“It’s sweet but never has salt Made of dough not malt! You can have a bite for ones sake! Chocolate or carrot!? Yup it’s a cake!”
This is the scale which measures how much you can be shaken!
Shaken yet!
Well I still remember when we were in a lesser known place in Assam called Missamari!
One fine day or rather night; we were sleeping and suddenly the rock hard and steady metal cupboard which is so typical of an army house started to shake like it was suffering from a seizure!
My dad who was waken up by all of us; simply told that it’s just a mild shake! Nothing to worry about! Just sleep!
Only in the morning we got to know that the whole colony had actually come out for a while since it was actually a major earthquake!
It was ok since if we hear of a major quake in the news then rest assured it will always be major. It’s when the almighty earth tells you that nature is the strongest!
Of course when reporting about any quake you mention Richter!
So Richter magnitude scale and Richter’s magnitude scale – is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Francis Richter and Beno Gutenberg.
Since it’s a log scale, an earthquake measuring 5.0 releases 31 times more energy than an earthquake measuring 4.0! But this is not an actual scale! In fact the original scale did not even catch magnitude of less than 4.5!
So now a modern method of measuring is used but still it is reported as Richter scale since that’s more familiar!
Even when there are changes no one can separate Richter from earthquakes because he earnestly made the effort!
Earnestly making effort and succeeding was also the hallmark of actor Shobhan Babu!
“Twist and turn toast but don’t burn A little jam a little butter Morning when you are hungry A buttered bread is better!”
There are three types of people who eat Idli!
with Chutney or with sambar or with both!
This is only about the fresh idli by the way!
The best way to eat the non fresh idli is to add the idli podi!
The chutney podi or the Idli podi is an amazing mix of spices and dal and many times we used to wait for the idlis to be left over so that mom could make the idli uppuma with the amazing chutney podi!
Idli upma is the best way to make the old idli taste better!
Now of course you have a variety of idli options like Idli manchurian or pakoda or even idli burger! This is because Idli is just like rice!
Someone had mentioned some years back that Idli has no taste! Well, it is true! In the race between dosa and idli, Dosa is the one with the taste while Idli is the option if you are health conscious!
Then again you have so many types of Idli now that you will be amazed! In Bangalore you also get something called the Thatte Idli or the plate idli! You have to eat this as hot and as fast as possible!
Then again you have the Ragi Idli and other variations which try to make the healthier Idli even more healthy!
Here also you must know that the Idli has no taste! You need a side to complement or more importantly, supplement it!
All said and done though, one of the best breakfast on a busy day is a plate of soft steaming hot idli with piping hot sambar and chutney!
That must be taught! Of course no better teacher than the first one Savitribai Phule!
“The colors the thrill the loud sound! The dancing and merry go round The playing and teaching side by side Annual day is a matter of pride!”
Annual day!
The other day I was attending the annual day function of my son and it was a nostalgic experience!
read on!
Now when we used to have annual day, it was for the whole school and all the sections! There was no division though of course sometimes the primary and secondary used to have separate annual days.
Since most kids were small in primary, the chief annual day was the annual day of the school!
By default it was in the evening and by default it was usually in the school stage! The days culminating into the annual day used to be so cool! Those who were participating used to get special permission to skip classes and ‘practice’!
Only a select few used to participate and there was a selection process! There was a pre annual day in which the good ones were selected while others were politely told not to participate!
The thrill of getting on the stage in front of your parents is there for some kids while some kids do not bother much!
Since I was part of the orchestra team playing the banjo or the triple drums, I was on the stage for the lower grades! But then in the higher grades I stopped playing and the orchestra was performed by professionals (read better talented people!); the only way you could get into the stage was when you get an award which was usually first for competitions like debates or poem recitation!
My luck was complex! When I had such awards the situation was such that my parents could not attend while when they did attend, I got nothing! It was so sad to see my classmates performing so well while I sat in the civil dress with my parents looking at me with a neutral expression! Later on when I tool couple of buses to reach the Annual day function which was held in a hall in a corner of the city to collect a prize for Poem recitation; I had no one to cheer for me save for a few friends!
Which is why when my parents saw me on the stage during my convocation as the secretary of the House Surgeon’s Association, it was a proud feeling for me!
In my son’s school though they have annual day for each class! Everyone is allowed or coerced to participate! The Principal made an amazing speech on how in this school they not only concentrate on the academics but also other activities which are equally important! The show was simply out of the world and so coordinated!
As far as performance on stage in concerned, I guess for kids nowadays, it just comes naturally! They are made for full media glare and they know how to act! The confidence and the zest by which they perform is refreshing to say the least!
Talking about performance brings me to mind the mind blowing performance of Vijay Sethupathi in Maharaja…
“He was hot and the tongue was dry! Red all over and in pain Oh my! Now do not stumble and fall! Twas just high fever you all!”
This could make you mad! Not the poem (ok fine, in addition to the poem!)
Then again this was like a thick fluid which was known to turn into gold!
now do not be fluid!
read on!
One of the most interesting metals ever for us in the chemistry lab was the mercury!
The fluid was metal! We were told that it is a conductor of electricity and even its vapours conduct electricity!
I used to love the fact that the thermometer we used to take in the camps in our college used to have this Mercury in them!
The way we used to check temperature was to first shake the meter and place it on the arm pit! Of course some confusions used to arise many times when during our practical exams one student used the armpit for temperature assessment while another tensed student went the oral way! I was just glad for the patients that there was no rectal thermometer!
The small silver line of the thermometer was the most precious part since mercury is very costly indeed! Once someone used the Human thermometer to test the boiling water and the mercury pump just propelled out like a rocket! Very hot indeed!
Another close association of medicos and Mercury was the BP apparatus (the technical name is big and called sphygmomanometer but I did not want to risk mis spelling it!). Even that had a mercury tank and am sure the price was high because of that! The ones without them were not that accurate but the mercury ones were not easy to maintain and you need to keep them in plain level! Even now with all the fancy electronic equipments I still trust the trusty old sphygmomanometer measured by an expert!
The fact that it is a metal but is liquid and also can turn into vapour which can also conduct electricity was simply amazing! But for all the thrill of mercury; it was a dangerous metal!
When we were small, the chatterboxes and storytellers (read those with great imagination!) of the class used to tell stories on how if you swallow mercury it will come out after making a hole in the stomach!
It is of course true though that mercury is toxic! Coming out of your stomach, well that is a story for a late night horror show! It can make you mad though!
In fact the mad as a hatter analogy though popularised by Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and means someone who’s crazy or prone to unpredictable behavior, didn’t originate with Carroll!
Instead, the expression is linked to the hat-making industry and mercury poisoning. In the 18th and 19th centuries, industrial workers used a toxic substance, mercury nitrate, as part of the process of turning the fur of small animals, such as rabbits, into felt for hats.
Workplace safety standards often were lax and prolonged exposure to mercury caused employees to develop a variety of physical and mental ailments, including tremors (dubbed “hatter’s shakes”), speech problems, emotional instability and hallucinations!
Now one fine day if you have a drink of wine or any spirit too much then simply take a thermometer and break it and blame all your ‘symptoms’ on the escaped fumes of mercury! Or simply yet, do not drink! Water is fine though!
Definitely fine and most of the time really amazing were the acting prowess of Durga Khote though my favourite has always been the mother in KARZ! “Look at him through the eyes of a mother and you will see that he is my son!” Goosebumps always!
Quick sketch on another busy day! The mercury is falling though! The temperature I meant!
“The pomp the fun the season of joy! Harvesting crops is the chief ploy! So many themes all over the rest! Indian festivals they are da best!”
This is so huge that it can take a thousand Earths!
In the night sky it is one of the brightest!
It was also the first and foremost!
read on!
One of the oldest planets of the Solar System is the Jupiter! We call it Brihaspati!
Jupiter is a world of extremes. It’s the largest planet in our solar system – if it were a hollow shell, 1,000 Earths could fit inside!
Then again it is also the oldest planet, forming from the dust and gases left over from the Sun’s formation 4.6 billion years ago!
Brihaspati as a planet (Jupiter) appears in various Hindu astronomical texts in Sanskrit, such as the 5th century Aryabhatiya by Aryabhata, the 6th century Romaka by Latadeva and Panca Siddhantika by Varahamihira, the 7th century Khandakhadyaka by Brahmagupta and the 8th century Sisyadhivrddida by Lalla!
Interestingly Brihaspati is described as a sage born from the first great light, the one who drove away darkness, is bright and pure, and carries a special bow whose string is Rta or “cosmic order” (basis of dharma)!
There is so much reverence to Brihaspati because it is the biggest and greatest protector of the Earth!
Jupiter takes about 12 Earth years, or 4,333 Earth days, to make one orbit around the Sun. However long a year on Jupiter is, it also has the shortest day in the solar system. Jupiter only takes 10 hours to rotate around once.
Interestingly age on different planets will depend on their orbits. Compared to our age in years on Earth, we would be younger on Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and older on Mercury and Venus!
But Jupiter is special! It is the Guard which keeps the attackers at bay and sometimes sends them on the way!
Jupiter protects the fellow planets on inner orbits, allowing them to maintain nearly circular orbits that provide stable climates over extended periods of time. Long, elliptical orbits cause extreme climate shifts for an Earth-like planet, possibly preventing any sort of sustained life from evolving!
Furthermore, Jupiter can eat up any asteroid or comet that ventures near, earning the nickname “vacuum cleaner of the solar system.”!
The asteroid belt in between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter is another example of the gas giant’s influence. Its gravity likely prevented the asteroids from combining into a planet! Like sage Brihaspati who protects those under him!
Jupiter can also radically alter the orbits of small bodies that stray close, hurling them on long orbits that take hundreds or even thousands of years for those bodies to return! It has been stipulated that this is how comets got the extreme orbits that carry them to the far-flung reaches of the solar system. They spend most of their time out there, forming a cometary collection called the Oort cloud, which may extend as far as halfway to the nearest star!
Now just like any sage, do not make them lose their temper now because while Jupiter often protects Earth and the other inner planets by deflecting comets and asteroids, sometimes it sends objects on a collision course straight toward the inner planets!
It can be productive like if in earlier in the solar system’s history, when there were more objects flying around, the increased amount of impacts would have brought to Earth water and other ingredients for life! Or it could have been destructive in that other collisions would have been disastrous, such as the impact that likely led to the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago! So do not try to anger Brihaspati!
Interestingly the Maha Kumbh mela is celebrating every 12 years! Like the meme goes, Humans celebrate the one revolution of earth which is one year while legends celebrate the revolution of Jupiter which is 12 years! This is probably one of the largest religious gathering in the world! Large also is the knowledge of herbs and trees of this celebrity!
Saalumarada Thimmakka also known as Aala Marada Thimmakka, has planted and tended to 385 banyan trees along a 4.5-kilometre stretch of highway between Hulikal and Kudur, Ramanagara District.
She has also planted nearly 8000 other trees! Now that is Maha!
For a while forget the influencers and pseudo stars and know about real stars like her!
Now go for your maha rest of the day aka sleep! Shubh ratri!
“That sore thumb is a sight Visible to everyone all right It may bleed and stain Can’t touch so much pain…”
One of the most hard hitting statements I read in the recent times is, “Beware of the Marathon runner who smiles!”
This is because his or her smile is misleading!
Don’t let others rent space in your head by Gary Coxe made this statement in his very interesting novel and it is so true!
I have so many of my friends who do run marathons and this statement is not limited to only Marathon! It is about those who seem perfect! Those who now can do stuff which are really amazing! The consistency with which they perform feats which are amazing!
But when you see them smile or when you see the effortless way they do it, you may tend to get a false idea that the journey was easy! Their smile may hide their struggles and pain and more importantly their persistence!
You cannot make instant champions! You do hear news on how many beat the reigning champions and become grand masters or champions in their first top seed match! But you do not see the amount of practice it took for them to go on playing to reach the level of playing a top seed match!
In the same way, a marathon runner is not born overnight! You cannot get up one fine day and decide that you will run a marathon tomorrow!
It starts with 1k! Then 5 then 10 and then if you are good you may go for the half marathon! And only the best of the best go for the full marathon! And even after the completion of the marathon, the runner does not smile gracefully and make a speech! He or she would be gasping and panting and may even collapse! Every step is a battle won and the battle does leave scars! They get over the injury and pain and move on!
The smile comes only when they think about it! When the are resting after some time and only for a while!
This is also in context of the recent 70 or 90 hours week work! For most doctors it is a given thing! During residency, we are the cheapest labour with the highest degree of work and responsibility! And even in peak practice, an average doctor easily moves those hours! But for general work force, the work hours are for those who want to be the leaders or the future CEOs!
Because like it or not; no one has becomes a billionaire or come under the forbes 100 by having a salaried job with limited work and full work life balance! You will get what you choose and then do not complain about it!
If you want to be a marathon runner then you simply cannot smile! At least while running! Another not so easy thing is being an astronaut! I remember how when Rakesh Sharma went to space, each one of us wanted to grow up to be an astronaut! He really inspired many such kids! That is also a long marathon of sorts!
Plan your marathon and be prepared for the pain! Smile only when you rest!
“The most clever dude was in the lead For all the accolades he had greed That made all envious and green It’s better to be dull and not seen!”
Madam Curie used to carry samples in her pockets and these used to glow in the dark much to the delight of people and children alike!
So much so that these glow in the dark things became a part of everyday life! You had glowing clothes, suppositories and even toothpaste! You even had radioactive tea and chocolate and an atomic energy lab kit with real radioactive material costing around 500 USD in today’s rate! Hefty price to GET radiation right!?
Then you had the fashionable wrist watches! Which could of course tell the time in the dark! Oh how people were actually in the dark! That was real radioactive stuff right there on your wrist!
Then there were fluoroscopic X ray machines to see the size of your feet inside the shoe! Not only the customers used to get X ray photographs multiple times! Mothers used to allow their children play with them and they used to X ray parts of their bodies multiple times! And now you ask for a chest X Ray and the radiation discussion comes into play and rightfully so!
For hundreds of years, glassmakers used small amounts of uranium to create yellow or green glass. The yellow tint of this glass led to the nicknames “Vaseline glass” and “canary glass.” Under an ultraviolet (UV) or “black” light, the uranium causes the glass to glow bright green! Those who lived in glasshouses may glow!
What was the situation near atomic test centers you would think? Well, people would be ignoring the bright flash and the dead sheep and cattle and walk as if everything was hunky dory!
Finally realization dawned when of the 200 or so visitors to these centers; around 90 of them developed an assortment of different tumors! The whole world then woke up and realized that these glow in the dark materials actually cause cancer and variety of tumors!
Now what about Madam Curie? Well, her constant exposure to such insane levels of radiation also gave her cancer! In fact Madam Curie died due to cancer!
The notes handled by Madam Curie are now stored in lead containers and the only way you can read them is by suiting up with radioprotective gowns and even then you cannot expose yourself to them for long intervals! The notes can literally kill you even if you do not understand them! Now those are dangerous notes if ever there were once!
The tech or fashion of today may be the poison of tomorrow while the poison of today may be the medicine of the future! Shine some non radioactive light into that though!
A shining bright light brighter than radiation and much more effective in a positive way was Narendranath Datta aka Swamy Vivekananda! Just a quick glance at his Chicago speech can give you peace and tranquility!
Finished this one on a very busy day in less than ten minutes! Jai ho! Now make sure your clock is not shining and sleep! Shubh ratri!
“She was red filled with ire! A dry wood would have caught fire! Just like the the waterfall it drops Thank heavens for the emotional stops!”
How many times you have called this to someone in anger!?
The starting point of name calling usually is with this name! Of course for people like me who do not go to severe name calling!
read on!
Now do not call me that for delaying the answer!
The answer is Idiot! I usually use the indian version of GAVAR!
When you simply call someone an Idiot, you are actually calling him a deft definition of a child whose mental capacity is not gone beyond two years! In fact there is a big classification of Idiots!
As early as 1912, Edmund Burke Huey proposed a classification of ‘feeble minded children’ . His classification goes like this Idiots. —Those so defective that the mental development never exceeds that of a normal child of about two years. Imbeciles. —Those whose development is higher than that of an idiot, but whose intelligence does not exceed that of a normal child of about seven years finally Morons. —Those whose mental development is above that of an imbecile, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about twelve years!
Of these three words moron is the newest (it dates to the early 20th century), and the only one coined specifically for the purpose of medical diagnosis! The word comes from the Greek mōros, meaning “foolish, stupid,” and shares this etymology with words such as sophomore (“a student in the second year at college or a 4-year secondary school”) and morosoph (“a learned fool”)!
But in the age of the Millennials and the Gen Z and the latest generations; these classifications are what Joe says; a Moo point!
Imbecile began its life in English in the 16th century from the Latin imbecillus, “weak, weak-minded” while Idiot, from the Greek idios (“private” or “one’s own”), is the oldest of these words, and has been in continual use since the 14th century.
The levels of idiocy has also been extended to include words like Jobbernowl, loblolly, driveler! These offer just a glimpse of the many non-clinical ways our language has of referring to those chuckleheads in your way! And yes chucklehead is just a stupid person!
Finally the naming of Down’s syndrome is deeply rooted in the classification of idiocy. This was by the British physician John Down who sought a useful classification in order to provide better care. Apparently on his way to a brilliant career in London, Down chose instead to become the superintendent of Royal Earlswood Asylum for Idiots and later published a new classification of “idiocy” based on a theory that it could be related to ethnicity. This of course was shocking and it took one century for the great non IDIOTs of the British society to realise that there can be more intelligent people in other races also!
Down referred to the condition as mongolism then almost a century later a group of physicians wrote to the Lancet to demand that mongolism be abandoned as a medical term and the current term; Down syndrome, was adopted! The naming of this condition as Down is actually a definite breaking of prejudice!
Free of Prejudice and only pure talent also was Paliyath Jayachandran! He will be missed
“It came so fast and went like a blur! Week was a moment in a spur! The first week is done no fear! Still wish you a very happy new year!”
The first week of the year!
This year was a roller coaster ride!
Went from normal short blogs to full lenght blogs! Not to mention the sketches and the quirky poems (which are mainly for my life… I mean wife since she likes poems so much!).
In case you were wondering how it can be done in between the busy practice and handling kids and their homework! Not to mention the Hindi and Mathematics assignments (love the latter though!)! Also since we are NRIs; we have to do all housework! So cooking is shared and so is other house work! It is not a simple task when the hours are limited and time flies like a jet on nitro!
This can happen only by time sense and discipline and no this is not the introduction of a self help book by Sriram!
In fact I need help! The day I am late in sketching or the blog is not done, my anxiety levels are through the roof! This when I am already a very anxious dude! Then if the sketch does not come out well, it is a big pain! Still I do put the bad ones since I want to improve everyday!
Then again I do not check my phone till I reach the hospital and see the pending patients! Early morning getting up and getting the kids ready to go to the school is a given! Even then no phones to be checked! It is a big step!
Only after all the pending work is done does the phone gets checked! The first thing I do is look out for celebrities in terms of birthday or historical!
This is actually a very difficult task since you need to find someone who is non controversial and non political! My personal preference is also for people who are older than me! And those who ‘deserve’ my respect! That’s already a very short list! Then again sometimes I select them for some amazing feat! Artists are selected irrespective of what type of ‘mortals’ they are! Rest go through scrutiny!
All this in between the patients and the injections and the procedures!
Then practice has made it better and the sketch does not take much time! Then again my eyes are not what it used to be before and the accomodation does a number sometimes! The eyes get crooked or the nose goes to the dust! If I do not give full attention, it will not be good! This is because I am not a BORN artist! For the blog however, the words come easily enough!
However (see I did not use but!); it is real HARD WORK! To get a new topic everyday and make sure that gets linked which I purposely do as an experiment but now compulsory since that is something that an AI CANNOT do!
Which means that the blogs and sketches are hundred percent human! Many technical details and facts are verbatim though since they cannot be created! But the selection of topic and the “Nathan” garnish is hundred percent mine! My wife often complains that when I put so many personal things in the blog, everyone knows about you! I tell her, “no one knows me as well as she does!” and that is the truth!
Also I use Snapseed to modify my sketches so that no one can tamper or use the ‘original’. Many say the original looks better but that you have to see personally and decide!
Of course the assurance is that sketches and blogs are better! There may be repeats in terms of both but the latter version should be better is my hope!
How the week went by I don’t know! But was so busy that the collage I was to place on the first, am posting now!
And even then now there is no way that all 366 sketches come in the collage!
You can see them in my WhatsApp or X or IG page!
You can read the full blogs in my blog post!
I have often sketched Yesudas since I simply love his Ayyappa songs! They are so devotional and deep!
“The writing on the wall was for all to see Then again I knew it was only for me! The words were white and definitely loud! Then again it was written in the cloud!”
Did you know that the person who is responsible for the safety of more than 300-400 people gets trained by being blinded!?
or by wearing Foggles! WHAT IS THAT!?
read on!
In this novel called Don’t let others rent space in your head by Gary Coxe; Gary talks about Irrational Optimism which is a different blog but then he tells about how Pilots are trained!
When we were young there were only two movies for people who wanted to be Pilots! One of course was Top Gun! While the other was this little gem called Vijeta! Everyone would have seen Top Gun and Tom with his Ray Ban and his confidence! The way he walks and talks and his whole attitude reeks of confidence which gets shaken when he meets with an accident of course. But this is what Gary is trying to tell in the novel about Irrational Optimism! Confidence is good but overconfidence is never good!
Then you have Vijeta! In a serene performance by the son of Shashi Kapoor; Kunaal comes across as a nervous guy who has no idea of what he has to do! He jumps from one place to another to finally join the air force to try and become a fighter pilot! That is the most difficult job in the force!
In one scene he gets frozen in mid air putting both him and his instructor’s life at risk! To recover from that and then become a pilot is a great task indeed!
Which is why training for the Pilots is a very important task indeed!
Apparently one of the commonest Pilot cause for a crash is the loss of orientation or Vertigo! Which becomes worse when there is bad weather and low visibility! Which is why fresh pilots are never allowed to fly in bad weather.
The crux apparently here is that the pilots must not trust their instincts but rely on the instruments! Now Gary states that when you consider the effects of vertigo and the training necessary to teach someone to ignore feelings and obey instruments, it might just sound as though the agency has appropriately strict guidelines in place but it is not so!
The interesting thing is that many, if not most, pilots who pass their instrument checkride, who are legal to fly in the clouds and take you up with them, have never actually flown through a cloud?
But rest assured their training has been done! This is where the Foggles come into play! In the instrument checkride training, the conditions of low or no visibility is presented while flying to the Pilot. He is either blind folded or the outer environment is hooded or he is given a foggy goggles called the Foggles! All these keep his outer environment and his or her own personal visual cues out of the action and he or she is asked to fly and land the plane only by using the instruments of the Plane and nothing else!
Of course you have requirements of certain hours to qualify for the commercial pilot license so you do not have to worry! Also a commercial flight has great ground and other technical support for added safety.
However, Gary actually makes a teaching point in the whole scheme of things in that he says that in many decisions of your life you must use your instruments to fly and ignore your feelings! This is because sometimes your feelings actually make you take the wrong decisions!
Deep though which can reach the skies! Of course for being a Pilot you have to do multitasking! Which reminds me of Multitalented Pritish Nandy! Heartfelt condolences
