'Wow, that's some reaction,' 1 said, my mouth still open.
'And fun? If maths is fun, then getting a tooth extraction is fun. A viral
infection is fun. Rabies shots are fun.'
'I think you are approaching it the wrong way.'
'Oh ho ho, don't go there. I am not just approaching it. I have lived,
compromised, struggled with it. It is a troubled relationship we have shared for
years. From classes one to twelve, this subject does not go away. People have
nightmares about monsters. I have nightmares about surprise maths tests. I
know you scored a hundred and you are in love with it. But remember, in most
parts of the world maths means only one thing to students.'
She stopped to breathe. I had the urge to get up and run away. How can I tame
a wild beast?
'What?'
'Goosebumps. See I already have them,' she said, pulling her kameez sleeve up
to her elbow. I thought the little pink dots on her skin were more from her
emotional outburst than maths.
I also noticed her thin arm. It was so fair you could see three veins running
across. Her hand had deep lines, with an exceptionally long lifeline. Her fingers
seemed long as they were so thin. She had applied a glittery silver-white
nailpolish only on the outer edge of the nails. How do women come up with these
ideas?
'What?' she said as I checked out her arm for a moment too long.
I immediately opened a textbook. 'Nothing. My job is to teach you maths, not to
make you like it. You want to be a doctor I heard.'
'I want to go to a college in Mumbai.' 'Excuse me?'
'I want to get out of Ahmedabad. But mom and dad won't let me. Unless, of
course, it is for a prestigious course like medicine or engineering. Engineering has
maths, maths means vomit so that is ruled out. Medicine is the other choice and
my exit pass. But they have this medical entrance exam and...'
I realised that Vidya did not have an internal pause button. And since I had
only an hour and the tutorial equivalent of climbing Everest barefoot, I wanted to
come to the point.
'So, which topic would you like to start with?'
'Anything without equations.'
'I saw your medical entrance exam course. Looks like there are a few scoring
areas that are relatively easier.'
I opened the medical exam entrance guide and turned it towards her.
'See this, probability,' I said. 'This and permutations will be twenty-five per cent
of the maths exam. Statistics is another ten per cent. No equations here, so can
we start with this?'
'Sure,' she said and took out a brand new exercise book. She kept two pens
parallel to the notebook. She opened the first page of the probability chapter like
she was the most diligent student in India. Most clueless, probably.
'Probability,' I said, 'is easily the most fun. I say this because you can actually
use the concepts in probability to solve everyday problems.'
'Like what?'
'Like what what?'
'What everyday problems can you solve?' she quizzed, brushing aside a strand
of hair.
avery
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