An eMagazine for TDRites
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Ramu (Sanskrit Pandit)’s Gallery
In Search of Scientific Curiosity
(V. Ramamurthy, # 2, 59 and 190 Mahadana Street, TDR)
The perpetual query on especially the minds of the young ones amazed by the success of the grown ups is ‘how did they get there’. I recently had the opportunity of meeting some childhood friends of mine whom I had not seen in several decades. In the interest of everyone and specially the citizens of TDR, I was asked by Individual Subramaniam to write a note on how I got interested in science. I had the privilege of growing up amidst people with good values on life and in the company of good friends as a son of a TAHS (Thiruvavadurai Adhenam High School) teacher on # 2 Mahadana Street. The heroes who directed me to my career choice as an adult are the teachers of TAHS. Although TAHS was a school in a small town it was not so small in doing what schools are supposed to do, namely inspire the students. It is the teachers there who made the difference in my life.
Due to the passage of time I recollect the arduous memorization of the addition and multiplication tables, but no distinct memories of anything in Science exist from my days at I to V form, all at Kadaitheru Elementary School. My memory lane begins with the lectures and demonstrations by honourable teachers Sri. Rangaswamy Iyengar, N. Venkatraman, N. Viswanthan and M. Venkatraman from the VI to the XI form (now called standard) at TAHS. These dedicated teachers had the remarkable ability to convey enthusiasm, present material with clarity and motivate students. While subjects such as history, geography and social studies taught by excellent teachers were interesting I felt the chapters in those subjects a bit repetitive and predictable; to me historical characters like Asoka, Baber, Akbar, Aurangzeb etc. whom I could only imagine from the pictures in the books were just the stalwarts of history and did not matter much to my immediate surrounding. On the other hand, chapters in chemistry, physics, biology and mathematics were distinctive requiring the mastery of the basic principles. I was able to relate what these classes taught to my surrounding that led me to believe science to be more relevant.
My interest in science grew mainly from the few classroom demonstrations and the experiments in the small laboratory maintained by Sri Ragavan Sir. Unforgettable are Sri. Rangaswamy Iyengar’s demonstration in the physical science of the importance of oxygen in candle remaining lit and the one that showed the air to be 4:1 of oxygen to nitrogen. Germinating bean seeds in a glass beaker, watch and record the various stages of their growth above and below the soil on a notebook, at that age, were exciting. We slowly graduated from watching demonstrations to doing the experiments ourselves. I vaguely remember Sri Viswanthan Sir bringing about this change. He showed us how to use an analytical balance to weigh things accurately. Deciphering the weight of objects using this balance from the distance and number of times the needle moved seemed too subjective to me then. Learning the Archimedes principle by doing an experiment seemed a better way to learn than reading a page about it.
The curiosity aroused in us by these teachers even made us take a field trip in search of science. On hearing about the existence of a cock in Aduthurai that always-faced North some of us decided to check out this seemingly unrealistic occurrence after school ended (only to return home 30 mts past the curfew time and paid dearly for this). We found it to be a weather-cock (a magnetic needle with a hen figurine on the top) and consistent with what we learnt in classes at TAHS (the magnetic needle always aligns N/S and it was not the hen’s choice of direction). Thus, it is the teachers at TAHS who taught me to be curious about the world we live in, be courageous and understand it using basic scientific principles.
The most important tenet of science is a strong belief in the basic principles and perseverance until something can be proven wrong. Physics topics on magnetism, electricity and dynamo aroused enough curiosity in me to attempt recreate them with the rudimentary resources at home. The thrill of planning and executing these experiments were no match to the results, for e.g. the dynamo put together with a lock and copper wire never attracted an iron nail. Making soap with kitchen oil and some base (most likely stolen from TAHS laboratory), was a seemingly easy project being similar to the cooking our mothers did so efficiently every day. Heating them together in a kitchen ‘karandi’ produced a solid that refused to dissolve in water (was this really soap?). At this stage I must have felt that I was a better chemist than a physicist. Continued interests in other subjects that were also taught with the same enthusiasm by the teachers at TAHS waned due to various reasons. They included economic reasons to pursue a medical profession, my great joy in doing things with my hands, and engineering because of my naive belief that it required lifting of heavy objects. From the above narration, the curious minds out there should be able to decide why I became a chemist and continue enjoying science to date. In addition to making my life the teachers have contributed to cherishable memories that I am sure will invoke many more in others.
The largely monetary gain directed craze for Engineering and Medicine is common knowledge worldwide. Perhaps, with India’s increasing economic strength and the growing middle class, children will be able to pursue a field they like rather than be directed towards what would bring more money. This dream can be realized only with the help of parents and teachers of young children.
V. Ramamurthy (son of Sanskrit Pandit)
Professor and Chair of Chemistry,
University of Miami,
Senior Editor, Langmuir,
American Chemical Society
