You should be good at mathematics to do civil engineering, good at drawing for mechanical but very good at magic if you want to do well in electrical,” warned our venerable old Professor Sanyal, more than three decades ago, during our second semester of engineering. Though the engineering scene has since changed drastically with more disciplines being added, the advice of the professor regarding civil engineering does hold good. However, it is still an enigma as to how I got through my degree and postgraduation with my poor grasp of mathematics — for me it was mathemagic because of the sheer incomprehensibility of the subject from calculus onwards.
Till Class Seven, mathematics was comprehensible as it was only arithmetic. Faced with algebra in Class Eight, coupled with the teaching being mundane and inadequate, most of the class was at sea. We carried on lurching and tottering and ‘solving’ problems at examinations, without having a clue as to what we were doing.
Mathematics became a real terror for the first time. Three years passed and we were about to face the Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination. Unlike now, passing this examination was a great thing then, and obtaining a first class, the ultimate, considering the fact that for most, this was the end of formal education. Three days and five examinations later, providence struck in the form of question paper leak and the remaining examinations were postponed by one month.
Suddenly the school swung into action and arranged extra classes. It was then that lady luck really smiled on us in the form of a stocky, well built sir who was also the NCC officer. He did not look much like a typical teacher with his big moustache and carefully brilliantined hair with a curl falling to the middle of his forehead, earning him the nick name ‘Curl Sir’. He was also known for his stentorian voice and mercurial temper, giving us the jitters.
The first class he took was a revelation. That Mathemagic could be made so interesting was a new awareness. Insisting on proper writing of numerals was the beginning. Unravelling the mysteries of algebra came next. He started with the basics and developed the subject. He taught us with so much involvement and zeal that what he taught us is still retained word for word, derivation for derivation.
The theorems and their proofs, thus, became rooted in firm understanding. Everything was explained with a practical and functional angle, useful in daily life. So captivating and gap-filling were his classes in spite of his reputation of being short-tempered. He demystified the subject by clearly elucidating the reasoning behind each operation, enabling us to reason on our own instead of learning by rote. Knowledge of frustum was used to measure the stacked metal and earth for road work much to the amusement of locals. Examples abound and suffice it to say that the uncertainty and despondence on account of the till then weak foundation gave way to a reasonable confidence and hopes of a better result in the examination.
Such teachers alone will lift teaching of mathematics from its perceived tedium to lofty heights of excitement and fun, converting mathemagic to mathefunmatics.