Me, Myself & Mathematics

We all have that fear towards maths, the subject which actually tests our basic understanding. As an elder person we might’ve advised our younger ones to study seriously despite the fact that we did not do the same. Among people who hated maths, I was no different. I have 2 incidents to share from my life that is related to maths. Here it goes-

I was studying 4th standard and I feared maths (like, I told you). There was a maths teacher who made us routinely to recite multiplication tables from 5th till 19th tables, every day. (And, I mean everyday!!). The whole class used to say it loudly in unison and the ones who didn’t know were able to escape by lip-sync (just imagine singers lip-syncing on stage without giving you any small suspicions) and one day she came up with a shocking solution. She would randomly point out any person and ask them to recite any multiplication table of her choice in front of the class. I managed to escape a lot of times but luck did not favor me long until one day she pointed me and asked me to say 13th table. How could I say when I don’t know? That day I had to embrace the kiss of her ruler/scale on my knuckles (uh, she hit me) and she said that she would ask the same on the next day (It wasn't Friday to escape and come on Monday). Feeling determined, I went home that day and tried hard for straight 8 hours to get the multiplication tables from 13 to 20 in my mind. My mom was surprised to see that scenery of me reading lessons after school (which I don’t do usually). When the moon had come overhead, I lied horizontally on bed to sleep. Waking up with eagerness next day, I went to school and waited for the maths teacher to show my new skill set. After few hours, finally she came to my class BUT SHE DID NOT ASK THE MULTIPLICATION TABLE neither to the whole class nor to me. No tables’ recital happened in that class, rather she moved on to other topics in maths. I was like MEH!! Or should I say, felt cheated (huh!!) She asked me questions when I was not prepared and when I had the answers now she did not ask any question. I am still unable to figure out why she did not ask that day.

Next incident happened was when-

I was in 9th standard and like the previous story; this story also has a maths teacher. I must say my firmer introduction to him. I had joined new to the school in 7th standard and this same person took maths for me back then. On the second day, just before his entry into the class, we guys had a play with rubber band and paper strips (that pull and hit thing) when he entered inside the whole class went silent and sat down. I was still holding that rubber band with paper ready for attack. 5 mins into the class, I took aim at a friend and shot him. He got up and complained to the teacher and I said I did it by mistake. You might have guessed the next scene!! I was called to the front and the whole class went silent when the teacher imprinted his five fingers on my cheek. Interesting, isn’t it? Forwarded to 9th standard, I was able to score 60s in maths but didn’t cross 75 in any tests. I kept wondering what was wrong until half of the term closed in. Along with my close friends of 3 to 4 people, we decided to ask for tuition at sir’s house to which he agreed (he was a very nice person in real). You might have encountered the headache in proving LHS=RHS long back then, around those classes, yet again, I was no different. You got to prove the area of one size is some amount of the other size for a triangle or square or trapezium etc. We were taught in solving the problem of that sort and also had homework. For first few days, I tried to solve it with the help of my friends and then I started to solve by myself. What I learnt from that exercise is determination. To be frank, I was determined (sometimes desperate!!) to prove LHS is equal to RHS and I used to bring up new/odd methods (as deemed by sir). Few times we used to laugh over my method, sometimes he would appreciate it and rest of the times he would suggest alternate method. By the time of model exams, I had mastered those problems and he moved on to next topic which related to calculation of area. There was a particular problem which was actually a very big one; question was to calculate the area of laying tiles over a certain length given and also calculate the cost of laying them. It contained formulas related to many shapes, which I don’t exactly remember now. He taught that once in school then in tuition and then in a model exam before finals. In total it was asked for 4 times, well, the 4th time was in final exams. Immediately after seeing that question I wrote the answer first, leaving some space for the sum steps. That was how much he made us well versed with maths. Have you heard of dialogs in cinema stating “I write the answer first and then I frame the question?" The same thing happened to me that time. Well, in that final exam I scored 89 out of 100 and that Tiles question was the only one which was well know to me and all other questions were modified & twisted ones. Still I managed to score something I never did.