Sublime start: Legal luminary, retired Supereme Court Judge, V.R. Krishna Iyer inaugurates the summer magic camp at the library hall attached to the Traffic Training Park of the Ernakulam District Council for Child Welfare. He is flanked by (from left) Joint Secretary of the Council, V.M.Shamsudheen; Executive Director of the Magic Academy, Gopinath Muthukad; District Collector, Dr. M. Beena; Vice President of the Council, Sainaba Mammu; Assistant Development Commissioner, V.S. Soman; Committee member of the Council, M.M. Salim and Superintendant of the Park, K.P. Shaji.
Kochi: The summer magic camp for children jointly organised by the Ernakulam District Council for Child Welfare (DCCW) and the Magic Academy began here on 6th of April with a call by legal luminary, the Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer to use magic for unveiling truth behind fallacies and a stunning demonstration of magic in mathematics by the chief of the Academy, Gopinath Muthukad.
“Muthukad is making an admirable attempt to empower our younger generation. While learning magic, children should acquire the power to identify the truth of science behind everything we see in our life”, Mr. Krishna Iyer said during his inaugural address. “The reality remains within the visible exterior, and through learning magic, we get the power to see the inside of whatever we see”, he added.
District Collector and President of the DCCW, Dr. M. Beena presided over the function. She expressed the hope that the social responsibility upheld by the Magic Academy and its guide, Mr. Muthukad would reflect in the lessons imparted during the summer magic camp. Assistant Development Commissioner and Secretary of the DCCW, V.S. Soman welcomed the guests. Vice President of the Council, Sainba Mammu; Joint Secretary, V.M. Shamsudheen and committee member, M.M. Salim spoke on the occasion.
Mathe-magic
Soon after the inaugural function, it was the turn of Mr. Muthukad to stage a specially crafted magic show supported by mathematics and psychology. Four children were picked from the audience. While they formed a circle around magician with their eyes blindfolded, the magician took a paper and pen on which he wrote something apparently reading the minds of the four. The prediction was enclosed in an envelope and was clipped at the tip of a string that hung above a shallow vessel carrying differently numbered tokens from 1001 to 9999, by Dr. Beena.
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Maths, Magic and Mind: A scene from the Mathe-magic show by Gopinath Muthukad.
Now the children were set free to approach the vessel carrying the heap of tokens and pick in random two tokens each in their hands. Now they had to write these numbers on the writing boards kept on two sides, on the stage. Sum of these numbers were calculated by the Dr. Beena and Mrs. Mammu. These totals were now written on a third writing board kept on the centre of the stage. The dignitaries worked out the total of these numbers, too. The final total was boldly written.
Now, as requested by Mr. Muthukad, Dr. Beena approached the envelope carrying the prediction and opened it. Now the paper was handed over to Mr. Iyer. He red it out alound through microphone and the number matched exactly with what was arrived on the board. Children, their parents and dignitaries were hugely impressed at the performance of the magician that surely pronounced that mathematics was a friendly subject. “See there is nothing supernatural with what I did. It is simply a play of mathematics that anybody can perform after thorough practicing”, Mr. Muthukad declared.
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Caught in magic: Children who came to attend the summer magic camp seen engrossed by the the mathe-magic demonstration.
Following this video show titled, ‘The Greatest Illusions of Muthukad’ was held to demonstrate different faces modern magic. Then chapter first of the magical art was introduced before curious children by Mr. Muthukad who was supported by other faculties including Advocate Hariraj, Sreekumar and Ajith Kumar.
