Mind of Mark Madhavan

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 ...

"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 negat...

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 ...

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. ...

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 fir...

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 tha...

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 le...