Kidstuff

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Trust Feynman to do the crazy thing.

We all know the story that when he was a mere boy, he poured petrol on his hand and lit it with a match stick. Nothing untoward happened to his hand because as he predicted the petrol, being highly volatile, evaporated and the vapors were engulfed by the flames without hurting his hand.

And he boasted of his prowess and gave a live demo a couple of years later. But this time his hand got singed like hell. Because, in those two years, his hand became manly and grew tiny hairs that acted like wicks and burned steadily...

When I was a kid in Class IX, I was hardly 4' tall, skeletal, but with arms and hands as strong as a featherweight champ's.

So, we had this subjunior event called 'pull ups'. And while every other kid was scoring 5 or 6, I asked our Drill Teacher to give me a leg-up to the cross bar. And as everyone was watching with astonishment, I went on and on crossing 50 and more till our Drill Teacher stopped me by holding my bottom.

Two years later, when I was in my School Final, the event was held once again on our Sports Day. This time, I jumped up and took hold of the cross bar by myself and, as everyone was watching for a repeat performance, I couldn't do even one pull up and after struggling for a minute, I gave up and dropped down like a sack of coal.

...I put on weight at all the wrong places like legs, chest, and torso in the intervening years playing foot ball, kabadi and such manly games...

When I was a tiny kid of 8, there was a play called Rickshawala being put up by our School on our Anniversary Day. It was a big do and our District Collector and his wife were the Special Guests. My seniors in their Final Years were playing all the major roles but needed a kid for a 3-minute Item Role as the son of the Rickshawala. And they roped me in. I went through the rehearsals easily enough; and when the Play was enacted in front of the whole Village, I walked in when my prompt came and did my bit and spoke the three lines...the bit required that I should cry and announce the death of the Rickshawala's wife. That suited me very well, because I was frightened of the crowd and crying came very naturally.

When all the prizes were announced and my seniors walked away with theirs given away by the wife of our Collector, she whispered something into the ears of her hubby. And then, my name was called and I was ushered on to the stage, still crying a bit. And the Collector announced a Special Prize for the Item Kid, put his hand in his pocket and brought out a crisp one rupee note. And his Mrs handed it over to me, hugging me lightly.

And a couple of years later, when I myself was a Senior and they roped me in for a big role, I made a mess of it and we lost badly...

So, apparently there is a time and tide for everything and it is not true that a man can easily do what a mere kid can.

So, in science...every revolutionary idea in Physics came from the likes of Fresnel, Maxwell, Einstein, Dirac, Heisenberg, Feynman...et al when they were but kids in science.


Matthew 21:16:

"...And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?..."

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