Author: drsriramnathan

“You can buy anything if the price is not wrong!
The brain is strong but money is strong!
Some may even sell their soul to you!
Then again that’s life which sometimes is a zoo!”

Do you know what is the similarity of The Roman Empire and a tooth!

Do you also know one of the most valuable tooth in the world!?

Apart from the one you own that is! Also this is directly linked to getting a wife in the old days!

read on!

Don’t worry! I will give the answer to the first one quickly!

Well both The Roman Empire and couple of famous tooth were sold and bought in an auction at some point of time!

So the origin of auctions can be traced back to approximately 500 B.C when in ancient Greece women were auctioned off for marriage!
If you think that is illegal, during this period, it was illegal for women to get married without going through the auction process!
The auctioneer started the sale with the woman who was considered to be the most beautiful among all the women being auctioned that day!
So the best was kept in the first!

The auction followed a descending pricing method, beginning with the highest price and going lower until the lowest bid was found, as long the bid price was more than, or equal to, the reserve price set by the seller. If the buyers could not get along with their new wives, they were allowed to recover their money! Now that is a cool refund policy!

And NO! This does not happen anymore! Well auction is still there but not ‘those materials!’

So early auctions were used to sell farm produce, estates, and slaves. In the American Civil War, soldiers returning from war frequently sold their war plunder through auctions. However, the only soldiers who were allowed to sell the spoils of war were those holding a rank of colonel or higher!

The business of auctioneering grew rapidly during the Great Depression when many people became bankrupt and, therefore, were forced to liquidate their assets. Auctions helped the individuals and businesses affected by the crisis to sell their assets quickly.

The need for qualified auctioneers prompted auctioneer Carey Jones to establish the first auctioneering school in early 1900. The school, located in Davenport, Iowa, was known as the Jones’ National School of Auctioneering and Oratory! So if you speak well then you can sell well!

Online auctions are popular with sellers because the huge number of potential bidders makes it easier for them to get a good price for virtually any item they have to sell. Buyers like having a wide range of products to choose from and being able to find just about anything they’re searching for to buy!

Of course we all have made bids in ebay those days when auctions used to be popular! I have bought a guitar with an auction placed so low that I never thought I could get it! Same with a business class airline ticket!

If at all you think that there are some weird things you can buy in auction, well you are right!

Long ago apparently even the Roman empire was sold in an auction!

In 193 AD the Praetorian Guard, who served as the secret police, put the Roman Empire up for sale! By the way it was sold for 6,250 drachmas!
Bizarrely, the highest bidder ended up getting beheaded! I guess it went over their heads!

Another bizarre (there are actually many!); things sold at auctions include Queen Victoria’s undies! It was embroidered with her initials “VR” for Victoria Regina, the undies were in pristine shape, having been wrapped in tissue and kept in a temperature controlled room! Sold in 2015 for $16,300!

Another was Elvis Presley’s lock of hair. Sold for $115,000! and also Ronald Reagan’s blood was sold in 2012 for $3,550!


But what I felt bizarre in the list was the above average tooth!

So apparently John Lennon’s molar was sold to a Canadian dentist named Michael Zuk who has the tooth on display in his surgery which was Sold in 2011 for $31,200! Now you would think that is a costly tooth!
Well it is! But that is not the most valuable! The most valuable was of a famous short tempered physicist associated with a fruit!

Let’s get to the point! Or else for every action!

Yes! Isaac Newton has the most valuable tooth of all time!
One of his teeth was sold in 1816 at auction for approximately $3,600 or $35,000 in today’s terms! Now that is a mouthful! Also mouthful was the famous dialogue of Amit in Namak Halaal! How he makes a monologue of the two batman who were both named vijay with different surname! One of the Vijay he spoke about is the birthday celebrity of the day Vijay Singh Madhavji Merchant!

Now that is a memory which cannot be auctioned ever!

Shubh ratri!

The unstoppable US volume 2 by Yuval Noah Harari and Illustrated by Ricard Zaplana Ruiz.

A novel primarily for kids and the language follows the said pattern of books for children with illustrations aplenty!

It is advisable to either read in paperback or read it in a tab or Ipad using the kindle app since many pages have high graphic content which cannot be appreciated in the kindle ebook readers including Kindle Scribe.

The book is volume 2 of this series and though there is no story so to speak, it is recommended to first finish that novel and then start with this one.

A timeline of history according to Yuval is the beginning which may the only technical part of the otherwise simple to read and understand story like book.

They tell about the agriculture revolutions and how cereals changed the world; how that lead to more problems and then more solution and so on!

Just throwing the seed and then planting them and then the water reservoir, then boundary, then granary for storage, then protection and then armies and then finally kingdoms!

Like Nexus, here also he tells about bureaucracy and how they actually control the whole network of things!

In between he adds his two points on belief system and creation of Gods and demons and how they are all mere stories that adults tell!

He also talks about discrimination using safe examples which would not get him in trouble!

In between he also puts his own controversial views which is better read by yourself!

He tells about how agriculture won over herders and gatherers and how skeletons tell stories!

In between he tells about record keeping, fear of tax and fear of God!

In a metaphorical sense he tells about things like money and country are simply stories and not things which you can see but they are there and that’s that!

While the first book is a must read for kids, this one can be read when you are a teen or above!

Since there are already too many exams for our kids anyway and also since the author also states how exams were created!

read it at your leisure as it is for leisure reading only!

“It take the shape of the glass!

As a liquid it’s high class!

There may be many stuff precious you call!

But a glass of water when thirsty is the top of them all!”

When we spoke about the blood transfusion, you would think that it is very precious! Well it is but did you know that it is not even in the top five of the most expensive liquids (by volume!) in the world!?

In fact a perfume is in the top five!

read on!

In college one of the common camps or services we used to do as medical students was to do Blood Grouping camps and form a list of the blood group!

This was usually part of an association and also sometimes with some school or company or even a whole village!

Of course service was a big criteria but the chief attraction was the food and snacks for the ever starving boys of the men’s hostels!

Many times we used to be taken to remote villages and sometimes it may be in the middle of the city also!

Our main aim was to do the blood grouping then and there and make a list! We used to give one list to the organizers while one list was with us; the Kerala Blood donor’s forum! Many times when there was a requirement for blood, the patients were advised to approach the member of this forum and he or she would try to juggle the list! 

If they were lucky we would get an instant match and a willing donor and this was done over and over again and the services provided by the purely volunteer based society were simply amazing!

Now of course for the person receiving blood, it would have been the most expensive liquid in the universe! 

Practically though it does not even feature in the top ten! But then that is only in the monetary point of view so read it in that sense only!

There is a brand of perfume called Chanel which is the epitome of luxury! Now since I am an allergic person, I do not use any perfume (hopefully not required!) but the perfume industry is rich! And among them Chanel is in the top apparently! And among Chanel, a perfume called the Chanel No. 5 is perhaps the peak of luxury in the perfume industry. Its known for its exquisite scent derived from rare and expensive ingredients like jasmine and May rose. Workers harvest the flowers used in Chanel No. 5 by hand in the Grasse region of France, and it takes thousands of blooms to produce just a small amount of essential oil! 

Or you can simply take a nice bath once in a while to smell good! Just keeping it cheap (er!).

The second in the list is King Cobra venom! The king is rightly feared for its lethal effects and it is also revered in the medical community for its applications!

 The proteins found in this venom are being studied for their ability to treat severe pain and even to kill certain cancer cells, making it a key substance in medical research.

The process of extracting venom from a King Cobra is fraught with danger, requiring expert handlers who can ensure the safety of both the snake and themselves. The venom’s rarity, combined with the high risk and the specialized skill set required for extraction, significantly contributes to its exorbitant price!

Yes, I know! You want to know the first! Well it is a scorpion! The Deathstalker Scorpion Venom tops the charts as the most expensive liquid, priced at an astounding $39 million per gallon. 

The cost of scorpion venom reflects its rarity and the laborious process involved in its collection. Each scorpion produces only a tiny amount of venom, which must be extracted without harming the creature. Moreover, the venom’s complex composition of proteins and peptides makes it a key ingredient in innovative medical research, driving up its value due to the high demand in pharmaceutical development.

You need trained specialists to collect scorpion venom using either mechanical stimulation or mild electrical shocks to induce the scorpion to release venom!

Handlers must execute this method with precision to ensure their safety and minimize distress to the scorpions. They then carefully extract the venom and store it under stringent conditions to preserve its bioactive compounds!

But remember that, even if it is not in the top five, blood is still in the top ten and every drop is precious! Precious also are the memories associated with old movies! 

One such movie was Roja which reminds me of Arvind Swamy!

Shubh ratri!

A quick sketch on a busy day!

“What to write everything has been told
His generosity is not new but very old!
He would do everything for his watan
After all he was an Anmol Ratan…”

When we were young (er!); anytime someone had to show some attitude or if someone showed attitude, the common comment was, “Tu kya TATA ya BIRLA ka beta hai!?”

Of course we never knew anyone remotely related to either one!

But if you had to name a rich and famous person who is not an actor or politician then Tata would be in the top!

Even kids knew Tata meant power and money! As adults we realised that the name indicated a good businessman and leader!


The stories and gossip about the Tata group were usually inspiring!

The story of how the Parsis came to India and how they became a part of our country has been told so many times! My mother used to tell the story and later on we read it in our books and then of course so many novels including the novel by Ashwin Sanghi and his Novel The Magicians of Mazda also tell about that and many stories of Parsis and their customs and the ‘secret’ of their long life!

If you want to know more about them that that is a good novel to start!

One of their most famous story is the “Sugar in the Milk” which am sure we all would have heard! But still it is nice to hear a good story again!

This Sugar and Milk in Parsis (Parsi / Parsee Zoroastrians) folklore, comes from the time when they came over from Persia (modern day land of Iraq and Iran and other countries) to save themselves and their religious faith.
At the time they were escaping and were trying to find safe haven to continue practicing their faith.

They landed in Sanjan a port in the Indian State of Gujarat. The King Jadhav Rana, who was the ruler of the land was good and a fair ruler! As per our tradition, atithi devo bhava which means that guest is like God; but then to give refuge for such a huge number of people was a difficult task indeed. Since he did not want to refuse them outright and since the language of Indians and Persians was different, so to welcome the strangers and communicate that the land was already filled with people to the brim, he sent them a full glass of milk!


The Zoroastrian priests immediately got the message and since they were also peace loving religious people, they wanted to send back a message that they would make the land and community richer and more prosperous by their good values, knowledge and hard work.
The Parsis added sugar to the glass of milk! The sugar mixed with the milk but did not drop out! Of course it also became sweet!

The King Jadhav Rana was so impressed with this gesture that he granted them asylum and welcomed them with gifts and helped them settle in the new land of India. Parsis thus settled and assimilated, blended in India like sugar in the milk!

There is another story about Tata itself which is also famous among the current generation! That showed what an amazing businessman he was!

The story begins in 1998 with the launch of the Tata Indica.

India’s first diesel-powered hatchback, the Indica was also widely seen as the country’s first indigenously designed and manufactured car. It was also a car close to Mr Tata’s heart.

Sales, though, were poor, and a dejected Ratan Tata looking to cut short his losses flew to the US to offer the factory to then Ford boss Bill Ford!
Contrary to the Bon Jovi song Misery loves company unfortunately , the meeting did not go to plan.

Ford reportedly chastised Mr Tata, declaring the Indian company should never have started manufacturing cars and that buying the plant would be a ‘favour’ to the Tatas!

A “humiliated” Ratan Tata walked back his offer to Ford and returned home with renewed focus and determination, and a very clear goal – to prove his doubters and critics wrong!

And what a comeback it was!

Nine years later – after transforming the Indica into a success, with European and African exports by 2004 and domestic sales peaking at 1.42 lakh in 2007 – Mr Tata did just that!

By 2008 it was a Karmic reversal! Ford was struggling!

The recession that roiled the American economy took its toll and the company was nearly bankrupt!

Ever-aware, Ratan Tata moved, and moved swiftly, to snap up Jaguar and Land Rover, forcing Ford to acknowledge the Indian company was doing it a ‘favour’!

Writing about Ratan Tata and his generosity and charity work need no introduction. Stating anything more is actually less!

We have lost a legend but having lead a successful life and career of 85 years is of course a great achievement!

He will be missed by many but his legacy will continue for ever!

Heartfelt condolences
Shubh ratri…

“Flows like water but is thick and red!
Goes to your toes and to your head!
It warm and fresh and a nick gets a flood!
It your protection, your life! Tis your blood!”

It was the day before the exams (when is it not!?) and after a quick revision I ‘allowed’ myself a quick peek at the Amitabh Blockbuster!
It was a typical hindi masala and one scene I particularly remember when the three long lost brothers who do not know that they were brothers give their ‘blood’ to the mother of everyone which also they did not know; Nirupa Roy!

In the background of the three blood bottles, you get the title screen of the movie; ‘Amar, Akbar Anthony!’ Goosebumps!

khoon ka rishta!

read on!

If I had seen the scene in my medical college; it would have made my friends laugh and ridicule me for watching that in the first place!

Then again if you are watching such movies, you must not think logically! There are very few movies which get the ‘medical’ part right!

I remember watching one movie with one of my most favourite song called ‘Yeh wada raha’ in which Poonam dhillon meets with an accident and then after ‘plastic’ surgery gets turned into ‘Tina Munim’! Even as kids that did not seem right but the songs and the situation demanded such a drama and we did not think much about it!

One movie which defeated all logic and sense was our Mithun da movie! Mithun da gets injured and dies! Then his friend, ‘Keeps’ his brain intact and later on ‘transplants’ it to his wife who is in a coma and ‘brain dead!’ The wife wakes up with Mithun da in her brain with a female body! The reels of that movie cracks me up even now! But it was so entertaining!

Coming back to the blood brothers! So in the movie the blood from all the three ‘brothers’ was taken and ‘mixed’ in a single big bottle and given to the Mother which was the icing on the cake (though I actually like eggless sponge cake without any cream!)!

Then again, movies are not real is what we get to know when we see these movies!

The blood transfusion part though is not so unreal!

In fact in the olden days of wars and injury and trauma; the standard treatment was blood donation directly to the injured person!

Yes! Remember that all blood is red and since the colour of the blood is the same, there was no doubt that the blood which is running in two humans is the same! If you do not think his or her blood is good enough for someone then that is discrimination!

So ‘medical professionals’ also used to give blood directly to the injured! The only catch was that only some lucky folks who had this great luck of receiving the proper blood used to survive!

Most of the times though, the recipient would experience severe reactions including and not restricted to full body system failure or shock and even death!

If you survived a blood transfusion that makes you very lucky!
Many times there would be people who used to donate blood regularly who had high success rates of transfusion. Which means that the people who used to receive these blood usually survived and lived to tell the tale!

All these went on and the unpredictability remained till a scientist actually ‘discovered’ that not all blood is the same! Well, the colour is the same but all that is red is not blood or even the same blood!

Forget about humans having groupism! Even nature has already decided to ‘divide’ you into ‘groups!’! Now before you start getting angry (for that matter stop getting angry so much!); the group of blood are the Blood groups!

But even after the discovery of the primary groups called the A, B, AB and O; some incidents still used to happen. Till they discovered the Rhesus group!

Now practically there are several groups which is why even now some reactions do happen but we cannot test all the groups right?

So a blood type or blood group is a classification of blood, based on the presence and absence of antibodies and inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells (RBCs). These antigens may be proteins, carbohydrates, glycoproteins, or glycolipids, depending on the blood group system. Some of these antigens are also present on the surface of other types of cells of various tissues.

Blood types are inherited and represent contributions from both parents of an individual.

As of 31 December 2023, a total of 45 human blood group systems are recognized by the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT).
The two most important blood group systems are ABO and Rh; they determine someone’s blood type (A, B, AB, and O, with + or − denoting RhD status) for suitability in blood transfusion!

Another issue with the Nirupa roy scene above is that very rarely do people get whole blood transfusion! The blood you donate is actually separated into many components! Most whole blood donations are spun in centrifuges to separate it into transfusable components: red cells, platelets, and plasma. Plasma may be processed into components such as cryoprecipitate, which helps control the risk of bleeding by helping blood to clot! Also component called Granulocyte is separated. Granulocyte transfusions are commonly used in chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation patients.
Factor VIII and factor IX replacement products may also be derived from plasma or may be genetically engineered through recombinant technology that uses mammalian cell lines transfected with normal human genes that code for clotting factor proteins.

So when you donate blood, it can effectively go and save not one but three or more lives!

Now finally you would ask if there are so many blood groups, effectively which is the safest blood you can take!? Well, that safest blood for you is your own!

Which is why sometimes blood is taken from you before a major surgery in case you need a transfusion! This self donation Using your own blood, called autologous donation, can minimize your need for donated blood and reduce – but not eliminate – the risk of transfusion-related infections and allergic reactions! Or you can simply watch the golden days of multiple blood transfusion! Which reminds me of the golden voice of celebrity Ravindra Jain!

Now ‘donate’ your body some rest!
Shubh ratri!

“The poor deer just stood there looking at the light!
It was simply strolling enjoying the night!
When the car came rushing like a sneeze!
The poor deer terrified by brain freeze!”

While driving and trying to enter an intersection you see a big truck and need to wait for it and then get into the road.

Now if your mind is occupied with something, you suddenly press on the accelerator instead of the brakes and ram the car!
When that moment has passed, you will jump to reality and not understand or explain why you did that in the first place!

Well, it is not rare and it is explained…

Read on!

The novel Smarter Faster Better: The secrets of being productive in life and Business by Charles Duhigg is an amazing book on how to be productive and is often quoted in other self help books.


Apart from many things which the author has described with real life examples; the author tells about two plane crashes before coming to point.

In the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, the pilot and co-pilot kept trying to use brute force to pull on the yoke in an attempt to keep the plane’s nose from sinking. A state of frozen mind kept the flight crew from considering other options to get the Boeing 737 Max under control. There were couple of options which would have allowed the pilots to regain control of the aircraft, however, as a result of brain freeze, their attention remained focused on pulling the yoke!

A similar state of frozen mind occurred with Air France Flight 447 when it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009.
When ice accumulated on the sensor that measures airspeed, the autopilot automatically disengaged. While the flight computer kept spitting out instructions to correct the problem, the pilot ignored them and remained fixated on the gauges that were giving faulty readings due to being iced over!
As a result, the pilot increased the angle of attack until the plane stalled. Even after the stall, the pilot could have recovered control by lowing the nose. Fixated on the faulty instruments however, he continued to try to push the plane upward increasing the severity of the stall, and ultimately causing the plane to crash!

Of course sitting in our rooms all safe and cosy, we can always give free advice (no one will take it anyway!); but in those stress levels with so many lives under you, the brain reaches such end points!

That state of mind which is the same whether you are flying a plane or driving a car or simply doing your routine stuff and freezing out is called Cognitive Tunneling!

Cognitive tunneling is the mental state in which your brain hangs on to the thing that is closest to you or in front of you, and does not see the rest of the environment. This is a mental error that sometimes happens when our brains transition suddenly from relaxed automation to panicked attention. In this state, our mind suddenly switches from proactive to reactive thinking.

Cognitive tunnels cause us to focus on whatever is directly in front of our eyes. In this state we become preoccupied with immediate, seemingly urgent tasks.

Once in a cognitive tunnel, we lose our ability to direct our focus. Instead, we focus on the easiest and most obvious stimulus. And when this happens we simply do an automatic work which makes no sense! Like the pilot pulling the yoke or the driver accelerating instead of putting the brake!

In fact many times we see or witness people in high stress levels doing things which is far away from common sense! These are all because of cognitive tunneling!

Now this can happen to anyone and the author lists some ways to get over the tunnel! He tells that we have to create mental models which will try to overcome tunneling!

The author states how you must envision or plan your day to avoid sudden surprises as much as possible, try to make a mental note of what is in front of you and describe it to yourself, try to heed to other people and their opinion and force yourself to anticipate what will happen next.

Remember that either flying a plane or driving a car; both the jobs need skill and comes with responsibility. Cognitive tunneling can happen anywhere and to anyone, so if you have a job with more responsibility then it must be monitored and you must have assistance. If you are more receptive to your environment and open to suggestions then the freeze will not happen or can be overcome! A suggestion is also that who live in glasshouses do not throw stones as told in his characteristic style by the birthday celebrity Raaj Kumar!

Now try to keep your mind heated and try not to freeze!
Shubh Ratri!

“Leaf by leaf the bed is done

With the twigs the sides are won!

The lady inspects the handiwork while the male wait!

The nest gets the nod; for the eggs that’s fate!”

The other day the whole family was reading hindi because my son had a term examination coming up! First I had to read and then explain to him!

He was reading a story in which the bird rejects her eggs because a kid touched them!

If only the writer knew that it is simply a myth!

read on!

My mother always used to warn me not to go near the terrace where you have bird’s nest! She would say that ‘crow will peck your head!’

Of course being a naughty boy I thought it was mere stories made to keep us away from destroying bird’s nest!

That was not a myth which I got to know first hand when an actual crow pecked me! 

The other popular myth on how the mother or father bird abandon their little ones or eggs if any human touches them is not true though!

One of my friends called Shyam would even tell stories on how you must not kill or hurt snakes because then the injured snake would take your mental picture and the mate of the snake would then come and take revenge!

This was of course inspired by the Snake movie Nagin! 

Now whether you believe that or not, no one is going to play with snakes! But investigating nests and seeing cute little eggs was not frightening!

In the story it was shown that the boy and his little sister would try to help the mother bird by making the nest a little bit stronger but the eggs would fall down and the kid would take the eggs and place them safely!

It was later shown that the mother abandons the eggs and the grandfather tells the kid on how once the eggs have the ‘smell’ of a human or another other species, they will be abandoned!

The kid is then shown to be very upset and sorry that he was responsible for their ‘death’ in a way.

If only they knew that it is not so! 

No matter how flighty birds appear, they do not readily abandon their young, especially not in response to human touch is what expert Ornithologists say!

Now if a bird’s nest is disturbed by a potential predator during the nesting or egg-laying stage there’s a possibility that it will desert and re-nest!

But that is because the mother has understood that laying eggs in that place may not be safe. 

But if the young are hatched and feeding, their parents are by and large pretty much around to take them back and protect them. Even small baby birds found on the ground unable to fly would be monitored by their parents from far since that is the only way the kids can be independent! 

Remember that the whole ‘myth’ is derived from the understanding that belief that birds can detect human scent!

Actually, birds have relatively small and simple olfactory nerves, which limit their sense of smell. There are very few birds with extraordinary olfaction and these represent specialized adaptations. For example, turkey vultures are attracted to methyl mercaptan, a gas produced by decaying organic matter which is also the gas added to gas to make it smell bad in case of any leak), while starlings can detect insecticidal compounds in vegetation, which they utilize to keep their nests bug-free. 

Yet no bird’s sense of smell is cued to human scent! Which means that they cannot smell you or me! It can also be due to the fact that naturally humans are not predators to birds.

The myth of course would have had good intention only since kids like to play with eggs found in nest and may handle them or break them which would be tragic! Then the best way to conserve the ‘nest’ and make these kids environmental conscious, these stories would have been made! 

In fact like many people who help others but are easily used and fooled by those who ask for help and then take advantage of your generosity; birds are also easily fooled!

Forget abandoning the eggs touched by other species; some birds like crow and others actually end up rearing birds and eggs of other species! Even when they are born and look different, the mother does not differentiate! This is common with the cuckoo birds which simply lay their eggs in other bird’s nest and relegate all responsibilities of rearing! 

In fact when the cuckoo birds babies hatch, the first thing they do is throw the other eggs and eliminate competition! Their first act on hatching out of the egg is murder! If only birds could smell deceit! 

For now though this ‘myth’ needs to continue since it tries to emotionally guilt kids to not hurt the eggs by even ‘touching’!

The best rule of thumb if you find a baby bird or any animal infant is just to leave it alone. In most cases, the parents are nearby and may be waiting for you to leave the area. Touching animals can also result in diseases passing from wildlife to humans, or vice versa and Am sure no one wants another pandemic!

However, if you do inadvertently happen to touch a bird’s egg or nest, rest assured that your scent alone won’t cause the parents to flee! After all they are not humans or Cuckoo! Just leave the area as quickly and quietly as you can, and do what you can to minimize your disturbance! By the way Humans can apply that action of living alone without causing much disturbance to everything! That was dark humour! Which reminds me of birthday celebrity Sanjay Mishra and his witty replies!

Now listen to some bird sounds before you sleep so that you will feel calm!

Shubh ratri!

“Climbing wall, that’s it’s skill

Fell on your food, may make you ill!

In a rush or danger it breaks in half you see!

You will stare at its tail and it will run away in glee!”

In the last spiderman movie; one of the Peter Parker aka Spiderman hangs from the ceiling but Zendaya is not impressed!

It was such a funny scene! But maybe she knew Spiders cannot hang like that without the web! 

It is actually another animal which can literally climb upside down and hang like that with only its amazing legs!

read on!

So spiders can climb really well over walls and of course they can use their webs to ‘fly’ or ‘move’ or ‘hang’ but without the webs they can climb vertical walls since they have the hairy legs with a good hold!

The actual animal though which can even climb walls and hang from the ceilings are the Geckos with their amazing suction cup feets!

Of course we normally have a fear of the creepy lizards in our house! In the old days it was also told that lizards are poisonous! We have had old movies showing many ‘old aunts’ poisoning the new daughter in law with the milk with the fallen lizard!

Now the milk may be spoilt or unhygienic but it was surely not poisonous! You may end up with a stomach ache and may be some burps but you will live! 

We were also told by our parents to not to kill these lizards since apparently and actually they control the insect population in the area. Especially the pesky ones like cockroaches and mosquitoes.

Also when you think of something and they make affirmative noise then what you want would be successful was the belief! 

It is the same with the spiders but the are more messy and some are poisonous! Also a cobweb means that the house is not clean!

A lizard in the house is still allowed within the definition of ‘clean’ house!

What used to amaze me was the way these super animal use to simply climb walls and even hang upside down! The best example of mighty climbers are Geckos!

What differentiates geckos from the group of lizards is that they lay eggs in pairs instead of large clutches, and they have the ability to vocalize with chirps and barking noises. Most geckos also lack eyelids and have sticky toes that enable them to climb walls!

These remarkable reptiles owe their impressive climbing skills to their sticky feet!

The feat is a complex mixture of and  interplay of physics chemistry and biology!

The gecko’s ability to stick to surfaces results from an intricate interplay of biology, physics, and chemistry. A gecko’s foot is covered with millions of tiny hair-like structures known as setae, each branching out into hundreds of even smaller structures at the tip called spatulae. These spatulae are so tiny that they interact with the molecules of the surface the gecko is climbing – a phenomenon known as van der Waals forces! 

Van der Waals forces are the weak electrostatic forces that exist between molecules. They arise from fluctuations in electron distribution within a molecule, creating tiny positive and negative charges. When the gecko’s spatulae come into close contact with a surface, these weak charges cause a significant adhesive force. Incredibly, this mechanism allows geckos to stick to almost any type of surface, irrespective of whether it’s wet, dry, smooth, or rough! 

While the ability to stick is crucial, the capacity to unstick is equally important. After all, being perpetually stuck to a surface wouldn’t be beneficial for a quick-moving gecko. Here’s where the unique design of the setae and spatulae comes into play.

When a gecko wants to move its foot, it peels it away from the surface, rather like removing tape. This peeling action starts from the back of the foot and moves forward, progressively decreasing the amount of contact between the spatulae and the surface. This peeling motion effectively reduces the impact of the van der Waals forces, allowing the foot to detach easily and quickly without any sticky residue! 

The gecko’s ability to stick and unstick to surfaces has not only been a boon for the creature itself but has also inspired several technological advancements. Scientists, fascinated by these reptiles, have been trying to mimic their unique ability, giving rise to the field of gecko-inspired technology, or ‘gecko technology’!

One such innovation is the development of dry adhesives that can stick to surfaces in the same way gecko feet do. These adhesives are clean, residue-free, and can be reused, unlike many traditional adhesives. They hold promise for use in a myriad of applications, from medical bandages and athletic gear to industrial tapes and electronics assembly!

Moreover, robots equipped with ‘gecko feet’ are also being developed, with potential applications in space travel. These robots could assist in the repair and maintenance of spacecraft, adhering to the exterior without the need for cumbersome and potentially damaging mechanical gripping devices!

The biggest thing here is the fact that not only they stick well, they also let go soon enough! That is the best way to climb! Both physically and metaphorically! And listen to your mother when she says that lizards are good omen! Mother reminds me of Birthday celebrity Sukumari Amma! 

Now look under the bed for any Geckos and sleep!

Shubh ratri!

“The eldest is the apple of the eye!

The youngest is a cutie pie!

The ones in the middle are for fun!

So many choices but the parent can’t select one!”

Anyone who has more than one kid knows the Balancing act it takes to be a ‘fair’ parent!

Imagine Earth having to do the same now!

Yes! It is official! The Earth has two moons now!

read on!

The first child and the last child syndrome is well known! Even the middle child syndrome!

The first child is usually the one with all the focus and hopes and inspirations of the parent! Like someone told in a stand up; the first is the prototype!

You give the most care and always have some amount of concern for the first child! The issue with the first child would always be that till the day the second was born, he or she was the center of attention and focus of his or her parents! Now suddenly the focus gets divided!

To suddenly share everything including parents love is a big challenge! Of course the modern day parents usually train the child and most of the time the transition is smooth! 

Every child would many times think the parent loves the other kids more than him or her! But Parental love is not a limited quantity or a private company!

The second child is usually less stressed since by this time the parents know stuff! They would accept reality and would not pressure much into the this time around!

Till the parents have a third kid and the second kid becomes the middle child! Then the same complex patterns start! The middle child syndrome!

The books on children psychology states how the oldest children, for example, tend to be more reliable and conscientious. They might have Type A personalities and lean towards perfectionist tendencies—probably because first-time parents act extremely “by the book” and devote undivided attention to them as mentioned above!

While parents are more relaxed and experienced with youngest siblings, so last-borns tend to have different personality traits such as being more likely to seek out fun experiences! However, since younger siblings may try to live up to older siblings, they may also be more self-centered and attention-seeking! They may take things more lightly and do not get stressed! This is of course till the first child is not an overachiever! Then the achievements of the first has a risk of hanging over his or her head!

The middle child however is probably not praised like their older sibling or coddled like their younger one! 

In our Itihasas also there was an incident when the Pandavas were in Hiding and in the house of the people they were staying there was a middle child who was ‘selected’ to be sent to the big ‘asura’ as a sacrifice! The poor middle child would tell how the eldest is the favourite of the father while the youngest was dear to mother! While he was the favourite of none! 

Bheem, a middle child himself would intervene and set things right!

Practically though, no parent can and must be tortured to select his or her ‘favourite’ child since that cannot happen! 

Then again all these problems are solved when the child realise that his or her parents are also Humans! 

After the third child though, if the parents have more children, there is usually no time or place for any other ‘syndrome!’ 

For all the zillion discussion and a million books on the family child dynamics though, the fact of the matter remains; every family is different! 

So the discussion about children and the earth is being done now since the Earth just had a second child! I meant the moon!

Now before you start raising your eyebrows lemme tell you some theories on how the moon was formed and how the prevalent theory is that it is ‘created’ from the earth!

There used to be a number of theories about how the Moon was made and it was one of the aims of the Apollo program to figure out how we got to have our Moon. 

Prior to the Apollo mission research there were three theories about how the Moon formed.

Capture theory suggests that the Moon was a wandering body (like an asteroid) that formed elsewhere in the solar system and was captured by Earth’s gravity as it passed nearby- hold on to this thought!

The accretion hypothesis proposes that the Moon was created along with Earth at its formation.

The fission theory suggests Earth had been spinning so fast that some material broke away and began to orbit the planet.

The giant-impact theory is most widely accepted today. This proposes that the Moon formed during a collision between the Earth and another small planet, about the size of the planet Mars. The debris from this impact collected in an orbit around Earth to form the Moon! This is because the Apollo missions brought back over a third of a tonne of rock and soil from the Moon. This provided some clues on how the Moon may have formed. The Apollo rocks showed that the Earth and the Moon have some remarkable chemical and isotopic similarities, suggesting that they have a linked history!

So our Moon is the proverbial first child of the Earth! And it will stay with us for over a billion more years till the ‘parental’ Earth pull stays! Once that reduces, the Moon may drift away! 

Now the Moon will have First child syndrome since for some time now, Earth has recently adopted another ‘child!’

It has been reported that the Earth has a new, temporary companion in space: a “mini moon” named Asteroid 2024 PT5. This small space rock, about the size of a bus, was caught by Earth’s gravity on Sunday. 

But we cannot see it in the night sky unless we have advanced telescopes.

It takes about 27 days for the moon to make one complete orbit around the earth. The asteroid that will also orbit with the moon and travel with us for nearly 57 days, completing almost one full orbit of Earth!

Sadly though the ‘second’ kid or the moon is only here with 

After that, the rock will break free from our gravitational grasp on November 25, returning to its path around the Sun.

This might sound extraordinary to get a second moon, but according to NASA it’s quite common for asteroids and other space rock to enter the gravitational pull of the earth!

Mini-moons have occurred before. The 2022 NX1 asteroid joined Earth’s orbit in 1981 and 2022!

So for another month or so our Moon may get the ‘first child’ syndrome! So if there are more number of high tides, then you can know the cause! Its is just plain old Sibling rivalry! Talking about sibling reminds me of the singing siblings which had the birthday celebrity Shantanu Mukherjee aka Shaan and his sister Sagarika! Their song Aisa Hota Hai from the album was an big hit among siblings! Of course Shaan was meant to shine which he did and how!

Now do not try to see the Moon number two! Just know it is there and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

“The phone numbers with the code at the start!
If you remember then you are a stalwart!
Or you can simply use the address book!
Pick the name and have a look!”

Remember when you did not have mobile phones?

It is a wonder how we used to remember phone numbers!

without our knowledge we actually used to use a technique even which the grandmasters of chess use!

Intrigued!?

read on!

One fine day when I was in my hostel at Calicut and it was saturday night was the day when panic started!

Those days (I used to cringe when people used to start their stories with ‘Those days!’; now I hope no one else gets that feeling when I start my stories with those days!)

Weekend in the night when many of us hostel kids used to calll home! The walk to the STD booth was an event in itself!

Those days (sorry! But it was more than twenty five years back!); the STD rates used to be reduced in the night and that is when we used to call home!

Mom would eagerly wait for my call and my brother would have called a little earlier and then I would do the same.

That day, as it used to happen so often, the lines were jammed or busy or some issue. When this used to happen, the tone would beep beep for some time and not connect!

Luckily unless it gets connected, you would not be charged! So many times we would go on trying and if lucky you would get it.
In fact I am sure my father and older generation would have similar stories with the trunk calls and maybe the telegram! Then again that is a blog for another day!

That day or night rather, the beep just kept on going but it did not get connected. It was frustrating and a little sad since those day (sorry again!); many of us used to call our homes only once a week! The few minutes of speaking to mom would keep us connected to home and keep the home sickness on hold!

The gals of the class would tell stories of how they would call home and speak for hours! We could only imagine that! It was ten minutes or so which itself was more since all we had to report would get completed in that time!

That day since I was not able to connect to Bangalore, I thought of calling my mother’s sister in Madras (yes that was the name!) and luckily I remembered her number!

This was because mom used to have a night time chat session with her sister almost every other day! The major part of our landline bill were the STD itemised calls to Madras! In fact even my aunt’s address was something which we all memorised!

Many times mom would not get her spectacles and tell me to dial the number! We used to love doing that!

Of course the big address book would have all the details which mom and dad use to treasure!
This big diary would be always near the phone!

Which may be the reason why I remembered her number!
If remembering numbers was the game, my mom was an champ! She used to tell numbers of so many folks just like that!

The method she used was to divide the number into smaller sections or ‘Chunks’! And then remember the whole number!

So anyway I also remembered the number and conveyed the message to my aunt and called mother the next day!

Now this method of remembering the number or anything by dividing is called Chunking!

So chunking, involves organizing information into smaller, more manageable groups, and this enhances understanding and recall.
Take, for instance, how we typically remember long numbers. We break them into smaller segments, like we do with phone numbers: 987-651-4321, rather than trying to recall 9876514321 as a whole!

So in chess and computer chess, chunking is about to recognize relevant patterns of a chess position!

A chunk is a group of pieces, in some sense a semantic unit, a meaningful pattern that is recognized at a glance by a chess master. Reasoning about a position in terms of such chunks as atomic units, instead of individual pieces, reduces the complexity of a position from, say, 30 units to about 7 units, assuming that each chunk consists of 4 or 5 pieces.

This hypothesis known as the Chunking Hypothesis was researched in various cognitive experiments by researcher Adriaan de Groot and others, where chess masters were able to reconstruct a chess position from a albeit unknown chess game almost perfectly after viewing it for only 5 sec, while players below the master level had sharp drop off in this ability!

However, this result could not be attributed to the masters’ generally superior memory ability, since masters had almost the same difficulty to reconstruct the positions constructed by placing the same numbers of pieces randomly on the board!

This means that only a proper move or a recognisable move on a Chess Board was recalled by the expert level players or Grandmasters! If the move is not possible or incorrect or random then these experts remember just as many pieces as ‘normal’ people like you and me!

If you want to know that whether you are a good player of chess or not then you can try the Chunking Hypothesis! Then again it is not a hard and fast rule by the way! Mentioning rule and follower of rule reminds me of Birthday celebrity who played the rule follower Katappa or Satyaraj!

Now chunk those garbage in the dustbin and sleep!
Shubh ratri!