Dhruv Apte

Dhruv Apte

Ph.D. Student at Virginia Tech

Those Incorrigible Books

4 minute read

Published:

Hello down there! I kno it’s been almost a month but were you thinking I would document every single day of this lockdown? well, you could not be more wrong.

The lockdown has resulted in a huge drop in research output and work efficicney. I am suffering from insomnia once again and my zeal to work more harder everyday is vanishing. Howcer, I still enjoy working on turbulence modelling and the power to believe RANs is the future of CFD.

In school, I struggled a bit in my studies. I was weak, I needed practice. My best friend at that time, well, his mom used to take tuition classes as a extra-help or the students to prepare well for school studies. It can be said that those were the best times of my school life. We all friends went different ways although tried to keep in touch and I learnt later that she still teaches. Amid this CoVID19 outbreak, she decided to start her own channel for teaching kids. I saw the first video recently and immediately the nostalgia kicked in with the sad truth of how school education has failed us.

The video discussed some components of the first chapter in class X (sophomore year of high school) Science- the chapter was about chemical reactions. I was surprised to know the book had not changed a bit- it was still the same experiments, the same observations, evrything was the same. And I became agitated that despite the surges we have achieved throughout these 7 years (I graduated sophomre year in 2013) there was no change to be seen in these books at all. There was still the magnesium ribbon example in the book, there was still those four points in the book (I remember learning those for my exam). 7 years and the authors could not find another experiment!

You could have replaced that example with something else. Something other than burning like rotting of an apple. Energy driven from plasma fusion or a more simpler gas turbine. And as I try to think more about this, I start remembering the other stuff- electric symbols, difference between physical and chemical process what have you. And I feel sure that has not changed too. Do I care about the difference between a physical and chemical process? No becuase in the end a chemical process is on a subatomic level some physics only. Did I learn that in school? Not at all- I learnt that in the Feynman lectures on Physics.

As I sit imagining (I have done that countless times) if I could change the curriculum, it would have to be phenomenal. I think of how Dr. Feynman tried to change the books in the California education system and how he had to debate against old crones who wanted these books. I don’t remember if I ever applied this school knowledge here in grad school or even undegrad. What is the use of this whole centralised education board, many members of my own family involved in it when the supposed education they impart is not useful and more importantly, boring. I remember “good schools” like mine had chemistry labs where we did these experiments. That doing was not important; the practical notebook recording all this was important. Unless I get a reference, it is hard to remember them. On the other hand, I still remember I read a small section on Hydrogen in encyclopedias I read often- that was and still, is the more interesting part. Because they have the damn application! They are rich in illustrations. Tey ar enot some grad student’s research notebooks, but mediums designed to make kids interested not just in science or math or anything but simply ho nature works. And that is the important thing, that is the remakrkable thing, how Nature works.

The future me may think I am just ranting but there is a point of importance in this ‘rant’. “These books have been used for generations so they are good” is not a valid point when it comes to a student who is confused over what to do and how stuff works outside the boring classroom. I always respect people who have been through school in India and yet done some remarkable things- the system can damp out the dopeyness in you within 3-4 years. Physics and math- stuff that is so exciting is dumbed down to such insipid levels in these school books indeed.

That’s enough sadness already for today! Now get back to your stay at home life- you can smell dinner

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La conte des colombes foncees

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Rebonjour ! Ça fait environ quatre mois que j’écris quelque nouveau. Mais, j’était occupé avec beaucoup de choses à faire et j’ai pas l’inspiration à écrire quelque chose intéressant. En plus, cette fois, j’ai trouvé écrire quelque truc très difficile (vous connaîtrez bientôt !) L’été pour moi, c’était époustouflant. Je suis allé en France pour la première fois et j’étais complètement surpris que je parle français sans difficulté. J’ai souvent fait des conversations banales à l’arrêt du bus ou des restos ou des gares et beaucoup de gens m’ont apprécié. Ça me fait très encourageant et motivant. Quand j’aurais dit que je viens des États-Unis, on m’a souvent demandé si j’ai grandi en France car mon français était génial. Mais moi, vous connaissez si vous coupez ma main, à place de sang, vous allez voir le merlot qui vient de Bordeaux :P


Aujourd’hui j’apporte un poème qui je n’ai pas écrit. Le poème était originalement en espagnol par M. Federico García Lorca au nom de « Casida de las palomas oscuras ». C’était un très beau poème avec beaucoup de sens caché surtout sa sexualité. Pour moi, il représente l’idée du secret et comment on cache notre identité à s’intégrer dans un groupe ou car on ne semble pas comme faible ou sensible. Puisque le poème est écrit en espagnol, j’ai dû comprendre sa traduction, son sens et essaie à traduire en français mais pas perdre sa signification. Donc, pour les mecs qui comprennent tous les deux ou seulement espagnol, voici le poème original :

Casidade las palomas oscuras

Por las ramas del laurel
vi dos palomas oscuras.
La una era el sol,
la otra la luna.
«Vecinita», les dije,
«¿dónde está mi sepultura?»
«En mi cola», dijo el sol.
«En mi garganta», dijo la luna.
Y yo que estaba caminando
con la tierra por la cintura
vi dos águilas de nieve
y una muchacha desnuda.
La una era la otra
y la muchacha era ninguna.
«Aguilitas», les dije,
«¿dónde está mi sepultura?»
«En mi cola», dijo el sol.
«En mi garganta», dijo la luna.
Por las ramas del laurel
vi dos palomas desnudas.
La una era la otra
y las dos eran ninguna.

Les Amoureux

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Bonjour encore ! Ça fait longtemps que je viens ici mais vous me connaissiez : j’ai souvent l’air d’humeur changeante ou, comment est qu’on dit, peut-être lunatique ? Comme je m’ennuie et j’essaye de trouver quelques bons passe-temps, j’ai commencé à lire et, bien-sûr, à écrire de nouveau des poèmes. L’anglais, c’est une langue pour les insipides et j’ai trouvé la poésie de langues romans sont très belle- de quoi m’inspirer ! Ce n’est pas facile mais on trouve de faire quelque chose qui représente un défi, n’est-ce pas ? Et ce n’est pas mon premier poème en français (je vous dirai plus tard). J’espère que vous le trouvez satirique, comme je l’ai fait. Le rythme est inspiré par un poème du M. Georges Brassens, au nom de *Les Copains d’abord *. Il a pu l’air de sophistication mais si vous ne comprenez pas, ne vous inquiétez pas !

Les Amoureux de l’année

Supposedly six months later

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New Year

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Hello, down there! Happy new year 2021! Well January 1 is just a date to start a new Gregorian calender but looking from the events of last year, it seemed 31st Dec 2020 11:59:59 would turn into 31st Dec 2020 11:60:00. That would have been insanely scary. But 2020 has vanished and off we are to a new year with new things on the bucket list piled upon the old things we have had and new ‘resolutions’ This resolution thingy seems not dopey for an undisciplined person like me- I don’t remember the last time I had made any resolution. Maybe it was because I decided to start on a resolution immediately when I thought of it and not wait for it on the 1st of January. And all over you see people being glad as if this Covid-19 virus will leave on 1st Jan 2021. We have had some variants of the virus now but thankfully science and the hard work of thouands of researchers and healthcare workers has won with some vaccines in the market and vaccination programs beginnning to happen and we might see some sort of the normalcy later.