful Sunday evening and its raining heavily out there. Phar tar ‘ bahaana ’ mhana ani enjoy kara !!

Simple Math

Ya..a….ksss!!     Any guesses what this could be friends?

A reaction of yours when you start jogging one fine morning and suddenly see a man clearing his nose indecently? Or a reaction of your friend who is a vegetarian and suddenly sees a non veg dish served to him by mistake? A joyful excitement in mind of a two days hungry Eskimo or a puma when suddenly seen a group of yaks? A reaction of sixteen years of boy or a girl who suddenly sees a father of her or his on spot on first date? Or a reaction from beautiful girls of our college when they had to dissect a frog first time?  

What the hail is that exactly …..?

Friends, its an alphabet ‘X’ pronounced by our dear math’s teacher Mr. BPJ.  Please strain your memories a little and try to visualize his lecture. I still remember his famous X and the gesture while saying that alphabet. His hands raised in air, fingers of both the palms spreading outwards like a demonstration of Mig or Jaguar planes on 26 th Jan and the facial expressions. Oh god, facial expressions such that if someone removes a snap of those and publish in south then people may ask ‘hey when the film of this hero is going to be released?’ Even I tried to imagine an analogy of a scene when I replaced Rahul Solapurkar with Mr. BPJ saying ‘ X’ instead of ‘ pisss …k’ while casting ‘ Takalu Haiwan’. And while attending his lectures I also thought many times that if mother of ‘X’ sees Mr. BPJ on stage, she might ask him worriedly ‘ mere betene apka kya bigada hai jo aap uske pichhe pade ho ?’

But my dear friends, there were three things I never understood with this guy. First, I never understood why he used to bisect the green board at the very next moment he would enter into the class. Secondly, as soon as he bisects the board into two halves brutally, making our bodies to shiver by that noise of a chalk and glass, he would draw a star in the upper right corner of the board. And to tell you what friends, I remember he could never draw a good, complete star, ever. Rather, I would rate not a single star or even a half star for his star then. Ha Ha Ha…

And the third and the important thing my dear friends. He used to teach us complex number represented by ‘ i’. And root of this small i  is equal to minus one. Great!!

But horrible thing was that whenever he himself gets stuck with some example, he would take the help of this small ‘i’. And then what, he would turn those two halves of board into battlefield and somehow arrive at the answer which he usually used to write in lower right corner of the board. Finding that answer was like finding a needle in the hey. How complex!!

But dear friends, we were so lucky to have Mr. Pethe who could teach the math in a simplified way. That’s the beauty of that subject. If taught in a simple manner, every sum becomes easier. And friends…this applies as good to your life. Your ‘Ayushyache Ganit’ will be easier too, if you try to solve it by simpler formulae.

More on that later friends. Last time I kept writing a little more because I had to keep myself awake to watch the match after a hectic day. Anyway, it’s a whole friendship week ahead and I wish you all to enjoy it like the way we used to enjoy in our college days. Happy friendship day!! And good night.