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“Looks so good and lively too!
The maroon is red and the purple blue!
That snap was the cherry on the cake
Of course everything in da gram is fake!”

The book The 48 laws of power by Robert Greene is one of the best books with so many laws which overlap and sometimes even contradict themselves!

But overall it is simply equilibrium! Or like Bob Dylan says, “Blowing in the wind!”

read on!

So as you can very well guess, there are at least 48 rules!

In most cases, Robert states the law and starts by giving examples. He narrates a story which you may or may not have heard. He enumerates different aspects of the law via these stories. He then goes on to narrate the reversal or exceptions to the law (if any) by giving examples as and when required.

He takes stories from ancient kingdoms including and not limited to chinese, japanese, french, english to name a few. He takes tales from Aesops fables, Panchatantra and Kautilya to name a few though there are many such tales told in accordance to the law discussed.

Many times after elaborating the law in the context of ancient time, he proceeds to tell how the law is relevant or how you can make the law relevant to the present context!

One of the best laws of opinion given by the author is ‘Never appear too perfect’! People do not like perfection because a human being is inherently flawed! This is so true especially in the current times!

There was this great life hack on one of the sites where the person had told this great way of getting the answer! She would pose a question and change her ID and give a very wrong answer or obviously wrong answer to her own question!

Now people would not have helped her in the first place! But then there will be great bunch who would love to ‘correct’ her ‘wrong’ answer! That is exactly what happened! She finally got what she wanted by using this very technique!

In any social group it is much better to post your failures than your success since people love the fact that you are also a human!

The constant post of success and ‘good’ life is very difficult to digest for anyone! That is the actual truth!

The easiest thing which anyone loves to do including me is give advice! And the most difficult thing is to follow the said advice!

In the same way, though some words of appreciation or likes would come for your apparent perfect world, if you post your problems out there, the support would be much more!

The day to day problems are universal! If not health then its wealth and most of the times, it is both!

The perfect picture with the amazing filter in the background of an amazing sunset with the perfect smiles is simply a state! A moment of joy which has been captured to enjoy!

No one has a perfect life and no one has the answers to all the life’s problems! Life is a process of continuous learning!

Now now! This is not a negative post! The eternal optimist which I am is simply reducing the expectations which is very important!

So all the above is not a bad thing!
Most humans like to help! And you simply cannot help someone who does not seem to need help right!?
People like vulnerable people because deep down it reminds them that humans are vulnerable!

Every human likes to be needed! When you are needed by someone else then you automatically get respect! And finally that is the crux of the matter! Each and every human being, however big or small or knowledgeable finally needs respect! Respect and perfect can be the attributes of the celebrity of the day, the Bharat Ratna Bhupen Hazarika! I have sketched him many times and it has come out well most of the time!

Now try to get the perfect sleep if you can!
Shubh ratri!

“The tone is there the line is on!

But the speed was slow to do any con!

The phone is there to make a call

But use it now and all will fall!”

If you were of that time then you will definitely understand that poem and this sentence; “Keep the phone down! I am downloading a file!”

The landline was our internet!

Read on!

There may be hardly anyone without a smartphone now and if you find someone who does not use Whatsapp then, well it will be surprising that is all!

But it really is hard to imagine anyone without a Whatsapp or even an email!

Many shops now even ask you to download their own app for points and stuff which I try to refuse as much as I can!

The other day we were doing just this and the app was taking some time to download! The time was less than a minute! And all I was thinking was the time when it used to take ten minutes to just connect to the internet!

Of course many times it was simply better to just rush over to the ‘Internet cafe’! Those internet café’s were the best to…browse the net!

Those days the connection used to be with a CD! We used to head over to the head office catching a couple of buses to get a CD with 650 mb DATA! Used to hold it very carefully and load it up fervently hoping that our Modem works!

We had to also buy a cable to connect our modem to our phone line!

After loading the computer dialer used to come which at that time was really magical!

If you put the number wrong then no internet for you!

Then the dialer would dial and we would all get to hear that beep sound! Then a whole series of sound which was so familiar to people who had computer! The kee kee and finally the constant noise! If you reach the constant noise then you are saved by the bell! During the time you of course cannot talk to anyone else! So we used to make sure that this was done when my mother’s phone talking session was over! 

650 mb was enough for most of the job like checking e-mails and browsing the net! But if you download video or media files then it would get over in a jiffy! Not to mention the fact that the speed would be so slow! If you are enjoying 1GB per second speeds sometimes now, we have seen less than 1b per second! The time to download estimate would then be some thousand years am sure!

Media file download would take all day or night! Imagine downloading a song of 4mb in 12-18 hours! 

If that does not frustrate you then this I had read on the net; “Imagine using this phone line to book a ticket in tatkal in the railway website during those days!”

The biggest complication of course was the astronomical telephone bill at the end of the month! 

Of course a bigger complication would be this! You were waiting for a file to get downloaded and after a long wait for several hours or even days, it reaches 99 percent and then suddenly the connection gets interrupted and you hold your breath…But the download restarts from 1! The level of patience at that time is what we have been trained in!

With all of these I taught my dear mother on how to open email and check messenger! It was a series of steps which my mother would write down and keep like a good student! 

My dad of course took to tech like a duck takes on water! Talking to him everyday on facetime seems so normal now which would have been unimaginable some years back!

My sketch dedication to my dad! He was born on Vinayaka Chaturthy day so there is no way you can forget his birthday which changes every year unlike him who will always remain a disciplined army Colonel!

And of course a great dad!

Many happy returns of the day!

Happy Vinayaka Chaturthy once again!

Shubh Ratri!

“Lots of sweets and dishes to eat!

Festivals are an amazing treat!

Doesn’t matter if you slow or clever!

Mother’s love will be there forever!”

Festival and the way of life! And Mother is the closest God…

Just after August in an August way the whole season of festival starts in india and continues till the end of the year!

Festivals are simply a way to meet and be happy!

read on…

The whole season starts with Shri Krishna Janmasthami then Gowry Habba then Ganesh Chaturthy followed by Dusshera and deepawali and Karthi! 

Every festival has it own dishes and prayers and significance and charm!

If Krishna Janmasthami has it Cheedai, then it is the Modak or Modakam or Kozhukattai is the king when it comes to Ganesha festival!

The most complicated thing to make though is the Obbatu or Holige or Puran Poli! The making of this chapati like dish is an art in itself! 

Actually if you think about it the making and final result of the Holige is life itself!

If you make the stuffing or the Oorna very soft then it will be difficult to stuff but if it is too hard then it is difficult to roll! That is life, if you have it easy then it is tough later! 

The covering also has to be of the perfect balance just like life! If it is too thin then you cannot stuff properly and it will break! If it is too thick then the taste will not be good! If it is very flat then all the areas will not get the Oorna or the sweet  and if you spread the oorna too much then it will leak out and burn! Not like aloo paratha where the leaked potato is actually tasty!

After all these if you still manage to get everything right like you graduation and post graduation; you still have to get the job! Which is akin to the fact that you have to get a perfect round of the Holige! 

If you put a lot of the oil then it becomes greasy and if you do not put much then it becomes dry and rough to eat!

Just like life you cannot hurry up with the Holige! You have to use the proper tools! The best device to put on the hot pan is the plantain leaf! You can try with butter paper but leaf is simply the best!

Finally it takes effort of your own hands! You have to slowly and steadily press and contain and press again! Slowly and steadily it gets the shape and finally you get a perfectly cooked Holige!

By the way you can add a little sugar to the dough so that even if the Oorna does not reach all the part, it would still be sweet! 

Now today is Gowry habba where you pray to Goddess Parvati who is both a great Wife and an exemplary mother!

So before we celebrate the birth of Ganesha, we celebrate the greatness of Mother Parvati! 

All said and done, the nearest God to every child is his or her mother. 

A special sketch dedication to one of the finest mother on screen! I still have goosebumps when I see her role in the movie Karz! The way she in her confused state also looks at Monty and says, “Look at him not with normal eyes, but with the eyes of a mother and you will realise that he is my son!” 

My mother and me used to love that scene!

Wish everyone a great time…

Shubh ratri…

“You can learn from them here and there!
You can learn since knowledge is everywhere!
You can learn from you child or your wife!
Just try to be a student for life!”

Roses for madams and Greetings for the sir!

Teacher’s day was the best!

read on!

Teacher’s day was fun in school! I made sure my kids also attend the school and be a part of the fun!

All teachers know that they are being pampered and they would be in the best mood! It would be a half day and half days are the best days! You can have fun and have lunch or some snacks and leave!

Some teachers who were always serious or Grumpy as my son would say! used to smile on this day! It was more scary!

Reminds me of the movie Tare Zameen Par and the teachers participation i the art competition!

While we were in Junior classes our seniors would come dressed in nice colourful sarees and coats and ‘teach’ us for a day!

We also did the same in the higher class! We made the teachers read the news and thought of the day in the assembly and then made them sing a song! While we ‘seniors’ at that time dressed in nice colour dress and took ‘class’! No one understood what we taught anyway because even we did not understand what we were teaching! But it was fun!

Some of the most favourite teachers or those who used to smile and help other students even on normal days would get bombarded with gifts and cards and flowers! They would be beaming with pride and joy!

Looking at these teachers, the grumpy ones would note down which student did not wish or give any flowers to them and ‘take it out’ the coming days! Mortals!

Since I have changed multiple schools, a permanent student teacher bond would never be formed but in the 11th and 12th class the behaviour of teachers does make an impression and they are the ones who are never forgotten by a student!

Our Physics teacher Usha madam was everyone’s favourite! She was unconventional in her approach but very intelligent! Her earnestness to teach and spread knowledge makes her one of the best teachers ever!

Even we students were not that innocent of course! It took a strict sir like Rao sir to handle a rowdy bunch like us! Sir used to teach us English wearing a coat and a formal attire even in the peak summer! He did not know a single word of Hindi which is why some kids used to write Chand or moon in hindi on the board just before he used to come and erase it! That was a clever reference to his bald spot! Now whether he knew or not is anyone’s guess!

When our class teacher who was also our chemistry teacher was being strict we used to say Hail Drago! A reference to Hail Hitler and drago was what we used to call her! Maybe she used to breath fire! And no, Game of thrones was not known or made at that time so our name was original!

Then we had Anna madam who used to teach us Mathematics which was my favorite! Ironic since I have not written a single Engineering entrance examination! But she was a maths genius! Her way of teaching was remarkable!

Oh to go to those small classes with the cool benches on which many had carved out so many names (Not me! I have always been a first bencher at least in theory!)! The last year of responsibility and to just read and study what is being taught and repeat! The last two years of school made us realise a bit too late that school was awesome! Teachers were fun and all they wanted us to do was study and do well!

College teachers!? Well that is a blog for another day!

With all the jokes on how you meet your teacher and tell her or him that you were his or her student and she or he would say, “Do not blame us! We tried but failed!”; I guess most teachers would be mighty proud of most of us! Of course if she or he remembers you that in itself is a great achievement!

Like Rancho says, “Knowledge is everywhere!, just grab it!” I prefer to be a student for life! You keep on growing only when you keep on learning!
A quick sketch of the great teacher who actually told his students to honour all teachers! Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan who was so famous as a teacher that for a change students used to rush into his class!

A very happy teacher’s day to those who taught without any ego and with genuine concern.

Shubh Ratri!

“Feeling alone don’t fret

This is just a call away

Just make sure it’s on 

Say OK; and it will make your day!”

Apart from the birthday celebrity of the day, did you know that a thing was invented or made or created this day in history which has for several years changed our life!

We use it so often that it is routine!

Intrigued!?

Read on!

The running joke about computer users is that the Internet explorer or the Safari is the most commonly used browser to download the actually most commonly used browser; Google Chrome!

Chrome has an amazing interface and ease of use! We love the start page of search and use it so much! In fact Chrome has a user share of more than 60 percent!

But chrome was not made or created today! It was its parent company, the Google!

For every system person or anyone for that matter, Google search is the best and easiest way to test whether the computer is connected to the internet or not! Just make sure you have a new search since the old search is still stored in the system!

Slowly, AI is replacing Google as the default for many complicated searches but still if you want to know something then Google it was the norm!

During the COVID lockdown and the online classes, many kids used to even Google answers to questions posed by the teacher! The teacher used to be so impressed! I am sure she realised that later since whenever she used to ask a question she would tell that kid to turn on his or her video! 

Google has become so much a part of our lives that it is impossible to even think without it! The smartphone has robbed our smartness! 

Alexa may have scored in the voice assistant department, but when it comes to proper search, Google is the best for now!

The other day we heard a song played by our tour guide in Georgia and I recorded it. Later all I had to do was play it to Google and voila it found it!

Google is the best memory refresher! Remember that movie with that story line or that movie which was released in that year or that pair which acted in that movie!

Or my son’s favourite question; how old is that guy in the screen! Of course first sometimes I have to search who is that guy!

Everyday I search for the birthday celebrity of the day in Google then if I find someone worthy enough then I use the Google Image search to get a good picture of the person for the sketch! 

Without Google it is impossible to think what to do!

For those with android phones, it is the default but even in my iPhone, the first thing myself or many do is to install Chrome to access Google! Gmail is the best and default mail for many and Google Maps are the leaders!

Slowly and steadily though many are coming and very soon the monopoly would go! It is hard to imagine that even Google can be replaced but then who would have thought that Nokia would go or there can be no better invention than the Yahoo messenger!?

It is not that Google has only success! Ironically you can search in Google about its own failure! Like every account in Fb has a dark past in Orkut! 

So how did this engine come about?

So Google was officially launched in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to market Google Search.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, students at Stanford University in California, developed a search algorithm first (1996) known as “BackRub”, with the help of Scott Hassan and Alan Steremberg. The search engine soon proved successful and the expanding company moved several times.

Originally the search engine used Stanford’s website with the domains google.stanford.edu and stanford.edu

The domain google.com was registered on September 15, 1997. 

And finally they formally incorporated their company, Google, on September 4, 1998 in their friend Susan Wojcicki’s garage in Menlo Park, California!

By the way even this piece of History I got when I searched for This day in History in Google! Even the fact that today’s birthday celebrity has acted in over 300 films and his full name is Anant Nagarkatte is courtesy Google!

Thank you Larry and Sergey for Google! Till something better comes along, we will simply Google it!

Now Stop trying to Google the above information and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

“Call the cops there’s a crime! 

Better yet call the private eye if you have the dime!

Looking for clues is an art!

Which is why even Batman is a class apart!”

Without support it does not work! Nothing does…

A sure way to get the TRP were the detective series! Oh how we used to wait for them eagerly! The most important character which I later realised though was the sidekick! They were the ones who used to be ‘normal’ and bring out the best!

read on!

One of the earlier ones was karam Chand! I still remember Pankaj Kapoor with his carrot and his Quirky but innocent assistant Kitty!

She would innocently ask Karamchand how he guessed the crime and he would tell about what he observed!

Then there was the master director of thriller movies like Jewel Thief starring as a detective! That was called Tehkikaat ( transl. Investigation) is a Hindi language crime drama series starring Vijay Anand as Sam D’Silva and Saurabh Shukla as Gopichand. Each episode used to start with a murder or a mystery and Kallu mama would fumble and most of the time think what we all audience used to think and then Sam would come  to the rescue! 

Then the most famous detective series which is still my favourite was Byomkesh Bakshi!  The one which is still available to watch is based on the fictional detective Byomkesh Bakshi character created by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. The series stars Rajit Kapur and K.K. Raina as Byomkesh Bakshi and Ajit Kumar Banerjee!

Now Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay had written them in Bengali and had in fact even stopped writing them because he was not that interesting! There are good translation of the stories which I have read and the TV series follows them as close as possible. 

I used to love that music in the beginning and fervently hope that the episode would not be continued to the second part! The first episode of the Homeopathy doctor and the lodge with the killing was one of the best! Of course many still talk about the obvious plot holes!

But Byomkesh never liked to be called a Detective! He was Satyanveshi or the seeker of truth! In spite of the cool crime solving abilities of Byomkesh dada we used to love Ajit! One of the episodes he tried to do a Byomkesh and actually thought what the audience thought! The spider venom which was used as a drug by the wily old man! How the clever old man used to get his supply in spite of the strict control! When he suggested that the old man used the real spiders in his room Byomkesh bursts into laughter! I have to admit that I was thinking the same thing! 

These sidekicks are very important in bringing out the best in the main lead! Sometimes you need the support to get the best out of you! These sidekicks are not inferior in anyway but just that they have their own forte!

If you have a good support even you can become a great detective or may be a great man or woman for that matter! Think about it! 

Blogging about Byomkesh was only because it is Uttam da’s birthday! Uttam Kumar (born Arun Kumar Chattopadhyay) may be one of the most iconic actors of Bengali cinema! His list of achievements are many and include the very first National Award for best actor! I have simply loved him when he became the first actor to play Byomkesh in the Satyajeet directed Chiriakhana! Imagine that Satyajeet was himself a big fan of detective stuff that he created an Indian Sherlock; Feluda! Here also you had a great Sidekick but then that is a blog for another day!

The story and movie Chiriakhana is known but the way it has been handled is simply epic! Not a big fan of Uttam da insisting to smoke on camera though since Byomkesh was a strict non smoker in the novels but then no one can be perfect!

Now if see a couple of Byomkesh episodes and sleep if you can!

Shubh Ratri!

“Say it once and then again 

Make sure it’s not a chain

All you have to gain 

Is to simply ascertain!”

Do you remember the song ‘wake me up before you go go!’?

Makes you  wonder why we say some words twice! 

It is all because of Lexical Cloning!

Read on!

First understand what is Lexical cloning; it is the process of creating a new word or phrase by modifying an existing one, often by adding a prefix, suffix, or combining it with another word!

This can involve Affixation like adding a prefix or suffix to a word, like “unhappy” or “happiness” or Compounding which is combining two words to create a new one, like “classroom” or “chairman” or Blending which is simply the merging parts of two words to create a new one, like “smog” (smoke + fog) or “brunch” (breakfast + lunch) or like Chandler did with male nanny or “manny!” and there is also a type of cloning where you simply double the words! 

There are other places where we use Lexical cloning by repeating the same word twice one after another. 

For example, when someone uses the expression, “I’m dead,” we know that it doesn’t literally mean that they’ve physically died. So when we hear someone described as “dead,” we may want to clarify, “Do you mean dead dead?” to refer to the physical act of actually passing away instead of just the expression to mean that someone is in trouble!

Another common way is when you ask your kid or anyone before exams if he or she has studied? and he or she says, “I have studied but did not study study!” Which means that he or she has read it once or twice as a glance but has not read it more deeply! 

Another example is BYE BYE! Not only the NSync song which has been made famous by the new DeadPool movie but also the word as such!

Have you ever wondered why we say ‘bye’ twice!?  or the dead twice or study twice!?

The ’emphasis’ on the second time is to create more EMPHASIS!

When you need a quick, informal way to bid your friend adieu, you’ll probably say, “Bye!” It’s shorthand for “goodbye,” and when adults speak to babies and children, there’s a tendency to double it: “Bye bye!”

This is to reassert that they are leaving for sure! 

I guess when it comes to babies and kids you need to do this! Like No no or yes yes! No no is more common though! Yes usually comes alone though since it does not need much emphasis!

In our medical school I always used to wonder why we used to say AGAR AGAR! Initially I thought that the teacher is just repeating for clarity and I just wrote AGAR once! But that was apparently wrong!

So as you know an agar plate is a Petri dish that contains a growth medium solidified with agar, used to culture microorganisms.

But how the AGAR got another one is because of a Malaysian custom! 

In the 19th century, Chinese migrants brought the Japanese product to Malaysia, and adopted the local name of ‘agar’, which means ‘jelly’ or ‘gelatin’. 

In this country it is customary to repeat the word twice to give it more emphasis, the literal translation being ‘gelatin-gelatin’ so the product was called Agar Agar! It still is called that to this day! You can try writing only Agar once at your own risk risk! Risk also was playing a villain in a cool movie like Makhi or ee or eega but birthday celebrity Sudeepa or Kichcha Sudeep did it and how HOW! See what I did there there!

Ok now enough! Night night! I mean Shubh ratri!

“He was flying but had no wings!

He used to dance, he even sings!

He used to be the best of em all!

The king in grandma stories stood very tall!”

Grand mother and her stories! The summer vacations or the time when your grandparents come to live with you are the time of stories! 

From imaginative stories from Ithihasa to their own stories of childhood, it was always fun to listen to them!

read on!

My dad’s mother loved to talk! We only had to listen!

Ask her about her village and the memories and stories would flow like water from a cracked dam! After several sessions the stories would overlap and seem the same but then they remain interesting all the same!

By default Grand father would not have many stories to tell though there were several stories about him which were narrated by my uncles and everyone else!

One story of how she used to sing in her class and when one great personality had come for a school function and was mighty impressed by her singing was her favorite! He toothless grin would be so big and her old eyes would still twinkle when she used to narrate this story! Many times the personality and her class may change but the theme was the same! 

The famous story of Nala and Damayanthi she used to tell with so much emotions that it used to give wings to our imaginations! 

The best story she used to tell which we later read even in our books and Ithihasa was the story of the sage and the fish! How a sage found a small fish while taking bath and he put it in a bowl! Then how the fish kept on growing and the sage kept on increasing the size of the bowl! When finally even the lake or the river was not enough and he had to shift the ‘Fish’ to the sea! At this moment she would declare with a sense of devotion and respect that the fish was none other than Bhagwan Vishnu! We would listen with rapt attention even though we knew this! 

The story telling in the night was a custom in many households! During vacations and holidays it was the norm! There were great storytellers who were the favourite uncle and aunts! Unfortunately now they have been replaced by the screen! The stories now need more special effects to hold attention and must not be repetitive!

The thrill of your own imagination taking over the story is no longer there! When my grandmother used to tell about how the fish grew, I used to imagine a big whale growing slowly but steadily! 

By the way if you find a fun fact, our relative the mammal ‘whale’ is actually one of the largest living thing in the world! To add to the thrill it is also the one which makes the loudest sounds! 

The Antarctic blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus ssp. Intermedia) is the biggest animal on the planet, weighing up to 400,000 pounds (approximately 33 elephants) and reaching up to 98 feet in length! The blue whale is so giant that its heart weighs as much as a small car and the arteries of its heart are so large that the average person could swim through them.

A blue whale’s brain can weigh up to 6.8kg! It can make sounds upto 160 decibels! The jet engine reaches around 140 decibels for comparison! Blogging about stories and big reminds me of the celebrity of the day Ram Kapoor! 

Now ask Alexa to tell you a story and sleep! Or better yet listen to some instrumental music like say, Kenny G and sleep! 

Shubh ratri!

“The lips are moving can’t hear what you say!

From the time the flight landed been this way!

To travel you are not that old! 

Still should avoid when you have the cold!”

The most irritating thing when you drive is of course traffic jam! Specially when you have a shortcut to go somewhere and that bridge or tunnel is blocked! 

That nagging blocked sensation and pain you feel when you are in a flight specially if you have a mild cold is chiefly because of a similar reason!

Read on!

So the middle ear is a structure which has your bones of hearing with its muscles and apparatus including the smallest bone in the body! Smallest bone!? Well, that is a blog for another day! 

So while the middle ear is seated inside a cavity in a bone called the temporal bone, it still needs to know what is the news outside! 

Which means that the ear is disconnected from the environment like some people living in an underground bunker or down a submarine! When this happens there occurs a difference of the pressure in the atmosphere and the ear!

Unlike Human Beings, air pressure believe in equality!

So the air always flows from a high pressure area to a low pressure one! This keeps on happening till both the areas are almost equal pressure! 

The way for the air to go from high or low pressure area is this small tube which connects the ear to the environment! This is one of the most vital structures buried deep within with two openings! 

So when the opening gets blocked or gets altered, the air in the middle ear goes crazy and the drum starts to act! Which is why you get the pain or block! The suction effect can even cause water to enter the ear instead of air by compensation! 

This is why this little tube is so important! 

The tube is named after a remarkable person who also discovered the valve of the veins which also bears his name! 

The person was Bartolomeo Eustachio (writing under the Latin surname Eustacius) who wrote a remarkable series of scientific works on the anatomy of the kidney, the hearing apparatus, the teeth and their structure, and the circulatory system, including the lower vena cava and its valves (now known as the Eustachian valve!)

Eustachio extended knowledge of the internal ear by rediscovering and describing correctly the very important Eustachian tube! 

He was the first to describe the internal and anterior muscles of the malleus and the stapedius, and the complicated figure of the cochlea!

So next time your ears get blocked you can think of Bartolomeo Eustachio! To unblock it though you must ask another called Antonio Maria Valsalva! Then again that is a blog for another day! 

Another great personality closer home is the celebrity of the day; After becoming a doctor this person he returned to Calcutta to start his practice. Initially, he would see poor patients for free. His practice became established and people started coming from villages and far flung areas to get treated by him!

He observation of language issues prompted him to translate and write medical books in Bengali language!

His friends, patients and fraternity requested him to start a college where he could share his knowledge and treat patients. The fight for freedom from the British Raj was getting intensified in those days. There were more and more reasons to start a medical school in Calcutta, that was not associated with the Raj. He gained conviction that the idea to build a school with modern outlook was the need of the hour!

The hospital started by him with great difficulty and struggles is now a well known hospital in the news. 

Hoping for justice and saluting the legend who made this hospital. He is Radha Gobinda Kar. 

Now take warm water so that you do not get ear block and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

“It’s a race againts time for submit!

You have to do it cannot omit!

Thank God we just did it, phew!

So when is the project due!?”

School projects! The pain or…!

Some school projects were so much fun especially if they were group projects!

Read on! 

The main issue with the school projects is the deadline and the specifications! 

Once we had the project on penguins and everyone got eggs and started carefully cracking them on the top and then emptying it slowly and then sealing that with an eye dropper and voila you have a penguin! 

So everyone had the same idea and the only thing different was the side black colour coating which indicated the black fins! Some would draw the eyes nicely!

The moment a project was announced a time bomb or alarm used to start in my mind! Till the project is done I would not rest easy! My daughter also has the same problem! She will finish the project as soon as possible and not rest until it is done!

Another most popular project was the village scene! Of course the field was easy since we all used to play with mud! The best seed were the mustard seeds! They used to come in a couple of days but they used to dry off in a week or so! Which is why we had to show the project before that!

Once we wanted to demonstrate the volcano so we had the whole village scene ready with a water bed and a big mountain! For the volcano we needed a flower pot!

Now getting a flower pot during deepawali was not a big issue but other times it was almost impossible to find!

My friend Ashu and me then took on our trusty old cycle and started our quest on a sunday! With some money in hand we searched all the small stores called Fancy stores of Lal Bazaar in Secunderabad! Fancy stores or Stationary stores were the best when it came to projects! You would get everything and you can do anything!

I have bought countless chart papers in my life and even last month I had to rush in the late evening to get a chart paper of a particular colour for my daughter! The last moment rush does not change!

So after going to every other Fancy store we, went to the stage two which was to go to the stores in the side roads! Then one old shop in the corner had an uninterested dude sitting with no care for business of anything else! 

At first he did not understand or (pretended not to!) as to what we want and later on he slowly nodded that he might have a couple of old stock! 

We were delighted at first but then thought what would happen if it did not burst! Anyway since we beggars had no choice we got two and rushed home!

The next day we proudly showed our project to our Yadav madam who was like a terror for some and a great fun for others! When we were putting the flower pot on the hole of the big mountain made of mud, she snatched it immediately and left in a rage!

She categorically told us to change the project! Which is when the other team member Arjun stepped in and we made a safer project of matching! You match the tables and the light comes on! Fun but routine!

We used to show many of these projects in the school exhibition but then that is the blog or blogs for another day!

Anyway we did take the project home and in Ashu’s house we thought that Madam was simply overreacting! So we placed the remaining flower pot and lit it! It did not make any eruption though! Just a whiss and a sudden blast! The whole mountain was in pieces with a big sound which drew Ashu’s mother who gave us a surprised look! Apparently if you keep the flower pot in closed spaces it may not flower but it may burst like a bomb! Ok then! Lesson learnt the hard way! Guess the matching project was safer! Although if you think about it, the volcano was more accurate! Now like our madam found risk in our project the birthday celebrity of today Shailendra used to find divinity in humanity with his lyrics!

Now keeo stuff ready for your kid’s school projects and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!