Chapter 2: Desira
Chapter 2: Desira:
Elegma entered into her classroom. Professor Sam was about to begin the lecture. There was a scrapping sound of chairs, as the students settled in the class.
Professor Sam:
“Good morning class! Today we are going to learn about the Golden Ratio. Later we will see, how the Golden Ratio is connected with Quantum Physics, which is our main subject.
So, anyone has any idea, what is the Golden Ratio?”
There was murmuring in the class, when one of the students raised her hand to answer the question.
“Yes! Miss Margaret”, asked professor Sam.
“The Golden Ratio is a ratio of 1 to 1.618”, Margaret replied in a proud tone.
“Very good! Miss Margaret, anyone, who likes to add on what Miss Margaret told us about the golden ratio?”, asked professor Sam.
“The golden ration is found in nature,” another student added.
“Yes! Precisely! It’s not just a mathematical formula, it’s a phenomenon we find in nature’s magnificent equilibrium”, said professor Sam in an enthusiastic tone.
“Tell me, my dear ones, what do you see, in the great Pyramids of Egypt, the great portrait of Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, the flower petals arrangement and the shell of a snail?”, professor Sam asked with the same enthusiasm.
“Symmetry”, a student replied from the back side.
“True! That’s why it’s also called Divine Proportion”, professor Sam added.
Elegma was taking notes on her slides’ printout. She had the similar set of slides on the paper, which professor Sam was scrolling on the projector screen. The image of the great pyramid of Giza was currently on the screen, with some length/ height measurements, showing proportions of the two ratios.
“Yes, Miss Margaret, you have a question?”, professor Sam saw Margaret raising her hand.
“What is the golden ratio for beauty?”, Margaret asked in the same animated tone.
“Well, Miss Margaret, if by beauty you mean the human face, than, yes, indeed, there are several golden ratios in the human face.”
Some mischievous boys took rulers to measure each other’s faces.
“Do not, pick up a ruler, and try to measure people’s faces.” Professor Sam stressed each word while warning the students.
“However, during the European Renaissance, renowned artists and architects had used the golden ratio to map out their masterpieces.”
“Thousands of years later, scientists adopted this mathematical formula to help explain why some people are considered beautiful…and others are not!”
“How do I know that I am beautiful professor?”, in her haste of asking question, Margaret even forgot to raise her hand and ask permission from the professor.
“Wherever there is number, there is beauty. A famous saying of Greek Philosopher, Proclus.”
“I give you an example, if we divide the length of the face by the width of the face, the ideal result should be 1.6 (the golden ratio).”
“Which means a beautiful person’s face is about one and a half times longer than its wide!”, Margaret asked keenly.
“Precisely! Miss Margaret, you have successfully found out, one of the golden ratio, in the human face. There are certainly more of them present. Some are discovered… others yet to be revealed!” , professor Sam said mysteriously.
The projector screen was now showing the image of the famous Vitruvian Man, a drawing made by Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian painter, which depicts a man, in two superimposed positions, with his arms and legs apart, inscribed in a circle and a square.
“It’s assignment time, my dear ones! All of you are looking at this painting, which provides us with the basic information of human body proportions.”
“Your job, is to find out, as many golden ratios, in the human body, as you can.”
“I will be seeing you tomorrow, good day!”
Professor Sam left the classroom.
“Hey Eddie! Would you become my Vitruvian Man?”, asked a boy in a pleasing tone.
“Only for the sake of assignment, my friend!”, he added after receiving fake disapproval of Eddie.
“You mean to say, I have to sacrifice my modesty!”, Eddie said, while stressing the word modesty in a fun way.
“Ha ha ha”, there was students’ combined laughter in the class.
“I might do it for someone like Miss Maggie, perhaps, if she asks me politely, that is!”, Eddie winked at the other boy, while commenting on Margaret.
“You wish! And the name is Margaret! I am going to the library, to finish my assignment, in the mean time , you all can monkey around, till your hearts’ content, farewell!”, Margaret left the classroom with all her pride. Some boys hooted to make fun.
Elegma also headed towards the library, there was a little time left, before the next class, so she wanted to borrow some books for her assignment.
She wanted to take Leah with her, but she was busy talking with the group of students, they were discussing the assignment as well, so Elegma left alone.
She didn’t forget the scene from the stairs earlier, where she clearly heard someone, and saw a vague image of a feather, just like a peacock. Something was telling her, it could be another character, from her dreams, materialised in the physical world.
While her brain was captured by scattered thoughts, she pulled the library’s glass door open. There was silence, and books’ scent spread inside the library. The books were arranged according to the subjects. The Physics section was enormous, showcasing books as well as, final year projects from the previous students. Soon Elegma found out the books related to the quantum physics, one was titled as the Golden Mean in Quantum Mechanics. Elegma took three books which she thought could help her in the assignment. The library wall clock was telling her that there are still fifteen minutes left for the next class to begin. So she decided to sit down and have a look at the books she wanted to borrow.
“Hmm, let’s look at this one first, the divine beauty of mathematics, nice spiral image, must be drawn with the golden ratio”, Elegma thought aloud. There was a snail shell like image at the title of the book. She flipped pages to see the table of contents.
“Amazing! How accurately they measured the spiral in three dimensional drawing. No wonder why, it’s so mesmerising to see such images.”
“Charming, isn’t it!”, somebody whispered in her ears. She looked around shockingly, but didn’t see anyone. It’s the second time she heard this sentence, firstly at the stairs, when Leah was introducing her to Eric, and secondly just a moment ago.
“Something is definitely wrong!”
“Never mind, I should concentrate on my assignment”, again she tried to concentrate on the book she was holding, when the spiral image turned colourful. Elegma rubbed her eyes and looked again.
“What’s this! These colours are just like the colours of a peacock feather…”
The image spread, and all she could see was the most beautiful bird, ever existed.
“So much more than a peacock!”, Elegma exclaimed.
In front of her, was a bird. It’s feathers resembled the peacock’s, but peacock has round circle like design at the center, and this one had a spiral like design, which was changing colours every other second.
“Forgot about me little girl! I am with you, since the day you were born,” the bird spoke in the most euphonious voice. It could beat the most melodious singers.
“Desira! I know you, it’s just that what are you doing here?”, Elegma replied in discomfort.
“Well well well, is that a way to treat a guest? You have become disrespectful!”. Desira was moving around like a fashion diva. Unlike peacock, she had beautiful legs, just like a secretary bird.
“I am just curious, why all of a sudden, the likes of you are popping in front of me! Did I do anything wrong?” Elegma tried to keep her voice low to avoid disturbance in the library. Luckily no one was there at the Physics section at that time.
“My dear, nothing is wrong with you. It’s just that now you are able to see us, but that doesn’t mean we were not there before.”
“Tell me, Elegma! Haven’t you seen us in your dreams as well?” , Desira was flicking her beautiful eye lashes.
“Can you please go away! I have to do my Physics assignment”, Elegma said hastily.
“As you wish!”, Desira vanished after spreading her wings like a peacock.
“Didn’t know she was that obedient!”, Elegma was surprised.
“Let me annotate the text on my slides’ printout, these books will definitely help me out to complete the assignment”, Elegma flipped her printout till she got the slide showing the Vitruvian Man.
“What if, we divide, the distance between the finger tip and the elbow, by the distance between the wrist and the elbow.” Elegma was taking measurements to get the golden ratio.
“It is approximately 1.61, got my first golden ratio, have to find some more,” Elegma thought happily when suddenly her image of the Vitruvian Man took the face of Eric.
“It can not be happening!”, Elegma was still as a stone.
“What happened dearest! You only saw, what’s in your heart!” Desira’s voice was echoing in her head.
“When I said go away! I meant it! Stop manipulating my mind!”, Elegma tried hard to keep her voice low. Her cheeks were rosy by the feelings of shame and anger.
“Elegma! What are you doing here! Our English class is about to start!”, Leah sounded panicked as she found Elegma sitting in the Physics session alone, with books and notes spread all over the table.
“I have been looking for you all over the school! “, Leah added.
“I am sorry Leah, I just wanted to borrow some books for the assignment”, Elegma forgot about Desira for the time being.
“ Yeah I can see! Like this, it will take all eternity to get these books issued”, Leah pointed at some opened and closed books on the table.
“You go ahead! I will catch up with you in no time”, Elegma quickly started to put the notes in her file.
“ Not at all! I am not leaving you from now on! First the bus incident and now this! You need somebody by your side today.”, Leah sensed her new friend’s anxiety.
“Okay we will go together. Here, take my ID card and get these books issued from the librarian, meanwhile I gather my notes”, Elegma wanted to set her notes properly.
“Fine! Be quick! Only few minutes left for the class”, Leah left her with a reminder.
“I have to talk to my grandma, this situation is getting out of control!”, thought Elegma.
“Leah! Let’s go!”, Elegma saw Leah waiting for her at the counter. She was holding the books Elegma wanted to borrow.
“Here, these books are issued on your ID card for a week”, Leah handed the books over to Elegma.
“Thanks Leah”, Elegma was grateful.
“By the way, do you really think you need such heavy books to complete a simple assignment? “, Leah inquired.
“Yeah I could have searched it on the internet, it’s just that, Physics is my passion! I wanted to dig deeper in the topic”, Elegma said. The way Desira manipulated her mind gave her shivers down her spine.
“I was discussing about the assignment with fellow students, one of them has an elder brother doing Master degree in Physics, he could really help us”, Leah seemed concerned.
“ Yeah I saw you with them”, Elegma replied pushing back the disturbing thoughts.
“You could have joined us silly! “, Leah prompted.
“Yes, you are right Leah! I am sorry, I wasted a lot of time in the library and now we are late for the class”, Elegma apologised.
“It’s ok, next time I’ll take care of you myself, you can’t be left alone, I know you are new in this school, you have to mingle around to get the most of it, you understand!”, Leah explained.
English class was started, both the girls entered after taking permission from Mrs. Barnett, their English teacher. Margaret was reciting a ballad from the book:
“Morning and evening
Maids heard the goblins cry:
“Come buy our orchard fruits,
Come buy come buy…””
Elegma and Leah settled down together on the back bench. Margaret was reciting the poem with proper rhythm, taking care of the meters of poetry.
“Figs to fill your mouth,
Citrons from the South,
Sweet to tongue and sound to eye; Come buy, come buy.”
“We have learned about ballad meters before. I want you to think about these stanzas and tell me, which ballad meter is used in this poem.” Mrs. Barnett said in a sharp voice.
“Please take it as an individual task, I don’t want any group discussions”, she added.
There was silence in the class. Elegma saw her cell phone blinking. It was a call from home. She excused from the class to go to the girls’ rest room.
“It’s unethical to leave the class just to answer my phone call, but it could be important!”, she thought. The girls’ common room was at the basement. Elegma used stairs to go there as she always wanted to avoid the elevator. Girls’ room was filled with students of different classes, most of them were seniors. Elegma found an empty sofa at the corner. She was about to dial her home number when the phone started to vibrate again. Home was glowing at the screen, she pressed the green icon to accept the call.
“Hello”, Elegma put the phone on her ear.
“Hi! Big sister, how are you?”, a young boy spoke from the other side.
“Harry! Why did you call me at this time? You know I am at school!”, Elegma didn’t expect her brother on the phone.
“Yeah yeah I know, I was missing you!”, Harry said in a sad voice.
“Harry! My little brother, I am also missing you a lot! I will come visit you all at the weekend and then we will play basketball together! What say you?”, Elegma wanted her brother to cheer up.
“Yay! “, Harry was happy.
“I go and tell grandma, she will be happy to hear this, grandma! Grandma!”, Harry was probably running towards his grandmother’s room as Elegma heard disturbance on the phone.
“Oh no! Grandma!!!!”
“Harry!Hello!”, Elegma heard her brother’s scream before the call was disconnected.
