I love interacting with children. My school sessions help me learn far more than I can ever teach.


I carry a different musical instrument into class every time and the ideas flow out of the confluence of hallowed tradition of the instrument and bright-eyed curiosity of the children. The instrument represents a technology, genre, culture.. broadly a tradition. The children are scientists waiting in the wing, minds primed to probe and challenge. They are also eager listeners- provided the music sounds good.


Last class I took the western concert flute a.k.a. Boehm flute, named after the 19th century inventor who perfected its design. It was from his path-breaking flute designs that clarinet, bassoon and saxophone makers perfected theirs. His key insight (no pun intended) was the use of padded keys to close and open tone holes that were otherwise too far to reach. He laid out spring-loaded lever assemblies to control them. The result was an easy-to-handle alto flute. The trade-off was that you could no longer easily glide from note to note, the way Indian flautists do.


At the heart of the key assembly is the lever. If you push the lever on one end it will open a key on the other, rather like a see-saw. If the person sitting on one side of a see-saw heaves down, the person on other side goes up. Similarly the player can change the key position by pushing a lever with their finger; and swing the key back to its initial position by easing the finger.


All simple machines change the amount (magnitude) or sense (direction) or both of an applied force. The lever is a simple machine that reverses the direction of motion, much like a NOT gate flips a signal from low to high or from high to low. The opposite of what you expect happens, which is the very essence of surprise!


The children surprised me with a plethora of examples that contradicted my baked-in notions of of open/close, in/out, up/down. I played a beautiful composition of Illayaraaja's from his early years as a class treat for sharing their interesting perspectives.


Perhaps our notions of right and wrong need revisiting from time to time. It could take but a nudge to flip a feeling of gloom and emptiness into a wholesome sense of cheer using the lever of perspective.