“I don’t read, I proofread” – this is a boon and bane I live with every day. Little details pop out to me and I feel compelled to correct or change them – not always a pleasant experience, in fact, quite the contrary. Everyone around me – family, friends, colleagues…
View More To spoon-feed or to allow flexibility?
I recently finished reading the book ‘Today and Tomorrow and’ by Isaac Asimov. Asimov needs no introduction to Science Fiction fans – he has been immortalised by his series of Science Fiction novels (none of which I have read, by the way). This book is a collection of essays Asimov…
View More Awesome Asimov – Why Scientists should be Writers
Two weeks ago, my 9th-grade student and I were discussing the synthesis of alcohol by the process of fermentation. After going through the synthesis reactions in detail, our discussion moved to other instances of fermentation in our everyday experience. She immediately recognised Idli and Dosa batter formation and we wound…
View More Why don’t we get high on Idli and Dosa?
Let me narrate two stories from the recent experience of science and maths in action. Story 1: In the last couple of months, on four different occasions, I observed something curious in restaurants. I found rice grains in the salt shakers. I hadn’t come across this earlier. Is it a…
View More Of rice in salt and Pythagoras in a paddy field
It was a lazy Sunday morning. I woke up without the alarm screaming in my ears. The new habit of checking my mobile phone for time made me see the clock on the screen that showed 8:00 am. I had a video shoot at 10:00 am at office that day,…
View More Living in a different time zone