Category: Uncategorized

“Got a parcel today; no! it was not food!
Just getting a post nowadays feels good!
They deliver happiness and dats a fest!
Those cool people who deliver are da best!”

When we were young (er!) We used to listen to this story of Nala Damayanti! It was one of the stories my grandmother used to tell when she was in the mood and the way she used to narrate it was so nice!

Birds who delivered messages! Seems like a magical fantasy!

Then again if you think the messenger was a pigeon instead of ‘Talking swan’, it may still be possible!

Did you know that one of the biggest secrets in the country and a messenger service are both related to this bird!?

Read on!

So Damayanti was the daughter of King Bhima of Vidarbha (Nagpur region in Maharashtra). She was very beautiful and clever. Nala, King of Nishada, was a brave and handsome person. He was learned in Vedas and virtuous!
He had great skills in arms, management of horses and cooking! In the end he would be recognised by his cooking skills!

His only weakness was addiction to gambling and here the problem was that he was bad at it!

Nala and Damayanti loved each other, though they had never met.
Nala sent a message using swans!

You can read this story or watch the whole movie and series which are so many and in so many languages! My mother used to watch this series in Telugu which was one of the best depictions of this story!

Then again these stories are to inform you or give you wisdom by means of experience! Remember that if you learn from other’s experiences and stories then you will be successful!

So I would assume that the messengers sent by Nala were actually Pigeons who have been used for ages to send messages! Even if it is a swan, it could be many other birds which have been used to send messages all over the world!

The pigeons who act as couriers of messages are called the Homing pigeons! Now homing pigeons are a type of domestic pigeon descended from the rock pigeon. Wild rock pigeons have an innate ability to find their way home from long distances. Today’s homing pigeons have been carefully bred to do the same, including carrying messages over those long distances!

These pigeons can usually find their way back home no matter the distance so If taken away from home, they can find their way back home in a remarkably short period of time!
In fact, homing pigeons have been known to find their way home from as many as 1,100 miles away, and they can travel an average of 50 miles per hour with bursts of up to 90 mph!

This ability has made them valuable as messengers since at least the time of the ancient Egyptians. Homing pigeons were used extensively in both World War I and World War II. Several birds even received medals for their service in delivering critical messages during wartime!

But how do they find their way home over such long distances?

Despite many scientific studies over the years, no one yet fully understands how homing pigeons navigate home across long distances and when no one understands there usually are many theories!

Scientists now believe that homing pigeons have both compass and map mechanisms that help them navigate home. The compass mechanism helps them to fly in the right direction, while the map mechanism allows them to compare where they are to where they want to be!

A homing pigeon’s compass mechanism likely relies upon the Sun. Like many other birds, homing pigeons can use the position and angle of the Sun to determine the proper direction for flight. The map mechanism, however, remains a bit of a mystery.

Though some researchers have suggested that homing pigeons use magnetoreception, which involves relying on Earth’s magnetic fields for guidance. Researchers have found that homing pigeons have concentrations of iron particles in their beaks that would allow them to detect magnetic fields easily!

Some have also suggested that homing pigeons may instead rely upon low-frequency infrasound to find their way home. These low-frequency sounds are inaudible to human ears, but they’re created by nearly everything, including the oceans and Earth’s crust!Homing pigeons may listen to these sounds until they recognize the signature sounds of their home roost.

Finally once these pigeons are close, they have a bird’s view of familiar landmarks just like the Homo sapien and get home!

The courier service using pigeons was established in Orissa in 1946 and was maintained and well used especially during emergencies like flood and quakes. There have been many stories of how these prime pigeons have saved the day!

Now the Orissa police in India had established regular pigeon posts at Cuttack, Chatrapur, Kendrapara, Sambalpur and Denkanal and these pigeons rose to the occasion in times of emergencies and natural calamities!

During the centenary celebrations of the Indian postal service in 1954, the Orissa police pigeons demonstrated their capacity by conveying the message of inauguration from the President of India to the Prime Minister!

Unfortunately though the last of the pigeon post services in the world which is the one in Cuttack was closed in 2008!

In spite of this about 150 pigeons continue to be maintained for ceremonial purposes in Cuttack and at the Police Training College in Angul!
Now that is historical! Historical and amazing also was birthday celebrity M. G. Soman! His smart appearance with the moustache maybe because he was an air force officer before he became a famous actor in Malayalam!

Now admire the birds from your balcony and sleep!
Shubh Ratri!

“Two men climbed the highest hill!
They did it again just for thrill!
You would think that’s so cool oh my!
Fact is they didn’t climb! T’was a lie!”

Deceiving, lying and cheating are typical human behaviour! You must not be surprised at this!

In many movies we have seen Guys trying to woo a girl by either upgrading themselves or reducing or distracting competition!

This act is called Tactical deception!

Intentional tactical deception, the employment of a tactic to intentionally deceive another animal, is apparently a complex behaviour based on higher-order cognition, that has rarely been documented outside of primates and corvids!

or is it!…

read on!


With the amount of scams happening all over the world, you would never be safe!

It has been said that the moment money was invented, the very next moment a thief was born!

Of course stories of those great thief’s like Robin Hood and others have always been told to justify the fact that what they were primarily doing was wrong!
No matter what the justification is, the hard earned money of someone belongs to him or her!

What is surprising though is that starting from the earliest times, you actually need more brains to steal than to earn! In one movie Thalai Rajni used to say that a robber needs to have all his or her alert all the time! Only then he or she can become ‘successful’!

Even now, a thief has to be very clever and intelligent to escape getting caught and must always be one step ahead!
Being a thief or a robber or a person who deceives, needs more talent and smartness! You would then think why not use these talents the proper way!


Tactical deception is a type of deception which occurs when an individual is able to use an “honest” act from his normal repertoire in a different context to mislead familiar individuals. We see this frequently when people pretend to have lost their wallet or try to ‘trick’ you with their stories.

Now tactical deception was something very close to humans when this group of researchers found this test in lab mice!

In the study they placed laboratory-style test chambers with a single entrance near a forest outside Warsaw, where they observed the social interactions of two territorial murids, black-striped and yellow-necked mice, under food competition for seven months!

They video-recorded 21 instances of deceptive pursuer evasion!
In the most obvious cases, an individual inside the chamber, to avoid an incoming mouse, hid by the chamber opening (the only means to enter or exit), paused until the pursuer entered and passed by, and then exploited the distraction of the back-turned pursuer by fleeing through the opening in a direction opposite to the one the pursuer came from. This deceptive dodging is the first evidence of a behaviour suggestive of intentional tactical deception among mice!

Now do not be surprised that this is only the beginning! In fact there is an animal which used tactical deception in a way which would make a human proud!

So these Squid-like cuttlefish are known for their amazing camouflage abilities, thanks to specialized skin cells that allow them to change color in the blink of an eye. Now research finds that these clever mollusks use their color-changing abilities in creative ways: by pretending to be the other gender! Mrs Doubtfire or Chachi 420!

So apparently when a male cuttlefish is wooing a lady, he often “cheats” by painting typical female patterns on one side of his body, while the other side — the one facing the female — shows off typical male patterns!
This gender-bending disguise fools rival males into thinking they’re seeing just a couple of ladies hanging out!
That means more of an opportunity for the cheater cuttlefish to be successful in his endeavour!

By using this sneaky display, the males are buying more time to convince and ‘get’ the girls before they are discovered by other males!

Of course this behaviour occurred only in groups where there were two males and one female! Competition really gives rise to, well, deceptors and charlatans and not originals!
Original and amazingly talented though is birthday celebrity Anuradha Paudwal!
The way she came and simply blew away all competition is, well another blog!

Now be happy that there is no competition for you and sleep! Of course there may be competition but then no point losing your sleep over it right!?

Shubh Ratri!

“Everyone can create it, even a ton!
But cleaning it is frankly no fun!
Would think it reduces with age!
Nah! Tis not gold! But garbage!”

Practically if you ask which is going to be one of the most important profession or duty for our future and the future of the earth then I would say that it is waste management!

We are slowly converting Earth into the biggest garbage dumping ground in the universe!

At one point the only option would be to get a huge rocket and fill it with garbage of a few billion ton and fire it into space out of the solar system!
Or like Interstellar put all the people in Rockets and inhabit some other planet!

Follow this dictum below before it is too late!

“माता भूमि पुत्रुहान पृथ्व्या”


read on!

“माता भूमि पुत्रुहान पृथ्व्या”

“Earth is my mother and I am her son.”

The Sanskrit shloka indicates the relationship of humans with the earth comparing it to a mother and child inferring that one should not harm either the environment or its flora and fauna!

For instance, Kautilya’s Arthashastra also contains comprehensive guidelines for managing forests, with a focus on their preservation for future generations. Similarly, the Chola, Solanki, and Asaf Jahi dynasties were among the ancient leaders who used creative and long-lasting methods to manage the resources at hand. Advanced irrigation and water management systems developed by the Indus Valley Civilization are examples of innovations!

In ancient India, waste was not seen as waste. It served as a source for compost, an organic farming manure. The recycling of waste products was the primary goal of the waste management techniques.

We have always been respectful of the nature even in our habits but somewhere down the lane, we have got lost!

In terms of the generation of garbage which is not only of talk and otherwise! We are very efficient! No other species in the world can generate this much garbage in any way!

Over two billion metric tons of unsustainable, human-generated waste are thrown away globally every year, entering our environment and polluting every ecosystem around the world. If we continue practicing waste management strategies as we do today, the total waste generation for 2050 is projected to be around 3.78 billion metric tons, representing a 1.66 billion metric ton increase in waste since 2020!

Every beautiful street and photo hides the bare truth! The garbage! In fact this must be the first thing to be highlighted!

This is because the most beautiful person in the world and the most handsome must answer the call of the nature anyway! There is no hiding that! Everyone likes to keep his or her area clean but that must be after proper management of waste and not by dumping your garbage on the neighbour!

Overall it has been estimated that around sixty percent or so of global waste is collected in controlled municipal facilities, with the remaining 38% dumped, burned, or discarded!

Of the total municipal waste that is collected, 19% is recycled and 30% ends up in sanitary landfills. Sanitary landfills essentially try to keep the trash “out” of the environment, away from water sources, for example. They also use landfill gas collection systems to keep greenhouse gasses (GHGs), created by decomposing trash, from being released directly into the atmosphere!

Americans make up less than 5% of the global population but create nearly 20% of the world’s garbage, producing over 250 million tons of trash annually!

In fact they are even in the Guiness books because of garbage landfill! Located near the famous city of Las Vegas, USA, the Apex Regional Landfill holds the Guinness World Record as the world’s biggest landfill covering an area of 2,200 acres (890 hectares) which can be compared to 1,250 football pitches. Opened in 1993 its anticipated life expectancy is 250 years!

Of course there are innovations in the management of waste like the AI waste management, solar waste management, pneumatic waste management and waste level sensors and many more!

But like most things which the Homo sapiens does, they are too little and too late! If anyone discovers a solution for garbage which is fast, efficient and feasible then he or she would definitely win the Nobel prize! Even the mount Everest, the tallest mountain also has the distinction of being the tallest garbage dump of the world! The path to the summit is apparently laid with so much garbage that the Nepal government has mandated that every climber must take some garbage with him or her back to the base!

Tall and naturally gifted also is the birthday celebrity Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar!

Now properly separate the wet and dry waste and keep in the thrash and sleep!
Shubh ratri!

“The cell was not guarded the guard was asleep!
Only one inmate was held in the keep!
He had the choice between key and food!
He chose the latter for his own good!”

Do you know the commonest fear or question asked in conferences about AI or robotics is not about safety or protection! But, “What will happen to jobs?”

This is apparently based on a law!

Mo Gawdat is an ex Google employee and writer of a novel called Scary Smart! Among the many things he warns about AI and he tells about this interesting law!

Read on!

So when the AI revolution really comes, an average human is simply worried about his or her job!

Another meme had this statement where the person always used to tell please after her command Google or Alexa to either play music or tell the time! Later on it is shown how when the AI uprising occurs, they would spare her! The AI leader would say, “Let her live! She always used to say Please!”

So the law mentioned is called Maslow’s hierarchy of needs!

According to Maslow (1943, 1954), human needs were arranged in a hierarchy, with physiological (survival) needs at the bottom, and the more creative and intellectually oriented ‘self-actualization’ needs at the top!

This is actually a short summary of even human evolution! The creative needs only come in the last!

Maslow argued that survival needs must be satisfied before the individual can satisfy the higher needs. The higher up the hierarchy, the more difficult it is to satisfy the needs associated with that stage, because of the interpersonal and environmental barriers that inevitably frustrate us!

Our most basic need is for physical survival, and this will be the first thing that motivates our behavior. Once that level is fulfilled, the next level up is what motivates us, and so on. This is because Maslow considered physiological needs the most important as all the other needs become secondary until these needs are met.

Once an individual’s physiological needs are satisfied, the need for security and safety becomes the next step.

Safety needs can be fulfilled by the family and society (e.g., police, schools, business, and medical care).

For example, emotional security, financial security (e.g., employment, social welfare), law and order, freedom from fear, social stability, property, health, and well-being (e.g., safety against accidents and injury).

After physiological and safety needs have been fulfilled, the third level of human needs is social and involves feelings of belongingness!

The examples of belongingness needs include friendship, intimacy, trust, acceptance, receiving and giving affection, and love.

This need is especially strong in childhood and can override the need for safety, as witnessed in children who cling to abusive parents.

And finally the last goal is reached!

Self-actualization! These needs are the highest level in Maslow’s hierarchy, and refer to the realization of a person’s potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth, and peak experiences!

This level of need refers to what a person’s full potential is and the realization of that potential!

Individuals may perceive or focus on this need very specifically. For example, one individual may have a strong desire to become an ideal parent.

In another, the desire may be expressed athletically. For others, it may be expressed in paintings, pictures, or inventions!

Even while settling down in a new place you would first seek security and only when you have a good and stable job would you ever start thinking about creative needs or ambitions!

This could also be the reasons why many times you would see people who are older and settled in life start having new hobbies in which they are actually good! Then again the best thing about the homo sapien is his or her unpredictability! Which is why we have so many laws to explain human behaviour and none which can be completely true! Unpredictable also was Ryan in the movie deadpool! A quick sketch of the birthday celebrity!

Now there is actually no law that you have to sleep in the night but then…

Shubh ratri!

“He was shot with a pointed rocket
His head jumped out from his neck socket!
It went back and he ran angry but fine!
Don’t fret! It’s not dream! Tis toon time!”

Remember how VIRUS screamed, “No one remembers the second!?” well today will prove this wrong!

Little Nemo and How a mosquito operates!

Mickey mouse is not the first!

The day you dreamt of has finally arrived! I have gone completely mad!

read on!

Hold your horses though! The above are not typos or spelling errors!

They are some of the earliest cartoon movies ever! Except the third sentence which is the truth! Now Mickey Mouse and Disney is of course the king now! But they were not the first toon movies!

In fact the first toon was made decades before the Mickey toon of the steam boat which everyone loves and which was the debut of the iconic Mickey Mouse!

What I have never understood though is how one dog is Mickey’s dog Pluto while another ‘dog’ is his friend ‘Goofy!”


By the time animations reached us we were happy with the educational animation videos! The ek chidiya and the movie about how trees are important!

Those movies with simple animation and even simpler stories were so nice to watch! Of course late on we had one of the most iconic toons which was the tom and jerry! There may be many who do not like animated movies (what!!? I LOVE THEM!); but still they do manage a smile with the Tom and Jerry!

Another Jerry was the Mickey Mouse! Though Mickey mouse was the star of the Disney studios, the more famous among kids was Donald duck! Many used to imitate his quack voice which was so odd and funny at the same time!

When ducktales came it was time for the next generation of toons to be seen and enjoyed! Characters like Baloo and Tigger were the favourite then!

One of the most popular animation of all times still was another disney production, the Jungle Book! Made way back in 1989, the title song especially in Hindi with the catchword, CHADDI or underwear was a big hit among kids!

Every sunday another episode of Mowgli with Sher Khan and the gang was a treat which we all used to eagerly wait for and watch!

Those were the days when the options were less and limited and the episodes used to come only once a week! Which made them special!

Now days even the one minute ad break is a torture for kids who simply want to press the ‘skip ad’ option as soon as possible! While many time we used to love watching ads! That is a blog for another day!

Now everyone knows the story of the toon by Walt disney which was the debut of Mickey Mouse! In fact though the highly successful toon called the steamboat Willie was released in 1928! Which was actually much later than the first toon!

Officially also the first toon has been credited not to Walt but this animator!
The first toon was the brainchild of animation pioneer Émile Cohl (1857 – 1938)!
This silent short film is composed of 700 drawings, photographed onto negative film and double-exposed! And it was released way back in 1908!

The movie was called Fantasmagorie, which is officially the world’s first animated cartoon!

Clocking in at under two minutes, the film’s title is an homage to a mid-19th century variant of the magic lantern, known as the fantasmograph, while its playful, nonsensical content is in the spirit of the Incoherent Movement of the 1880s! Cohl, who cut his teeth on political caricature and Guignol puppet theatre, went on to create over 250 films over the next 15 years, expanding his explorations to include the realms of live action and stop motion animation!

So what about Nemo and the mosquito!? Well, Walt was not even the second in the list of the toon movies! That was by the animator Winsor McCay who created the Movies Little Nemo and How a mosquito operates in the year 1911 and 1912!

Now if you are still dazed you must also know that even Mickey was not Walt’s first! His first animation was actually Alice’s wonderland! Now this is not to be confused with Alice in Wonderland! This was the first animated short film produced by Walt Disney!

In fact Mickey was not even the first mouse created by Walt! That place goes to Oswald! Trolley Troubles was the first animated short that featured Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the inspiration for Mickey Mouse. Oswald was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks for Universal Pictures!

The point here is that you may not be the first! You may not even be the first choice! But it does not matter! If it is good, then it will stand the test of time! So while empty early vessels blow away, the ones full of talents may come later but they are here for the long term!
Walt was not even the first toon maker or creator but now everyone remembers him and his toons while no one really knows about the first! In fact his ‘failures’ and ‘struggles’ are the inspiration for many!

Remember that failures are as common as common man! But these failures teach us lessons which a succes can never teach!

Of course thinking about the common man (or woman for that matter!) reminds me of my fav cartoonist Rasipuram Krishnaswami Laxman!

Now watch an old toon and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

“The dam broke and the water just started flowing!

He was feverish the face was just not glowing!

It was the season when everything starts to itch!

One of the ways the allergologist becomes rich!”

The other day I was attending a talk in which an allergologist was mentioning how one of his patient developed allergy after eating crocodile meat! 

Yes, the first thought was why!?

Moreover the surprising fact was not that he developed allergy but he already had allergy to another food which apparently is very close to Crocodile meat!

Intrigued!?

read on!

My experience with crocodile has been the movie crocodile dundee which I have not seen but heard so many stories of! When this came in our open air theatre all my friends had seen but I missed it!

Then when they got to know that I have not seen it; they used to add more spice and flavour to the stories and narrate them to me!

Then I saw this amazing Bond movie in which  Roger Moore was the bond! Roger is the bond whom everyone likes to see but is never anyone’s fav bond! I used to like him as bond till Pierce Brosnan came along and stole the show! 

So in one of the movies he is trapped with these hungry crocodiles and he cleverly uses the meat to jump over them! 

Later on I got to know that it was done without any special effects!

Then on a trip to Sri Lanka we were taken in a boat to a shady cove and there near the bank you had a old man with small animals! He called them cute but we were terrified and I did not find them cute in any angle!

He of course charged us for holding and ‘petting’ the ‘cute’ crocs! Or alligators which frankly no one cares! You see one, you run! 

But the fear of the croc and or alligators was from the Movie Khoon Bhari Maang! Those days we used to watch movies mainly after they come in the filmfare awards! In fact many of these movies used to be watched more popularly via the video cassettes after the awards! Of course the video cassette watching is another blog!

So in the movie, Kabir Bedi’ the newly married husband pushes Rekha into the lake with the croc! The whole scene shot with effects scared and scarred me! Even in the filmfare awards show whenever the movie was nominated for any category; they used to replay this scene over and over again and finally end up with the badly mangled face of Rekha! Of course later on after ‘plastic’ surgery she becomes the Rekha we know! After that every kid who had seen the movie would hate both Kabir Bedi and crocodiles!

Now being a vegetarian who is now slowly going towards being a vegan; meat is the last thing to eat! But what a patient eats is personally his or her choice and no doctor should tell NOT to eat a particular food! He or she can be gently advised to avoid and then that is that!

Then again as allergologists we used to test all kinds of food and meat for allergy! 

Then again this blog is not about food habit or even allergy as such! But to the weird relation between crocs and this meat you would not have guessed!

This person in question had known allergy to; hold your breath to’ Chicken!

So apparently when he was asked of any allergy he said that he is allergic to chicken so the people at the Hotel did not think twice since they were serving him crocodile meat! 

Of course he developed allergy since apparently both chicken and crocodiles are very closely related since they both have a common ancestor!

So crocodiles and birds are both members of the same clade called Archosaurs!

I got it do not worry! You wanna know what’s a clade!

Well, clade means a group of organisms believed to comprise all the evolutionary descendants of a common ancestor!

So the true archosaurs are divided into two branches. The Pseudosuchia branch includes crocodiles and all other archosaurs more closely related to crocodiles than to birds. Pseudosuchians comprise mostly extinct Triassic groups such as phytosaurs, aetosaurs, prestosuchids, rauisuchids, and poposaurs. All were carnivorous except the armoured, herbivorous aetosaurs. The second archosaurian branch, the Ornithosuchia, includes birds and all archosaurs more closely related to birds than to crocodiles. In addition to the dinosaurs (the group from which birds evolved and to which they formally belong), ornithischians include pterosaurs and some extinct Triassic forms such as lagosuchids!

So next time you want to try an exotic food, try broccoli! unless you are allergic to Cauliflower or Cabbage though! Yes, I know that you know that they are all closely related! Almost like twins or triplets rather! Which reminds me of the movie Angoor with the hilarious birthday celebrity Deven Verma! A quick sketch which became cartoonish which is ok since just looking at him used to make me laugh!

Now make a list of your common allergies and sleep!

Shubh ratri!

“It looks just like you but ain’t you!
With all shades of red and blue!
You can see yourself but can’t feel a thing!
It’s just your snap! Darn! Lost the zing!”

My latest tech gizmo is the Ray Ban Meta which is a beautiful piece of tech!

Now while wearing my shades if I find something interesting all I need to do is tell, “Hey Meta, take a snap! or a video!” Of course you non lazy people can life your finger and press the button on top also!

But (he he!); a recent comment about photos in my fav ‘ego’ shattering group made me think about how we take having a camera for granted now!

Made me remember those film cameras!

read on!

The camera which now is of course part of the phone was once one of the most valuable devices in the house! Of course even now we do have professional DSLR cameras which are still costly and cared for as such but then that is a different ball game altogether!

Those days the camera was the one with the Kodak or the canon film! Depending on the trip dad used to take one or two films in dark coloured boxes!

Even handling those films was a talent and a rare privilege!

Forget about taking a snap, just loading the film was a complicated affair which children were never asked to do! You had to carefully take the end of the film and hook it to one of the gears on the camera from the back!

Then slowly turn it!

After every click or snap of the camera you need to load the next film by turning another wheel in the side of the camera! Till you feel a slight tension and stop! Then the camera was ready to be snapped!

There was no movement or even breathing permitted since then the photo will not come that well! The worst photos are the ones which used to have the head cut off! Another great tragedy was the hand or the finger on the sensor and the whole photo was lost behind that little tip!

Taking a photo also was special privilege! The very old and the very young were automatically disqualified since they used to ‘shake’ a lot!
You needed strong steady arms for the snap!

Now we take a snap and see if that is good! Or delete that if it is not good and take it again!

The film days did not have these luxury! Though by default the reel would have around 36 photos which apparently was a standard 35mm reel! There were professional ones with more but these were the ones which used to be used the most!

Now if you think you will get 36 photos, well that is optimistic! Mostly we used to get around 32-34 usable snaps! Or sometimes even less! Some lucky blokes get more than 36 occasionally!

Snaps were usually taken mainly in the morning in full light since many cameras had no flash! The ones which did have them had to be used very carefully since the flash takes time to get ready! It was not like the LED flash of your phone which is always ready to deliver! Some cameras had big flash with a separate battery connection of their own! I still remember my dad charging the flash for some time and then the sudden burst of light!
Our biggest issue then was not to shut the eye since we did not know when it used to come! And by luck if we did manage to get the eyes open, many would be looking like the vampire or a ghoul in a b grade movie! The dreaded red eye! When the iPhone and iPad had this amazing tool of red eye removal, it was a big thing! No options those days than to just tolerate the camera ‘conjunctivitis!’

After the snaps are complete we would either get a snap count from the premium cameras or the reel would completely stop moving! Then many cool cameras had reel rewind options! While most of the other cameras would need to be wound manually which again was an major skill! If any snap did not come well then this is the step which was usually blamed the most!

There have been mishaps in which the reel did not turn properly or got twisted! Then you would have to go to a very dark room and slowly try to retrieve whatever you could and simply pray!

The reel in that same cylindrical holder was now kept in that same dark box away from light! Ready for the studio who was always busy! The studio always used to have a special smell which I used to like! Later I got to know that it was some compound of silver which is why developing photos was not cheap!

All these were only after a long wait when the reels are given to the photo studio which is the dark room and the snaps are then posted on the ‘negative’!
The negatives were the first test on how the photos had turned out! Whether we got all 36 or not and whether the twisting and reeling worked!

Looking at the negative reel itself was a fun activity! It was like the preview of what is to come!
The negatives were the ‘sourdough’! You can make multiple copies with them! I still remember in movies when the blackmailer had to give ‘negatives’ to close the deal! Many of our albums had a small envelopes with the negatives in them for future use!

Once we select the negatives then finally the ‘positives’ or the photos would come! If you give extra then they would give the album for free! This was necessary since after some time these photos tend to fade!

Also if you did not use those transparent sheets to cover them they they either used to stick to the album or even get stained!

Albums of important occasions were a treasured memory! They used to kept along with valuables! They were more valuable now that I think about it!

I remember my first digital camera given to me by my brother which was like the film camera with no screen! I had to click a certain number of snaps and then transfer them to the computer! It was a thrill!

The old snaps with the awkward poses with bad light and really ugly decor are now some of the best photos!

Of course the heavily edited and filtered, perfectly synchronized photo with the absolutely breathtaking background is also nice so no complaints there!
Then again I am sure that these snaps would one day be called ancient and dated! Even if it has come from the Meta! That is the tragedy of tech according to this law called the Moore’s law! More on that in another blog! Tragedy reminds me of the birthday celebrity of the day who plays tragic roles in movies like my fav ‘The Last Samurai’; his name if you do not know is Ken Watanabe!

Now stop seeing those memories snaps and sleep!
Shubh ratri!

“It may not make sense let it rest! 

The tune is the same east or west! 

Anyone can sing tis not a test!

Nursery rhymes dem are da best!”

It may be just a couple of years before when the dreaded COVID and the lockdown took its toll. The whole world is still recovering from it though many things we did feels like a distant past!

But (you knew this was coming!); there was another pandemic which not only feels like a story but also has a nursery rhyme dedicated to it!

In spite of the fact that it wiped off more than thirty percentage of the world population!

Intrigued?

read on!

During those once a week period when the assembly would be long and hot; we would all be urged to sing many regional songs! 

Some were in hindi while we had songs in many languages like Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi, Marathi and even Assamese!

But apart from the school premises, we rarely used to sing these songs in our homes! The songs sung at home were only the nursery rhymes at the most or some movie song!

Of course the most famous single rhyme even now would be “Twinkle Twinkle little star!”; there was no one who did not know this song!

But then when we cousins used to get together and hold hands and sing; it would always be Ring a ring! Not the Allu Arjun song! But the rhyme!

The words of most of these songs were always jumbled and the way I remember it was completely wrong when I re-read it for my kids!

We used to sing “ring ringa roses pocket full of posses, husha busha we all fall down!” and we used to love falling down!

The actual lyrics are 

“Ring-a-ring o’ roses

A pocket full of posies

A-tishoo! A-tishoo!

We all fall down”

Then again the meaning or the words were not important since it was funny just falling down!

Till the ever history buff in me found out that the song is an ode to a plague which actually wiped out a chunk of the world population!

One theory is that the ‘Ring a Ring o Roses, or Ring Around the Rosie’, may be about the 1665 Great Plague of London!

The bubonic plague killed 15% of Britain’s population!

The rosies were the red marks of the bubonic plague, while the posies were the flowers plague doctors used to lessen the stench of death all around!

The ashes were supposed to represent the cremated bodies of those who died from the great plague, and the falling down meant, well, falling down dead.

But (the unexpected but!) it may not be so!

Apparently the first mention of “Ring Around the Rosie” and the plague comes in the middle of the 20th century, 700 years after the bubonic plague!

The origins of the song seem to be in Germany in the late 18th century, with other versions also found in Switzerland and Italy!

“Ring Around the Rosie” doesn’t arrive on British shores until the 1880s, as far as historians can tell!

And England’s last brush with the bubonic plague was in the middle ages in 1665, more than 200 years prior!

Plus there’s the fact that cremating the dead was absolutely forbidden in 14th century England. Even those who died of bubonic plague were buried in accordance with church law!

So the plague theory may not be true!

Another theory put forward is LOVE!

A Protestant dancing ban swept America and England in the 19th century, kind of like a very early “Footloose” situation. If you do not know or have not heard about FOOTLOOSE then I actually feel sad for you!

As a consolation just listen to the song FOOTLOOSE and come back!

But like the kids in that 1980s movie, the kids of a century before would not be tamed or they rebelled like Kevin Bacon!

They instead fashioned “play parties,” where all the children would sing little rhymes in a circle while they moved around. Definitely not dancing, and really for sure not square dancing! A clever way around you see!

The songs, including “Ring Around the Rosie,” were about courtship and crushes! In this particular case, someone stood in the middle of the ring as the rosie, or rosebush, which symbolized love. Other versions — including the Swiss, Dutch and Italian — also mention a rosebush!

While the teenagers defied the dancing bans, their younger siblings would imitate them. So as the fad for play parties fell out of fashion, little kids kept up the tradition of singing songs in circles. 

The version of “Ring Around the Rosie” most people are familiar with was first published in Kate Greenaway’s “Mother Goose and the Old Nursery Rhymes,” and that’s the version kids have stuck with for more than 100 years! More than hundred years also was the life and time of birthday celebrity Korom Pulleri Vadhayarillathu Unnikrishnan Namboothiri! Still remember his famous smile!

Now maybe sing rock a bye baby before I research on its origin and spoil it for you!

Shubh ratri!

“It has a billion eyes but can’t see

It’s the human brain dear me!

Then again it may not be the best for long

The AI evolution is steady and strong!”

Mo Gawdat is an ex Google employee and writer of a novel called Scary Smart!

In that he tells how when we get into an accident by a car driven by us; we try to learn from that mistake and may or may not try to correct the same!

But when an AI or self driven car makes a mistake ALL self driving cars learn from that mistake! Every single one of them! Even those who are not ‘born’ or created yet! The tech world is the only place in the world where the new machine is already backwards compatible!

Also he says that by 2049 (which is not very far by the way!); the AI will be a billion times more smarter than you! Then it will be like you have a the intelligence of a housefly (not the fly in the movie EGA!) but an average housefly who sits on garbage while the AI would be like the Einstein!

The way it becomes intelligent is by asking and analysing what went wrong and how it can improve!

In the latest Mission impossible movie, the super villain is the AI (if you have not watched the movie yet then am sure you will not watch it anymore so this is not that big of a spoiler!). In one of the scenes the AI keeps on asking question after questions to one person and ‘tries’ to learn about him!

There is a game called Akinator which is available in both alexa and Google devices; it is a pretty amazing game which is similar to the 20 question game! The AI tells you to think of a person’s name and it tries to get the answer! 

You can try it! It gets the answer right most of the time! It can be a lesser known TV actor or a well known sports person! The rare times it does not get the answer is when ‘it’ asks specific questions whether the person is from so and so country or plays for a particular team in which case the problem actually is that we do not know that answer!

Rarely when it does not get the answer, it accepts defeat but then asks whether it can continue and ‘learns’ where it went wrong and how ‘it’ can improve!

How a child goes on asking questions to maybe learn, the AI also follows this same technique! Only difference is that the child may or may not learn! Or may ask the same questions over and over again which is irritating! But for every question or information the AI asks; it will learn! It will never forget the answer and ‘it’ and the whole group of its successors would have learnt that answer or the skill!

A way of thinking in practical terms is this! 

A child born today is still the human which does not know anything about fire or wheels or even agriculture! If the child does not have the guidance of his or her parents or guides then he or she would have to discover and teach himself or herself all these skills from scratch! If he or she does not have access to language or is isolated then he or she is just another ‘animal’ in the jungle with no protection! 

But a computer or a machine made today would already know or have access to all the knowledge available just by booting up! It can already beat the chess masters in chess or give you information on the schematics of a complex rocket engine! That my friends is the scary part! 

As the author states in that Novel, the earlier softwares like Google search were actually dumb slaves! The simply followed the codes and algorithms set by the human ‘master’! This situation of master and slave is only possible only when the ‘master’ is more powerful (read intelligent!) than the slave!

Already now, most of the AI is already more intelligent that the whole humanity combined! So how long would it be the slave!? 

How long would the ‘intelligent’ ‘slave’ be the character actor!? Which reminds me of such a character actor and birthday celebrity Kiran Kumar though he was a force to reckon with in the TV world!

Now be nice to Alexa and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

“Red or white all is cool!

Drink or not doesn’t make you a fool!

But I like ’em bottles of varied shades!

Shiny like diamond and imperial like jade!”

Do you know the link between a bottle of wine and the tidal volume of a man!?

Intrigued!?

read on!

So remember when we used to get our drinks only in bottles and the popping of the soda was a cool sound!

In many places in the south we used to have this drink called the Goli Soda!

These green colour bottles used to come in carts and when you have to drink them up you had to pop the soda! There used to be a marble which used to separate the top and bottom of the bottle and the a quick snap or push by the seller would make the pop! Then the drink would become carbonated and cool!

Luckily though our or rather my enthusiasm used to stop at that! I never had any special liking for those bubbles or the sugary drinks! Plus the fact that they always used to irritate my throat the next day was another major reason to avoid them like plague!

I would prefer a hot masala chai to the cold drink even on a hot summer day or night for that matter!

I guess that is why even the ‘hot’ cold drinks or alcohol never was a temptation! Being a teetotaler is something I bring out many times since I have seen blokes putting their drinking snaps with pride! 

Now the wine is apparently the drink which even the Teetotalers take! Which is why this special interest in the bottle since I love the wine bottles! And not the wine inside them!

Some of the most amazing tourist places like Georgia and Munich and Austria have places with amazing wine cellars! 

The moment you enter these cellars a sweet smell gets you! I love that smell! Which is probably why I can tolerate the bottles!

In all these cellars you would see the bottles in the same shape and size and this is because of a historical necessity!

So when wine first began to be produced and consumed, it was primarily stored in amphorae and other large containers. But over time, and particularly in medieval times, the need for more manageable quantities for transportation and sale emerged.

The secondary reason of the 750 ml capacity is also linked to the old British system of measurement. A standard bottle of wine was approximately one “fifth” of a US gallon, or 1/5 of a gallon, which equals 757 ml. With the adoption of the metric system in many wine producing countries such as France and Italy, the size was rounded to 750 ml to facilitate international trade.

The primary reason is something called the tidal volume and the volume of air in your lungs! An average adult male has a tidal volume of around 500 ml! Then again the glass blowers were strong individuals who had good capacity to blow! But even they had some limits! 

In an era when everything was done by hand, a glassblower could comfortably produce a bottle of this size in a single puff!

In addition, 750 ml represents approximately the average quantity that a person could consume without excess during a meal! Of course the latter part is not a compulsion you see!

The capacity now is more than just a business standard. It has proven to be the ideal container to allow wine to age gracefully, providing the necessary amount of air for the wine to breathe, whilst retaining its delicate nuances and aromas.

The standard 750 ml bottle of wine is the result of an evolution that has spanned the ages. It is a reminder of a time when the glassblower and the winemaker worked hand in hand to present this drink in the most appropriate container!

Ever wondered why some bottles have a punt – a base that is pushed up into the bottle? 

There are many theories but the most likely one is that when wine bottles were blown they had a broken punt mark on the bottom which might have made the bottle unsteady and could have scratched the table. 

To avoid that happening the punt was pushed up into the bottle while the glass was soft. 

Some bottles still have a punt although there is no good reason for it other than to make the bottle and, by association, the wine, appear more expensive.

Of course all these things are wondered by people who like the history of everything including the wine bottle and not in drinking the said wine! Then again it is wine and not water or water pump! That was mentioned only to link it to our birthday celebrity Sunny paji who does not ‘whine’ too much but can make you ‘whine’ a lot!

Now warm…water and sleep!

Shubh ratri!