Physics
The first thing I ever fell in love with was Physics. I was 13 I think. My father used to keep getting transfered from one city to another due to the nature of his job, and I had to jump to and fro across a lot of schools. I remember very clearly. It was my first day in a new school in Calcutta. I remember that a very stout looking, thick spectacled lady walked into the room during the physics class. She kept shouting “Stop fooling around. Stop fooling around” at any one who would try to make mischief. She probably did not notice how much more mischief her “Stop fooling around” caused. She picked up the physics book and asked somebody from the class to read a paragraph from it. Then she asked a question from the same paragraph. She waited for a while looking if anyone could answer that. If nobody was forth coming, she would answer it herself and she would ask somebody else to read the next paragraph. She looked like a very strict and stern lady to me. But I did no understand why the other kids did not think so. They kept giggling and throwing things at each other. “Stop fooling around” she would yell again and get along with her job. Evey now and then somebody would run across from his seat to some other seat. Then she would say “Stop fooling around, Rahul” or “Stop fooling around, Tanushree”.
Anyways, we were reading a chapter from optics. Somewhere the book said, when light enter your eyes, it forms an inverted image of the object on your retina. So she asked, “when light enter your eyes it form an inverted image on your retina. Then how do we see everything straight?” The answer was not in the book. The class went silent. The eyes see everything inverted! Nobody could stomach that.
I knew the answer. I had seen it on TV. I rose my hand. “Yes” she said looking at me. I stood up. “The brain inverts it for us again” I said. “Yes. The brain inverts it for us. Stop fooling around Dhiraj. Next paragraph Atul. Stop fooling around”
I sat down. I was very very proud. I knew something the whole class did not know. And it was only my first day. It was a simple thing. But I felt very proud. Then I decided, Physics was MY cup of tea. I was always good at it. The same year I learned about magnets and magnetic field of the earth. That same year I read the Newtons laws of Physics. I went crazy. I was in class when somebody read the paragraph. It was like, something flew out of the book and hit me. I was dumbfounded. I read them and I understood them and I was spellbound. I realized I could now explain a lot of things. I could explain why a bigger ball has to be pushed harder to move. Why I can throw my younger brother so easily but he can’t throw me. Why I felt like I was moving backwards on the seat when my dad accelerated the scooter. Everything was falling into place. The same year I learned of moment of force. And I discovered why I could close my front gate so easily when I pushed furthest from the hinge. It was a very exiting time!
The next year, somebody else was supposed to teach us Physics. I still remember her name was Kalpana. We used to call her “Kalpana Miss”. She taught very well. She answered every question honestly. She made sure you understood it. She encouraged asking questions. What was more she loved me. I was the most mischievous of the whole class. But I was never punished. I was also the guy who asked the most questions. And also the guy who paid he most attention to every concept. But only till I understood it.