Tuesday, October 23, 2012

CROCUS 2012 - Bring It On!




Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome!
Welcome to CROCUS, the annual burst of celebrations of books, creators of books and of course the readers of books!

For those who came in late, CROCUS is a week-long bonanza of reviews and interviews, usually of a chosen theme. My friends Sandhya, Ranjani and Anusha have already given you a peek into what is to come. Yes good people, this year we have decided to delve into the world of Math and Science.

It is interesting how the word ‘Mathematics’ evokes very different reactions in people, almost always strong ones. There are those who are terrified of it and will break into a sweat at the very mention of it, there are others who cannot stop gushing about the beauty of it. There are ones who wonder what the big deal is and there are others who claim to be unable to fathom how anyone can not find Math worthy of worship.

Being one of the worshipper types, I think many of the prejudices against math are possibly rooted in the way a young child is taught it. Math consequently becomes something that frustrates instead of something that exhilarates.

In reality we all live maths. We make mental calculations in mundane grocery shopping, we gauge areas and volumes when we are trying to fit this into that, we work out ratios and weigh up proportions in the great laboratory that is the kitchen, we estimate probabilities and consider statistics while making decisions, we think of permutations and combinations while arranging or rearranging things, we analyze fractions and assess geometric possibilities and employ algebraic equations without even realizing it!

Then why this kolaveri di, I ask. Math and fun can be used in the same sentence. To illustrate this very point, we bring to you a selection of book reviews and author interviews. We will point you to stories that have math concepts woven into them and tell you about lives of the men and women of math.

We also decided to dedicate a part of our efforts to our home the Earth. The fact that we need to get more responsible towards it is something that gets reiterated multiple times every single day. Just this afternoon we saw our favourite tree outside our school being cut down to widen the road. The traffic no doubt will ease up once it has gone, but at the cost of a symbol of living history – the tree is was more than a hundred years old. As we sped down the road away from it, we turned around and saw the tree for the last time. Slowly but surely being chopped into pieces. The next time we go to school after our week-long holidays, there will only be a wide gap in the sky in its place…

Our only hope I suppose is our children. Their simple life-affirming wisdom makes them more eco-sensitive than us cynical grown-ups. We therefore also bring you reviews of books that your little eco-warriors will appreciate.

Without further ado, let me invite you to join in with us in CROCUS 2012!

8 comments:

sandhya said...

Great post, Choxie. Was nodding at every sentence.

Go, Saffrontree!

Praba Ram said...

Yay!!! Here we go! Happy Birthday ST! One kolaveri of an intro to the festival, Choxie! :)

So true..how Math can polarize people into two different spectrums - math manic or math phobic! :)

Looking forward to the next five days of "Math Mantra meets Eco-sensitivity!" :)




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Sheela said...

Lovely, Choxie, as always, direct and to-the-point. So true that Math does evoke strong feelings, and we don't realize how much of daily life involves math... Frustration vs. Exhilaration, so well put!

Anusha said...

Happy Birthday ST!
well said, Chox, eager to see all reviews that put Math+Fun in same equation!

Tharini said...

Happy Birthday ST! Another year and "counting"...:)

ranjani.sathish said...

You have nailed all the points perfectly Chox !

Choxbox said...

Thanks people :)

CROCUS 2012 is a fitting tribute to math in this Year of Mathematics as declared by the GOI.

Choxbox said...
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