A weekend totally gone, for yet another scholarship test. Have my hands pretty full at da moment, – the sems approaching, three final assignments due, and one from them is of course the eternally unmanageable linklist program, – inserting and deleting from a linklist. Amid all these, this KVPY ( A science fellowship prog funded by da central gov. ) thing.
Okay, the exam went well. All were multiple choice Q’s, you can choose from phy, chem, math nd bio, and answer. I premeditated not to touch chemistry, mainly because of that beautiful yet lousy ( if u can’t remember them due to lack of practice, that is) Organic section. But at last found my forever loathing for all-things-theoretical-in-physics overwhelm me, couldn’t keep patience and went on to answer 20 marks in chem., altogether leaving out physics. And there were they, ‘gliding’ me ( I hope so) through the exam, one an ISI-an’s bunny in ANY external exam,- maths ……… and the other,biology, that would make every other ISI-an except myself a bunny in ANY external exam!
I have got what I wanted, — company of the dazzling beauty that mathematics is, and of most of the country’s (and of course, among them, a few of the world’s) best brains in this arena. But I still find MY brain lying behind, in the practical world of biology…… It’s fascinating. This is surely one such subject in which common sense rules, and logical thinking is a must.
The point of this sudden string of thoughts is maybe a bit trivial. There was a Q in da test that if blood sodium conc. increases, why does BP increase. There were 4 options, and thoughts went on something like this– …….the ans may be ‘because more sodium ions make blood thicker’, obvios reasons, but then, another option was – ‘ water retention in kidney increases, so heart has to pump more blood’ . Wait, there is a hormone, the only one secreted by heart, ANF ( Atrial Natriuretic Factor ) ; and…. Atrial ….HEART, Natri….SODIUM, uretic…..KIDNEY, and….voila ! Two plus two equals four, and this has to be the correct answer.
This is the power of effective thought-process. It makes the small differences. It makes never-before breakthroughs. You cannot possibly know everything in a certain matter, to some extent you’ve gotta fill up the gaps, that is da essence of learning, I suppose.
2 Responses to “Fill your mind with thoughts, not facts…………..”
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You are right. And it is not filling gaps with any random word, but with an answer reasoned out through logic based on existing knowledge.
Being able to make the “connection(s)”.
Many years since I graduated. The main difference between then and now is not the volume of knowledge, I probably knew more then. What I can do better now is to successfully co-relate. “The two plus two” turns up 4 more often now, than before.
I sometimes wish I had this understanding of my subjects when I was a student. May be some of my class mates did, and deserved medals and scholarships. I didn’t and had to learn in my way, at my pace. We all do. We all have to.
And Diwali Greetings.
I can almost get the burn’t smell of the baji potkas. Do you still get the shyama pokas? Or have they faded with the global warming.
right, our brain stops growing after 16 yr age or so, but we thrive on experience nd intellect that is knowledge-independent …….
and HAPPY DIWALI to u too. about shyama pokas, it’s just da opp, now pradeeps nd mombatis are becoming bygone, and cheap ‘tuni-bulbs’ are replacing them, so shyama pokas continue to pester till 2-3 wks aftere diwali …….