Math - Taught as a life skill

I realized since I started teaching contents with math in my lab classes that Math could be a challenging subject for many, uninteresting for others and burden for several. Me personally I  have always enjoyed Math and now I look forward to teaching it as and when I need to. I have come to realize  our love for math was because of how we simply grew with math. When we were little, after school we were primarily either doing random stuff like playing or following directions of our parents, so our unstructured time is basically in oour parents hand that's when my love for math started.

A normal scenario on a summer evening at our home would look like this. We all would be sitting in balcony due to a power outage (very frequent), as we lived in a small town in India. Then papa would say 'tell me the multiplication table of 2, 3,4..'. He would want to hear this from all of us. me , my brothers. Mummy was on the same page. She would tell us the same multiplication table in bengali. They both so encouraged us to be perfectionists in math all the time be it for school or not.

Papa being the genius in math once challenged a colleague to use a calculator to do mutiple digit multiplication of two numbers and won the challenge in a breeze. These stories and many more were a part of our lives. Calculator was not even used till in college and considered a tool for cheating. All calculations were to be done mentally or by working out on paper. 

Another normal incidient which I can think of is also something that is hard to relate in present day, space and time. We would go to buy groceries and the shopkeeper would list everything on a paper and the prices in front of items. So he would use a "calculcator" to ensure a correct total and we were told to make sure that the total was correct by doing it mentally. So we would quickly add (8-10 numbers with decimal) and ensure that everything is ok. This we did everytime we went shopping. Those were the days when items were not scanned, computers were not used and typed reciepts were not generated. 

For us it was hard to think of Math as a subject in school, in all essence we were taught math like it was an essential life skill. Naturally we embraced it as a life skill.

Remembering a favor, small or big!

Papa worked in Trinity College during his first six months in USA in Fall 2001. To go to Trinity college, papa had to take a bus and then train from his sister’s home to college. The bus used to cross many train lines during this period to reach the train station. Papa counted four train lines were when he needed to get down, to go to the station to catch train. 

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On one chilly Sunday morning, he boarded the bus, knowing the train lines the bus would cross and got down. The bus left. He knew the name of station. Soon he did realize he got down somewhat earlier. So he decided to walk that distance. He was walking by when he saw two neighbours mowing their lawns. So he asked one of them, how can I go to this particular station. One of them did tell him but said the station was 8-10 miles, so what was his plan. He said he had no other choice but to walk, so that was his plan to walk. Sometime you just got to do, what you need to do. That guy asked him to wait, got dressed and asked papa to get in his jeep and drove him to the station. Papa said you came all the way just to drop me. He said its ok, I anyway had some work here later, so I will do it now. 

Papa remembers this incident, not the man to forget any favor, small of big!

Holding my father's hand

In retrospection I am thankful for that day this happened, because I remember that small incident from so well. It was recess time in my elementary school, we were playing on the slide. The big slide had a nail sticking out, which I did not notice. My little finger was cut and it started bleeding. I was probably in 1st grade. It must have been painful. I remember it was the end of the school day, and I started walking towards my home. 

I must have walked a few steps, when I saw papa riding his bicycle and coming to pick me. ‘Papa’ I said, ‘good you came, it hurts so much on this little finger, I got cut during the recess’. ‘Oh..o’ he said ‘we have to get you a tetanus shot for this immediately’. I remember I was so scared of that tetanus shot or any injections.

I did not remember the pain of that shot, however I do remember that he was there for me and I was holding the hand of the strongest man in the world.

Glimpses from Indian independence events

When India became independent, papa was just 6 years old. That was a big moment in India's history is what we know. But what was it like for someone who witnessed it themselves.

Papa doesn’t seem to remember that exact moment but remembers the celebrations, unrest and incidents surrounding that time. Our grandfather was not heavily involved in the freedom movement , mostly his involvement was through a hindu organization Arya Samaj.

Papa remembers people carrying Indian flags going through streets where their home was. He remembers the unrest, following the announcements that muslims had to migrate to Pakistan. He also recalls being told to have red chilly powder always handy, so if they were on roof top and someone called them down or said something, they could throw the red chilly powder on them from top, so people could not get to them.

Papa also recalls that during that time his chachaji (uncle) who was visiting from Delhi found a fan lying on or near railway tracks, it must have belonged to someone who was leaving by train and unable to carry it any further, they had that fan in their house for a long time.  

The most interesting part was Papa remembers Seeing Mahatma Gandhi. He told that in Anaj Mandi (Market), there was has a huge empty space in middle, Mahatma Gandhi came there to address people and he saw Mahatma Gandhi in person. Later he remembers hearing about Mahatma Gandhi’s passing away and the exact spot where he heard that news..

My dad and his cycle!

Do you remember this simple, sturdy piece of metal & tires?

It carried on itself the bondings of life some near some farther.

My dad has always been the very straightforward, the most gentle and yet strongest pillars of my life. I remember us riding around behind his bicycle since we were little. He would take us to different places. Mom would also be riding her cycle, carrying books, groceries and other things back n forth home to office.

Sometimes when I would go to school riding behind him, I remember telling him, go faster the school bell is about to ring. He would say, you should get ready in time, I can go only so much   fast, the quintessential lesson, be ready on time!

 When we grew up we also rode our cycles, 5 of those parked in our garage on the right side under the electricity meter. But till that did not happen, sometime we would be double riding, me and my brothers. My brothers were naughty, specially the younger one. He would say to my dad can I put my legs in the moving wheels of the cycle, can I, can I? My father would say no , never do that. Then one day he did it, oh my god so many tears, so much blood, so much screaming followed that!

We rode on that cycle, like it was the magical vehicle carrying our childhood into adulthood.