Those were the days

I got reminded of my high school days in chennai recently when i was talking about that to one of my friends...wanna share some experiences which I bet will get you going ROTFL... :D...I went for IIT coaching classes in chennai when I was in 11th and 12th standard....It was an amazing experience...People from chennai esp ones from PSBB must be knowing about the satyamoorthy JEE classes...It was the most fun filled experience I've ever had during my school days

The first one was Govindarajan Sir - He was a very old man...prbly in his 70s and was my most favorite teacher...he taught us organic chemistry...some of the excerpts from his class when he taught us organic chemistry

1. This one was when he was trying to make us memorize the periodic table and he had questions from all of the class as to how to memorize it cos its soooo difficult to remember everything...and his reply was " You know what it is just like a shlokam gajananam buthaganathi sevitham hydrogen helium lithium...You can remember which bus she get into and where she gets down...can't you remember this...How can you remember this??? - By writing and writing and writing...you may tell you have other engagements..you can have engagements and also marriages later not now you know :)"

2. He told us a story to demonstrate Hyper conjugative resonance theory...for that he was like "Your mom keeps telling I have peel the potatoes...I have to cut the potatoes..but you sit inside and pretend to study...from your window you hear your neighboring door aunty starts whining I have to cut vegetables...I have to peel vegetables..and you immediately jump like a superman over the complex and go for help...why??? because that next door aunt has a beautiful daughter....but you find that your younger brother is there already helping her :)" So much for Hyper conjugative resonance :D

3. One day he was talking about the electronegativity of fluorine and he was like "55 of the tried to test fluorine and 50 of them died...face became fluoride, hands became fluoride, eyes, ears, nose everything became fluoride...and finally a person called subramani became subramaniam fluoride and reached the lotus feet of god" =))

4. When someone asks him a doubt that he cant answer he says " Did you say hello to the molecule? Did you shake hands with the molecule?? Did you do the Experiment??"

5. This came at some point of time..when the class was about to get over..."Micheal Jackson says I'm bad I'm bad...you say he is good and all the girls love kolla theru pasanga (Tamil translation for Back street Boys) but they don't love Morrison and Boyd and JD Lee (Inorganic and Organic chemistry text book authors. Students burn their Midnight Oil studying and studying and studying M&B....not Morrison and Boyd but Mills & Boons :P"

6. This one was when he taught chirality He used to say " Everything in this world has a mirror image...you have a mirror image, your eyes have a mirror image, your nose has a mirror image...do you mean to ask if you crush your eyes, nose etc, dissolve it and put it in a polarimeter...it will rotate the plane polarized light in the plane of polarization - Y.E.S yes :)...You can ask me that the character in Buffy the vampire slayer does not have a mirror image ..I don't know about that..but chemistry stands for truth.

7. When someone asks him if he can ask him a question he had his own witty ways of replying " you can ask me any questions in chemistry but not any question like where my daughter is, what she is doing n all"

It has been like almost 7-8 years since I studied there but I can vividly remember those days cycling and racing with all the other guys and beating all of them...losing my first scientific calculator....the days of lost confidence when i thought I was not going to make it to IIT...and found almost everyone far more brighter than me...Though I did not make it to IIT and as one professor "Santhanam - Inorganic Chemistry teacher" always pointed out "If you miss this you miss the bus, you miss the train and you miss the rocket to IIT" I did miss everything and hence did not get into IIT but would cherish those memories where I got to study and be with the best of the Indian minds...The way everything was taught in the classes was fun and I still remember the way we slogged and slogged only to write the tests on all holidays and festivals that we had...Those were fun days...wish I cud pause that part of life and go back to experience all of that :)

Recorded another song "Megha Chaye Adhi Raat" from Sharmilee originally sung by Lata Mangeshkar...My humble 2nd attempt with Lataji's song :).Actually there is a small story associated with this...This is the nth time I'm trying to record this song :)..The first time i recorded it wasnt great.the second time it did come out well...only that it had a variety of sounds like cars and autos passing by (When I was in India)..The third time i recorded and my dad was like dont record any more sad songs...it will make you sad...but did i give up?? NO..I recorded it again and my friend was like it sounds too classical...and finally i almost gave up on this song...I was like I'm never gonna get this right...Finally recorded this song recently when I was in the midst of a research crisis...This was the best I could do..So rule of the thumb...record sad songs only when you are sad and vice versa...there is still a lot of scope for improvement...but nevertheless..I was happy that i could make this song atleast 'postable'....Please leave your reviews :)

MEGHA CHAYE

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More Excerpts will follow as and when I remember them :)