Category: Uncategorized

Do you know what is a Building failure?

Just when you though failure cannot get a non living thing!

Everyone knows about the concrete Jungle and though it is a sad thing to realise that we are replacing the nature with concrete buildings, have you ever wondered how the buildings stay!?

Although the rates may vary, we add somewhere around seventy thousand new commercial buildings and one million new homes each year!

The amount of constructions which happen in every place would simply blow your mind!

Now you may feel sad that there are so many buildings and not nature, you must also be glad that when in trouble you have them!

Recently there was a sandstorm in our area and most of us were happy and protected by this concrete tree! Be in hot or cold, they keep you safe!
Even in Minor quakes, they are the ones who keep you safe!

At the end of the day, the basic dream of any average person is to at least have one place he or she can call home!

Then again you have such massive buildings like the Burj or even Mukesh Ambani’s Antlia (which was apparently costlier to build than the Burj!) and have you ever wondered the amount of planning and thinking which would have gone into making these huge structures!?

What if a part of the building has an issue which is crucial to the structure? Any error can actually lead to calamity!

That is called the building failure!
“building failure” —defined as a partial or full collapse of a functioning structure-is exceedingly rare, especially for skyscrapers. According to a 2003 Ohio State University study, the United States experiences an average of just twenty serious “building failures” per year. That’s an annual avoidable failure rate of less than 0.00002 percent!

With the advent of AI and computers, the rate would now be much lower!

Of course most of the time the rate is kept low due to computers and proper planning; but as Atul explains in his Book The Checklist Manifesto; the core of everything is the Checklist!

As Atul explained that although buildings are now more complex and sophisticated than ever in history, with higher standards expected for everything from earthquake proofing to energy efficiency, they take a third less time to build than before and they are more safe! All because of the checklists made and followed at every stage! With every checklist in place, the whole complex building steadily comes in place and fits together like a jigsaw puzzle!

Speaking of Antilia; here’s Mukesh!

Now don’t worry! Building failure is very rare so relax and sleep!

Shubh ratri!

One of my first blog I had written several years back! Now updated!

The search goes on…

Everyone’s searching for something or someone. The whole purpose of every living being is search. For animals it can be the search for food and water while for humans it is for that and everything else. Everyone gets up in the morning only Because of the need for search.
It can be new ways to make money or a new project or even a new job!
If nothing else it’s just a search for a new meaning to life while for some it may be even a wife!

The politicians are also always searching. When in power they search for solutions to problems while in opposition they search for problems to solutions!

Doctors and health professionals are always searching for ways to make the patient’s life easier while patient’s nowadays use GOOGLE to search and make life as difficult as possible for the doctor!! Add to it you have the AI now and you know the only intelligence with that Patient is artificial!

Many astronomers are searching for a human life in any other planet while many of us are constantly searching for a humane life in earth!

Children usually search for new things to get in trouble while parents are searching things to keep them away from trouble!!

They of course join forces together everyday to search for that elusive TV REMOTE which I feel is the biggest mystery. Even more than the Bermuda Triangle! The places remote goes and is found is probably why it is called Remote!!

Every other day there are those researchers who are trying to find a cure for your maladies from a common cold to cancer while there are those who deliberatily smoke and VAPE and it is like they are inviting trouble of the C kind!

My biggest search every morning is for that rare entity which is the pair of the sock in my hand!!

I will always get one but finding the pair is an arduous task indeed!
Every night I would remember tucking the sock with it’s pair and in the morning it would adulterously pair with another sock of a different colour, length and type in a cozy embrace!

Separating them I would then call out to my wife to see if she has seen my brown sock (emphasis on the colour racism is in our genes!!)
She would then ask me to see THERE!!

Now THERE is a place often mentioned by the mother or the wife!
It’s very clear when they utter it but when we hear it then it becomes an enigma!! Only bravehearts and possibly a guy in a hurry would ever dare to ask where’s THERE??! Which I did since I was the latter!

She mentioned something about the sock drawer! I did not want to admit that I did not know that a place called sock drawer exists! So I said it’s not there!!

The next step of the search begins here.
You place the sock in your hand (none in the sock drawer!!) On the table from where you know for sure that the sock would not dare escape!
You see socks have an inherent pride!

So I go inside and search in my cup board when after five minutes my wife would call out those magical words (no it’s not I love you!!)
It is I FOUND IT!! I run with happiness only to realize that she found the sock which I had kept on the table so safely!

My sadness then equates to the person who has just been told that you have come first only to be told later that it was a mistake!! I would then reluctantly start the search again giving my wife a look of an injured lion who just lost his kill!!

Then in the wee corners of the drawer I would find that sock just trying to escape! My search of the day has ended!
Many times people have asked me how I can come to work everyday smiling!(they of course are polite enough to not to say that I was mad or crazy!!)

Mostly I wouldn’t say anything but think of the search that ended in a victory today!! I found the pair!!

Of course that’s only till another search begins!! For you and me!

One search did result in a good end! Got a great movie to watch! Chava! Vicky gets into the heart and soul and takes you there!

Do check it out!

Shubh ratri!

Did you have a severe case of acidity or the bloating the last time you had that tasty but spicy and maybe tangy snack!

Well, you can do many things but I am sorry to say that you may not be able to go to space! So if you have booked that ticket to Mars via SpaceX, you may want start the refund process before your next snack!

Apparently there are many who want to go and live on Mars!

NASA wants to send humans to the red planet by 2030, and SpaceX wants to get there even sooner, with plans to have people there by 2024!
When I wrote this line in 2021! I had hope!

Now it is 2025 and since as far as I know, no one has reached or started living in Mars; I am sorry to say as the flight announcer in the airport; due to unavoidable circumstances, you flight to Mars is delayed!

Mars is a favorite theme in Hollywood, with movies like The Martian and this year’s Life exploring what we might find once we finally reach our celestial neighbor, but most of them aren’t addressing the biggest questions — once we get there, how will we survive long-term?

In fact most of the Aliens when our thought process was limited to our solar system were called or Known as Martians!

Now you must also understand that the atmosphere of Mars is mostly carbon dioxide, the surface of the planet is too cold to sustain human life, and the planet’s gravity is a mere 38% of Earth’s!

Plus, the atmosphere on Mars is equivalent to about 1% of the Earth’s atmosphere at sea level! Of course these are the challenges on living on Mars! But the issue is the travel! Even if you get business class seats, it is no fun ride in space!

There are numerous challenges to eating in space and low gravity conditions! The biggest challenge is not only to eat but also the the primary issue of getting the food from the package into astronaut’s mouth!

Over long periods in space, muscle mass and bone density can decrease by up to twenty per cent. This loss may not hinder astronauts while they are in orbit, but their weakened bones can prove fragile when they return to Earth, increasing the risk of fractures. Exercise and foods rich in calcium like yoghurt are therefore essential. Of course if your plan is for Mars, then it may be safe and cheaper to book the one way ticket!

As fluids act differently in space, an astronaut’s sense of taste is changed. On Earth, body fluids generally settle towards our feet. In reduced gravity, these fluids move freely in our bodies, creating a similar feeling to a head cold or blocked sinuses and leaving many foods tasting bland! You of course have to recycle your Urine since water is limited and the usual stretching space would make a monkey in a cage on a zoo feel like a king!

Most importantly, it is a long way to Mars, so apart from the regular words which are banned in flights like Bomb or terrorist or Hijack; an added banned sentence is, “Are we there yet?!”

Then again it may be actually better to make pollute the Earth less so that people do not feel like migrating to Mars! Start with no smoking!

Speaking of which you must drop that ticket to Mars and read about Richard Doll!

It may be day in Mars but it is night here on Earth! So sleep!

Shubh ratri!

Do you know what is the The gateway drug effect?

If you did not know that then you probably would have also believed that Vaping is ok!

read on!

There are approximately 600 ingredients in cigarettes. When burned, cigarettes create more than 7,000 chemicals. At least 69 of these chemicals are known to cause cancer, and many are toxic!

Now unfortunately there is another evil which is like the stepping stone to the cigarette and has been found to be as dangerous as the cigarette! But why would a device which does not emit tar be dangerous!?

Remember that lung cancer was once a very rare disease, so rare that doctors when confronted with a case, thought it a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence! It’s like how many doctors have seen a case of Rabies! (I have!)

Mechanisation and mass marketing towards the end of the 19th century popularised the cigarette habit, however, causing a global lung cancer epidemic!  Even when many studies saw the link cigarette manufacturers disputed this evidence, because they had the money and lots to lose!

It is the same with e cigarettes!

In fact the propaganda was so strong that as far as in 1960s, many used to dismiss the association of smoking with lung cancer! In spite of the fact that there were so many evidence and observations to the contrary!

Now even though there are some evidences that vaping is bad; the real issue is the gateway drug effect!


The gateway drug effect is also called the stepping-stone theory or escalation hypothesis, or progression hypothesis!

This is a comprehensive catchphrase for the often observed effect that the use of a psychoactive substance is coupled to an increased probability of the use of further substances.

Possible reasons for the connection include environmental influence, impulsive people seeking both soft and hard drugs , alterations in the brain due to earlier substance exposure, as well as similar attitudes of people who use different substances, and therefore experience a “common liability to addiction”.

In simple words you can understand that this is like a STEPPING STONE! The next step has a very high probability to be smoking!

Irony is that the e cigarette was the device made to assist in the stepping down of addicts from smoking to non smoking and now there is a high risk of it becoming the stepping stone to full blown smoking!

Now the greatest fact about humans is that everyone is unique just like everyone else! So this may not be applicable to everyone who takes the first step! Which is why ‘every step’ is important! If you stop with the spark then you will not be the reason for the fire!

For all that talk about e cigarettes; a special dedication to the great first stated about the fact that when the rate of smoking increases; the rate of lung cancer increases! Dr Isaac Adler in his classic book called the Primary Malignant Growths of the Lungs and Bronchi!

An ode to the legend!

Now do not smoke or Vape! Just have warm water and sleep!

Shubh ratri!

The greatest aspect of any democratic or civilised court is that the rules are made in such a way that the whole system is there to make sure that even if ten guilty walk free, no innocent must be prosecuted!

The root of the whole system then is the attorney client privilege!

The attorney client privilege is a crown jewel of the legal profession.
Attorney client relationship refers to the disclosure of potential sensitive information from clients to their attorney and law requires that an attorney does not reveal or disclose such information or communication between them to any third party.

The Act in many countries lays down some exceptions like a communication made in the furtherance of any illegal purpose; and any fact observed by an attorney in the course of his or her employment that shows a crime or fraud has been committed since the start of his or her employment!

Of course that definition and exception is the legal jargon which is often misused! Imagine that a client has committed the crime and then he or she mentions this to the lawyer! The lawyer now is actually bound by the attorney client privilege to keep it as a secret or else he or she would lose his or her license to practice!

In the novel “The Firm by John Grisham” this was the greatest irony faced by the lawyer who finds out that the Firm he is working for is actually a money laundering center for the mafia! The issue here is that although the right thing to do is to report them at the cost of his life or safety to the FBI and lose his license to practice or keep his and his conscience silenced!

The origins of attorney–client privilege trace back to medieval England, where the king presided over trials and relied on attorneys to present cases. Because attorneys were considered officers of the court, they were expected to fully disclose all relevant information. However, as legal representation evolved, courts recognized that forcing attorneys to reveal client confidences undermined justice. This led to a principle that even the king could not compel an attorney to disclose privileged communications!

Now, remember that if you are the client, it is your privilege. You can break it at any time either by assertively waiving it, or by talking about what you talked about with your attorney to anyone else, in front of anyone else, or publicly!

Many professions in fact have such attorney client privileges!

This includes the medical profession also. Which is why you absolutely cannot disclose any details of the diagnosis or findings of any patient to anyone, forget posting it on social media unless you get a formal permission from either the patient or his or her guardian!

Of course if you make sure to hide the identity of the patient and only present the important clinical finding then that is still valid! But before you place anything else on the net for everyone to see, make sure you know the attorney client privilege! Since here the privilege is of the client and not of the attorney  or the professional!

Finally you as a professional also have the right to reject a client which is your professional right! Most of course do not use this right though since privilege comes with responsibility while art comes with no boundary!

A speck of colour on a black and white sketch on world art day! The skin tone has been added by the iPhone camera…

Now use your privilege as a human and sleep!

SHubh ratri!

Your computer is stuck! The printer is all red light! The screen is frozen!

It is an all out war zone out there!

You call tech support and he or she will listen to your rattling your problems for some time before suggesting this!

It is the same with your old phones or even smart speakers!

All you need to do most of the time is Restart!

One tech article explained this in a very simple way in which he said imagine you start on a long journey and then you get lost in between! Then it is always better to go to a familiar place or position! Then you can restart your journey again!

The tech world also works in a similar way! When you restart the computer or the phone; the devices basically starts from the very beginning! This is familiar territory!

It is the same with most of the devices! Our RoboVac when it gets stuck somewhere, all you need to do is start at the very beginning!

There is this nifty little device called the amazon echo auto which gets nutty sometimes! You scream at it and it does not work! Even the troubleshooting wizard in the guide book says; switch off your device for ten seconds and restart! And lo! Like magic it works most of the time!

Even the onboard computer of your car gets crazy sometimes! There also the first thing you do is turn everything off and restart again! And most of the time it does work!

There are situations in which the heart also starts beating so fast especially the ventricles; so much so that the beat is high but there is no blood getting pumped out! We call this situation V-FIB or ventricular Fibrillation. The treatment here is the electric shock! What it does is to immediately STOP the heart! Then in a favourable outcome, the heart restarts! Hopefully returning to the normal rhythm!

The idea of time is actually relative and this is a universal phenomenon! The time being divided into years and days and hours is only for our own convenience! But for as far as civilization is there, we do have a single year which is 365 days and then some! Before the whole shift of the calendar to January, it was April which was the first month!

Which is why we have the April fools day! That is also a human creation! But even now, many parts of the country and the world; celebrate this month with different specific dates as the new year! It is of course a personal choice when you want to celebrate your new year though!

The aim of new year is only to reset! Whatever issues, troubles, fights and problems (all are more or less the synonyms of the same thing by the way!) which you have in your life, this day or month is your chance to restart! Start afresh! Take a breath (continue doing it of course!) and begin a new year!

Since today is the new year for Kerala which is the Vishu; made a quick sketch of the legendary artist from Kerala Raja Ravi Varma! And since it is a new year we would like to wake up in the morning and see prosperity on a tray! Fruits, grains, laxmi and god! We also gently wake up our children and closing their eyes take them to the temple where they open their eyes to see the VISHU KANI! Vishu Kani is also the money we get from our elders! It is usually a token amount but you feel so nice getting it!

So have a look at the bright yellow flowers which are symbol of happiness and joy and reset! Start your year with a smile! 

Happy Vishu once again!

Shubh ratri!

The one who is one of the best and smart and intelligent is usually the leader! While the one who is none of the above is usually… the BOSS!

The leader leads the way and shows how to do it! While the boss would stand back and complain while talented people are forced to act like chimps for bad ideas developed by him or her!

The leader does not need your praise while the Boss survives in them and your servitude! The first thing anyone must do after joining any work is to define whether his supervisor is a leader or a boss!

Then you must read these two stories!

The first law in the book 48 laws of power is that you must always treat your master (or boss!) as superior! Never show him or her that you are better than him or her! These are the two stories which demonstrate just that!

Nicolas Fouquet, marquis de Belle-Île, vicomte de Melun et Vaux was the finance in charge to King Louis XXIV. He once threw an extravagant party for his King with a lavish buffet and performances to show that he wants to pamper his King at the opening of his new home and castle!
The pomp and grandeur would have made anyone glow! However it had the opposite effect! The next day he was arrested on charges of financial misappropriation and sentenced to life imprisonment!

Peering through his newly-improved 20-power homemade telescope at the planet Jupiter on Jan. 7, 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei noticed three other points of light near the planet, at first believing them to be distant stars.  Galileo correctly concluded that they were not stars at all but moons orbiting around Jupiter. He published his discoveries in a book titled Siderius Nuncius (The Starry Messenger). He proposed to name them after his patrons the Medicis which made him an instant hit among his patrons and assured their support! So even though he was much cleverer than his master and patrons; he knew how to lift them!

The king may not be the cleverest person but he or she must be the centre of attention! Galileo had called them the Medicean moons in honour of his patrons (the Medici family),

The king of the yesteryears have been replaced by the Boss of today while the great advisors and saints may become leader! Sometimes (it is usually all the time!) it’s better to act dumb in front of your boss or master so that he or she gets his or her way!

Make sure to nod along and laugh the most at his or her bad jokes! Speaking of laughter reminds me of the laughing face of Dinesh Hingoo!

Now practice the Dinesh Laugh and sleep!

SHubh Ratri!

Do you know what is an Ingress Protection rating?

Sometimes you get confused when you are presented with the full form when you actually know the short one!

It was an early problem in Google Maps when it normally tells the full form of a road or street while we always knew the short form! Like Sadar Patrappa road! That sounds like a confusing road in Bangalore while the fact is that everyone knows the short form SP road!

When I was asked a question in a interview, Who is Inder Kumar G? I was really confused! The interviewer understood! He then mischievously asked, “Don’t you know I K Gujral!?”

Now coming to the Ingress Protection rating! It is simply IP rating which we all know! Of course the minute details may not be known to all but the term IP rating is almost general knowledge in the era of Mobile Phones!

Everyone knows how electric and electronic equipment deteriorate or malfunction when water or dust enters the device. The older mobile phones falling on a puddle of water was a death sentence! To know how much dust and water your phone can ‘tolerate’ the

The IEC or International Electrotechnical Commission has developed the ingress protection (IP) ratings, which grade the resistance of an enclosure against the intrusion of dust or liquids.

The first edition of IEC 60529 was published in 1976 with the aim of creating a single document to bring together all requirements regarding protection by enclosures.

The IP code is composed of two numerals:
The first numeral refers to the protection against solid objects and is rated on a scale from 0 (no protection) to 6 (no ingress of dust).

The second numeral rates the enclosure’s protection against liquids and uses a scale from 0 (no protection) to 9 (high-pressure hot water from different angles).


There are also levels of protection against immersion at varying depth and levels of drops protection in the solid category

While the top most liquid protection is  9 which is the Protection against high-pressure, high-temperature jet sprays, washdowns or steam-cleaning procedures!

A typical  rating for solid objects like say IP 6, means it lets in very little dust and dirt, and a water-R rating of 8 indicates it can be submerged in water for minutes at a time.

A phone with those specs would earn an IP68 rating!

Now, high IP rating  actually indicates that when dust and water does make its way through a phone’s seams, it won’t enter in quantities to cause malfunction!

However, the rating system was not designed to be mutually inclusive, meaning an IP67 certification does not automatically equate to certificates for grades 1-6!

Of course the ratings are only one assessment for buying the phone! Many do take these into consideration but with the advent of Flip and Fold phones; there are some adjustments!

For now just make sure that whatever be the rating; water and dust is not a good friend of your phone!

If that’s over your head then head over to read about the one who took the Britishers in their own turf! Chettur Sankaran Nair !

One of the many freedom fighters forgotten and almost lost from memory! Do read about him…

Shubh ratri…

In a book called 48 laws of power by Robert Greene it is understood that there are at least 48 laws of power! Many of the laws are actually complimentary while many contradict each other!

Each law is presented with a story or a context and it is a really good book to read! Then again you will get impatient to move on to the next law as soon as possible!

In this context Robert states how impatience is human while patience is godly! 

He says how whatever be the situation, if you are patient then the problem or issue will settle! Like God who has lots of time and can literally watch the person perish or flourish! 

Time also has been the focus of study for everyone! Often, we think of time as simply a number assigned to a specific event. However, time is also thought to always “flow” forwards, so could it therefore be considered as a vector!

From a modern physics viewpoint, time is not a vector neither a scalar, it is a coordinate!

This is because time is relative depending on the observer, so it cannot be defined as a scalar or a vector. 

In Newtonian physics, however, time has a universal meaning and is usually thought of as a scalar! 

My English professor explanation of theory of relativity also was related to time! He used to tell that when you are sitting on a hot stove, every second feels like an hour! While if you are sitting on your partner’s lap then every hour feels like a second! That is the theory of relativity!

Then you have the whole going back to time! Can you actually do time travel!? From the begining of time as such, people have been trying to do time travel! Then again you have the issue of parallel time lines in case you do have a succesful time travel! Which means that if you go back in time and change something then you have actually created a new timeline! The old timeline is no longer the one in which you are there! 

Finally at the end of it all; everyone simply wants time! If you have time then you can have anything if you try hard enough. But if you do not have time then you have the short end of the stick. You would most of the time see young kids would always be in a rush to do or tell something but old people would try to tell or do stuff as slow as possible! Irony is that the young have loads of time while the old have less of it! Then it may actually be a subconcious attempt by the old timers to try to slow down the time! Maybe if you talk or do stuff slowly you may reduce the speed of the time! Of it may just be the fact that they know time is the precious commodity so they want to experience it as slowly and carefully as possible! 

Watch out for a future where you will get time for sale! And no prime deal since you would be ready to pay anything to even get a additional second!

For now though it’s time to listen to Jaipur Gharana Kishori Amonkar and sleep!

Shubh ratri!

The loss of these ‘hair’ causes you to not hear people properly!

Of course even if you do hear then sometime you do not listen! Starting with your parents and then possibly you ‘friend’ or your partner and finally your children may tell you at some point that ‘you do not listen!’

There is nothing you can do to change that though!

Now the hair on top of your head may also make you not listen or hear properly if they are a lot! Then again the hair I am telling about are much inside your head!

They are deep inside a bone which is shaped like a conch shell! Surprisingly you use a conch shell to make a loud noise and wake up the divine ‘ears’!

These hair cells are in two different places called the outer and the inner hair cells and the loss of these cells makes your hearing go down! The former makes your not discriminate speech while the latter makes your perception to reduce! Unlike the other hair on top of your head, you cannot suggest a hair transplant for these!

Also did you know that your ears also keep you in balance!?

Without your ears, you would lose your balance! Luckily like an automatic machine, ears, ears are self-cleaning!

Also when you sleep, ears are always awake! The sensors of ears are like the microphones of Alexa or Siri which are always listening for the wake up call!
Unfortunately now though Alexa and Siri simply listen to everything! But our ears still follow some protocols!

It takes time during sleep not because ears are not working but the brain has gone into the screen saver or power saver mode! Which is why they respond to the most important wake up call to ‘wake up’!

Like how someone mentioned that your name is simply the noise someone makes to get your attention! The wake up call is your name told a little boldly and loudly in increased intensity depending on the depth of your sleep!

Of course a kick or a spray of ice cold water also helps!
The structure and function of our ears are so complex that we still get to know new things every day! The average ears have to filter out so many noise including the loud environment of our own body to give you a pure DOLBY SURROUND experience!

It knows which sounds to amplify and which to reduce! It can also give you form which direction the noise comes from! Which is why in people who have limited vision, the ears locate! Many can even train the ears to ‘see’ like a bat!

In fact echo location; the technique used by many people with visual disability uses the full function of the ears!

Which is why when the ears have issues, you not only cannot hear properly, you also have difficulty in concentrating and maintaining balance. Some also start ‘listening’ to sounds which cause more problems and the treatment of these is a big challenge!

Another wonderful thing about the ears is that it is the source of information for speech! All the words you say are the ones you have heard someone speak! This even includes your name! If the ear does not tell you what the sound is of a particular word then you will not be able to say that properly!

Which is why if a kid can’t listen he or she can’t speak which is why in spite of having vocalizing capability, kids who are born deaf if not treated, also cannot speak! In the original movie of the Planet of the apes; The researcher ‘Chimp’ tells this very thing! You see a monkey speak is amazing but that was the direction of evolution in that movie! She says that these ‘creatures’ called the ‘humans’ actually have a fully developed vocal cords but they do not know how to use them! Which is why they do not speak!

This is exactly the reason why a child with limited hearing must be ‘treated’ as soon as possible so that he or she will have a normal speech and not have any reduced ability in the future.

My father always asks why we have two ears but only one mouth!
Of course it is to speak less and listen more! Also eat less! Then again if it’s made by celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor then you can eat a little more!

Now have a light dinner and protect your inner hair cells by keeping ears closed and safe from loud noise and sleep!

Shubh ratri!