The LED, let it remain ON!

Most gadgets that we use today, have those LEDs to tell us the power is on. Including the one to which we run up to when we have doubts if there is a power failure—the “mains” switchboard that ‘houses’ the LEDs.

I have a small weakness or a problem. Right from the childhood. Teachers in my school used to caution us saying “Please close all your physics text books! Please switch off the physics from your mind, that was the previous period…. Now it is Maths!”….
Like all other students, I too obeyed the teacher, about closing the text book. But, switching off the mind from that topic abruptly was a problem. It still is. Then, it used to raise funny questions, like, I ask myself (in my ‘unswitched’ mind, ofcourse), why does not the flame-tongue of a candle go horizontally, if we hold the candle horizontally instead of vertically?

It is only very recently I discovered that there is a small advantage of not switching off!
And then I just refined (or I just fine tuned myself)….
LEDs do not consume much power. Just a very small glow. That is why we have cheaper torches now, that do not eat up battery cells like it used to.
All I did was to look at that “on” position in my little head as an LED , the alertness!
Most of my good friends who used to respond that innocent childhood liveliness during my school days are now busy with long brooding faces! May be they forgot to switch off the main power supply to the incessantly rotating motor of the hard-disk in their brains! They hardly manage to get out one problem out of their heads, while ten more newer problems tend to creep in, and now even their dual-core-processors struggle ! I am left gaping, when I wonder how they forgot to switch off their mind from one problem to attend to another, like they used to when switching off physics, and turning on to Maths!

How I became an odd fellow, too is a funny phenomenon. During the black and white film days, even flash was an ‘use-and-throw’ bulb. During marriage functions, the flash-photographer really used to struggle to get that precious picture on celluloid. The film was too slow. Most importantly, the sanctum area was slightly ‘out-of-bounds’ for him. And many a times, the picture of the ‘crowning’ moment showed only the ‘tuft’ of the priest! That fellow would suddenly lean forward to reach the groom, to hand over the holy water, sprinkle it on his palms, or something like that! This character, the priest was an odd man of sorts! In the whole gathering, he is the only one exempted from ‘code-of-conduct’ (like those election-period code of conduct, switched on after notification of election dates, and switched off after results are ‘formally’ handed over to President). Our priest does not need to wear even a banian, while it is mandatory for all men and women to be in their new, best and only silk dresses! He can shout whenever he pleases, order anybody to do anything! A reverse code of conduct! I don’t know if my funny brain assumed such positions, to get along being an odd fellow!

I do not blame the teachers at all for asking the students to switch off their physics etc. They had their own constraints. I happened to notice that teachers scheduled all their classes to happen within the first three quarters of the day. It was the Saaars—not czars, mind you (male teachers are always ‘Sir’ here!). So, most of the last periods of the day are manned by Sirs, while most first few periods are ‘wommenned’ by teachers. So, there was no need to look at the sequence of classes from the point of view of ‘promoting’ cohesive or progressive sequence, the consequential intelligence for the students. Those who continued to attend the ‘classes’ during their deputation for ‘training’ at work place would at least agree, what happens in the class during the post-lunch sessions!

It is when I learnt of an interesting session (about a methodology at IIMs) that I happened to re-look at my own LED! It seems, the management trainees were asked to solve a tough problem in a group discussion. After some time, they were asked to re-group differently, and spend just about 5 minutes to solve another puzzle, leaving the problem for a while. After ‘failing’ at the puzzle-group, they got back to their original problematic groups, and continued attempting the problem-solving. Then, after a while, the entire class was asked to turn their chairs, leaving the groups, problems and puzzles unsolved, to now face the lecturer. The lecturer explained, that the problem and puzzle, both were deliberately made tough. The idea of the session was to enable the candidates to EXPERIENCE and not just theorize or opinionate the phenomenon that happened in their brains. One set of brain cells were engaged incessantly to solve a problem. When they turned to look at puzzle, another set of brain cells were now engaged, leaving the former problematic-fatigued cells to rest & recoup. When then returned to problem, leaving the puzzle, they were expected to experience of their own, some freshness in their capability to look at the old problem. The theme was that if we refuse to put down the tumbler and hold it in our hands for too long, the hands would ache torturously! I looked at it, also as, not to switch off the LED, the alertness of mind, in the name of taking rest from brain-storming sessions, in our daily life. Perhaps, our mind-LEDs take a lot of time to ‘restart’ like those thermal power stations!

If it will not be too much of a strain, I am tempted to narrate a small ‘session’ I happened to devise for a kid of 8th class. This kid, I felt, might have some rigidities about me, due to age gap, and the ‘template’ in his mind that ‘elders have to be obeyed’ choicelessly. Where as, my aim was to help him to see that it was Okay to keep mathematics ‘on’ while looking at an experiment of physics, to be able to co-relate both cohesively, and also to understand the logic in a deeper way.

This was what I asked him to read, and act ‘as he wished to’, upon it.
Quote:

No compulsion . ONLY IF YOU WILLINGLY WISH TO TRY!

SPEND A MINUTE TO BECOME CALM IN MIND
Now, read the following sentences, only one at a time. After reading one sentence please wait…….
See if you are able to agree completely.
If “yes” , then, there should be no problem in visualizing it! Try maximum CLARITY, details in the image (the visuals) like we try for more PIXELS & resolution in the Monitor/Printer images.
THE SENTENCES:
What is the shortest distance between two points ‘A’ & ‘B’? A straight line. Yes?
Light travels in a straight line. Yes?
Shortest distance between the upper tip of the flame of a candle light and a pin hole in a card board placed a little away vertically.
Now, extend the same straight line through the pin hole till it touches another card board placed similarly, with the same gap of distance, beyond pin hole card board.
Repeat 3 & 4 for another ray of light traveling from lower tip of the flame towards the same pin hole.
The image of the flame HAS TO BE inverted (on the 2nd card board)
Now, what about the Human eye? What about the image that WE see?
(children are FOND of bending down and looking backwards between their knees!) Are they trying to press the “UNDO” button of their brain ? ? ! ! !

Unquote:

There was a joke, I heard from a friend who had returned to India, after a long time. His son, who was brought up in a concrete jungle, in that foreign country was in for a big surprise when they walked out of the airport. Everything was strange for that kid. He happened to see a buffalo being goaded, by the milkman, walking ahead of him. Suddenly, he tugged his father’s hand and said “Babuji , See, it couldn’t wait” !!! My friend turned to look at what the kid was trying to say. He saw that the buffalo was dropping the dung even as it was walking!

Usually, when I happen to conjure up something out of 'my' idiot box, I try it out with somebody around, to see if it was worth mailing. But this time, even I feel, “I couldn’t wait”, like that poor buffalo!

Illuminatingly yours,PSN(20th May, 2009)