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Mindstretch
Debkumar Mitra, a Telegraph guy who does what I had been doing till recently on The Tribune, is a courageous man. In diplomatic parlance, courageous is a polite word for decisions that are suicidal. I have come here to praise Mitra, not to bury my column. Anyone who comes out with such uncontrollable gush of puzzles has been surviving either on dope or on hope, hope that one day, this mathematical world will stop being scared of mathematics. Those who survive on hope often perform better. Mitra has now compiled all his previous puzzles from his Brainstorming column that appears in Knowhow (Telegraph's science supplement). Total recall is good for readers who catch your column midstream, much after its early adventures have ended. That's like coming to a classical music concert when the slow but magical alaap is already over; you miss the first half of a movie and later wonder if it was the best. However, picking up mind twisters mid-course has its own thrills. These have by now gathered enough momentum to sweep you off the ground and take you on a supersonic ride through mathematics. Mitra has many puzzles for the non-mathematical mind that has a hidden mathematical bug. You'll never know the dark alleys of your mind if you don't walk that way. We have two brains, one left and one right. While one controls emotions and creative faculties, the other controls mathematical and logical reasoning. If you can't tell your right from your left, enjoy these puzzles. Take it slow. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Maths columns are stairways to heaven, where the construction never stops. One lifetime is too less to be a complete mathematician or puzzle writer. If you want to see far, you have to stand on the shoulders of giants, from where if trigonometry doesn't knock you off, calculus must. The returns are paltry, especially on a newspaper. Kolkata loves its football; it once loved its science, too. Mindstretch is a relic from that glorious past written in this apprehensive present. Choke at the starting block and you'd have lost the race, but if you start with confidence and even choke at the tape later, you might win silver. |
Any
newsman who writes on mathematics is suicidal. I know this from
experience how difficult it is to sweat on those unforgiving numbers.
Its hidden costs are enormous.