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Puzzle me

October 20, 2016

The biggest ever threat to my capability in studies and promising future came when as students we were introduced to the two most perilous-sounding and dread-inducing words; Algebra and Geometry. While the latter helped me sail through owing to my love for drawing and diagrams, the jokes around its last three letters weren’t enough to camouflage the undercurrent of acute phobia for the former.

I would’ve classified myself as a nerd had I not scored more than remarkably in languages like English, Marathi, Hindi and Sanskrit, was good in Biology, loved to explore Geography, or did well in all my aptitude tests. Some things just aren’t for us though, are they? Interestingly, I went ahead and did Mechanical Engineering and Finance Management later on, both of which have no way to bypass mathematics, in any case!

Having set a less-than-inspiring precedent, my heart swells with pride when I see A Jr doing extremely well in mathematics. Although I wouldn’t like to take credit for it, I guess it helps that I often give him practical ways to test his knowledge. Sending him to the grocer to fetch milk, bread or chocolates with a five hundred rupee note and insisting him do the math himself, or asking him random extempore questions and making him solve them prove to be useful tricks.

I love giving him puzzles to solve too and he loves solving them. Honestly, those ‘fill the missing sign’ puzzles were never my cup of tea and made me feel dizzy at their mere sight. I never even tried. This guy is made from a different mould though. Yesterday, just to get him warmed up I gave him few such puzzles and he solved them in a jiffy. Guess its time for me to hand him a real challenge (which won’t make me run for cover instead).

How can something like this not give you a headache?

38 thoughts on “Puzzle me”

        1. All of them! I wondered howcome you liked and didn’t comment, since you usually do. Checked the spam…and voila…it had some 15 odd comments. 😕 Wonder how it happened.

    1. Haha…all of us have something we don’t want our kids to inherit I guess. ????
      The risk…shhh…let me whisper something in your ear…I do this when A is around and I can fake get busy so he can help Jr out with some sticky problem. ( I’m smart that way. ????)

      1. I always love d this subject…… I cried when lost a single mark in test….. And this is one subject which you will always encounter in your daily life….. And I was always loved because of this…????????????

        1. You remind me of a friend of mine during engg. I was dancing merrily for scoring 50 coz I passed, and she was crying inconsolably for losing 2 marks. ????????????

          2. Ohho….you met me pretty late in life. I had to use intelligence and reasoning without using maths. ???? I will pass on this piece of advice to my son for sure. Thanks. ????

  5. Haha, considering that i am still a student, I wont make fun of maths or it will make fun of me in exams… haha
    Yeah, maths is a bit headache (I love you Maths, I didnt want to offend you… please let me score good in exams)
    Haha

    1. Hahaha…good going baccha. Hail Maths! ????
      No, I’m not making fun of maths either. It is interesting if it doesn’t make you want to doze off instead. ????

  7. I always was partial to Algebra and Geometry – quite my strong points in school. 😉 R loves math and discusses random things with me everyday. So yeah, this post made me feel all nice and happy! 😀

    1. Oh my…did I say I wasn’t a nerd a bit too soon? Is there some place in the virtual world where I can hide my invisible face? ????????
      I can hear my Maths teachers laugh somewhere far away. ????

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