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There were two scopes that we had in our 'hands-off-lab' at our school in Muthukur:
Kaleidoscope & Periscope.
These were demo models made of cardboard, and my Father, who was teaching us Science in addition to English, used to bring them, via his uniformed peon, to our classroom. And we had to line up to see through each of these scopes one by one without touching them.
They fascinated us.
My Literary Uncle, who translated Bhagavadgita into easy Telugu verses, made kaleidoscopes at home...that was his other hobby. And whenever there was a function to which he was invited, he used to gift a kaleidoscope to the kids of the family. And we loved them, and him.
Looking back, multiple reflections by plane mirrors is not all that easy. 40 good years later, I, with my friends at IIT KGP, published an article in the Problems & Solutions Section of Physics Education (Poona University), titled:
"Blindfolded Images in the Srisailam Hall of Mirrors"
http://gpsastry.blogspot.in/2010/07/mirrors-monkey-tricks.html
Of course I had lots of fun when a new barber shop opened in our village that boasted of mirrors on opposite walls. It was a great experience to watch that infinite series of images of our faces and backs. I can't say I had ever any other use of them...I had always meekly surrendered to our barber...
But again, 30 years later, it was fun to read (and write) about the first ever laser invented that used a ruby rod polished on both its ends to form an optical cavity.
Talking of periscopes, I recall watching the Cold War Comedy, 'The Russians are Coming,The Russians are Coming', in the Netaji Auditorium at IIT KGP in the late 1960s:
They were very quiet about life in Russia...they had a ma'am watching them sternly.
We loved them; and they loved our Freedom of Speech...
American: You know, I can walk into our President's Oval Office and call him an idiot!
Russian: I too can walk in and call your President an idiot!
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There were two scopes that we had in our 'hands-off-lab' at our school in Muthukur:
Kaleidoscope & Periscope.
These were demo models made of cardboard, and my Father, who was teaching us Science in addition to English, used to bring them, via his uniformed peon, to our classroom. And we had to line up to see through each of these scopes one by one without touching them.
They fascinated us.
My Literary Uncle, who translated Bhagavadgita into easy Telugu verses, made kaleidoscopes at home...that was his other hobby. And whenever there was a function to which he was invited, he used to gift a kaleidoscope to the kids of the family. And we loved them, and him.
Looking back, multiple reflections by plane mirrors is not all that easy. 40 good years later, I, with my friends at IIT KGP, published an article in the Problems & Solutions Section of Physics Education (Poona University), titled:
"Blindfolded Images in the Srisailam Hall of Mirrors"
http://gpsastry.blogspot.in/2010/07/mirrors-monkey-tricks.html
Of course I had lots of fun when a new barber shop opened in our village that boasted of mirrors on opposite walls. It was a great experience to watch that infinite series of images of our faces and backs. I can't say I had ever any other use of them...I had always meekly surrendered to our barber...
But again, 30 years later, it was fun to read (and write) about the first ever laser invented that used a ruby rod polished on both its ends to form an optical cavity.
Talking of periscopes, I recall watching the Cold War Comedy, 'The Russians are Coming,The Russians are Coming', in the Netaji Auditorium at IIT KGP in the late 1960s:
I remembered that the film started with a periscope poking and peeking out of its submarine. And, last night, my son and I watched the movie again in our home theater with a fresh-from-the-oven wall-mounted HD-LED Samsung TV brought from Singapore (where Ishani and her mom are now vacationing). With the latest Panasonic 5.1 attached to it.
Since I never visited any foreign country, it made no difference to me, but my son had been to the US a dozen times over the last 4 years; and he was amazed at the American scenery of the 1960s.
Since I never visited any foreign country, it made no difference to me, but my son had been to the US a dozen times over the last 4 years; and he was amazed at the American scenery of the 1960s.
O, well, I did get to know a lot of America from 'foreign-returned' professors staying for a while at our Faculty Hostel at IIT KGP.
They were all clad in jeans...like Yankee Doodle who went to town riding on his pony...and they did have an invisible feather stuck in their cap.
And when asked what, in their opinion, was so great about America, they would all say:
"Telephones and Highways"
There were plenty of telephone scenes in last night's movie...all of them period pieces attached to a lady-operator with her switch board and tubes.
All the American-returned profs said that the US had a system where they can tell the lady operator to 'reverse' charges...I guess they all indulged in it all the while.
They also talked about Color TVs and Washing Machines and Dish Washers and Chevrolet Impalas.
And we were impressed. They also said, "Yea" all the time (when they were not saying, "Yup!").
And they brought with them the Scrabble Board and asked me to play it with them. But by then I was addicted to playing with my kid-nephews the Thurber Word Game of Super Ghosts. But they were not interested in it.
All in all, living in Bengal with her socialist-intellectual pretensions, life in America sounded skin-deep...some skin there...
But not so, the four Russian profs we had staying with us in our Faculty Hostel for a year.
After all, Russia and India are socialist republics and brothers under skin. These 4 guy didn't know a word of English except the broken and russianed variety. But it didn't seem to matter...they came to instal and run the Powder Metallurgy Unit and that didn't seem to call for much of English...like their submarine-mates in the movie.
All of them became friends with us by exchanging their Russian cigarettes and vodka with our fags and drinks.
They were very quiet about life in Russia...they had a ma'am watching them sternly.
We loved them; and they loved our Freedom of Speech...
American: You know, I can walk into our President's Oval Office and call him an idiot!
Russian: I too can walk in and call your President an idiot!
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