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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!

True expression of gratitude is rare! You may get thanked sometimes for just showing up while many times you may be thanked (not on your face of course!) for leaving!

Still thank you is a great word which is after you meet while hello is when you meet! Did you know that there are at least seven ways to thank in Japanese! Well, hold on to your breath, there are also at least six ways to say just a simple Hello in Bharat!

Expression of gratitude is a big deal in Japan who are known to go to great length not to owe anyone anything!

It of course starts with what many know! Arigato gozaimasu!

Which is; hold your breath; A simple Thank you! You can use this in your average mechanical interaction in the Pizza place or petrol station!

The grade and gratitude of thanks increases from now onwards…

The next grade is Domo arigato gozaimashita or Thank you very much
Followed by Hontoni arigato gozaimasu or Thank you so much!
Want more!? Well you also have Arigato gozaimashita  or Thank you (Past)! And then you have Iroiro Arigato gozaimashita or Thank you for everything!
and Finally you have Sumimasen which is actually Sorry! And Ie ie / No, no. (Not at all/No problem)!

Thank you is thus a result of the interaction while Hello or Namaskar or Namaste is a hope! When you say Namaste you assume that he or she would  give you the same respect you have given to him or her!

It is believed that everyone has some goodness or Divinity inside him or her and you are actually bowing to that Divinity!

Then again depending on your reverence or respect, you can have grades of salutations rather than a simple hello (which many times sounds and feels HOLLOW!)!

Abhinandana (Sanskrit: अभिनन्दन, lit. congratulations) – bending forward with folded hands touching the chest; this is the simplest form!

The most common form we use is the Namaskara (Sanskrit: नमस्कार, lit. adoration) folded hands touching the forehead while standing or sitting.

Now as the respect increases, the ‘bend’ increases! In a way you demonstrate your true ‘Bowing’!

So we have the Dandavat (Sanskrit: दण्डवत्, lit. stick): following four parts of body touching the ground simultaneously, bowing forehead down to ground while being on knees with knees, feet, forehead & hands touching the ground.

If you add one more part touching the ground which is the chest, then it is the next stage in Salutation! Panchanga (Sanskrit: पञ्चाङ्ग, lit. five parts), also called “Panchanga!

If you have six parts of body touching the ground simultaneously which is  toes, knees, hands, chin, nose and temple then you have the Shashthanga (Sanskrit: षष्ठाङ्ग, lit. six parts)! Most of the times this is the final salutations which is reserved for people like great men and leaders and your parents and elders!

Then if you are a believer of God then you submit to the absolute power in the next Namaskara in which you more or less submit your whole body to the supreme! This is called the Ashtanga (Sanskrit: अष्टाङ्ग, lit. eight parts), also called “Ashtanga Dandavat”!

Here you have almost all parts of body touching the ground simultaneously, Uras (Chest), Shiras (Head), Drishti (Eyes), Manas (Attention), Vachana (Speech), Pada (Feet), Kara (Hand), Jahnu (Knee)!

In all these remember that, without both Thank you and Hello coming straight from the heart, your words and actions do not mean anything! Talking about Japanese and thank you; the GOI has done the job by giving Osamu Suzuki the Padma! A well deserving recipient indeed!

Every average Indian’s first car is usually a Maruti Suzuki! Thank you for that!

Now best to say Shubh ratri and sleep!

Just when you thought that you are comfortable and life is good, it throws you dominos to keep you running and jumping! At some point in your life all you crave is routine! A disturbance in that will make you restless or feel bad!

If you feel bad then do not do so! As a human, change is the only thing which is constant! If you get too comfortable in your shade and do not invent or create challenges or even deal with challenges then you might as well be dormant!

If you are not still convinced do not be a DODO! Well, actually read about how they became extinct and try to learn from them! It is amazing how much we learn from failures rather than success!

The Dodo is a lesson in extinction. Found by Dutch soldiers around 1600 on an island in the Indian Ocean, the Dodo became extinct less than 80 years later because of deforestation, hunting, and destruction of their nests by animals brought to the island by the Dutch!

Now the Dodo had it all! At one point it might have been slim and fit and even could fly! Then later they got an abundance of food without much work and more importantly they had no natural predators! In short, they had all the comfort in the world and no worries!

All they had to do was sit and eat! Then that made them fat and slow and finally the Dodo grew larger and became flightless!

The big fat birds also trusted everyone and did not run away when approached! Now whether they were too fat or lazy to run was anyone’s guess but the fact of the matter is that it was really sad that all dodo did was trust humans! Big mistake!

When approached by a human, dodo did not run away and the human slowly without any rhyme or reason killed the bird into extinction!

The last known dodo was killed and stuffed and put in a museum. And when the curator thought it was occupying waste space, he ordered it to be thrown and burnt!

All that remains of the dodo is a head and foot at Oxford, a foot in the British Museum, a head in Copenhagen, and skeletons, more or less complete, in various museums of Europe, the United States, and Mauritius! And of course an everlasting testimony of the fact that if you trust humans blindly, more often that not, you may go extinct!

Another thing which is nearing extinction is the art of Puppetry!
Luckily we have people like Padma award winner Bhimavva Shillekyatar who in spite of being over 96 years old, still keeps this art alive!

It is heartening to see such people get the Padma and not those who simply apply a liberal dose of Butter!

Shubh ratri!

Many time it is not advisable to reinvent the wheel or take new paths when the proven path is fine! Of course there are exceptions and that is the norm of new inventions but before you try to change the course of nature, take a deep breath and read about the Donner Party!

Morgan Housel in his novel Same as ever where he tells about the Donner Party in an aim to warn people to not to stray from the usual! Not to take a short cut which would very well cut short your joy!

So the Donner Party originated from Springfield, Illinois, and departed Independence, Missouri, on the Oregon Trail in the spring of 1846, behind many other pioneer families who were attempting to make the same overland trip.

The journey west usually took between four and six months and that was usual, but the Donner Party made a bad decision of taking a ‘Short cut’ and not following the established route and instead crossed the Rocky Mountains’ Wasatch Range and the Great Salt Lake Desert in present-day Utah!

The route turned out to be more tough and more long!
By early November, the migrants had reached the Sierra Nevada but became trapped by an early, heavy snowfall near Truckee Lake (now Donner Lake) high in the mountains.

They were supposed to cross this by fall and not peak of winter. What happened later is a gut wrenching account of human survival; killing, looting and even cannibalism…

By early November, the migrants had reached the Sierra Nevada but became trapped by an early, heavy snowfall near Truckee Lake (now Donner Lake) high in the mountains. Their food supplies ran dangerously low, and in mid-December some of the group set out on foot to obtain help. Rescuers from California attempted to reach the migrants, but the first relief party did not arrive until the middle of February 1847, almost four months after the wagon train became trapped. Of the 87 members of the party, 48 survived.

If you read this gut wrenching tale you would get to know with a shudder the things they had to eat to stay alive starting from OX hide and skins to even human meat. At first of the ones who died because of the cold and later those who were ‘taken care’ of. The apparent solace was that people were not ‘served’ meat taken from ‘their own relatives’ but ‘relatives’ of the others! When the question is of survival then the human becomes the true animal which he or she always was…

Historians have described the episode as one of the most fascinating tragedies in California history and in the record of American westward migration. Fascinating indeed; for those who go for trek and mountaineering especially to remote places, this is a lesson in survival.

Survival lesson and experience is also the hallmark of padma awardee Ajith Kumar…

Hearty congratulations

Shubh ratri…

There is a an amazing novel by the Carl Sagan called the Pale blue dot! Yes! In the wide or broad scheme of things, the Earth is simply a small blue colour speck in the Solar System! In fact the whole solar system is a small part of dust in the constellation of stars!

Now now, do not feel down! This is the only ‘dot’ which is blue! And this is the only blue dot with life which is human! Of course it also gets inhuman sometimes!

The novel though talks about this fear or the unknown which causes more damage than the fear itself!

This is the story of the Marsh of Camarina!

Camarina was a city in southern Sicily, founded by colonists from Syracuse in 598 B.C.  It was surrounded by a dirty Marsh!

It was suspected that the marsh was the source of the strange illness and the idea of draining the marsh to end the epidemic became popular (the germ theory of disease was very far along but it did make common sense to associate a dirty stinky marsh with disease! Like my Grand doctor Mama used to say, “Common sense is not that common!”)

Now with the thought of getting rid of the stinky thing in mind, the ‘wise’ old  town oracle was consulted.

Surprisingly in a rare twist of events, the oracle advised the leaders not to drain the marsh, suggesting the plague would pass with time! It could also be a ploy to get the cleaning contract later for the Oracle’s brother or just a ‘GUT’ feeling though!

But the discontent was widespread and the most important factor was the thing which spreads so fast that no one can stop it!
Yes! Fear! The fear of a danger is more dangerous sometimes than the fear itself! So the so called leader took a mammoth effort and collected men and machines to start the clearing and draining of the Marsh!
Amist cheer and fanfare and some mild hiccups, the Marsh was finally drained! The joy of clean and non stinky air was short lived though!

Once it was dry, there was nothing stopping the Carthaginian army from advancing. In 552 B.C., a Syracusan force crossed over the dry land where the marsh had been, slaughtered every man, woman, and child, and razed the city to the ground in level with the Marsh! The oracle may have escaped though!

But, from then on, the marsh of Camarina thus became proverbial for eliminating a perceived danger in such a way as to usher in another bigger and real danger!

Now danger is not unfamiliar to the heart surgeon when he or she is racing against time to make the heart beat again! That is why Kotturathu Mammen Cherian is the pioneer who performed the India’s first coronary artery bypass surgery and first heart-lung transplant and was of course a pioneer Pediatric cardiac surgeon in the country!

He will me missed but his legacy will never be forgotten!

A great son of this amazing soil of Bharat!
A very great Republic day to dear Indians in the country and out!

Shubh ratri!
Jai Hind!