Dissent is a Self-Preserving Tool

Why You Want To Do What You Love

Managing Dissent: A Teenager's Souvenir

So there I was on an afternoon towards the end of the 70s doing the only thing that mattered in the universe: practising sapsiwaye with my no 5. football. I suddenly noticed a big black car parking on the sidewalk near our gate. I recognised the taillight of BR111, a Series 7 BMW. It was an easy guess as there weren't more than a handful of them around in those days. I kept on bouncing my football while expecting a policeman or government official to spring out of it with some important papers for my dad. The usual kind of stuff.

I was slightly surprised when I saw SSR himself emerging from his car and walking up alone the 25 or so metres of tarred alley that separated us. All kinds of thoughts raced through my mind. What is he doing here at this time of the day? Would he care for a game of pike-bare? The other thing I was wondering was how I should greet the Prime Minister in what was turning out to be a one-on-one encounter. Should I go for the regular 'uncle' or should I favour the kind of stiff walking I'd seen the chief of protocol do on TV? And I had stopped bouncing the ball because I wasn't sure if it was OK to bounce a football within a few metres of the Prime Minister's face.

I don't remember exactly how I finally greeted him but I do remember what he asked me: to papa kote? To which I answered that he's not well today and he's resting in my room. And I told him to wait where he was for a minute while I open the big sliding doors of our living room. He told me that this would be unnecessary and he preferred to follow me.

So he did and I walked a few feet in front of him at his pace and with my ball in one hand. Given that I also had to tell my dad that he was going to have a visitor I ran up the flight of stairs so as to distance the old man enough. I got into the room and with some trepidation told my dad who, you would have guessed, was not in an Armani suit: "Ramgoolam inn vinn get twa". He was surprised and asked me where the guy was. "Li pe monte leskalyer li pe vini la". He had just enough time to pull the bedsheet over him and a few seconds later SSR got into the room and greeted him with a "Kher, to pann vinn travaye zordi?". 

I was asked to get a chair for our visitor and left them chatting wondering why my dad didn't go to work when he seemed to be in an olympic form.

13 Short Works of Uber Physics Teacher

That's what you get from the delightful The Pleasure of Finding Things Out. It starts off with a transcript of the interview he did for BBC's Horizon (that's available on youtube) where he highlights the importance of using meaningful analogies when teaching, takes a swipe at silo mentality and reminds us that the reward for doing great work is getting the opportunity of doing it (his so-called kick in the discovery) and not whatever prize or benefit you may get for it. Then there are the must-read chapters on nanotechnology, the role of science in society and the inquiry into the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.

If I had to use two words to summarise this book I'd go for doubt and discussion. Which are to TINAwallahs what garlic is to Dracula.

P.S: TINA=There Is No Alternative