Live What You Are Learning

it was

1am and i was seated in lotus position

on my bathroom sink and i got to

thinking you know

we are enveloped with uncertainty

what is the unpredictability of everyday

life and electrons having an identity

crisis

i mean wave or particle

i kept thinking and what if we could use

what if we could harness

all of this uncertainty that surrounds

wouldn’t we be unstoppable let’s take

the air molecules for example

they’re moving so randomly erratically

colliding with everything that they see

me too man my mother’s tea lights would

know

imagine if you could harness all of that

energy

i was mind blown i jumped off that

bathroom sink right then and there

and i could have started writing my phd

thesis

when it struck me i

was talking about a fan yes

a fan that harnesses the energy of air

to evaporate the sweat off of your skin

dr arya mehta ladies and gentlemen

it’s okay it’s okay because it was then

that i decided

if not the power of the winds i would at

the very least

use my power to overthink to present to

you

my adventures and the science that

enables us

to learn from them so

what’s been keeping you down lately how

has your life been treating you

this is about you so if you’re ready

let us together unravel the universe

like it’s a literary piece i assure you

there will be no rhyme schemes involved

our lives our lives are a product of

what we are feeding our minds

like i love to yell at everybody i know

it’s all in the mind

and that is why today it is my solemn

duty to feed your mind

a steaming hot plate of my nani’s

cooking

two years ago low and behold

a little very little

okay minuscule boy and it was this

deficiency in size

that paved the way for so much

insecurity

social anxiety and all this inner

turmoil within me

if i go out today with my family what if

i run into somebody from school

if i wear that shirt could i look even

skinnier

if i comment on that good people think

i’m weird

do i really have any redeeming qualities

am i

boring one fine day

my dear cousin walked into the room and

just

mockingly stroked his new beard

and i snapped all of those

foolish self-inheriting thoughts all of

those that i ever had they were

bouncing around my head in that very

moment and i

i was the early universe yes

with barrages of particles at war with

one another

fighting to exert their dominance from

the empty void

matter and antimatter popping into

existence

colliding and annihilating each other

all of those negative thoughts swirling

around my head

they were anti-matter annihilating my

individuality but

like the early universe all of a sudden

matter simply making a comeback

i can learn to express myself boom

life is so beautifully random boom

i’ve only ever regretted what i held

myself back from doing what do i have to

lose boom

is that my nani’s aloo paratha i smell

kaha

right one mata particle out of a billion

got that warzone victory one matter

particle out of a billion

set the stage for the matter dominant

universe

that we live in today it set the stage

for everything

we’ve ever known and like the early

universe

in that moment i decided to focus on

what mattered

i decided to focus on me and showing

those around me the wonders of life too

everything else it’s anti-matter

and thus i was born at the start of this

year

i was primed ready to go i don’t know

these dreams to fulfill so much to do

right

and then we know what came next the

photoreceptors in our eyes

can detect light as dim as a single

photon

that’s one particle of light we can

detect light as dim as a single

photographer i did not see that coming

there i was in lockdown with all of that

pent up energy

at the breaking point i wasn’t moving

forward i wasn’t accomplishing anything

i wasn’t conquering the world what do i

what can we do situation like that

well dynamic equilibrium

yes bear with me here a reversible

chemical reaction

in which the reactants and the products

are producing each other

such that they always remain at the same

concentration

that’s what i was feeling dynamic

equilibrium of course

my reactants my products were at the

same concentration

when you’re in a state like that it’s

such a struggle to escape right

you you feel worthless you know you can

no longer muster up the motivation to

pick up a book or learn an instrument

like they keep telling you to

us humans we’re so fond of balance

we don’t realize when you’re drowning in

yet all hope is not lost for we learn in

school

that one can shatter dynamic equilibrium

with a simple

change in temperature the reactants that

require heat energy they absorb it

and suddenly we have more of the

products the yield of the reaction

has increased that’s precise and that’s

precisely what i did

that’s precisely what you can do i

started to heat things up

not so difficult in dubai online school

began

and i began to immerse myself in all of

that fresh knowledge

coming my way you know

you must just wow and then

i began signing up for everything that

crossed my one photon line of sight

be it story writing competitions

hackathons school podcasts

or even well ted talks goodbye

equilibrium

i was in hyperdrive i was finally making

something of myself

and that made all the difference deport

my dad

i was producing and not just consuming

i was contributing to myself and the

people around me and sometimes

that’s all we need one heartfelt push

forward into the rapids

and then we let the momentum carry us

forward

however all of those commitments they

brought and they’re continuing to bring

their fair deal of stress anxiety i mean

now we have a new situation are these

rapids too much to handle

how am i supposed to give them all my

very best all by leaving myself room to

breathe with my friends my family

well what do i say to that

well piezoelectricity yes

a fascinating phenomena which occurs in

certain ceramics such that when you hit

them

they release a spark when you apply

stress on them they release a spark

this is all possible due to the

arrangement of the atoms within

so that when you’re compressing them the

positively

and negatively charged particles become

aligned in such a manner that an

electric current

is produced between them and creating a

spark

huh when it’s time when it’s crunch time

when it’s time to tackle your

commitments

don’t fight the stress it’s not adding

to your burdens it’s bringing out

your spark it’s

taking it out from within you

[Music]

amazing isn’t it when

wow we could we could keep doing this

have you ever if you could thrive under

the pressure

and you’ll never run short of time okay

okay let’s keep going have you ever felt

you were a bad teacher

yeah my sister frequently accuses me of

this

atp adenosine triphosphate

the energy molecule the cells in our

body

they absorb it from the chemical energy

within the food that we eat

this is all stored up and later when we

need it

the energy molecule is broken down to

release tremendous amounts of energy

that fuel our bodily processes

if energy simply floated in and then out

of our systems we would be no different

from a rock there would be no dazzling

complexity

to any of the life on our planet and

maybe maybe that’s

what your students are missing give them

an experience to remember

to store build those concepts up so that

they can

break it down and release that

understanding

into their long-term memory oh i could

do this all day

you think you’re a bad singer speaker

poison spot yeah

have you ever heard that the brightest

point of a shadow

is right at its very center yeah

rays of light aren’t as straight and

parallel as we make them out to be no

light behaves like waves and when

there’s light hitting my back

these waves are spreading out from

behind me

and then focusing themselves right at

the very center

to produce a bright spot at the center

of my shadow it looks

as if there’s light passing straight

through me which is so

cool when you speak

when you sing do you sing from your

stomach do you speak

from your heart are you summoning the

light

the passion from your poison spot from

the center

of your being and shining that real

brilliance

at your audience

it doesn’t have to be science rule your

destiny

with the flourish of your paintbrush the

setting of your accounts or even

the relishing of your food

take your fire take your area of

expertise

be large or small and prepare yourself

up to the heavens

make every twist flip jump skip and

slide practically scream

you live what you’re learning

plays a path to your dreams and let the

embers of the fire you leave behind

make a big smiley face

your smiley face thank you for listening

now get out there and show me what you

can do