Mind of Mark Madhavan

Beginning of a beautiful friendship

2020-05-31T06:26:00.000-07:00

Next day, I couldn't wait for the science class. I even had colored chalks ready so I can explain chemical energy effectively.

"I hope the teacher doesn't choose you for the quiz team," Bhumika said before the science class. "Both for your sake and the janitor's."

Maybe she thought she was scaring me, but she was just coming off desperate. I wondered whether I could use her desperation for the good of everybody.

"If you are so worried, why don't we make a deal. You help me out a little and I help you out a little," I said. She looked at me suspiciously.

"I will decline to participate in the quiz, if you recommend the janitor to the teacher for the lab attendant job," I said.

Okay, so I wanted to help the janitor. I just didn't want to be seen helping him because, well! it will be bad for my image. But I knew Bhumika had no such qualms! She didn't have any problems with being a nerd. I mean she wanted to participate in the inter school quiz!

"Why do you think the teacher will listen to me?" Bhumika asked.

"You are his favorite student. You will find a way if you really want the place in quiz team," I said.

Bhumika thought a little but finally agreed. We shook hands on the deal.

The science teacher appeared at the door and suddenly everybody became silent. He reached his desk and surveyed around the class. I tried to hide my eagerness and look normal.

"So, what do you guys say for ...," the class teacher drawled.

My body slowly tensed in expectation as I got ready to be called to explain in chemical energy.

"... a surprise test," the class teacher finished.

What! I looked at the teacher confused. Had he forgotten what he said yesterday?

"Sir! You told me that I should explain chemical energy today," I got up.

"Yes, I said that so the surprise test would really come as a surprise," the class teacher said chuckling.

"Oh! By the way, whoever gets maximum marks will represent our school in the inter school quiz competition," the class teacher said. As he said, his head automatically turned towards Bhumika and a trace of smile appeared in his face.

I turned to look at Bhumika too. As soon as she saw me, she started gesticulating wildly. I knew what she was trying to say - The deal is Off.

I wish I could say that I aced the test and got into the quiz team. But the test was on periodic table. To ace the test, I had to know the names of hundred elements, their hundred symbols, hundred years in which they were discovered and so on. In short, I had to be Bhumika.

Qns : Which scientist exclaimed 'Eureka!'
Ans : Scientist Archimedes exclaimed Eureka.

Qns : What did Archimedes discover?
Ans : Maybe, Bathtub??

"I am sorry. I couldn't help you," I told the janitor in the evening. "I tried though."

After the test, I did ask the teacher about the lab attendant job. I really did want to help the janitor. But he said he had already selected a candidate -his nephew!

"As usual the job doesn't go to the most deserving candidate," he said as he mopped the floor.

I felt bad for him.

"I think I can cheer you up. I have a story idea for you, an idea for the greatest story," I said. "That is if you are still interested in writing."

"Are you kidding?" The janitor asked. "Writing is my first love. Tell me about the idea."

So I told him about my dream and story idea of an astronaut getting stuck in a planet which is being slowly sucked by a massive star nearby.

"It is science fiction," the janitor said doubtful.

"Yeah! But Hollywood would be interested, if you write well."

The janitor nodded thoughtfully.

"Are you sure you don't want to write yourself," the janitor asked.

"Nah! Between homework and the journal I haven't got time," I said. "Besides our class is going to a farm for next two weeks for a practical class on agriculture."

"Okay then!" the janitor said. "I will mention you in the acknowledgements of my book."

"So are we friends again?" I asked.

"We will always be friends!" the janitor said. "Common let's have a hug!" .

I looked around before politely declining.

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You have to dream before your dreams can come true

2020-05-26T04:11:00.002-07:00

"Nooooo!" I woke up screaming.

It took a moment for me to grasp that I was in my bedroom and it was all a dream. A wave of relief washed over me.

As I recollected the dream, the similarity of the dream and the YouTube magnet video struck me. In the video a strong magnet pulled a weaker magnet apart. In the dream a massive star pulled a small planet apart . I lay awake thinking about the similarities between the video and the dream. In the video, it was the magnetic force that pulled the balls; in the dream it was the gravitational force that pulled the rocks. In the video, the small magnets had lot of energy when they snapped to the powerful magnet. In the dream, the rock chunks will have a lot of energy when the fall on star's surface.

I lay wondering whether similar thing happen with electric force too. Then it struck me. Yes! It does and it is called chemical reaction!

Atoms are made of massive positively charged nucleus in the middle and the light negatively charged electrons revolving around it. I wondered what would happen if a powerful atom comes near a weak atom. Would electrons rip off from the weak atom and fly towards the powerful atom just like the magnetic balls did in YouTube video and the rocks did in the dream? If they did, those electrons will have lot of kinetic energy which could be used to do work. So Chemical energy is nothing but electrical energy really!

Chemical energy is just like magnetic energy and Gravitational Energy
but in between atoms and electrons

I had tried to understand why when Petrol burns in Oxygen, we get lot of energy. The usual answer is that Petrol has lot of chemical energy. And that is what I had been trying to understand. And now thanks to the dream, I have been able to understand it! Assume that Oxygen has a great attraction for electrons. (It behaves like a strong magnet in the Youtube video). Also assume that the carbon atom in Petrol has much lesser attraction. (It behaves like the rhomboid magnet in the Youtube video). Now what will happen if we bring Petrol and Oxygen together in a chemical reaction? The electrons in Petrol molecule will be pulled towards Oxygen and the Petrol molecule will be ripped off. This will release lot of energy just like we saw in the YouTube video. And this energy is what we call chemical energy!

I got off my bed and went to the desk. I wanted to see whether I can explain photosynthesis using the way I had understood chemical reactions and chemical energy. It was difficult, but I stuck at it for an hour till I finally had a better understanding of photosynthesis. Let me try to explain it to to you too.

Chemical reactions happen because different nucleus have different capacity to attract electrons. Some atomic nucleus are like weak magnets (Sodium, Potassium, Carbon). Some atomic nucleus are like powerful magnets( Chlorine, Oxygen). Reactions where electrons fly from Carbon (weak magnet) to Oxygen (strong magnet) happen naturally. And these chemical reactions release lot of energy. (Remember the 'thud'! sound in the video when magnetic balls attach to strong magnet)

Reactions where electrons go away from Oxygen (strong magnet) to Carbon (weak magnet) don't happen naturally. We have to supply energy to make that happen. (Remember the effort the person puts to peel the magnetic balls from the powerful magnet. That is the kind of energy we need to supply. Of course we don't supply energy manually, but by heating and pressurizing.)

When we burn petrol in air, the chemical reaction is nothing but Oxygen (stronger magnet) pulling off the electrons from carbon (weaker magnet) in petrol. This reaction forms carbon Di oxide and water which escapes through exhaust. But the reaction also releases lot of energy , as heat, which is what is used to move the car. But Petrol cannot happen from Carbon Di oxide and water unless we supply a lot of energy. That is why Petrol is usually formed underground where there is lot of heat and pressure.

Now let us take a look at another reaction where we have to supply energy. This is a reaction where Glucose molecule is made.

Glucose (C6H12O6) is made from Carbon di oxide (CO2) and Water (H2O). To make this reaction happen we have to remove electrons from Oxygen (a strong magnet) in water(H2O). We need to give a lot of energy, just like the person in the video where he peeled the magnetic balls. But the energy needed is low enough to be obtained above ground. In fact, plants does exactly that. It uses the energy from sunlight, pulls the electron off oxygen in H2O and gives it to carbon in CO2 to form glucose. We call this reaction photosynthesis.

The Glucose that plants produce is consumed by us. When we need energy, all we do is burn glucose in air. Electrons from Carbon (weaker magnet) in glucose will rush towards oxygen (stronger magnet) releasing energy. That is exactly what we do when we breathe We inhale oxygen, burn glucose and use the released energy to do work. We call this reaction respiration.

The alarm in my father's bedroom chimed. A new day has started! My situation has not improved a lot. I and Janitor are having a fight. Bhumika is blackmailing me. But at least, now I understand chemical energy.

It is a good start for the day, I think

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Dogs chase me more often in my dreams

2020-05-22T05:42:00.001-07:00

When I reached home, my parents were watching the science fiction movie Martian. The movie is about an astronaut who gets stuck in Mars because his crew leaves him behind and his struggles to survive till he is rescued. If I ever become an astronaut, I will never go on expedition to planets that has no life. That will be my rule number one.

What do you mean my breath smells bad?

My dinner was on the table. Looks like my parents have had their dinner without me. My rule number two will be : my parents cannot be in my crew. I don't want to be left behind in Mars because I am an hour late to get to shuttle.

"Do you want to watch this Matt Damon movie with us? It has lot of science in it," my mother asked.

I said I already had my quota of science in school. I took the dinner to my room. I was planning to 'go deep' on chemical equation but all I did was watch videos about magnets on Internet.

I heard my parents switching off the TV and going to bed halfway through the movie. I guess there was lot of science in the movie. I decided to go to bed too. But I wasn't able to sleep and lay staring into the dark and thinking about the day. I had a fight with the janitor, I did not understand chemical energy and Bhumika threatened to tell on me to the class teacher. I was feeling lousy. Eventually I drifted off to sleep, but it was very disturbed.

"We are almost done. I have to just go out and take one last soil sample," I tell my fellow astronaut and come out of the space shuttle. We are on a uninhabited planet far off from earth. The planet is revolving around a massive star, a star so massive that its gravity is pulling rocks off the planet. If a stone is dropped on this planet, it will not fall to the planet, but slowly drift up towards the star.

When I was young, my inspiration was a janitor. One day he showed me a video of a powerful magnet pulling off the magnetic balls that made another magnet.Well, this is same but due to gravity. The star is pulling off the stuff that makes this planet.Walking is tough on this planet, because if I don't take care I will drift towards the star too! I have a motorized anchor which drills into the solid ground for support. But one will never break their iPhone here, because it will just drift slowly up! I collect soil and come back to the shuttle. I am just few meters away from the shuttle. In a minute, our expedition will be done and we can go back to the safety and misery of earth.

"So long sucker! This is for replacing me in the inter school quiz team," my partner tells in my earpiece and the space shuttle starts off without me.

"Wait! I am sorry, Bhumika!" I shout. But I just hear her laughter. And then I start drifting. I realize I had dropped my anchor in panic and the star is sucking me in. I look around and see rocks small and big on their journey to fiery death. I have to stop drifting off if I want to survive.

How do I stop drifting? I think vigorously. How do birds and planes fly on sweet earth? I have to do the same here, but in the opposite direction, to stop falling into the star. I flap my arms. Nope! I still drift towards the star, the gravity of the star is stronger. I am drifting slowly now, but as I go nearer and nearer to the star, it will suck me harder and harder and I will become faster and faster. Pretty soon I will be flying so fast, that I will be shred to pieces.

"I will have lot of kinetic energy when I reach the star, my friend!" I wanted to tell the janitor. He was my inspiration to become astronaut. "But the total energy is still conserved. It is just my potential energy I have now that is getting converted to kinetic energy. It is just like a ball falling on earth. But now I am falling from a small planet into a massive star."

I start crying. But the tear drop won't fall to the planet. It is also drifting to the star. Suddenly I become strong. From somewhere, I hear the Martian theme music. I resolve I am not going to be sucked into the star. I look around and see a huge mountain some distance away. I just need to push myself towards the mountain. Once I reach that I can grab on to it. But how can I do that? Then I have an idea.

I use a big rock floating on my side to jump off towards the mountain. Like that tiger jumping off the falling rocks in Kung Fu panda movie, I jump off drifting rocks repeatedly towards the mountain. My only hope is that I reach the mountain before I drift off too much. I kick harder and harder against the floating rocks. The Martian theme music plays louder in my ears.

It is no good! I am almost at the level of the peak and I am still two hundred meters away from the mountain. I stop kicking against the rocks. What is the use? When I reach the mountain, the peak will be just one arm length below. One arm too low! "So, this is the end, my friend. I hope you are safe in earth cleaning the library somewhere," I telepathically tell the janitor and close my eyes.

Suddenly something hits me hard on my back startling me. I see a jet of rocks falling slowly towards the planet! Amidst all the rocks that are drifting towards the star, a jet of rocks are falling in opposite direction towards the planet! I am confused what is happening and then I realize. METEOR SHOWER!

These meteors have been travelling towards the planet very fast for a very long time. Remember the meteors that crashed into earth and finished off those dinosaurs. Well, these meteors would have done the same to me and the planet. But luckily, the massive star was pulling these meteors and they have slowed down like a braking car!! Now they will gently fall on the planet surface. If I can just hold on to a passing big meteor rock, I will land on planet and then I can hold on to the firm ground! Of course I might still die because of hunger, but I will have defeated the gravity of star at least. It is time for one more round of The Martian theme music.

I look around and see a boulder of a meteor coming down. I just have to time my kick on a rock so that I can latch to the meteor boulder going down. I wait for a second. Now! I kick and grab the meteor. I am hanging by nails on the meteor falling towards the planet where I will die of hunger. This is the happiest moment of my life!

"Get off the meteor!" Somebody is kicking my hand and trying to push me off the meteor. I lift my head and see who it is. It is my class teacher.

"Tell me what is chemical energy or I will push you off," he says.

"But I don't know what is chemical energy," I say. He kicks me hard and I leave my hold.

"Nooooooo!" I shout as I drift off again towards the star.

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A friend in need has a FIEND indeed

2020-05-21T09:12:00.005-07:00

After the school was over, I waited for everybody to clear out and then rushed to the library. I had to talk to my fellow scientist, the janitor, to figure out the knotty problem of the chemical energy. He was on the library computer, looking at some videos of magnets on YouTube.

"I just wanted to see how a powerful magnet pulls nails off weaker magnets," the janitor said. "But this video is even better. Take a look."

'Should I see some fun video or do some serious research,' I thought for a moment. Then I scolded myself for even thinking like that. I told the janitor in a firm voice, "show me the video."

It was a cool video. Somebody had made a big rhomboid by attaching lot of small magnetic balls. Then he brought a very powerful magnet near this magnetic balls. The magnetic balls broke up violently and attached to the powerful magnet.

"Did you see how violently the magnetic balls snapped to the powerful magnet?" The janitor asked. "Did you hear the sound they made when they snapped?"

"Yes!" I said. "Those magnetic balls darted like a bullet."

Then, in the video, the person started peeling the magnetic balls off the powerful magnet.

"Boy! That magnet is very powerful, isn't it?" The janitor asked. "Look, how much effort he is putting to pull those magnetic balls away!"

"Yeah!" I said mesmerized.

I knew I was wasting my time. I had to find about chemical energy. But I asked the janitor," Hey! Did you see that viral cat video?"

We wasted an hour on videos before one of us came to our senses. It was the janitor.

"We better stop it. I have something important to discuss. I need your help," the janitor said,

"What a coincidence! Even I needed your help. But you go first."

"I heard that a vacancy has come up in the physics lab. The current lab attendant has retired. So I thought I would apply for that job," the janitor said.

'You! For the lab attendant job. Do you even have the qualification?' I wanted to ask. But one can't be so rude to someone, especially after watching cat videos for an hour with him.

"Good!" I said. "Why do you need my help?"

"I thought you can put in a good word for me with your class teacher. Seeing how I helped you with understanding all this work and energy."

"Woah! You helped me!" I asked surprised. "I helped YOU!"

"All right, All right! No problem," the janitor said. "You helped me a bit. I helped you a bit. But the question is can you recommend me for the job to your class teacher. I heard he is the one who is recruiting."

I looked at him confused. Did he have any idea how strange his request his? What did he want me to do? Go to my class teacher and tell him that I am learning Science from janitor! And then ask him whether he could appoint him as lab attendant.

"Look! You wanted to write the greatest book, didn't you?" I asked. "That's why you took this job!"

"I don't have it in me, man! It has been four years and I haven't even written one chapter," the janitor shook his head ruefully. "But our discussions about work and energy have opened my eyes! Now I know what I really want to be! I don't want to become the greatest writer. I want to be the greatest scientist. That's why I need your help.I need the job in a science lab to realize my dream."

That's when something in me snapped.

"Will you wake up?" I shouted. "Forget becoming greatest writer or scientist. You are not even going to become world's greatest janitor."

But the moment I said it, I knew I made a mistake. I saw in his eyes how much I had hurt him. I shouldn't have said that. He was my friend! I mean, I watched cat videos with him!

I turned around and left the library without saying a word.

"So, this is what you do in the library," a voice said from behind me. I was just outside the school walking towards my home.

I turned and saw Bhumika.

"Oh, you!" I sighed. She was the last person I wanted to witness my showdown with janitor. "Why are you following me?"

"Because I wanted to find out who is helping you to takeover my spot in inter school science quiz team," she said.

"What!" I asked confused.

"Oh! Don't pretend like you don't know. Mark Madhavan, the last bencher, the good for nothing student suddenly gets interested in science! And that too just two days before the team for inter school quiz is going to be announced," she said.

"Oh! You are so wrong!" I said once I realized what she was saying.

The city schools organized a science quiz every year. Each school sends one student as participant and one hundred students as forced audience to the quiz. Last year I was selected to be the forced audience. That is why I even know about the quiz. It was an eye opener for me. In the contest they asked questions like, 'Who invented the safety lamp?' and nobody, I mean nobody asked, "What is safety lamp?" They didn't even say, 'who cares!' Instead, they correctly answered, "Laurel and hardy". Or something like that.

"I wouldn't participate in it even if they chain me and make me go," I said.

"Don't think you can fool me for a second," Bhumika said. "I have won it for the last two years. And I will be selected this year also and win it."

For a moment, I wished I would be selected instead of her just to spite her. But then I remembered questions like, 'I discovered the gas methamphitamiinphosphinoSTOPIT! Who am I?' and I shuddered.

"If you spoil my plans somehow, you know what will happen, right?" She asked menacingly. "I will tell the class teacher that you learnt all that stuff about work and energy from janitor."

"That's not true!" I said.

"It doesn't matter," she said. "Do you think the class teacher will want to find out the truth?"

She was right. "Look! You don't need to worry about me. I am not interested in that quiz," I said and started walking towards home.

"Hey! One last thing. Can you send me the link to that viral cat video?" She asked from behind.

She had some nerve. I am not going to send her the link for at least thirty minutes. Let her suffer!

I started walking fast towards home. It was already late and I was afraid my parents would be worried, especially if there is nothing to watch on TV.

It's all heating up!

2020-05-20T03:35:00.007-07:00

I took the chalk and walked towards the board. I could have stood there doing nothing. But it would have just prolonged my agony. I had had enough of it. I was just going to tell something, let the teacher have some fun, and then go back to desk and become Mr. Invisible for the rest of the year.

'Work and Energy,' I wrote on the board.

"Work is pushing or lifting something. We need energy to do work," I started mechanically.

"Sir! I have a doubt," a voice came. It was the class teacher. He had his hands raised.

There was suppressed giggle in the class room.

"You say we need energy to do work, right?" The teacher said.

I nodded.

"Okay, Let us say I don't do any work. I just sleep or I hibernate like a bear." He stretched his hands out sideways and made a guttural sound - Grrrrr! Grrrrr! - a poor imitation of a bear. But the class laughed.

"Do I still need energy? Do I still need to eat food?"

I smiled inside. This was the first doubt I and the Janitor had when we were learning. At that time it looked like a very big puzzle. But now it did not.

"We may not be moving, but everything inside us is moving. The blood is flowing, the heart is beating. Our brain is working.All these are internal work and they will need energy. So even if we sleep continuously, we will still need food to keep us alive. Maybe, bears can last longer than us without food because they have evolved much more than us to reduce the energy needs."

I stopped again.

The class was silent. The teacher looked at me for a long moment. Maybe he did not expect me to answer the question..

"Ok," He said finally. "Now tell us about different forms of energy."

I went to the board and wrote some forms of energy

Different energies of a ball

1. Kinetic Energy - energy due to movement of ball

2. Potential Energy - energy due to how high the ball is

3. Heat Energy (or Thermal Energy) - energy due to how hot the ball is

My hand started shaking as I wrote the next energy type.

4. Chemical Energy

I had not understood what is chemical energy or how Petrol, when it burns in air, gives us energy. I hoped I can bluff my way through it or the teacher would ask me to stop before I came to it.

"First, Let us see kinetic energy" I said.

"No," the class teacher said. "Everybody knows about kinetic, potential energy. Why don't you explain about heat energy and chemical energy?" He asked.

"Sure," I said and walked back to the board. But I was not sure inside at all.Only heat energy remained between me and the public display of my ignorance. I better stretch heat energy topic till the end of the class or I would look like a fool.

"Thermal energy is the energy in an object depending on how hot it is. If you have a ball at 30 degrees and a ball at 40 degrees, the ball at 40 degrees has more energy," I said.

"Can you prove it?" The class teacher asked. "You said energy is the ability to do work, right? So can you show that a ball at higher temperature will push or lift more?" The class teacher asked.

I looked at him for a moment. I didn't know what he was trying to do. But I can't find fault because these were valid questions after all. Thankfully I knew the answer for the questions because of my sessions with the janitor.

"Let us try to take water first and show how hotter object does more work," I said.

I told them about an experiment which was done by 8th graders in every school. It involves taking three jars of water at different temperatures - one is freezing cold water, another at room temperature and the last one boiling hot. Then you just add a couple of drops of food coloring and wait for two minutes. The color would have completely spread throughout the jar with boiling water. The color would have not mixed so well in the water at room temperature and at the jar with cold water, no mixing would have taken place.

"Can you guess why such a thing would happen?" I asked the class.

There were different answers, but none of them correct. We had all done the experiment, but not learned anything. Neither had I, till I and janitor tried to understand work and energy.

"Well, the water in all three jars look to be at rest. But if you can see the molecules of water in three jars, you will see that they are moving at different speeds. The hotter the liquid, the faster the molecules will be moving. In fact, thermal energy is nothing but kinetic energy of the molecules."

Then I asked them whether they can explain why the food color spread faster in hotter liquid. This time they answered it correctly.

"The faster the water molecules are, the harder they hit the food color molecules and make them move," they said.

I agreed with them. We had proved that the hotter water does more work than colder water because it had moved the food color more.

"I can imagine molecules of water and air moving faster when they are heated. But how can molecules of solid move faster? They don't move at all. That is why they are solid, isn't it? Bhumika asked.

Well, honestly I didn't know Bhumika imagined. I thought she just memorized. But what she asked was a valid question. The molecules of solid don't move around like liquid and gases.

"You are right. The molecules of solid don't move around. They remain at the same place. But they jiggle or vibrate at the same place. Hotter the object, harder they vibrate. So hotter solids have more energy," I said.

"Let's move on now. Can you explain chemical energy?" The class teacher asked and my heart skipped a beat.

I walked slowly wondering what to do when a miracle happened. The class bell rang.

The class teacher got up and came over to me.

"You will explain chemical energy tomorrow," he said. "So better be prepared."

He zugzwanged me!

2020-05-17T01:36:00.010-07:00

The rule in my house is that I am not supposed to watch those cop shows on TV. So I watch them on mobile. Of course, only when my parents are not watching me. One thing I have learnt from all those shows is that if you get caught, you don't admit to nothing. (Yeah! That is how Italian mobs speak - another thing I learnt.)

When the class teacher grilled me about what the fight was between me and Bhumika I said nothing. Funny thing was Bhumika didn't crack either. Maybe she learnt it from history books. Maybe one of Buddha's teaching is, "Tell the teachers nothing."

"So you guys won't say why you were fighting," The class teacher said frustrated. We remained silent. I thought the class teacher would excuse Bhumika but punish me by making me stand outside the class with arms raised. Bhumika is a star student. The justice system, err... the school system is always loaded in favour of star students. But if I am lucky, Bhumika will also be punished and that would make this whole punishment at least enjoyable.

An eye for an eye halves
the business of eye doctors.

"Since I can't find out what happened I have to send one of you to the principal," the class teacher said. It didn't make sense to me. I mean, one doesn't get sent to principal's room even if they cause an explosion accidentally on purpose in the lab. Trust me, I know!

"Do you want to go to principal's office, Madhavan?" Class teacher asked looking at me, smiling teasingly.

I remained silent not understanding what was going on. This didn't happen in cop shows on TV, a police telling a petty thief that he is going to be killed in encounter!

Seeing me remain silent, he turned his face towards Bhumika slowly.

"No sir! Please don't send me to principal sir!" Bhumika said panicked.

Then it struck me, our class teacher was playing the oldest trick in the cop book. He was turning one against the other!

I wanted to assure Bhumika that there was no way the class teacher would send us to principal. But Bhumuka had already folded.

"I will tell you everything, sir" Bhumika said. "Please don't send me to principal's room,sir!."

"Okay then," The class teacher said, "Go on".

As Bhumika started singing he turned towards me and smiled, a smile that told me, 'Maybe you are a smart eighth standard student who sees cop shows. But I am a teacher! I have been seeing smart eighth standard students who see cop shows since Doordarshan days.'

Bhumika revealed everything - the Matrix energy game, the library, the paper balls. Apparently she had come one evening to library to return some book and had seen me and the janitor tossing around paper balls.

"So Mr. Mark Madhavan Menon Ji," the teacher said in a mock respectful tone, "Tell the class why you are spending your evening time in the library?"

'Don't admit to nothing,' I told myself as I remained silent.

"Were you going deeper for your article on photosynthesis?" he asked. "But what has Photosynthesis got to do with energy and work?"

'Everything,' I wanted to shout. I mean Photosynthesis is preparing food using energy from sunlight. And Food is consumed to get energy to do work. So photosynthesis has got everything to do with energy and work.

But I did not shout. I did not even open my mouth. 'Don't admit to nothing,' I kept saying to myself.

But I was also praying, praying that the class teacher did not see my eyes were filling with tears and I was about to break.

"And why were you discussing with Janitor?" The class teacher asked.

"Tell me Mark Madhavan Menon Ji, were you teaching him or learning from him or just talking to him because he is your friend?"

I was silent. And praying. And fighting back my tears.

"You better tell me, or you are going to principal's room. But this time it is for real," the class teacher said.

I looked at his eyes and I knew he meant it. I knew time had come to open my mouth and say something.

But what can I say? In chess, there is a term called zugzwang. (No! I do not know chess. I am not a nerd! It is the name of a chess academy that is on my way to the mall.) It is a situation in a chess game, where no matter what move you make you will lose advantage. That was the situation I was in. Telling my science teacher that I and the janitor were learning work and energy is like Anushka Sharma telling Virat kohli that she liked Rohit Sharma's batting better. Unthinkable!

Being friend with janitor meant everybody would practice 'social distancing' with me. Also unthinkable! So what was left?

"He.." I said, "He had some doubts, sir"

"Janitor had some doubts. On work and energy. Wow!" The teacher said. "He must be the Student of the Year"

The class laughed.

"And you taught him. Fantastic! That gives me an idea!" The class teacher said.

He gestured Bhumika to go to her desk. He himself went over and sat at my desk.

Now that I was the only one standing in the class, I felt all alone and scared. 'Please don't cry,' I started saying to myself.

"Mark Madhavan Menon Ji," The class teacher said, "Please teach us also about Work and Energy."

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It is all Energy or Maya. Take your pick.

2020-05-14T02:53:00.010-07:00

My grandmother says that as a kid I didn't speak a single word for three years. But then in a span of one week, she said, I had started speaking words, sentences and quotable quotes.

I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day..
I will understand conservation of energy.

Anyway, that is exactly what happened after my session with the janitor. We were identifying newer and newer ways to move the paper ball - we were identifying more and more forms of energy.

When my mother dropped the cycle key that I had forgotten from the balcony, I saw that it dropped faster and faster as it fell. Hey! that speed of the key could move a paper ball. So an object has some energy just because it is at height, I realized. I wondered what that energy is called. Then it hit me - I meant the keys."Ouch!" I said, rubbing my head. (The energy associated with height is called as potential energy, I remembered later)

Roller Coaster
At 1: high above the ground. (High Potential Energy), very less speed (Low Kinetic Energy)
At 2: just above the ground. (Low Potential Energy), very high speed (High Kinetic Energy)
But total energy remains constant in 1 and 2

When the janitor made Dal in his pressure cooker, he saw the weight lift up and steam escaping with a whistling noise. And he immediately realized that heat has energy! By heating water, he had built steam in the cooker. And when enough steam had been built, it lifted heavy steel weight, forget a paper ball. He said he was so happy that he danced for fifteen minutes singing, "I have discovered heat energy." Then, for dinner, he ate burnt Dal.

I saw my kid brother playing with bow and arrow in the park and realized that the stretched string has energy, because when my kid brother released the string, it pushed the arrow so hard that the arrow flew to the sky. A stretched string is like an elastic band, I realized. I pull the bow string spending my energy. This stretches the string giving it elastic energy. When I release the string, the string does work on the arrow. The string goes to normal length losing its energy, but the arrow gains kinetic energy because it is moving fast. Total Energy is conserved!

"Mom! a stretched rubber band has energy!" I said when I reached home. "I think it is called elastic energy."

"Okay! where is your younger brother? Did you leave him in the park alone?" She asked.

When electricity went off and I lit a candle, I saw the paraffin wax melting and heat and light energy getting created. But I did not know what energy was getting transformed.

"Dad! What energy is getting converted into light in a candle?"

"Don't you know chemical energy? It is just the way car runs on petrol or we metabolize our food to get energy," my dad said.

"But what exactly is chemical energy. How do we metabolize to do work?" I asked.

"Just bring the candle, will you?"He said. He didn't know what chemical energy or metabolism was.

He was just using the words like a parrot telling "Come in! Welcome" without ever knowing what it means.

But I was not like my father. I really understood energy! I heard, saw and felt energy forms and its transformations. I was like the hero, Neo, in that old movie (Matrix, I think it is called) that my father had shown me. The hero and everyone else lived in a virtual reality created by machines, and once he got that enlightenment that he was living in virtual world, he did not see people and buildings anymore, but just bits and bytes. It was exactly like that for me.

I see it now! The reality - the bits and bytes.
But I want to see it in Arial, size 24.
Can I change the settings of reality?

At dinner table, my father opened his mouth to say something.I saw the food that he had eaten before, a form of chemical energy, being converted into elastic energy to stretch his jaw muscles and open his mouth. As he talked, more chemical energy was converted into kinetic energy to move the tongue, vocal cords and to cause a disturbance in the air . This disturbance in air moved like a wave in the swimming pool when a pebble is dropped. Okay, that wave of air disturbance is what is called sound energy, I said to myself. The sound wave reached me in slow motion.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I heard in my father's voice.

'Man! It must be horrible to be like the hero of that movie Matrix,' I thought.

I saw chemical energy in my body getting converted into electrical energy in brain and creating the thought pattern in my mind.

That is how I designed a game called Energy Matrix which we played in school during class hours. It is a very simple game. One person will tell a scenario, say a batsman hitting a cricket ball, and the other person should identify all the energy transformations that take place. You too can introduce this game in your class. But make sure you are cool enough else you will get a HALL OF FAME entry to the nerd club of school. No questions asked.

"You lose again! Those are not the energy transformations that happen when you drop a ball to the floor," I told Bookworm Bhumika.

"As the ball drops from height and gains speed, potential energy of the ball gets converted into kinetic energy. When it strikes the floor, slows down and gets compressed, kinetic energy gets transferred into sound energy and elastic energy. As it decompresses and rises from the floor again, elastic energy converts back to kinetic energy. And of course, as the ball goes up, the kinetic energy becomes potential energy again"

The crowd surrounding us cheered wildly. Some even started dancing.

Every class has its share of nerds who want to be like Einstein or Bill Gates or Vishwanathan Anand. But Bookworm Bhumika was no ordinary nerd. She wanted to be Einstein and Bill Gates and Vishwanathan Anand. Her idea of taking a break from studying science was doing algebra.

"This game is stupid," She shouted angrily.

"Like the game you invented is gold," I said and everybody laughed. Bookworm Bhumika had invented, 'Tell what happened' game. Somebody would call out a year, say 1526. and the other person , usually Bhumika, would say what happened in that year. (First battle of Panipat)

Bookworm Bhumika was the undefeated champion of 'Tell what happened' game because, well, she memorized all school books from cover to cover and no one else wanted to play.

In fact, once to test her, I asked her the significance of the year 2013.

Pat came her reply, "Print date of first edition of the science book."

"Well, at least my game helps you remember all the years and score marks in the exam," Bhumika said. "How does your game help? Tell me how does it help."

"Well, my game helps you to learn new concepts," I said.

"Oh! New concepts, I see. I thought this game helps you to get new friends, new friends like..." she paused and looked around. I thought she was referring to those standing around us and cheering me.

".... like your elderly friend at the library," she said loud.

The whole class went silent and the time slowed down.

My body went in overdrive burning chemical energy which was converted into kinetic energy as my heart beat increased rapidly, which caused blood to be pumped into my blood vessels increasing pressure energy in my capillaries - which stretched my muscles increasing the elastic energy, making it ready to swing into action. It was time for fight or flight.

"You ..." I hissed as I got up and lifted my hand.

"Stop it," boomed my class teacher from the entrance.

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Every subject is interesting, but all classes are boring.

2020-05-12T21:59:00.003-07:00

"I am just going to pretend that I don't know anything about work and energy, OK?" The janitor said when we met again today.

Not really a difficult job, I thought to myself.

"So, we know that energy is the ability to work. And work is..."

Both of us did not remember Wikipedia's definition of work. I was about to fire up the browser, but he stopped me.

"Let us just go with common sense definition of work, okay?" The janitor said. "What is work according to you?"

"If you lift or move something then I would say you have done work," I said.

"Great, I like it," The janitor said. "Let us go with that definition."

Then he took my notebook, tore a paper and balled it and kept on the table. If a classmate of mine had done it we would be rolling on the ground fighting. But he was twice my size and his dress was little dirty. So I let it slide.

"If something can move this ball, then it has energy according to your definition. Do you agree?" He asked me.

I nodded in agreement. "See! I can push it," I said gently tapping the paper ball. It rolled along the table towards him."So I have energy," I said.

"So do I," he said and tapped the ball back to me.

"Now we know that wind has energy, because...," I blew on the paper ball with my mouth and it bounced across to the janitor.

"Wind is flowing air, I get it. Great! So wind has energy," The janitor said as he took the ball and placed it back at the center.

"What other energy do you know?" The janitor asked.

"Magnetic energy," I said and immediately.

"Magnetic energy! Interesting. How can a magnet move a paper ball?"

Everybody knows magnet can't move a paper ball. Did that mean there is nothing called magnetic energy? Of course there is. Because magnets can move other magnets.

"Maybe we should not limit our test to just paper balls. We should include nails also," Janitor said. But we didn't like that idea because energy is energy right? It should be able to move everything.

Then an idea struck me. I came up with an ingenious way to move the paper ball with a magnet because I was smart and had a good knowledge of history!

Maybe you already know how to do it. If not, spend a minute on the picture below and you would get a clue.

We say Shah Jahan built Taj Mahal. But he didn't, did he?
He just got it built from some people who we don't even know.

The solution I came up with was simple.

"Let us keep a magnet near the paper. Now when we bring a second magnet near the first magnet, the two magnets will repel. The first magnet will move and strike the paper ball and move it," I said triumphantly.

"Bravo! The first magnet moves the second magnet and the second magnet moves the paper ball." He said exultant. "You must be the most intelligent student in your class."

I felt great, but just for a moment. Because the janitor came up with a bigger breakthrough next.

"Wait! The second magnet moved because of the magnetic energy of the first magnet. But what moved the paper ball? Definitely not magnetic energy?" The janitor asked.

He was right. If magnetic energy can move paper ball, there was no need for the second magnet. Magnetic energy is present between only magnets. But somehow I had used that magnetic energy to move a paper ball.

Maybe, I should get a Nobel prize!

"Actually what you did is not all that remarkable, isn't it?" The janitor asked as he tore another paper out of my notebook.

Man! He took away from me a Nobel prize and a paper. Just like that!

The janitor rolled the paper and made another ball and placed it near the first paper ball.

"Watch what I am doing," He said and tapped the first ball. It rolled and hit the second ball which moved.

"Isn't this exactly what you did, but with magnets?" The janitor asked.

I nodded and the janitor said, "You see, the second magnet did not move the paper ball because it was a magnet, but because it was moving. When an object is at rest, it has no energy and it can't move a paper ball. But when it moves, it has some energy because it can hit a paper ball and make it move. But what is that energy?"

"Kinetic energy!" I exclaimed. "Energy due to movement is called kinetic energy. I have studied about that."

"Wow! Kinetic energy, huh!" The janitor said impressed. "I didn't know it at all. You are awfully smart."

Okay, he figured it out himself, but I gave the correct name. Without me, he would have called it Tantric energy of movement or something like that.

"So I hit the ball and move it which means I did work...," the janitor was talking to himself, " and the ball started moving. And because of moving, it has kinetic energy. Since it has energy it can do work now. It can hit another ball and make that move."

I saw where he was coming from, but I didn't see where he was going.

"Oh my God! I understood what they said in Wikipedia. Work is nothing but transferring energy from one to another. By hitting the ball, I did some work. And that work transferred energy from me to the ball which started moving. Now it hits another ball and does work on it. When it does that, it transfers some kinetic energy from it to the other ball," He said.

"Yes! It is called conservation of energy," I said.

"What.." he asked puzzled, "conversation, did you say?"

"No! Conservation. It means energy is neither created nor destroyed. It is just transferred from one form to another; one part of system to another. You transferred the energy from inside you to the first ball. The first ball transferred it to the second ball"

"Wow! you know a lot of things," he said.

"No! I thought I knew. But I never could have explained before." I said. "But now I really know"

The janitor nodded and said, "You know what Feynman said, right? If you can't explain it to a six year old, then you don't know it."

"Who is Feynman?" I asked.

"I don't know," the janitor shrugged. "There are lot of books with his name in the shelf. But nobody issues it though."

We sat there trying to process what we had achieved. We had understood work and energy, and how work just transfers energy from one form to another. Sure, I have been studying it from class six. But today I understood! And for that, I had to thank the janitor, because without him, I don't think I could have understood.

"Thanks," I told him as we switched off the library lights and got ready to leave. "I think you must be the most intelligent janitor in the library."

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"I like a clean story", the janitor said.

2020-05-11T01:45:00.079-07:00

Today my class teacher asked me to show him a sample of my writing before we left for the farm. Just to make sure that I was up to it.

"Write why plants are important," he said. "Write about oxygen and photosynthesis, but go deeper," he said and winked. In academic circles, 'Going deeper' is a code-word for 'Going to Internet'

"Sure! I will go deeper," I said and nodded.

But I never planned to go to Internet. Internet has just information. But I was after knowledge, no! wisdom. I needed to go to the library and talk to the janitor.

The library janitor is my role model. He had left a high paying corporate career of security guard at an office to be a janitor because he wanted to be surrounded and inspired by books.

"This is just a temporary job," He had told me the day he joined the job. "I am going to write the world's greatest book." That was four years ago.

We had become good friends in the four years because I also wanted to write the world's greatest book. He was the one who introduced me to J.K, Rowling and told me to 'write like her'.

"The first chapter of my first book should not sound like a Wikipedia article! It should move people, make them laugh, cry and celebrate life," I told the janitor.

"And it should be about photosynthesis," the janitor reminded me.

"Yeah," I nodded wearily. I was sure there was nothing interesting about photosynthesis. Otherwise, photosynthesis wouldn't have been in school books.

"So tell me, what is photosynthesis?" the janitor asked.

"It is just some process by which plants use carbon di oxide, water to prepare food," I said. "It also uses energy from sunlight. But don't ask me anything beyond that. It is a bunch of chemical equations that I don't understand."

"Hmm! So...." The janitor said scratching his beard thoughtfully, "photosynthesis is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a chemical equation."

"Huh!" My jaw dropped. I had got the opening line of my book. I quickly jotted it down in my journal.

"Can you tell me more about this energy from sunlight at least?" Janitor asked. "What is energy really? Can we see it?"

"You can't see energy!" I said. "Haven't you heard people complaining they have no energy to do work?" I hear it all the time when I ask my mom to wash my T.shirt or make me cold coffee.

"I heard an eighty year old say that once," the janitor said. "He was fired the next day."

Maybe, I should see whether there is any chance of firing my mom, I thought.

"Okay! But what is work?" The janitor persisted. "I know it is sweeping floors, washing windows, But is that all?"

"No, writing homework, carrying books is also work," I said.

"Okay, let us say we don't do any of this. We don't move at all. We just lie in a place. So we are not doing any work. Then we don't need any energy? we don't need to eat food?" The janitor asked.

It didn't sound right. The more I lie doing nothing, the more I felt like eating something. But if energy is the ability to do work, then we shouldn't need any energy if we don't do any work, right?

"It is easy to ask questions, you know" I said resigned.

"Why don't you dig deeper," the janitor suggested. "Go to Internet."

But what we saw on Internet confused us even more.

Energy is the ability to do work.

-Aristotle

Work transfers energy from one system to another.

-Wikipedia

Basically Internet was saying that if you have energy, you can transfer energy! My grandmother used to say there is God because God said so. But the scientists had not done anything better with work and energy.

"Maybe, we shouldn't dig deeper, we should think deeper," Janitor said.

Well, he sure can come up with good one liners, I thought as I noted it down in my journal.

"But we should think deeper tomorrow," the janitor said. "I am wiped out. My brain hasn't worked this hard since I read Salman Rushdie."

I thanked him for his help and asked him whether we can leave separately because I did not want anybody to see me walking with janitor. I am not cool enough as it is.

I think the best horror story writer is the one who sleeps with the lights ON
....and during the daytime.

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When life gives lemon...

2020-05-09T08:56:00.007-07:00

"What do you want to hear first - bad news or... worse news?" Our class teacher asked us today. He sounded cheerful, even happy, like the way the teachers sound on Friday evenings when they know they don't have to see us for two whole days.

The bad news was that we are going to learn about agriculture and crop production in a 'hands on' manner. Yeah! We will be toiling in the field under the sun, ploughing and planting etc. The whole class groaned when our class teacher announced it. I noticed that his face lit up - teacher's faces light up only on the last day before summer holidays.

I asked what the worse news was. My teacher said he was glad that I, his favorite student, asked the question. He graduated in Physics, but mastered in sarcasm.

"You have to journal the whole exercise. Every day, for the next two weeks, you will write five pages on what you learnt that day." He was grinning ear to ear.

My heart sank for a moment, But then a thought struck me - why not I use the assignment to kick off my career as a writer? I mean, when life gives you a lemon, why not make ink out of lemon juice and write a book?

"That's great! I will journal the whole exercise," I said happily.

"Really!" He asked surprised. "That is two hundred words every page, my boy! Five pages of two hundred words each. And I will not count the words less than five letters." My teacher's face was exploding with happiness now like he had just won the lottery.

"I will not have it any other way, sir!" I declared ecstatic.

My teacher might have felt he has won the lottery, but I felt I have hit the jackpot.

UPDATE: It turns out that an ink made of lemon juice is invisible. So I have decided to write my book with the regular micro gel pen.

I don't know about you, but I don't feel like going to school on Mondays, Fridays and ...
Weekdays.

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Hi there!

2020-05-06T22:39:00.016-07:00

I am Madhavan. You can call me Mark Madhavan Menon, because, well, that is my name.

They say I cried non-stop for eight hours when my father uttered my name for the first time in my ears. What they don't know is I have still not stopped crying over my name. There is a long story behind my long name. My father wanted to name me Mark because he wanted me to grow to be like Mark Zuckerberg. My mother wanted to name me Madhavan because she had a crush on Madhavan. And of course, Menon has to be there in my name, because I am a Menon.

I am in class eight. When I grow up, I want to be in class nine. And when I grow up even more, I want to become a writer, a famous writer like Jeff Kinney.

Jeff Kinney : I am Kinney, Jeff kinney.

Me : I am Menon, Madhavan Menon, Mark Madhavan Menon

When I told my father that I want to write books, he asked me, "what kind of books? Books that gets sold or books that get awards?"

"Both," I said and he just laughed. I guess it is tough to make your parents happy, even if you are a superman.

Look Dad! I can fly and I fight evil.
What do you mean, you still want me to be a Doctor?

The only problem in my career plan is I am not able to write lately. Earlier, I used to write great, really great, like J.K Rowling. Then I got a letter from J.K Rowling's publisher saying they would sue me if I copy her books. Then I thought, 'OK! I will write like Shakespeare. Sure! not many might read me. But I will not get sued either.' But his play was full of lines like, 'What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds? Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.' Maybe, I have a German translation?

So now, I can't write nothing. I open my notebook and I have no idea what to write. I am beginning to feel that even Hillary Clinton has probably a better chance of realizing her dream than I, unless she still wants to become a U.S President. But I still remain hopeful of overcoming my writer's block. My father has ordered online the English version of Shakespeare's plays.

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