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“The pair and the triplet
All numbers is the fame!
Equality in nature is the key!
Mathematics and nature playing a game!”

The nature is full of this sequence!

The one who rediscovered this was made famous again by the Dan Brown novel though he did not go deeper for the real truth!

The sequence is called Fibonacci!

Rediscovered!? Well; it was Made in India you see!

read on!

The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World is a 2024 history book by William Dalrymple and this audiobook is a revelation!

Dan Brown tells about this sequence in his novel called the Da Vinci Code which is when it became popular again specially for the general public though mathematicians all over the world already knew about it! The more intelligent ones even knew the actual history!

History is an amazing thing to know since well, it is history! It is specially amazing for those who have a rich history!

Of course you must not simply live in history; the aim is to march into the future with the knowledge of history!

Now we know that many seed heads, pinecones, fruits, sea shell patterns and vegetables display spiral patterns that when counted express Fibonacci numbers.

In mathematics, the Fibonacci sequence is a sequence in which each number is the sum of the two preceding ones. Numbers that are part of the Fibonacci sequence are known as Fibonacci numbers, commonly denoted Fn .

Starting from 0 and 1, the sequence begins

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144 and so on…

Fibonacci numbers appear unexpectedly often in mathematics, so much so that there is an entire journal dedicated to their study, the Fibonacci Quarterly!

Applications of Fibonacci numbers include computer algorithms such as the Fibonacci search technique and the Fibonacci heap data structure, and graphs called Fibonacci cubes used for interconnecting parallel and distributed systems!

In the Liber Abaci (1202), Fibonacci introduced the so-called modus Indorum with ten digits including a zero and positional notation.

The book showed the practical use and value of this by applying the numerals to commercial bookkeeping, converting weights and measures, calculation of interest, money-changing, and other applications.

The book was well-received throughout educated Europe and had a profound impact on European thought. Replacing Roman numerals, its ancient Egyptian multiplication method, and using an abacus for calculations, was an advance in making business calculations easier and faster, which assisted the growth of banking and accounting in Europe.

The book was intended to replace the cumbersome Roman numerals which were not ‘scientific’ and were confusing and did not cover all the aspect of mathematics.

So where does India fit into the picture!

Well modus Indorum means method of the Indians! This system is used even today all over the world and you may know them as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system!

Yes! The origin was from the works of the great mathematicians of India including scholars like Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, Bhaskara II, Varāhamihira, and Madhava!

In fact it was used all over in ancient times and extended by medieval Arabs and Persians!

They used to call it al-ḥisāb al-hindī! Which means “Indian arithmetic”!

In fact the Fibonacci numbers were first described in Indian mathematics as early as 200 BC in work by Pingala on enumerating possible patterns of Sanskrit poetry formed from syllables of two lengths!

So everytime you dial a number on your phone, remember that it MADE IN INDIA! Not the phone but surely the numbers! Made in India also is the director of Elizabeth; Shekhar Kapur!

Now sleep in proper sequence with pride!

Shubh ratri! Jai hind!

“The sky so vast feels like it has no end!
It curves at some places and then has a bend!
The ocean also tries to catch now thats sweet!
But everyone knows that they can never meet!”

This is the most common colour in the world but still is the rarest!

It also means that you are sad!

There is also a instrument to measure it! Not the same thing though!
Confusingly intrigued!?

read on!

Now do not worry; I will not keep you in suspense! The colour which is so common is BLUE!

The sky is blue and so is the ocean! So vast and so blue! You can feel that it has no beginning or the end!

This is also the reason why many times in the Hindu Puranas; the God is painted in Blue! It represents the infinite!

But if you actually see any natural species being truly blue; you will be shocked that there are very few naturally blue species in the world! Which again shows how blue is special!

Then again, blue is also associated with depression or sadness!

The term ‘Blues’ may have originated from “blue devils”, meaning melancholy and sadness! An early use of the term in this sense is in George Colman’s one-act farce Blue Devils! The phrase ‘blue devils’ may also have been derived from a British usage of the 1600s referring to the “intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal” which may be why in the 1800s in the United States, the term “blues” was associated with drinking alcohol! An association is the meaning which survives in the phrase ‘blue law’, which prohibits the sale of alcohol on Sunday!

The actual phrase “the blues” was written by Charlotte Forten, then aged 25, in her diary on December 14, 1862. She was a free-born black woman from Pennsylvania who was working as a schoolteacher in South Carolina, instructing both slaves and freedmen, and wrote that she “came home with the blues” because she felt lonesome and pitied herself.

Even now the songs which resonate these emotions are called the blues!

Then again the sky is blue is just a fact!
The blue of the sky was actually so impressive that there was an inventor who invented a device to measure the blue of the sky!

Swiss physicist Horace Bénédict de Saussure’s 1789 invented the Cyanometer which was a circle of paper swatches dyed in increasingly deep blues, shading from white to black!

Its most advanced iteration was intended to show how the color of the sky changed with elevation!

Saussure’s fascination with the blueness of the sky began when he was a young student and traveled to the base of Mont Blanc. Overawed by the summit, he dreamt of climbing it, but instead used his family’s wealth to offer a reward to the first person who could!

When no one took up the offer or did not care enough; Twenty-seven years later, Saussure himself would ascend to the top, in 1786, carrying with him “pieces of paper colored different shades of blue, to hold up against the sky and match its color!

Local legend had it that if one climbed high enough it turned black and one would see, or even fall into, the void — such terrors kept ordinary men away from the peaks. But to Saussure, the blue colour was an optical effect. And because on some days the blue of the sky faded imperceptibly into the white of the clouds, Saussure concluded that the colour must indicate its moisture content!

At the top of Mont Blanc, the physicist measured what he deemed “a blue of the 39th degree.”!

The tool did, however, accompany the famed geographer Alexander von Humboldt across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, the Canary Islands, and South America, to set a new record, at the 46th degree of blue, for the darkest sky ever measured!

There is of course no scientific use of that invention which may be why he got the Blues when it simply went into obscurity! Maybe one day you may need a Cyanometer and it may drive away your blues! One can only hope for the best! One of the best of course was Rajendra Prasad ji who was the only president to serve two full terms of 12 years and set guidelines for the behaviour of Parliamentarians which is still followed now!

Hope that is some less blue!

A sketch and blog after a very busy day of super fun and games!

This is as much tired you can be that you just close your eyes and sleep!
Shubh Ratri!

“Ready to lay his life for you in an instant

you would never find them hesitant

Next time you meet a defence lad!

Thank him or her! Or just be grateful and glad!”

Did you know that there is an elite trained group which are the best of the best who are always loaded and ready!?

So much so that they are trained only to take head shots and two at one go!

yes! The NSG!

read on!

One of the best elite counter terrorist fractions in the world is called the  Germany’s GSG 9 (Grenzschutzgruppe 9 or “Border Guard Group 9”)!

The NSG of india is modelled on this premier team!

The move in as a team of five, and they take care of it where ‘it’ is the problem which can be terrorist or hostage situation or similar ‘stuff’ and everything is basically over before they even know what happened! 

If your child is crying over a single session of Karate training then their physical training comprises of 26 elements, ranging from jumping from heights to cross-country obstacle courses!

The endurance test meant to gauge a candidate’s performance under stress includes martial arts, target-shooting at the end of an obstacle cross-country run. 

They are trained in parkour and Pekiti-Tirsia Kali, a form of martial arts from Philippines!

But there is one training which is unbelievable!

During the shooting practice, they have to stand right next to the target and that too without wearing bulletproof vest!

The one who shoots the target has to be that precise that he doesn’t hit his partner!

Moreover, NSG commandos are specifically trained to take headshots! They do not waste their concentration or efforts on other parts of your body!

NSG Commandos do more firing in a week of “alert status” than in their entire time in the Army! 

It has been estimated that on an average, a commando fires close to 14,000 rounds over a period of two months. For a commando to be a part of NSG, it is compulsory to have a target striking rate of at least 85 percent!

No exceptions!

Even the introduction to the team or force goes like this, “NSG is a Federal Contingency World Class Zero Error Force to deal with anti-terrorist activities in all its manifestation for the security of the nation”

The rudimentary training period of the candidates at the organization’s training centre lasts for 90 days. The candidates who successfully complete the entire course are inducted into the NSG and undergo nine months of advanced training. The Selection process of the National Security Guard (NSG) has a drop out rate of about 70-80%. Which means that even the best of the best of the defence forces who opt for NSG have to be better to be selected or to continue to be in the NSG!

Like every year; being part of an apartment which is named after a great NSG commando; It is a duty to remember dear Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan.

The whole apartment comes together and gives their regards and love to him and his parents who have become a part of our apartment.

My dedication being far away is limited to an honest blog and a sketch with full honest intent. 

Jai Hind!

SHubh ratri!

“The speed is slow
The video just won’t show!
Don’t be sad give a smile
Don’t stand be mobile!”


One of my senior had a phone in the year 2002!
It was the Nokia communicator! That was a beast!

Weighed a kilo and the way he used to take it out and open the keyboard it was like watching a sci fi movie!

Of course at that time it was only a phone which was mobile!
Since there was no net!
Many times you need the tech to catch up!

read on!

Many times there is a competition between the Hardware and the software. Sometimes you already have the hardware ready but the software takes time to catch up!

While sometimes you have the software ready but the hardware still not there yet!

The Nokia communicator of 2002 had all the hardware but without a good high speed connection or even a WIFI it could not deliver what it meant to do!

Most phone at that time simply craved for more data and speed! Internet was in the G mode and out of question for mobiles!

We all used to pay money for hour or half and crowd the mushrooming ‘browsing’ centers! But for medical students like us, after checking mail and a couple of website; there was nothing to do! We could look at some medical articles or news but then even those sites took ages to load!

And most of the sites would be full of multimedia stuff which would take up all the bandwidth and slow down the load!

To surf the web using a phone was a distant dream for years!

Then came the ipods with the wifi! And other phones with wifi could latch on to our home internet and give amazing surfing experience!

When 2G came; it was like a new thing for phones! When my kids cry for the 15 second ad break in the middle of the youtube video in high definition, all I can do and laugh!

I have booked a railway ticket with the phone using the 2g! My ticket was in waiting list and the way I used to check whether it has got confirmed or not was really the reason behind my patience!

When later I upgraded to Nokia N97 which was a beast like the old communicator, it was 3G ready and had an amazing wifi! The first time I used to see youtube videos without buffering! Of course at that time the data limit was about 1 GB per month and not cheap!

Now with the unlimited speed and data; we spend that much or more in half a day or less!

The transition between 4g and 5g was not very significant since by that time the speed was good and you hardly felt any difference!

The other day I was downloading a book of around 3GB and when it showed time of download to be around ten minutes I was shocked! Then later I realised that in the days of the torrent downloads; we used to keep the downloads overnight for a file which was less than 100MB!

Oh how we take the speed for granted now!

Now why I bought the communicator in question was because the the first access to the mobile web was commercially offered in Finland at the end of 1996 on the Nokia 9000 Communicator phone via the Sonera and Radiolinja networks! The senior had a historical phone! But no access to the net!
Oh the things it could have done if there was internet! Are the things which even the most basic phone of today can do!

The first commercial launch of a mobile-specific browser-based web service was in 1999 in Japan when i-mode was launched by NTT DoCoMo!

Although the first wireless Internet access became available in 1991 as part of the second generation (2G) of mobile phone technology. Higher speeds became available in 2001 and 2006 as part of the third (3G) and fourth (4G) generations. Still it was unfogettable! Unforgettable and of a great generation of freedom fighter also was Khudiram Bose!

A sketch done with more shading and use of electric eraser!

His eyes are so haunting! I felt they were looking into my soul…

Now keep the super fast phone down and sleep!
Shubh Ratri!

“Looks like a small snake but doesn’t bite!
While digging in da garden may give you a fright!
Like Jovi says it’s slippery when wet
It’s earthworm! Not your regular pet!”


Everyone knows how earthworms are good for the soil and they are to be left as alone as possible. But ( he he!) there is a worm which has no known predators and is dangerous!

It is also a grade A CANNIBAL!

If you cut it into two it will become two!

Scene from a horror movie! Well, almost!

read on!

Growing up we have always been taught that earthworms are good for the soil. Every garden project we used to see these little snake like worms and though initially terrified, later on used to get used to them!

We used to avoid crushing or hurting them and keep them safe. It was rightfully so since they are actually very helpful for the crops!

Earthworm feed primarily on organic material in soils, eating fresh and decaying material from plant roots, including crops like corn and soybeans. As they feed, they move and mix their waste with the soil in a moist, microbe-rich environment.
Earthworm tunnels bring in oxygen, drain water and create space for plant roots.

The population of worms also is controlled since they are regulated by all predators including birds and the population never gets more!

But ( he he!); there is a worm which looks like earthworm and does not have any natural predator! It can grow fast and swiftly and it almost immortal!

Even crushing or cutting is tolerated since each piece can grow up to be a worm!

This worm is called the H hammerhead worm!

This is a terrifying, toxic terrestrial flatworm.
This large planarian lives on land and is both a predator and a cannibal. While the distinctive-looking worms don’t pose a direct threat to human beings, they’re an invasive species that packs the power to eradicate earthworms.

If you think that you can simply crush them with your fingers be very wary!

Also known as a broadhead planarian, the worm can grow up to three feet (or a little more than 91 centimetres) long and has a neurotoxin, called tetrodotoxin, which is also found in pufferfish!

The extremely potent poison can cause tingling or a rash when touched by humans, and nausea if swallowed!

They of course can reproduce by multiple ways however, asexual reproduction is much more common than sexual reproduction.
Usually, a worm reproduces by fragmentation, leaving behind a tail tip stuck to a leaf or other substrate, which then develops into an adult.
If the worm is cut into pieces, each section can regenerate into a fully developed organism within a few weeks. Injured worms rapidly regenerate damaged tissue!

The recommendation if you see a worm is to carefully grab it with tools and put it in salt water and call the pest control! And of course thank the stars that it is only of that size! Thinking of stars you can count Jimmy Shergill as one!

Now stop thinking of squirmy creatures and sleep!
Shubh ratri!

“So tempting so hot! Looks so nice!
add a little masala and then some spice!
hunger pangs before and after you eat!
Street food is still a gastronomic treat!”

Our excitement for street is very obvious!

We of course feel ‘street’ means cheap!
All said and done; some street things like the food will always be more tasty than the biggest spread in a five star hotel!

read on!

The word street reminds me of street dogs! I used to think they are the same as stray dogs and they are more or less the same with some mild difference.

The Stray dogs, were once owned dogs and may have been intentionally bred by humans. Then they have become lost or were abandoned.
While street dogs go by various names, including village dogs, free-range dogs, unowned dogs, and other names and they were never adopted of ‘Homed’ officially! That is the major difference!

Every street had these collection of dogs and they usually used to allow the ‘regulars’ to visit!

Another street we used to love or still love is the street food!
Just outside our schools we used to have these small shops who used to suddenly appear in the lunch break or even at the end of the day!

The stalls would be full of junk foods and candies and what not!

Sometimes it would be the cut fruits with their special chutneys so green and thick or the special powder which was red and white!

The cut mangoes and the guavas and even the cucumber used to taste so nice with that powder! Since I was never a foodie, it was not a big draw for me but once in while I used to grab a bite!

The biggest draws were the chilli bajji or pakoras and the samosas! There were rare times when mom would not be able to make tiffin then we would get around 5 to 10 rupees to buy food! We could use them immediately or keep some for a sunny day!

To decide on what to buy was the biggest challenge though with so many options!

Of course now you do not see those stalls especially in front of schools because of the hygiene police! If my kids had seen the stalls we used to eat food from they would surely puke!

Even now I remember the blackish sugar cane juice coming from the old contraption with a hundred flies buzzing all over! A dollop of that dirty ice and the juice was the tastiest one I have ever had in my life!

Then the fried pakoras or samosas packed in dirty old newspapers with a hint of green chutney on the side! We used to rub and lick that paper! But that snack was so tasty! Just a bite of that spicy tangy and hot stuff would give you the thrill! So much so that you can never stop in a bite!

The stomach pain and some frequent visit to the toilet was worth it and forgotten soon enough!

The most dirtiest would of course be the ice cream! The wooden cart which they used to put it in was black on the sides! The ice creams were actually popsicles! And they were not covered! The seller would put salt in the middle of ice so that it does not melt soon and some of it would leak on to the ice cream! Even now the tastiest popsicles were the one which were a little salty! For a rupee more you could get the popsicle which is sealed in thick plastic cover which you have to bite and suck! But hey that is one rupee more!

Even in my college days the best food was the street food appam and the peas masala! and the Upma! Hot, tasty and dirt cheap! I used to even take parcel and eat for lunch! The reason why I do not like both peas and Upma now!

Last year we went to India, my wife and I went to a walk and had a street dosa! Of course it was not like what I used to have! The street cart vendor had plastic gloves and the plates were also cleaned and had food plastic over it! It was so hot and tasty! But it was not as tasty as the ones I used to have! Some dirt adds flavour to the food I think!

But why is street food so tasty!? It could be the fact that you see them making it and your initial phase of digestion gets stimulated! The same reason why you have open kitchen or live counters in big hotels which are always busy and the food from that counter is always more tasty!
Another major issue is how the food is prepared to be eaten then and there! There is no storage option! The food is fresh and hot! Cooked and eaten! Not cooked then stored then reheated and then eaten! Which is why you can never like a food served in a flight more than the ones served on the street!

My yoga teacher used to tell us that the Refrigerator is the first thing you must throw out of your house! There must not be an option to store any old food! Once the food is made you must either eat it or throw it! The freezing only slows the decay which has already started the moment you make it!
A cold food can never be tasty unless it is meant to be eaten cold! The hot food is always better!

Food must be good to look and be pleasant to your senses and that is when it tastes good! The whole blog made me feel like going to India and have a plate of bhel puri with aloo tikki chaat! Maybe a couple of samosas and jalebi for closure!

For now of course we would settle to watch the food reels and salivate! Now better not be an idiot and make junk food at home! Speaking of idiot or rather three idiots, reminds me of celebrity Boman Irani!

Now do not be an Idiot and sleep early!

SHubh Ratri!

“All the slips colour we like!
The pink would put you on a spike!
The month end comes and it’s blank!
Hopefully there’s some green in the bank!”

Who would have thought that a bag to carry your stuff would be associated with losing your job!

read on!

Job security is one of the most important thing for any middle class person.

There was a joke that if you have a house loan then you will love your job! It was dark and true! The constant salary is something which is what most people want.

A post about being a founder and and entrepreneur was popular recently where the person posted that in spite of having a successful start up, he simply could not take the strain of having to source funding and having no constant salary!

Even as most soothsayers of the world tell how AI will be the thing of the future; most people are only worried how AI will take his or her job!

Even as competition moves forward and you get bogged down by bills and expenses; the lure of a ‘constant’ salary is what keeps you to the ground!

The ones who take risk like in the start up capital of India which is Bangalore; also have some resource locked up for at least an year after which they start to feel the pinch. The first few years are the ones when you do not have the constant salary and that is the biggest challenge! You have to sacrifice a lot to get to that point when you are financially independent which is the dream of every person in the world!

Which is why for a person with a constant salary, getting the pink slip or getting the sack is a death sentence!

The situation has not changed much in years apparently!

There are two origins of this term.

In the first origin, in ancient Rome, those convicted of parricide or the killing of a parent or other near relative or other heinous murders were tied in a sack and dumped into the Tiber River, instantly solving any potential recidivism problem!
The practice spread throughout many other European countries, and, as late as the nineteenth century, murderers in Turkey were tossed into the Bosporus in a sack!

Another more popular theory to explain how “get the sack” was recorded—as early as 1611 in France—is that it referred to craftsmen of the Middle Ages. Artisans carried their tools in sacks; while they worked, they handed the sacks to their employers. But then when when a craftsman got the sack, it meant that his services no longer were required.
He was left, literally, holding the bag!

Well, sack or not; the majority of the population of the world are living in the constant fear of this much more than any other fear! But all we can do is SACK it up and carry on!

Of course if you are a singer or an artist like Anandan “Drums” Sivamani then you do not have to worry about getting the ‘sack’!

Now fall on your ‘sack’ of mattress aka Bed and sleep!
Shubh Ratri!

Happy with this one!

“The ship disappears on the horizon with the waves
We now live in high rises, not caves!
Then again you may still be old!
Even if a million ‘facts’ you are told!”

You would think that it is unscientific to even think now that the Earth is flat! But do you know that there is a group of people who are called the Flat Earth society which exists even now!?

By the way from ages; the name of Earth in Sanskrit was Bhugol!

This means Bhūgola (भूगोल)—or Sphere of the Earth!

read on!

Ever since I can remember we have been drawing the map of India and the world the way we know them! Indian map was simple enough since it was almost like a human with a head and arms and neck!

The world map was a little difficult since there were so many twists and turns! Of geography madam who was Yadav madam always used to tell us that we are not supposed to draw the map by ourselves anytime since the map must always be to scale!

She used to tell us how it was prohibited to make our own maps of any country for that matter! This was good since then all we had to do was get the pre drawn maps and then fill them with the areas!

The only time we needed the maps was when we had to know about the geographic areas like deserts, plains and mountains! Another time was when we had to mark which place had which mineral or ore! Most of the time it was easy since most of the minerals was in Bihar!

Those days general knowledge was knowing the capitals and places where you have the famous factories! If you knew that the capital of India was not Delhi but New Delhi then you were considered having a good general knowledge!

But (he he!); even the dullest person in the class would know that the Earth was round! We all would have heard the word Bhugola so many times!

In fact we know earth by this name only! In fact for many the subject of Social studies namely History, civics and Geography was in Hindi itself!

I learnt these in Hindi till the class 7th after which some of us who were more comfortable in English shifted to the English versions! The name of Geography though in Hindi was, yes! BHUGOL!

So it is confirmed that ancient Indians were clear that Earth was round and it revolved around the Sun. ‘Bhugol’ is the Sanskrit word for Geography in which ‘bhu’ means Earth and ‘gol’ means round. Our world was also known by the name ‘jagat’ that has roots in the word ‘gati’ meaning speed and thus, ‘jagat’ meaning ‘the one with a speed’. People of that time knew that Earth was not stationary but moving. In many mythological scriptures it was clearly mentioned that earth was spherical. Difference between stars and planets was also comprehensible to ancient Indians.

Star Antares is the 15th brightest object in sky. In ancient India it was known by the name ‘Jesta’ meaning the biggest, largest and the eldest. Jesta is the star that is 40,000 times larger than our Sun!

Then you have the flat Earthers!

This is the perception that Earth exists as a flat disk, either circular or square-shaped. This view persisted in the ancient world other than more ‘enriched’ and ‘scientific’ places like India until observations revealed that Earth’s shape was spherical or ellipsoidal!

In modern times, however, the notion of a flat Earth has been revived and promoted on social media despite scientific evidence to the contrary!
There is a new generated interest in those who believe the Earth to be flat! So much so that there are articles and blogs and also membership criteria! There is one blog which tries to prove that the Einstein’s theories and Newton’s laws of motion actually prove that the Earth is flat!

There also also ‘scientific’ ‘evidences’ given and a whole plethora of images and ‘experts’ all over the world who have been known to be Flat earthers or as they call themselves, FLATISTS! Of course the ‘evidence’ went above my ’round’ skull so to speak! I guess I am too ‘simple’ and round! Simple and down to ‘earth’ reminds me of celebrity Sasikumar Mahalingam!

Unconventional and routine to a point is how I would describe him and his movies! Now lie down ‘flat’ on your bed and sleep!

Shubh ratri!

“Filled with food with layers too good!

Pack them up nice and slow dats food!

Sometimes you do not know whats in the docks!

Opening it was fun; the tiffin box!”

Potato is literally the saviour of tiffin box in the north while coconut is the saviour in the south! Just an observation really! Not an invitation of Uttar dakshin debate! 

read on!

When we were young (er!) the tiffin box was a treasure! 

Most favoured of course was the puri masala or even puri halwa! But the standard tiffin for most ‘north’ indian kids in KV was the Roti or Chappati and dry sabji!

The small cut roasted Potato were the best! You can never go wrong with Potato!

Now I seriously miss this favourite vegetable of my mom! She could do magic with potatoes! I try to avoid them as much as possible but those french fries are so tasty!

Many times she would always have a set of boiled potatoes in the fridge ready to cook! 

The boiled ones could either be cut and made into sabji for the Roti or mashed and made into stuffing for her famous aloo sandwich or aloo paratha! Oh the fans she had for her aloo dishes!

If nothing is available for guests she would simply make some aloo pakoras!

In one type of her own special Upma she used to put small pieces of aloo and that used to lift the taste! The only way upma gets my approval! Either you roast some small onions or used small potatoes!

Her aloo dum was also very famous and so was the aloo kofta! The koftas were so delicious even before she had to put in the curry that many times she had to make extra dry ones! 

Then she had this trick with bread and aloo that used to result in amazing rolls and cutlets!

So breakfast and tiffin box was her forte! The tiffin box food filled by her had so many fans! I normally had to defend her dishes and distribute them myself since that is the only way I could get it myself!

The standard dish for our train travels was the roasted dry potatoes and Chapati on the first day and Chappati with Baingan ka Bhartha from day two onwards! One of the main reasons why we used to like the train journeys was to savor her dishes! If you are lucky you will get those Bitter gourd or stuffed Karela! The Chappati would be made with plenty of oil or Ghee so that it would not get spoilt was her justification! Luckily no of us used to look like they had such an expert chef in home!

Now while she could cook Bhartha and stuffed Karela in a jiffy; we normally stick to roasted potatoes or onion tomato only!

Giving Idly or dosa with chutney is not an option since we know that it would get spoilt so Chappati with the stir fried vegetables are still the best tiffin box materials!

Miss those days of tiffin box! The two layers and the basket which used to come with it! Finally the plastic water bottle which later on was the Milton ones which were so good but very liable to get lost! 

Another thing of those days we used to love were the disco songs of Celebrity Bappi da! A quick sketch on a busy day!

 Shubh ratri! 

“The pit you dig is very big you see!
Then again it could come back to thee!
So remember that chain of events now!
What goes, comes back and how!”

Read these three incidents and you will get to know the common link between them!

A wife attempting to frame her husband as violent so she could elope with her lover!
Another spouse alleging that her pub-owning husband was an alcoholic in order to leave him and take control of the pub!
A retirement home manager who gave laxatives to a resident before referring her to a psychiatric hospital for slight dementia and incontinence!

This manipulative perception of reality is called Gaslighting!

It is the trend and in the recent times it is very serious!

read on!

We all know how children tell stories to escape punishment or even for entertainment!

I know of my cousin who as a child claimed that he saw an elephant lay egg!

Telling innocent stories is quite all right since that shows great imagination but (he he!) as you get older the stories seem more real and then the differentiation between the reality and the imagination is left to imagination!

Like in the novel The devotion of Suspect x or the movie Dhrishyam; people start even believing the ‘truth’ what the hero wants them to believe!

This is especially so when the person who makes this is very intelligent and perceptive which is a dangerous combination indeed!

This is where Gaslighting comes into play!

Gaslighting is a colloquialism, defined as manipulating someone into questioning their own perception of reality!
The expression, which derives from the title of the 1944 film Gaslight, has become popular now though the usage is now much more wide!

In the age of social media posts and reels; the demarcation between real and reel is a big issue!

The term originates in the 1938 British play Gaslight by Patrick Hamilton. The play was adapted into a 1940 film in the UK, Gaslight, which was remade as in the US as the 1944 film Gaslight!

The theme was to portray a seemingly genteel husband using lies and manipulation to isolate his heiress wife and persuade her that she is mentally ill so that he can steal from her!
One of the husband’s tricks is to secretly dim and brighten the indoor gas lighting, insisting his wife is imagining it! This is where the name comes from!

In the recent times the relationship between partners has been an issue with Gaslighting coming into the forefront!

Gaslighting is now a strategy that is intended to break down the trust you have in your memory, instincts and self-esteem. It can make you doubt yourself and depend more on the “objective” perspective of your partner – while in reality, they are taking care of only their best interests!

There are apparently different types of gaslighting…

Outright Lying is the first where the abuser lies to their victim even when there’s evidence to the contrary. Then you have Coercive gaslighting which involves using force, punishment, or threats to manipulate the victim.
Then you have the Scapegoat gaslighting when the gaslighter deflects blame onto someone else to avoid having to take responsibility or to escape damage to their relationship, reputation, or power!

You also have the questioning of reality! Which is also known as reality manipulation, and this type of gaslighting is especially harmful to the victim’s mental health, because it sows self-doubt and confusion. Finally you have the Trivializing which refers to minimizing or dismissing the victim’s feelings, accomplishments, or experiences.

It has been suggested to be an abusive behaviour and can be a sign of more frequent and worsening abuse to come.

In this context you must know about DARVO!

DARVO stands for Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim Offender!
It’s a series of actions used by a perpetrator as a defence mechanism when their unkind behaviour is questioned or called out. It works to confuse you and your sense of reality!

The first is of course Denying your memory or perception of an event which obviously is gas lighting. Denying can be direct or with a story with added created incidents.

Then comes the attack that tries to break down your credibility and finally comes the blame shifting. This is where the perpetrator manages to make you out as the one at fault!

Guess when a term introduced in the 1920s gets famous in more than a hundred years later, you often wonder whether you have progressed or regressed! Its all gas! But it’s all talent when it comes to celebrity Usha Uthup!

Now turn off the light and sleep!

Shubh ratri!