The school I went to until my Secondary School (I went to the same school from Primary to Secondary) was ~4kms from my home. I took the school bus, which traversed this distance in an hour as it went through the long and winding roads of my town to pick up other schoolmates. It was as if we went through every single lane. After hitting high school, I withdrew from the school bus. Most days, I used to take the public bus and some days I used to walk holding the book laden heavy bag, like a sack of groceries, in my arms. While I had some friends to accompany on the return trip from school, the onward journey was always alone. Surprisingly, I didn't give into the harmone driven teenage tantrums then in the public space (although I had a crush at school). I revered my school- adored would be the right word, so I took the yoke of maintaining the school's decorum upon myself and averted every gazing eye. Also, my family had eyes all over the town that I couldn't even have sneezed without their knowing.
When I was in Class IX (~13 yr old), I took the very crowdedly pregnant bus in the mornings and most probably, sat on the tank near the driver. And lost myself in my world of thoughts. I still vividly remember my favourite pastime through the ~30min bus ride. I would note down the numbers on the number plates of vehicles that the bus passed by and test for divisibility of the number by every single digit number (until 10). This continued until one day I discovered test of divisibility for 12 and 15 by myself. I remember the internal euphoria as I was celebrating my discovery with a pressmeet in my thought-world. I verified the discovery with several multiples of 12 and 15.
At class, we were being introduced to fractions and ratios. I computed fractions and ratios on this onward bus journey. Some of our term tests were conducted for 25, and scaled up to 100. I remember computing the minimal I should get so I could touch 80% (I was going through a 'I will resist studies as much as possible' phase at that time) to avert my mother's verbal thrashings. That's when I discovered that 80% of 25 is the same as 25% of 80. Eureka!! Another discovery, on the bus. I was like, "why is the world not waking up to this news today? How should I announce this discovery?". Unfortunately, I didn't have anybody to share these discoveries- although I had friends, they were least interested in matters of such discoveries. As I was not a very outstanding student, I was least consulted in matters of studies. More importantly, I lacked the confidence in my own discoveries and didn't trust myself enough as I was the object of "You don't spend time reading/learning that your scores are not to your potential" thrashing (which was true). Marks marked the end of my discoveries.
When I saw this meme today, it awoke all those memories of yonder years. And I am like, "Dei! Ithaye ippo thaan kandu pidikreengalaa?" :-P
