I clearly remembered the day; it was mid monsoon in 2000, and I was in my early thirteen. The whole day was raining, being lazy I decided to bunk the school on that day, giving a lame excuse to my mom of the possibility of catching a cold 😉. In Spring that year, my family relocated from a village nowhere in India to a suburb close to Calcutta (now it’s called Kolkata). So, I had to change my school, and as a shy dumbass, I hadn’t made many friends by that time, whom I could hang out with, neither I had access to the internet. My pass time then was reading—mostly novels or comics. However, that particular day I ended up checking my new physics textbook. To make things even more dramatic, for some god damn reason, mom lit an incense stick and kept it in my room. Now I think of the situation, it must have been a Devil’s conspiracy. Casually I started flipping the first few pages. The next thing I remembered, I already skimmed through about twenty to thirty-odd pages. I was so hooked like I was reading a thriller, and yet, everything that I read made complete sense. This had never happened with any other school text that I came across. Yep, that was the start of my love affair with Physics. Neither a teacher nor the story of a heroic physicist, but just a mere juxtaposition of drizzle outside and fragrance of incense burning indoor ignited the flame that is still on. A fair share of the credit must go to the authors, but unfortunately, I can’t recall their names. Perhaps this is how Science should work; it is our work and not our names that should be meaningful and impactful.
Do share how it had all started for you 🙂.
Coffee Break Special 