During my 12th standard, I had a teacher by the name of Arun Kumar. A cute and charming person dedicated to teaching and family. He used to give us free times in the class now and then so that we could discuss with him and the whole class about any sort of weird ideas that we had.

I still do not remember how this “weird” idea came to be in my mind, but it did and I did ask him about it. (Hola! I suddenly remembered! I had read the book “Time machine” by “H. G. Wells” and I think something of the sort was mentioned in there)

My teacher was not a very highly educated person, but he loved to know how students thought and he encouraged us thinking out of the circle. He told me he had heard about such a thing during his college days but had not looked into the matter much. But he did push me to find it out.

But somehow I dropped the idea.

Now after all these years, it comes back to me all of a sudden when I was talking with my Professor at college about how much time I was actually wasting in the name of “attending classes”.

But coming back to the point, is time a dimension? We use dimensions in order to represent an object or plane right? If we need to represent a square plane, we need to have two axes minimum. But the thing is, the square existed in this world when we represented it. It existed for an amount of time while we were busy representing it with two axes.

Suppose we used x and y axes for representing it. Then just like saying that the square doesn’t have existence without either x or the y axes, we can say that the square can’t exist without time either. So time is a necessity for representing anything and everything. So shouldn’t it be an universal axis? Maybe that is the reason why we don’t use it explicitly in order to represent things.

Even though I researched about the matter, I’m trying my best to not any Wikipedia information interfere with my thoughts on the matter. For this is science and we all have a say.

As such, the question of ‘what is time?’ becomes confusing. Is it just a measurement standard that we use to specify the occurrences of events in our lives? I mean just like we use mass to represent the amount of substance within an object? Or is time something that has an existence of its own waiting to be explored by us?

My thoughts on the matter have reached this point and I’ll be carrying on with it later. After all, I need more time.

Having studied the Engineering B. Tech course, I’m bound to say something about it. And I couldn’t find a more apt title than the one above.

People have the problem of inertia too. Not only objects. The tendency to continue the state that he is already in unless some external force acts on him. But unlike objects, man has a quite complicated, yet wonderful, very securely kept collection of cells and tissues, called brain, in his head. That can give all the force that a man would want in order to change his state. But it is very sad that how little of us uses that unlimited potential to come out of the inertia we are so comfortably wound up in and do something different. Really sad.

But we are not completely to blame. A philosophy that I read in a book called “Sophie’s World” comes to mind. In that he says that the world is like a big rabbit. We live deep within the Rabbit’s fur in the quiet comfort without any trouble. Of course, we can live like that. But there are those who climb the fur. A fur that is not that steady. But these people climb it no matter what. Slowly, bit by bit. And finally they reach the tip of the fur, revealing to them the light and wonders that lie around! And that is when we see and know where and who we are. We realize the long paths that are still to be trodden.

Now, coming to the Engineering problem, talking as one of the students, we never are willing to take that risk factor. Let me try to make it more clear.

The Engineering curriculum and the syllabus that we have to go through in order to get our degree is quite vast and challenging. And the so called teachers make it only harder for us with all their rules, assignments, personal egos and stuff. This being the case, a student naturally becomes afraid to try something out of the way. To try something new. To take a risk.

He is afraid because a risk demands a bit. It demands a lot of his time. His brain power. A lot of effort and the results are doubtful too. All this don’t put up much of a fight to make you give up when you think of all the work that you’ve got to do for college the next day. So you just stop thinking about this new idea of yours and get back to the good old life where everything is already laid out. You take the same path that your elders, seniors have taken and you end up as another brick in the wall. (Listen to the song “Another brick in the wall” by “Pink Floyd”)

But unless you take the risk and climb the fur, you’re never going to grow or see the wonders that lie around you.

Unless you keep trying out stuff, you never will be blessed with new ideas. And the new ideas you get this way are those ideas that take off and make you a millionaire! You might think if you’ve got it in you to have ideas like those. But that exactly is the point. There might be something out there that you’re having a hard time doing. And when you find an easy way around it, that is the idea that people like you never could figure out! And that is your ticket out into the world out there waiting for you.

So my friends, don’t go easy on an idea that comes into your mind however stupid that you think it might be. Sit on it. Dream on it. And most importantly, work on it. Even if that idea doesn’t come to realization, you’re going to get something new, a new path, from the one that you showed courage to forge in the first place.

Now let’s get going!