Last night, I saw her again. she has begun to walk into my life again. I gasp at her grace - the seductress she is, squeezes the life out of the beholder even while looking askance at him. I am one of the very many (hard to count how many) that fell in love with her.
It all began on a clear day - night I should say!
I remember that night vividly. The day, as usual went without too much fuss ----- the last exam for that semester. With me it was always that way during the exams -slogging through the nights to get at least one glimpse of what was included in the syllabus and they usually ended up with solemn oaths of being regular with studies from that time forward.
The evenings usually belonged to akka (elder sister) who was our neighbor. Her house's verandah was usually filled with school children of all ages carrying all sizes of bags and books. Akka was their "teacher". Her mode of imparting education was simple ----she referred to the questions at the end of each chapter, marked a few paragraphs (which she thought were the best answers to the questions) and asked them to memorize those by reading them aloud. The din that followed may sound chaotic to the casual observer but if you were neighbors you will begin to fall in love with that raaga --- I am proud to say that I was a product of this orthodox school.
Okay, I have digressed considerably. At about 8 P.M., these children packed their bags and went home. My supper being over by the same time, I dragged a chair to our balcony, rested my chin on the balcony railings and began to make grand plans for the next semester.
It was then that she appeared without a warning.

---- To be continued

The Apple and the Earth

I started reading S.Chandrasekhar's "Newton's Principia for the Common Reader" --- barely read the first five pages when I found this..

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W.Stukeley (in his Memoirs of Sir Issac Newton's Life)

After dinner, [on 15th April 1726], the weather being warm, we went into the garden and drank thea, under the shade of some appletrees, only he and myself. Amidst other discourse, he told me, he was just in the same situation, as when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasion'd by the fall of an apple, as he sat in a comtemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself. Why should it not go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the earths centre? Assuredly, the reason is, that the earth draws it. There must be a drawing power in the matter: and the sum of the drawing power in the matter of the earth must be in the earths center, not in any side of the earth. Therefore dos this apple fall perpendicularly, or towards the center. If matter thus draws matter, it must be in proportion of its quantity. Therefore the apple draws the earth, as well as the earth draws the apple. That there is a power, like that we here call gravity, which extends its self thro' the universe.
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