Sixth Sense!!!

The link here is absolutely Amazing.. Breath taking and fundametally change the world the way its working... Taking technology to masses this guy is an Indian from MIT. 

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/videoshow_ted/5231080.cms

To Kill a Mockingbird

I had the opportunity of spending a day with my son again on this Sunday. I had few observations and contemplations which I would like to put forth. In fact these are my rumbling thoughts which I want to make coherent so that the same be useful for even myself when I deal with my daughter or else evoke some thought in the readers.

I hope you got the crux of the title. But I would like to summarize the aptness of the same before we move on. To Kill a Mockingbird is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. The primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence.

"He had a gift of seeing a meaning behind inconspicuous, well-known facts which has escaped everyone else. It was this uncanny insight into the working of nature which distinguished him from all of us, not his mathematical skill" -- Max Born a fellow theoretical physicist about Einstein. If we were to read in between the lines, we see that genius lies where in we look at the normal things. Thats what I was looking for from Bharadwaj or any other science student for that matter who is curious about nature...

Around when he was 5 years old, I got a strange question "how would it be if we do not have wheels as Circles but as rectangular shape"... He made a whole story around this thought.. Is the same inquisitiveness when I was working with him about Geometry with respect to uncanny proofs and beating the teacher with his own proofs rather than following the teacher blindly which made me like him most.... But to my aghast I could see none of the same zeal and enthusiasm when I was working with him yesterday. I see his learning now more rote rather than intellectually stimulating.

I see that the following traits are necessary for anybody to live happily let alone winning the competition:

• A Zeal towards life, this is the basic quality of life in which ever field you choose from Gundagiri to Gandhigiri where scientific exploration falling in between. This is the only criteria which will drive the people for living. I call this inquisitiveness.
  
• Living with sense of achievement -- Personal Success
  
• Sense of fulfillment -- Interpersonal Success
• Personal Philosophy.
  

Stephen R. Covey terms the same things as To Learn, To Live, To Love and to Leave Legacy as the 4 basic quadrants of a fulfilled life..

What I could see with respect tot the first one is:

• We are hurried.. - We want to push as much as possible into the gutter of the child with out thinking the consequences and with out giving him the "
• proper time to imbibe and internalize,
  
• live with the idea and
•  extend it with his own intellect"
• We do not check for natural questions... we do not put them in the first place... --> Let me take an example here to illustrate so that we are on the same page.. A discussion w.r.t. Photo Electric Effect how should we start the discussion? -- Has the child understood the significance of the same ... I feel that a student should ask the question --- "If we increase the intensity of light why should the number of electrons increase why not the electrons remains the same and their K.E. is increased? -- If he were to understand the Newton in his own perspective" --- If he is not asking this question I feel that he is not yet ready for Quantum... Rather we should at least make him think in that direction... Same way Hiesenberg's uncertainty principle or for that matter any theory that contradicts previous dogmas. If we fail to undestand the significance of the invention and "just knowing" about it we are "not understanding" it . Obviously it takes us no where.
  
• We are not paying enough attention to basics... Example... Why when the potential difference is same across the resistances they become parallel.. This is fundamental... and we should investigate..
  
• Creating interest in the child... for eg. some topics can be routine based on formula and have to be remembered. -- Some kids cann't do it just as this week's differentiation failed to evoke enthusiasm in my Son. --->
•  We need to take live examples... We need to look at engineering applications for this we should able to take help from books like Calculus by Thomas & Fenny or Kline.
• In case of physics we should able to do the same with respect to every topic talking about 5-10 minutes reg. the latest research on that topic... For. eg. whats MIT doing in the field of Electrical Engineering currently .. What Bell labs is doing about harnessing the effects of Dipole Moment to increase the disk storage space without effecting the size of the disc..
• Encouraging the child to think with hypothetical questions and making a forum for discussion on some random topic for 15 mins .. Make the class into 4-5 groups and then let them discuss and prepare a chart and present to the rest of the groups... 
• Asking the students for impromptu comments on the topic which should not have been borrowed from text book...
  

I have not suggested anything that is not implementable. And with the kind of guys good schools have who can rock the world.. I get often tempted to be there to spend time with the wonderful kids out there just freeking out with them on different topics.. Alas!!!

--
Narayana Rallabandi

Gruhapravesam at Narasaraopet

I recently did Gruhapravesam at Narasaraopet on October 31,2009. A couple of photos on that occasion. We performed the following homams as part of the ceremony.

1. Vaastu Homam,
   
2. Navagraha Homam
3. Laxmi Ganapati Homam
4. Chandi Homam
   
5. Homam with Sri Suktam, Durga Suktam and Purusha Suktam

My father is seen below though from back side.

Sriku's upcoming political party's flag.

This is the image of the upcoming political party of my daughter Srikari who is 9 years old. The title of the party is going to be "Andari Rajyam".

Incidentally she is born on the same day as that of Chiranjeevi August 22nd.