Mathematics: Enigma to Enlightenment
Apply Your Mind And Get The Answer
Enigma
It is memory which makes me nostalgic
Of the good old school days when I feared mathematics
I never got the theorems right
Couldn’t ever prove LHS is equal to the Right Hand Side
I never knew what the one man army ‘x’ did
And couldn't figure where did the ‘y’ hid
I secretly cursed Aryabhatta, the Indian scholar , founder of zero(0)
Solving equations was my all time sorrow
The three pillars of Mathematics
Algebra, Geometry and Arithmetics
Studying the abstract science of numbers
Devastated, convinced, it was beyond my caliber
Depression took over at an age so tender
Transformation — an alembic switch
I was shown a silver lining by my father
he proclaimed, “Apply your mind and get the answer
There is nothing under the sun, mind cannot decipher
If guided by passion, powered by focus and belief in oneself
Mind is driven by discipline
Journey might be rough, but destination is certain.
Apply your mind and get the answer
Learn the abc, practice, practice and become the master
Giddy up, like a horse, trot, run and canter
Not only in a mere subject
whenever life stumbles upon a hornets’ nest
Do not wander out to quell your quest
You hold the power
Apply your mind and get the answer”
Enlightenment
I practiced, practiced and re -learned the basics
Was no more crippled by the mighty mathematics
My belief witnessed a herculean transformation
From I cannot to I can became the new equation
Since then I am a believer
I apply my mind and get the answer
I no more fear sin theta, cos theta, Pythagoras,
Strengthened my command over calculus
Since then applying my mind and replacing I cannot to I can
has been my life’s game plan
PS: By the encouragement and the powerfully positive one-liner by my late father, Apply your mind and get the answer, I did fare very well in mathematics and till today it is a piece of cake for me. I cracked many mathematics and aptitude based exams.
Not only academically, but this one-liner is also a beacon of light for me in the dark days’ life offers. Holding fast to it, I am riding the high crests and low throughs of life’s ocean.
I am freed of the enigma of worrying unnecessarily about crippling challenges and incumbent issues since the Enlightenment that all the answers are within our reach, in our mind. All we have to do it search sincerely, apply our mind and get the answer.
This has been my life-saving mantra and I sincerely mean to spread it.
You might also want to read about my one more life-saving mantra: the Locus of Control
I thank Age of Empathy editors for providing a prompt, which motivated me to write this down.
Thank you for reading
© All Rights Reserved 2021 Indubala Kachhawa
