A little over half a dozen years after I last graced a class room with my presence, it's fascinating and surprising in equal parts that I was ever a student. I can't believe that I actually sat through 6 or 7 or 8 classes a day, continuously, one after the other, listening to lectures about different things and in different languages. Add to that the one and only, super efficient stress inducer that we all knew as students - exams!
I still don't understand how I managed to make my way through those scores and scores of exams during all those years in school. Must have been divine intervention. You know, that thing called luck. Anyway, the only positive thing to come out of all those exams was that I understood 'Black holes'. Confused? When we studied the concept of black holes back in the day, it was down right impossible for me to visualize an entity that just keeps accepting all matter (on a planetary scale) without giving back anything. It was quite the arcane topic that just had to be memorized instead of being understood. But come exam time and I began visualizing black holes in vivid detail. Still confused about why and how I did it?
You see, the exam paper and Black holes share some very important attributes. How is either of them created? We are not completely sure, though we might have an inkling. How do you identify either of them? A black hole sucks in everything even remotely close to it and doesn't give out anything. The exam paper also sucks in everything (your preparation time, effort, energy, mid-night oil, the money spent on the oil ad infinitum) but you never get to see any result for all of that. Can you get away from either of these? In your dreams! Well, actually, not even there. The Black hole supposedly has a strong enough gravitational field to suck-in you and the dream you are in. With the exam paper, there is no supposing. Given these similarities, we can conclude that these two, though not the same, are at least long lost distant relatives sharing some of the important family traits. This family resemblance was what helped me. I saw the very physical exam paper and could, in turn, mentally physicalize a black hole.
Lately I have been thinking about continuing my formal education by doing courses in business management. And I also realize it can only mean one thing. After finally having said 'adios amigo' and bidding adieu to my last black hole all those years back, I must now go searching for it once again and get re-acquainted with the feelings called 'utter despair' and 'total frustration'. In-spite of knowing this, why I would want to go ahead with the plan to study is beyond the capacity of my limited brain power to answer. But if ever anyone needed irrefutable proof that I am a total nut-case, this is it.
I still don't understand how I managed to make my way through those scores and scores of exams during all those years in school. Must have been divine intervention. You know, that thing called luck. Anyway, the only positive thing to come out of all those exams was that I understood 'Black holes'. Confused? When we studied the concept of black holes back in the day, it was down right impossible for me to visualize an entity that just keeps accepting all matter (on a planetary scale) without giving back anything. It was quite the arcane topic that just had to be memorized instead of being understood. But come exam time and I began visualizing black holes in vivid detail. Still confused about why and how I did it?
You see, the exam paper and Black holes share some very important attributes. How is either of them created? We are not completely sure, though we might have an inkling. How do you identify either of them? A black hole sucks in everything even remotely close to it and doesn't give out anything. The exam paper also sucks in everything (your preparation time, effort, energy, mid-night oil, the money spent on the oil ad infinitum) but you never get to see any result for all of that. Can you get away from either of these? In your dreams! Well, actually, not even there. The Black hole supposedly has a strong enough gravitational field to suck-in you and the dream you are in. With the exam paper, there is no supposing. Given these similarities, we can conclude that these two, though not the same, are at least long lost distant relatives sharing some of the important family traits. This family resemblance was what helped me. I saw the very physical exam paper and could, in turn, mentally physicalize a black hole.
Lately I have been thinking about continuing my formal education by doing courses in business management. And I also realize it can only mean one thing. After finally having said 'adios amigo' and bidding adieu to my last black hole all those years back, I must now go searching for it once again and get re-acquainted with the feelings called 'utter despair' and 'total frustration'. In-spite of knowing this, why I would want to go ahead with the plan to study is beyond the capacity of my limited brain power to answer. But if ever anyone needed irrefutable proof that I am a total nut-case, this is it.
3 comments:
i shud show this to vidhya maam...and i bet she is gonna give u an 8 hr dose of what u just blabbered!....
btw...site looks lil messy..stop playing ard with it and settle with something sober..pleaaaaaaaaaaaase! or atleast get my help in making it better ;)
Here's a difference between the two..A black-hole can suck-in that exam paper..and the poor exam paper can't do anything about it..
@N: Yes there are some differences but you do accept that they belong to the same blood line, don't you?
@Anon: I haven't done any bad to you for you to threaten me that way. :). And what's wrong with the layout? Specifics will help me make it better.
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