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This is the word which is so common now that it is a part of our life!

You know, the question as well as the answer to this word is the same word and the word is the word!

In fact in our emergency training called the BLS, we also use this word first after ‘ARE YOU’!

It has been described as the most frequently spoken or written word on the planet. 

Now now! Do lot get mad and force me to ask you that question!

Well, the question and the word is, “Are you OK!?”

So ‘OK’ can denote approval, acceptance, agreement, assent, or a even sign of indifference!


It’s very probably the most widely recognized word in the world. And its origin story is literally a joke!

The 1820s and 1830s shared a linguistic fad with today! an appreciation for deliberate misspellings (DOPE ain’t it!?

Of course I can literally see the fans of the ‘Victorian’ language cringe when someone writes DUNNIT or DAT or DUNNO! The would joke on what all things you could have done by saving so much time!

Now this trend, which had humorists adopting now-cringey bumpkin personas with ignorance manifested in uneducated spellings, turned no go into know go and no use into know yuse! Of course it was only for those who were liberal and free! Those who played around with the rules!

Apparently even abbreviations were not immune, and no go became K.G!
So too all right became O.W., as an abbreviation for oll wright!

And finally our dear friend OK was actually an abbreviation for Oll Korrect! A joke gone too far! Of course it would have been forgotten then and there are a joke which must not have been repeated if not for a presidential election!

In this almost funny incident, a nickname became the fad!

In the presidential election of 1840, Martin Van Buren was given the nickname of “Old Kinderhook” because of his hometown of Kinderhook, NY!

The Van Buren supporters who joined “OK Clubs” nationwide were themselves, they proclaimed, “OK.”
Their campaign was memorable enough to have both popularized the word and to have hijacked the story of its origin: there are many who still believe this to be which is “Old Kinderhook” is the original meaning of OK!

In fact there are other proposed origin of this word one of which was OKEH!

This most persistent of OK ancestors was a Choctaw word. This etymon was suggested in 1885, with Andrew Jackson supposedly having borrowed the word from members of the Choctaw tribe. Woodrow Wilson was a believer: he wrote okeh on papers he approved. He was asked why he did not use O.K. “Because it is wrong,” he replied!

Of course he was OKEH not OK!

Now whatever be the history, it is never a bad time to ask anyone this question! It may be your old friend going through challenges or your partner feeling dull or your children being quiet or even your doctor who is having a hectic life!

Simply ask, are you OK!?

Also not only was he OK, he was one of the best singers! That was Bhupinder Singh!

Now listen to some of his songs and you will definitely feel OK!

The majority makes the decision is the biggest lie ever! Forget about a country or a continent; even in a small whatsapp group, the decision is done by a few while others simply follow it!

In fact most of the decisions of the planet are done by the species which by number is not only a minority but a very small number! Now now! The blog is neither political or religious! Its practical!

Now if you study the actual number of beings or species living in the third Rock from the Sun, you would be surprised to find that if you count the number, then you are a small entity!

Yes! We are of course speaking about the Homo Sapiens!

Now you would think that the microscopic life forms such as Bacterias are the major life forms! Well, you may be partially correct, but (yes, what is a blog without a but!); they actually form only about 13% of everything!

Luckily over 80 percent of all living matter are represented by the one species which are the lifeline of our planet! Without them no one can live and in the end everything is possible because of them! The mighty plants! 

The amazing overshadow everything, representing 82% of all living matter! Just imagine that! It is this majority which keeps the earth going! Just like any country or even a company! 

The majority of people are not involved in making any decision! But they are the ones who are carrying the whole country or the company! Silently and effectively!

Ok now let’s not get carried away! So all other creatures, from insects to fungi, to fish and animals, make up just 5% of the world’s biomass!

Now I am sure this is being read by a human who wants to know his or her representation of the living being! Do you know where humans are? 

The world’s 7.6 billion people represent just 0.01% of all living things! 

Yet since the dawn of civilisation, humanity has caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals and half of plants! The species had made sure so many species have got extinct! 

The most intelligent and talented species is also the most dangerous! That is the actual MAJOR truth!

Since compassion and talent is also minority, when I see padma award winners especially those who get it by sheer talent and not by applying the ‘butter’ it feels nice and gives me hope for the humane person inside the human! 

Shubh ratri!

The other day I was waking up my son in the morning and he immediately was unhappy to be woken up from a good sleep! The human is the only being in the universe who will keep an alarm to shake him or her out of a sleep!

Many times if you also feel like that then it is ok since according to Dr Ellis Silver; we are not meant to be tuned to the 24 hours! We humans are more tuned to 25!

According to him the problem is that we don’t fit in on this planet!

We are so out of place! The days are too short and their length keeps changing, meaning that our body clocks are permanently screwed up.
Apparently the gravity is too strong so we feel heavy and strong and it makes us sick. Anyone who goes for a long walk and is not used to it would tell you! Or when you see him or her holding his or her back in a bent posture then you will automatically know!

In fact if you analyse, the whole world is not suited for the average HUMAN! The Earth is trying to harm us in one way or the other! Of course some may say the opposite! So we cannot drink the natural water! They aren’t what we’re used to, and the food doesn’t contain enough minerals!

The summers are too hot, the winters are too cold, and we either want to migrate or hibernate! Of course we cannot do either!


An interesting observation is also on how most animals wake up when they are exposed to increased levels of carbon dioxide. Now This is a useful response as it allows them to flee from things like forest fires!
But it is no surprise that Carbon dioxide has opposite effect on us, it either sends to sleep or puts us into a deeper sleep!

This Could be one of the worst possible responses which kills millions of people, especially before the advent of smoke alarms! Thousands of people owe their life to the pets such as dogs and cats for waking them up when their house caught on fire!

The crux is that our body’s natural (circadian) rhythm doesn’t match the Earth’s 24-hour clock!

This is simple enough to prove apparently!
If you just deprive people of external stimuli, such as daylight and clocks, and let them wake and sleep and turn the lights on and off whenever they like. After about two weeks they’ll settle into their body’s natural sleep-wake cycle, completely out of step with the outside world, where each day lasts around 25 hours!

We aren’t usually deprived of external stimuli, of course, and our biological clocks reset each morning as soon as the daylight hits our eyes. But as we’re an hour short, we feel pretty rotten when this happens. Many of us feel a massive resistance when it’s time to get up in the morning! This is especially true for some people like me who are not ‘morning people’ who every morning feel that they do not belong in this Earth!

Then again those people like me could just be plain lazy! Just look at the hard working birds! Thinking of birds and nature reminds me of Padma award winner Maruti Chitampalli!

Now enough excuses of getting up early! Just sleep early!
Shubh ratri!

The biggest issue with English is the fact that is a very unscientific language! What you read is NEVER what you say! You have to know the word before and that includes the pronunciation for you to know the word properly!

Most languages including Hindi or Sanskrit and many others, you write what you say! If you know the basic alphabets then you can read the word! More importantly you will read how it has to be told or pronounced! Of course the famous line that even Pronunciation is not the correct pronounciation of pronouciation!

This is because Eventually, the noun standardized to pronunciation, but because of influence from pronounce, occasionally we still see pronounciation in print, and encounter a corresponding pronunciation for pronounciation! The actual Pronounciation is ProNUNciation!

This is so because English spelling can present problems for writers, even for those who are born into English-speaking cultures!

There are a number of letters in English that are not pronounced or pronounced differently in certain words.

But do draw little comfort from the fact that, had you lived prior to the 18th century, your “poor” spelling might have gone unnoticed. Until that time, there was considerable flexibility in the way people spelt words!

Shakespeare, for example, spelt his own name in several different ways and did not think this was remarkable. The invention of dictionaries in the 18th century “froze” the language. Thereafter, a line was drawn between “correct” and “incorrect” spelling.

Often when people correct your pronounciation and spelling, you can ask them what is the correct spelling for Shakespeare!?

Which is why Bill Bryson in his novel called ‘The Mother tongue’ explains how there were a group of great leaders and thinkers who wanted the pronounciation oriented spelling of words! This was really advanced thinking!

This group included greats like Napoleon and more recently George Bernard Shaw!

In fact Shaw’s property and will was to have used in the development of a method of Pronunciation in which you would write the spelling as you would utter the word!

Like if you want to say Deaf then the spelling in direct pronounciation would be DEF! Psycho must be Siko! This would have actually been a great endeavour! Or rather ‘GRATE ENDEVER!’ But sadly the ‘revolution’ lost its steam due to the influence of many who thought knowing the correct spelling and pronunciation of English is a ‘prAYVALEDGE’ or rather; privilege!

To know English you must learn the proNUNciation and not just read (REED!); which is maybe when you know English well you are called LEARNED! Then again that is a matter of OPEENEEYAN!

For now though there is no hope! You must learn to pronounce the word before you read it! Luckily some words are simple enough to pronounce and read! Like the name of Padma Award winner Sally Holker!

Now try to close your ‘iis’ and sleep!

SHubh Ratri!

Years back when we used to see our professor try to put the small Piston in that little ‘Hole’, we used to think, “Why is he taking so much time!?”. Then when we started doing the same procedure; we finally got it!

Trying to do that with one hand holding the endoscope and then slowly placing that almost microscopic piston into the correct position, I would not have been surprised that any junior watching would have also thought the same thing!

That is when you must think about Dunning-Kruger effect!

But (he he!); before that you must know about; Déformation professionnelle (French: [defɔʁmasjɔ̃ pʁɔfɛsjɔnɛl], professional deformation or job conditioning! Now this is a tendency to look at things from the point of view of one’s own profession or special expertise, rather than from a broader or humane perspective. The implication is that professional training, and its related socialization, often result in a distortion of the way one views the world.

This is basically a cognitive bias that restricts a designer’s view of the world. Where most people will see things from a more general point of view, designers—and other specialists, for that matter—run the risk of sticking only to the views offered by the lens of their expertise. Being so biased by their professional backgrounds can trap designers and ‘experts’ into limited viewpoints, and they may therefore overlook vital points about a design problem or proposed solution. This of course is a symptom of “over-specialization” in one field.

A corollary to this is the Dunning-Kruger effect!

Now this is a cognitive bias that occurs when someone overestimates their knowledge and abilities. It was first coined by David Dunning and Justin Kruger, both psychologists at Cornell University, in their 1999 paper.

The psychologists conducted four different studies that each tested participants on humor, grammar, and logic. Participants weren’t just evaluated – they were also asked to predict their own performance. The participants who scored in the bottom quartile of the tests had grossly overestimated their own abilities. Their actual performance, on average, put them in the 12th percentile, despite the fact they self-estimated they’d be closer to the 62nd percentile.

In case that stumped you; think of the typical ‘dad’ who does not ask for directions on a road trip and gets the family lost or who sees a video on making a birdhouse or shelf in the Television and ends up with a shelf made in a quake! In this case he or she for that matter grossly overestimate his or her competence!

It is like how many ‘uncles’ sit on the couch while watching the cricket or any other game and give ‘professional’ opinions on how to play the game! Of course sometimes it may be right but exceptions are not examples!

Now if you think that the above implies that the Dunning-Kruger effect relates to basic intelligence and only happens to the most bumbling and inept among then you are wrong! In reality, the Dunning-Kruger effect can happen to all of us!

So decisions and work in an average life must have a balance between Déformation professionnelle and the Dunning-Kruger effect! Then it should be ok!

Of course some people like padma awardee Gokul Chandra dey are the real deal!

Read about him!

Shubh Ratri!

English may be one of the most common language spoken around the world which is why it has so many words from other languages! You have shampoo from India and Ketchup from China! Of course there are many such words since ‘Angrezi’ is a ‘phunny’ language!

But (saw that didn’t ya!?) there is a word which involves breaking a bench!

Now before you hurl expletives in your preferred language let me tell you that the word is Bankrupt!

Hopefully your ‘expletive’ resources do not get so!

So it seems that in Ancient Greece, bankruptcy did not exist. If a man owed and he could not pay, he and his wife, children or servants were forced into “debt slavery” until the creditor recouped losses through their physical labour!

Many city-states in ancient Greece limited debt slavery to a period of five years; debt slaves had protection of life and limb, which regular slaves did not have. However, servants of the debtor could be retained beyond that deadline by the creditor and were often forced to serve their new lord for a lifetime, usually under significantly harsher conditions!

Apparently the Yassa of Genghis Khan contained a provision that mandated the death penalty for anyone who became bankrupt three times! So not only you have the problem of getting Bankrupt; if you get it three times then you literally have a death sentence! To top it off, you cannot even ‘pay off’ the executioner since you are, well bankrupt!

Now coming to the word as such which was actually the whole point of the blog!

The word bankruptcy is derived from Italian banca rotta, literally meaning ‘broken bank’. There in the days of open banking, a failed banker’s bench or Banca would be Rotta or broken! A foresight may be why the bankers of today have a bigger and stable bench while some hide behind the glass walls of the bench! Or maybe because he or she can sell the bench to avoid being Bankrupt!? Ok, I guess my ‘store’ of good jokes is getting ‘bankrupt!’

Luckily the list of padma winners is full of rich people! Rich in actions! Like Libia “Libby” Lobo Sardesai! Freedom fighter and all of 100 years old!

Read about her to get inspired!

Shubh ratri!

No one ever likes to do this but  the ones who dislike it the most; are usually the ones who usually end up doing it!

Of course this can be an example of so many things but I am telling only of the task of waiting!

No one likes to wait! If you need a boon from your personal Genie then you might as well ask him or her; “I do not want to wait or made to wait to get what I want!” That one boon would actually solve most of the problems of your life!

Unfortunately it is often see that those who do not like to wait, sometimes make others wait! People like me who hate waiting for anything with so much anxiety and Type A stuff going on, try to never make anyone wait!

Then again one of the worst thing you or anyone can do is ‘break the line!’. No one likes to stand in the line for your ‘turn’ but that is what separates us from the herd of animals who jump at the food dropped on the ground!

If everyone follows the line, then the wait is less; there gain is as expected and there is a fairness in the dealing! This is not only in an office, but also in traffic and any other walk of life! If you are in a queue, respect the queue! There is no doubt that if you come in a line then the line will take care of you.

Of course do not think of any Murphy’s law here since then you will feel down! I still remember many of the laws of line by Murphy! Like the one where the line in which you are standing would always seem to move more slow than the other line! Or the fact that your line would always feel longer than any other line! Or how if you stand in any place for some time, it will very soon become a line!

Which is maybe why many of the moral stories are filled with things like Patience and ‘take your time’! We have to curb our urge to break the line so that we get the stuff in time!

Like the line for Padma is of course long! But deserving people like Ananth Nag will get it; just a matter of time! Hearty congratulations on the well deserved award!

Now get in line to sleep!

Shubh ratri!

These may be the smallest and fastest astronomers in the universe!

And my biggest fear is when the Google or Apple Map does not tell me to take the exit properly and the reroute adds another 3-4 km to the route!

What expletive comes out of many people’s mouth is what this astronomer is called!

They are the dung beetles! Now do not read dung and think only POOP but think large! Like say, Milky way!

These small creatures are nature’s sanitation crew. Whenever a pile of brown material is dumped in the forest, dung beetles converge to clean up the mess! Each beetle sculpts a dung ball, which they roll away in a straight line. Far from the pile, the ball will be buried and eaten, and sometimes used as bedding for dung beetle eggs! Now do not say yummy!

If you think no one fights for well, shit! You are wrong! The beetles are very protective about it and they will fight for their share of the shit…I mean dung!

So the best plan is to avoid a fight which leads to more loss of time and energy! See even they know what is good!

Dung beetles have therefore evolved the ability to navigate to safety in quick straight lines! Take your shit, deliver and that is that! Now that is a delivery which cannot be beaten!

During the day they steer by the sun. Dung beetles can see polarization patterns in the daytime sky, and use these patterns to hold course. A single patch of blue sky is sufficient. The trick works at night, too. Dung beetles are the only known creatures who can see the polarization of moonlight, which is 100 million times weaker than daylight polarization. Studies show that dung beetles can walk straight as accurately at night as during the day, even when the Moon is a faint crescent!

Now what about the very dark nights!? In 2009, entomologists made an astonishing discovery. Nocturnal dung beetles (Scarabaeus satyrus) can navigate using the Milky Way. Although the compound eyes of beetles cannot resolve individual stars, this species can see the Milky Way as a stripe across the sky and perhaps even sense features within it such as the galactic center and lanes of stardust.

The tiny insects can orient themselves to the bright stripe of light generated by our galaxy, and move in a line relative to it, according to experiments!

So the shit, I mean Dung Beetle can use the Milky way which is millions of…well quite far while we struggle with the Navigation inside the car!

Now just don’t laugh! Try to watch some comedy movies by Padma award winner Ashok Saraf!

Shubh ratri!