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“The bull charged at the matador!

He was holding the cloth which was red like fire! 

Course he was colour blind so it doesn’t matter! 

It was the swaying of muleta which gave him the ire!”

I love sketching in Black and White since I only have time for a quick sketch everyday! Also I like to still believe that things and people are still black and white in nature with shades of grey! Then again if that statement sounds prejudiced then that was unintentional. 

Practically though even if you do not have any such thoughts inside you and you are liberal, colors do play an important part in our life! And people do favor color! Not the colour of skin but color of things!

Intrigued? 

read on!

As a child I used to like some parties especially since we also knew that the dessert to be served was to be rajbhog! This was like the yellow version of Rasagulla but more sweet and creamy! Or maybe it tasted the same but the colour really made a difference! 

If you do not believe me then one day when I was young (er!) my mother announced that she made lemon rice!  To our surprise though it was white in colour! It tasted the same! Sour and salty and of course tasty but still something was missing! The colour! There was not turmeric in the house and the rice was no yellow! So in spite of it tasting like lemon rice, it did not look like one so we did not eat it!

Even now if there is no turmeric in the house, even if we have lemon; I do not make any lemon rice!

It is also the same with Dosa! and Idli!

The other day my wife who likes to make only healthy things to eat announced that she was making a special dosa for us that Sunday!

Holiday is the time for indulgence and eating leisurely and that day was no different! The aroma from the kitchen was really nice of hot ghee though I prefer sesame oil in my dosa! Now that is the topic of another blog!

Now my wife then laid the table with steel plates (no plastic or other plates when she is uncharge!) and placed the hot dosa! The dosa was a black color thing! I was too shocked to say anything! Of course, with the groundnut chutney (another misdirection!), the “dosa” did taste good! But it was no dosa! It was a healthy variant made with Ragi! I have now strictly told her that the next time she makes this black “dosa”, please call it Ragi Dosa or Ragi Roti! Anything but dosa which it is not because dosa is white or a little golden brown! But certainly not black! I do not think I need to tell about the black Ragi Idly right!?

Of course the next time we buy curtains and I causally mention that you can buy any color and it does not matter, the look my wife gives me is the same look I gave her when I got the Ragi dosa!

It is the same with coffee and tea! Many people see the colour! If you add too much milk or too little decoction or powder then the coffee is light which is ok for kids and those who do not drink it regularly! 

But someone who drinks coffee especially filter coffee regularly then even if the taste is good, the colour must be perfect! A whitish coffee can never be a degree filter coffee! or even a Kadak chai! 

In Kerala and in many other places, you get something called the milk tea! That is essentially tea with more milk but the way it is recognized is that the color is more white than the brown tea! 

It is the same with coffee! Forget the taste, the color is the one which determines the first impression!

Even a well cooked dish is mainly determined by the color! How do you know the fritter or bajji or bonda is fried properly or not? Well, it is the color! Now the difference between the Bajji and Bond and pakoda is…the topic for another blog!

If you go to a shop and get a vada which is fair and not brown, I am sure you will think it is not cooked well or you may not even eat it!

It is the same with Rava Kesari! Mentally for me it is always yellow or orange! But when I see a white one, even if it tastes good, I would think the colored one tastes better!

Now you talk about Rosogulla and not talk about Gulab Jamun?! How can that be possible! In Gulab Jamun also there are two varieties! One is brown or golden brown or other variants of brown while the other is black! I like the brown variant! The black jamun is actually having a similar taste but they are generally more sweet since some sugar is added to the dough. This added sugar makes the caramelization and the balls are fried longer. The syrup is also mostly dry! But the chief reason I do not like them is that mentally I know they have to be brown and I have always eaten the brown jamun! So if someone tells me that they are serving Gulab Jamun and give me black dry balls then please excuse me if I do not like them! Of course there are people who like the black one more!

I still remember this variant of a popular cola company which was launched during this World Cup of cricket and since Indian team used to wear blue dress, it was blue in color! It was famous till Indian team was having the chance of winning the cup! But the moment India was out of the World Cup the demand for this cola disappeared! With that the cola also disappeared from the market soon! The only difference between the taste of the drinks was in the color!

Some time back one of our old hospitals where I used to work some years back suddenly came up with a brainwave possibly cooked up by some management dude who would have joined recently and to justify his pay would have come up with this mind shattering idea! The conventional dress of all surgeons which is the OT dress is almost everywhere green or blue in color; this self proclaimed Einstein got a new design made in Brown color which made us look like a cross between a sanitation worker and a post man (or woman!). Needless to say, it was not accepted by doctors but then they did not have any choice since whatever comes from the upper floors are usually taken up without a word by the ‘workers’! Luckily the national level accredit-ion inspection which happened soon after blasted the management for the color and the design and we were back to the green!

So color is really important though lets limit it to food and things! A colour ful poet also was birthday celebrity Gopaldas Saxena aka Neeraj! 

Now allow the sweet colour of darkness to overcome your eyes and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

“T’was a sweet sound so nice and clear
Heard all over, far and near
He couldn’t speak or sing that nice
Which is why he whistles by choice!”

I have always been able to whistle! Not the high decibel one in which you have to put fingers on your mouth but the more gentle kind with rhyme and rhythm!
But whistling was frowned upon while growing up so I used to do it only rarely or when alone! My mother used to tell that if you whistle, snakes will come! Strangely there was a time when getting whistled on was a compliment!

Intrigued?
Read on!

Some amazing songs start with a whistle and one of my favorite ones is a song called patience by the Guns and Roses (Now that was a band which broke too soon after some amazing songs to boot!).

Then of course if you are a rock song listener you would probably have Winds of change by the scorpions in your list of whistle song!


There are some bits and pieces in many other songs in many languages but these two really elevated the whistle to another level!
This is a big issue if you are in a band and you have to play these songs! Most of the times the whistle part in many open concerts are usually synthesized by the keyboard since in that noise it is difficult to whistle or the whistle to be audible to everyone!

Another familiar tune which is like a group whistle is the song from the amazing movie called The Bridge on the River Kwai. This whistle tune may be one of the best and most popular group whistle tunes ever. 
When the whole platoon comes marching and whistling this amazing tune, you are simply amazed at the level of direction! No words are spoken and a whistle makes them seem so professional!

There are professional whistlers of course who do whistle in a good tune and they even have competitions for that! There are certifications awarded and it is a respectable training and trait to have!

Now whistling is just like singing though! You just cannot start somewhere inappropriate

Whistling as a song or in a tune is usually safe and decent and the time whistling becomes a point of contention is when it’s used for Eve teasing.

One of the most commonly heard whistle and maybe something which almost everyone has heard at some point of his or her life and maybe even tried it is this whistle! In that a particular type of whistling gets the most blame and it is linked to an animal! Yes! That is called the wolf whistle!

Wolf whistle is seldom considered decent! Apparently there was a time in the past when whistling was like a compliment and it was intended like that only but a wolf whistle is frowned upon most of the times!

The name comes from the Wolf character in the popular 1943 Tex Avery cartoon Red Hot Riding Hood who whistles in this way at the sexy female character Red! He whistles at her in several other subsequent cartoons. The term appears in North American newspapers as early as 1943. It appears in British newspapers from 1949 onwards.

But did you know that one of the other origins of the wolf whistle was actually as a part of the calls of alarm in a ship?!

So one theory is that the wolf whistle originates from the navy General Call made with a boatswain’s pipe. The General Call is made on a ship to get the attention of all hands for an announcement. Sailors in harbour would whistle the General Call upon seeing an attractive woman to draw fellow sailors’ attention to her!

It was eventually picked up by passers-by, not knowing the real meaning of the whistle, and passed on! Of course whatever be the explanation when Jim Carrey as the Mask does his whistle in an obvious intention of expressing desire, he is shown as a wolf! Now this story may not be true but then it is not important since there is no statistics involved! Thinking about stats and research brings into mind birthday celebrity Harsha Bhogle!

Now I know snakes may not come when you whistle but still why take a chance! So don’t whistle and sleep!
Shubh Ratri!

“The kid ran towards the lion! 

He wasn’t scared one bit!

Fear is a developed trait!

But once you get then; that’s it!”

This is a blood sucker! Literally! Now don’t worry! I normally write blogs which can be read by all age groups and this one’s no exception in spite of the suspicious click bait title! 

read on!

Once we were in the famous wildlife sanctuary called the Kaziranga which is in Assam. Those days it was not that famous and most of the inner guest houses were controlled by Army and defence personals.

The danger was not that it was a remote sanctuary but the fact that it was the home to elephants! Now they are the not elephants you see who are tame and maybe bless you or allow you to climb on them and play around with them!

These however were wild elephants and they used to move in packs deep within the jungle! Our guest house though within the jungle was still in the periphery of the sanctuary and usually the wild animals used to stay clear of it. The place was known for all types of wild animals but was popular for the Rhino!

Now we kids were not listening to anyone and playing around with no shoes and in shorts without a care for the world! Our mom’s were continuously telling us to wear shoes and socks and not to walk around in the mud! But we were happily playing when suddenly we were informed that there is a deer chase happening! 

We were rushed into the 4 by 4 jeeps which were the only vehicles which could navigate those terrains and started for the observation point!

With the military binoculars you could see the tiger (or was it lion or cheetah! I frankly do not remember that part since I was in 6th grade!) chasing the deer! My toy binoculars could only show me a yellow speck following another darker yellow speck! Still it was as close to the kill as possible!

If it was now then it would have been a treat for my canon! 

Suddenly then we were told to rush back to the jeep and to the guest house!

Apparently a group of wild elephants were seen in the area and they do not follow rules! It had rained so badly that the whole road was muddy and slushy!

We rushed through the slushy mud to our jeeps! Then sped of to the guest house covered in mud! We had just been missed by the herd! If we had been there for some more time, the elephants would have played with the vehicles and us like toys and cleared their way!

While thanking our lucky stars we were going on back when my mother gave a big shriek! We all turned to see what the problem was and what I saw was one of the scariest things for me at that time!

In the middle of her leg which was almost white, there was a deep blue mark and on that mark there was a small snake like creature attached to my mother’s leg! Our instinct was to just pull it out but our driver Laata (not Lata, it was assamese-bengali name and he was an interesting character! but then that is a blog for another day!); told that if you do that then the bleeding from the wound will not stop! It was a leech! They were actually small creatures but this one had become so big by drinking my mother’s blood!

Laata then took some salt which he had kept with him as he knew the place and put it on the leech! It slowly started literally melting and showing odd shapes and it let go of my mother’s leg! The whole area had become blue and later it turned black and the scar was there for some time. 

After that there was no need for us to be told to wear socks and full pants! Even now I cannot wear shoes without socks even for an instant and when I think about it, I am sure this was the reason! 

Years later my friends planned to go on a hike between the forest in an isolated place! We were told that a dog would show us the way! And that was not the scary part! The whole path would be full of leeches! But we young people with young brain who like to play with danger did not care!

I told my friends that I know how to take care of those leeches! All we need is salt! So we got into the bus with a big packet of salt and kept it on the top for safe keeping! When the stop came we confidently got down and started with the confidence which comes as we say in our medical college to only house surgeons! The one who does not know any complication does not fear them!

Two minutes into the walk to the leech laden forest, we suddenly remembered that the salt packet was safe! In the bus! All the plan and my confidence washed away with that and the rain!

It was a leechy walk indeed in the rain with no idea of the route since there was no dog! We saw one later on but he was not the official dog! That trek in the dense forest without any cell phones in the rain with the leeches for company and not much money, well; that is for another blog! Needless to say, we became expert leech pickers after that trek! I still remember drinking half a bottle of iron syrup after coming back from that trip! Blood is precious you see! Precious also are the songs sung with such gusto and energy by birthday celebrity Sukhwinder Singh!

Now be happy that there are no leeches anywhere near your bed and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

“He was sweating and he has the chill

He was feeling weaking and had no thrill!

He got up with a scream! 

Luckily it was just a feverish dream!”

There was a snap of a great white shark with the person who caught it and the caption read something in the lines of, “Here lies the most dangerous animal in the world! seen here with a shark!”

Of course the quote is true to some extent but not accurate since the homo sapien is not the most dangerous animal, (for now at least)! That place goes to a member of the animal species which is so small! But it can still cause great damage!

read on!

In a list compiled by BBC! Nowadays whenever I read a forward like this my skeptive meter gets activated! The best and the most and the greatest are adjectives which are not given great prominence in scientific data assembly! When terms like these are used then you can be sure that the data is not true! Like how a water from a village in your place has been deemed as the best water according to UNESCO! Like UNESCO has no other work other than drink your village water and test it!

Still on an average, in the list of the top most dangerous animals (for humans) in the world the second place is taken up by the Human Being! 

We are at number two in a list of top ten! Ironically, even here the Homo Sapien couldn’t come first! 

The number one spot was taken by the one the one that makes the irritating noise in the night! 

The one who can wake up a drunk! The one who can shake you to the core and the one whose rhythmic sound will never sound like music to the greatest connoisseur of music!

The one species where females are much advanced than the males and can things which the males cannot do!

The mosquito!

The tiny mosquito Kills 725,000 per year through spreading diseases such as malaria! Interestingly mosquitoes live indoors and outdoors and can actually bite day and night! 

Female mosquitoes often live longer than male mosquitoes and another quirky thing is that the males literally suck (fruit juice that is!)! 

Meaning only female mosquitoes bite animals to get a blood meal to produce eggs! It takes just a few infected mosquitoes to start an outbreak in a community so it is not a number game!

Now of course we have a proper treatment protocol for Malaria but in the ancient days Malaria was a death sentence! In the game far Cry 2, the player has malaria and he needs pills frequently! This is shown so realistically that in the peak of escaping the goons in a stolen car with a bad gun with your life ; you get a malaria chill and your vision gets blurry! Even in a game it was difficult to survive!

Now for years people in places it is indigenous have found different cures for the disease. 

Agostino Salumbrino (1564–1642) an apothecary by training who lived in Lima (Peru), observed the Quechua (tribe in South America) using the bark of the cinchona tree to treat such shivering and fever. 

While its effect in treating malaria (and malaria-induced shivering) was unrelated to its effect in controlling shivering from rigors, it was a successful medicine against malaria! 

At the first opportunity, Salumbrino sent a small quantity to Rome for testing as a malaria treatment. In the years that followed, cinchona bark, known as Jesuit’s bark or Peruvian bark, became one of the most valuable commodities shipped from Peru to Europe. 

When King Charles II was cured of malaria at the end of the 17th Century with quinine, it became popular in London. Till 1940s, it was the first and most popular treatment of malaria! 

Now still, what caused the infection was still a mystery which was finally solved by an passionate researcher. 

Sir Ronald Ross was one of the pioneers who was obsessed with Malaria! He theorised that it was transmitted by mosquito! And in India he sought to demonstrate it on a patient! But as fate would have it he was posted out to a place which was not endemic for malaria!

That was Calcutta, then his mentor Sir Patrick Manson encouraged him to study the life cycle of malaria in birds! When you are stuck then you are lucky if you have mentors and teachers who can guide you or rescue you!

That was what happened! Ross demonstrated the life cycle of malarial parasites in avian or bird malaria! The process which in addition to his amazing prevention strategies lead to the Nobel prize in Medicine in 1902! 

Now we do not what and how but still the female mosquito remains as strong as ever! A strong female as a character also is the main feature of movies by birthday celebrity K Bharathiraja! Just watched the movie Muthal Mariyathai in you tube! Nostalgic!

Now make sure there are no mosquitos and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

The 5 am club by Robin Sharma

A very long review!

Audiobook

Self help book

Non fiction but with fictional story to place the point across

Narrated by Adam Verner

The blog is a summary of this 8 hour long audiobook for those who may not have time or plan to read or listen to this and a preview for those who would eventually read or listen to it!
The parts which are twists and surprising have not been revealed so you are good to go!

Robin Sharma needs no introduction since he is already a leader among self help gurus!
There is a member in one of my favourite Whats App group who puts a Robin Sharma quote of the day the moment I place my blog and sketch of the day! The quotes are so profound and thought provoking!

Since it is a self help book, it helps you and since the name is clear; I think you will have no trouble in understanding what the primary message is!

I am not a big Robin fan since there may be few times in my life when I have got up at 5 in the morning which as you might have guessed is the focus point of the whole book! Maybe someday I may start this practice…

The novels starts with three people who visit a self help seminar and see a Guru like person who gives amazing advice and thoughts about life and living in general. In the middle of the show he suddenly collapses and in that break, these three people interact!

One is an entrepreneur who has father issues, one is an artist who is in a slump and one is a guy who looks homeless and lost!

In a surprising twist the homeless tells that he is actually a billionaire and he can show the two other people how to live life and solve problems of their life if they meet him at 5 am the next day in the same place with packed bags!

Now, do they believe the homeless guy and come and what is the truth and what lessons are taught is the theme of the book with the central theme being getting up at 5 am and following a very useful formula called the 20-20-20 rule which is explained in the book!

With couple of other twist in the middle and in the end; this self help book gets the essence of a non fiction with the thrill and adventure of a non fiction just like he did with his very famous book; “The monk who sold his Ferari!”

In between you are shown amazing places by narration like Mauritius, India and Paris! The final chapter on Nelson Mandela was really nice and thought provoking and made me read more about this great person.

So, does he solve the problems of the artist and the entrepreneur? What life lessons are given? What happens to the beggar? and the Guru?

Get up at 5 am to read that or maybe walk and listen to the audiobook!

The audiobook also has the accompanying PDF which is a synopsis of sorts about the Whole book. With some amazing quotes and formulas.

This is given along with the audiobook and you can ping me personally if you want a copy which is free.

The five chief quotes are really epic!

They are reproduced without any modification

Rule 1
An addiction to distraction is the end of your creative production. Empire makers and history-creators take one hour for themselves before dawn, in the serenity that lies beyond the clutches of complexity, to prepare themselves for a world-class day.

RULE #2
Excuses breed no genius. Just because you haven’t installed the early-rising habit before doesn’t mean you can’t do it now. Release your rationalizations and remember that small daily improvements, when done consistently over time, lead to stunning results.

RULE #3
All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end. Everything you now find easy you first found difficult. With consistent practice, getting up with the sun will become your new normal. And automatic.

RULE #4
To have the results The Top 5% of producers have, you must start doing what 95% of people are unwilling to do. As you start to live like this, the majority will call you crazy. Remember that being labeled a freak is the price of greatness.

RULE #5
When you feel like surrendering, continue. Triumph loves the relentless.

He also talks about the three step success formula which is learning then implementation and execution and finally impact!

Other important thing is about the four focus of history makers like Capitalization of IQ, freedom from distraction, Personal mastery and day stacking!

Getting up in the morning also makes changes in the brain and makes you more calm and receptive! The hormones and neurotransmitters act on the prefrontal cortex!

Robin via the gurus and other character tells us about how we have four interior empires. The mindset which is psychology, then you have the emotional heartset, then you have the physical healthset finally the spiritual soulset!

Every new habit according to Robin takes at least 66 days to be routine which involves stages of destruction of old habits, slow installation of new one and finally integration!

Finally the 20/20/20 formula when you get up is two move for the first 20 minutes then reflect and finally grow! The what and why and benefits of each is mentioned and self explanatory and given in the additional booklet.

Now if you have to get up early then of course you have to sleep early! So the time is around 7 to 8 to finish your meal and turn off all devices! 8-9 is family time and conversation which must be real and maybe meditation and finally by 10 you must sleep after preparing everything for the next day!

The booklet also has your whole day planned out for you! Including strict device free zone! All the best!

There is also a note on personal internal GPS which will guide you to your joy!

In the section on Nelson Mandela, he tells us about the seven virtues of world changers which include, Bravery, forgiveness, integrity, understanding, sincerity, politeness and Humility!

The end note is that the end of this book is the beginning of your journey!

All in all it is a pleasant listen indeed!

“The little kid was crying you see!

He did not relent which was looked insane!

Then again what could he do!

The child wanted to fly the plane!”

The other day we were watching a movie called Shaitaan which is actually a remake of a Gujarati movie called Vash! It’s about a stranger who can control another person’s child!

Time and again it has been seen that children listen to people who are not their parents! Did you know the most popular story of a group of children who did not listen to their parents may actually be true? Or that it may be linked to a illness!?

Read on!

For all the intelligence of evolution, we still have to teach little Humans that they should be wary of strangers! Of course even when they get older, children listen or look up to people who are not their parents! It may be because they have seen their parents in their human state! 

Every kid would always like his or her fun uncle or aunt! Which is why you like your father’s younger brother or mother’s youngers sisters since they are versions of your parents who are more fun and open! And you listen to your grandparents since they are versions of your parents who seem more wise!

In the movie Shaitaan or Vash though, the antagonist uses black magic to control the child and it is scary! Nothing is more scary for a parent than to see his or her own child listening to a stranger’s words and doing something wrong or harmful!

The family dynamics have changed in most families but mostly the kids listen to the father even if they do not listen to the mother sometimes! Of course they also know subconsciously that the father actually listens to the mother! Now of course when the roles are not clear it is either they listen to both or more commonly, none!

One of the most popular stories which we all have heard in childhood of a group of children who just followed this guy out of town still gives fear to the poor parents!

The story of course is the Pied Piper of Hamelin and to this day Hamelin is still milking the fame of that story!

The story has in fact has survived for a very long time. 

Originating as medieval folklore, the story inspired a Goethe verse, Der Rattenfänger; a Grimm Brothers’ legend, The Children of Hamelin; and one of Robert Browning’s best-known poems, The Pied Piper of Hamelin. The theme and plot line is more or less the same; 

A Piper was hired by folks of Hamelin to rid the town of its plague of rats. Trailing after the hypnotic notes of the rat-catcher’s magical flute, the rodents politely filed through the city gates to their presumed doom! 

They weren’t the only ones lured by his music, though. When the town refused to pay the Piper for his service, the saviour turned into a more satanic seducer and came for Hamelin’s children! 

Entranced by the notes of his flute, the transfixed boys and girls followed the Piper out of town and simply vanished!

Although it is a simple fairy tale and actually less macabre than the origins of many other tales; what is scary is that the story may have been true! 

The proof is etched on Hamelin’s face itself. An inscribed plaque on the stone facade of the so-called Pied Piper house, has this inscription which reads:

“A.D. 1284 – on the 26th of June – the day of St John and St Paul – 130 children – born in Hamelin – were led out of the town by a piper wearing multi-colored clothes. After passing the Calvary near the Koppenberg they disappeared forever.”

An entry in Hamelin’s town records, dating to 1384, laments that, “It is 100 years since our children left.” 

The stained-glass window in the town’s St Nicolai church, destroyed in the 17th Century but described in earlier accounts, reportedly illustrated the figure of the Pied Piper leading several ghostly white children. And the 15th Century Luneburg manuscript, an early German account of the event, along with five historical memory verses, some in Latin and others in Middle Low German, all refer to a similar story of 130 children or young people vanishing on the 26 June 1284, following a pied piper to a place called Calvary or Koppen!

Of course so many theories abound of why or how this happened! One of the theories piqued my interest due to its medical link!

This theory points to the medieval phenomenon of “dancing mania”, driven by a succession of pandemics and natural disasters!

Known as St Vitus’ Dance, the dancing plague is documented surfacing in continental Europe as early as the 11th Century. A form of mass hysteria, the dance could spread from individuals to large groups, all driven by an unshakeable compulsion to dance feverishly, sometimes for weeks, often leaping and singing and sometimes hallucinating to the point of exhaustion and occasionally death, like a top that can’t stop spinning!

And, in fact, one 13th Century outbreak – a literal form of dance fever – occurred south of Hamelin, in the town of Erfurt, where a group of youths were documented as wildly gyrating as they travelled out of town, ending up 20km away in a neighbouring town. Some of the children, one chronicle suggests, expired shortly thereafter, having flat-out danced themselves to death, and those who survived were left with chronic tremors. Perhaps, some theorise, Hamelin witnessed a similar plague, dancing to the figurative tune of the Pipe! 

This condition is now known as Sydenham chorea, also known as St. Vitus dance, which is a neuropsychiatric manifestation of rheumatic fever with an incidence varying from 5 to 35%. It may occur alone or concomitantly with other manifestations of rheumatic fever!

Now whether it was Chorea or Korean (ok that was a bad joke but then nothing else rhymes with chorea!) pop to which they were tranced and dancing; the fact of the matter is that children have not listened to elders since time immemorial so it is high time that parents stop trying! Of course parents will be proud when their children do great and are world famous even if they did not listen to them! Just like birthday celebrity Dhanraj Pillay! You do not become one of the highest goal makers in Hockey by simply dancing to everyone’s tunes! 

Now put on some nice instrumental tunes and sleep!

Shubh ratri!

“Why can’t I catch what I see!

The snap looks good but it’s not epic!

The smile looks unnatural and odd

’tis better to get a reel than a pic!”

The basic principle or secret to a good videography is to understand two key features. Of course a professional (and actual videographer!) would tell you that there are other factors involved but primarily there are two!

The second one surprisingly is done better by a bird!

Intrigued?

read on!

The most important in getting a good video is light! How you use the light to your benefit or how much you use is your skill! Most of the time photos and videos depend on the time of day and the position of the light with respect to the subject!

There have been photographers and videographers who have been waiting for the ‘perfect moment’ and most of the time the perfect one is dependent on light! Some photos and videos come in proper use of low light also!

The other important factor in photo and mainly video recording is image stabilisation. The industry which is dependent on image stabilisation is huge! There are multitudes of devices and factors which are placed in your camera to get a good image or a stable video!

Whether capturing still images or recording moving video, image stabilization will always be a major factor in reproducing a near perfect digital replica. A lack thereof will result in image distortion through pixel blurring and the creation of unwanted artifacts.

Capture of a good snap or video then needs steady hands! Even when there are components like zoom, they always come with an attachment of a stand or a tripod because even a little movement can distort the image especially if it is in zoom. Know that many new cameras come with latest technology for great image stabilisation but still there are limitations. 

So then comes a whole industry of products which have the only aim to stabilize your camera! Apart from the mounts and the tripods you have some things called the Gimbal!

Now, it may sound like a Gym ball! And actually it is like on!

But for all the practical purposes it is a shock absorber for your camera!

Technically a gimbal is a pivoted support that allows for the rotation of an object about an axis. Most gimbals will either be two-axis or three-axis.

The amazing thing about a Gimbal is that like the image rotation in your phone, even this design is inspired by the one of the organ of balance in our body! The inner ear!

The semicircular canals are the tiny components which are present in all the directions and whichever direction you move, they get stimulated in at least two. Like the Gimbal which moves in two or three axis! 

So when the body or the head moves in any direction the canals get stimulated or inhibited and depending on the signal sent to the brain in milliseconds, the brain then calculates the orientation and stabilises the image or the scene for you to see! Which is why when the speed of movement is fast either of the body or the image, the clarity is less! 

The most modern Gimbals thus try to increase the sensitivity of the image as much as possible and then they help in ‘stabilizing’ the video or image!

Since this is a technology derived by the equilibrium system it is safe to say that it can never be as good as that! But there is an equilibrium system in nature which is dependent on another system found in certain birds that is much more effective in keeping the image stable or straight!

If you see a Hen or a cock and hold its head and then try to move its body you can see how the neck and head stays straight almost like magic! There are so many videos you can see in the net if you still are not amazed!

That reflex which makes the bird maintain a steady head is called the Vestibulo collic reflex! In chickens, the VCR particularly controls neck and head muscles to stabilize their vision.  Consequently, chickens compensate for the limitations in their VOR system through the inner ear organs triggering their VCR system.

The result is that a bird stabilizes its vision when its body is in motion by activating its neck and head muscles to keep it’s head still.  This head stability (and thus eyes stability) allows for chickens to clearly focus on a object even when their bodies are in motion.   

So the nature has this amazing natural Gimbal for us! That means, chickens have “steady-cam” heads and humans don’t! 

Since optical image stabilization is all about keeping the camera still even as the housing shakes or otherwise moves around. So why not strap a camera onto a chicken’s head and turn the guy (or gal) into a fowl-stabilized action cam!? 

The “galluscam” commercial was put together by LG, but it’s certainly not the first to take advantage of the fact that chickens have an uncanny ability to keep their head still while the rest of their body moves around and all of them, however, can be said to have been inspired by this SmarterEveryDay YouTube video from 2008, the same one shown in the commercial itself. Destin, the man behind the original video, even went so far as to create his own chicken-powered steadicam in 2010 after nobody had tried it yet!

So the next time you want a steady video, all you have to do is to adopt and domesticate a chicken and place a camera on its head! Catching one though is not an easy task though! That’s a good message or sandesham! Which of course reminds me of birthday celebrity and one of the best actors Palappurathu Keshavan Surendranatha Thilakan!

Now set an alarm for yourself since no Rooster will wake you as apparently the one who tries to wake people gets eaten!

Shubh Ratri!

“The sleeping donkey wanted to swim!

The swimming fish wanted to fly!

The flying bird wanted to rest!

The resting snake wanted to close at least one eye!”

Many would have heard about the circle of life! One circle which I think is a part of the society and humanity is the circle of help!

read on!

Once while it was late night and I was returning home after my night duty in my trusty old bike when I saw this car on a divider!

I could not belive it at first of course! The guy inside who was most probably drunk was trying to dislodge it by reversing it but the back wheel was stuck!

Anyone who knows cars knows that the front wheels are just for show! The two wheels of the back are the main ones in most cars with two wheel drives! The two wheel driven cars are most fast and fuel efficient and can handle most civilized roads! 

But you would have seen when you visit any hill station of terrain which is slippery and muddy that the vehicle most guides use to drive are a little different! Many of the vehicles in those places are four wheel drives!

In army, the standard Vehicles are usually four wheel drives and they usually can handle any terrain! When we used to sneak a drive in dad’s vehicle we would steer clear of the other two additional gear handles which used to be tucked in a corner! The standard gears would suffice for most roads while some terrain needed the special gears! No automatic vehicle would ever survive those old roads of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh! Now apparently the situation is different. 

So coming to the car stuck in the divider! Like how Marissa Tommie says in My cousin Vinny, the back wheel was moving but the car did not move!

I stopped my bike to a side and got some people who were passing by. We then lifted the whole back of the car and slowly placed it on the side of the road!

There were some scratches and bumps but the car was relatively undamaged. The young guy in the car though visibly shaken was extremely relieved! 

He thanked me and others profusely and left!

Some years back I was rushing to the passport office for a work in which my signature was required! I knew that taking the car in the peak Bangalore traffic was not advised so I took my friend’s bike and rushed! He had assured me that it had enough juice even though I pointed out the reserve indicator! Then as fate would have it, it stopped in the middle of the road! Luckily I had finished my work so it was ok but I was getting late for my surgery! 

I was dragging the bike (alright it was a Honda activa but then…); along the side of the road to the nearest station! Then suddenly one guy in a bike similar to the one I had several years ago during the car incident above halted behind me and told me to get on my bike and he would push me with his leg! 

For close to a KM he pushed my bike and when I reached the petrol station simply left even before I could say thanks in his trusty old bike! I was so visibly shaken but extremely relieved! Circle of help and Good deed!

I have understood that many times your good deed may not come back to through the same person but as a part of a cycle! Think about it! Now do not think so much that your brain or the Bheja gets fried! Which reminds me of the birthday celebrity Vinay Pathak! My fav Vinay movie though if Khosla ka Ghosla!

Now complete the cycle of the day and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

“Life would be so nice if there was a key

Which could undo any errs by you or me!

But then that’s not possible my grace!

Just try not to err in the first place!”

These are probably the most common short cuts you use in your life! Not the one where you cook rice and dal together in the cooker! But in the computer! 

The ubiquitous shortcuts so linked to windows were actually developed in Apple!

Read on!

The other day I was typing one of these blogs in my mac and since I was not used to the short cuts by Apple, I pressed CTRL and C and all it yielded was ‘c’! I never use my iphone for any prolonged typing since I like the One plus better and my iPad is just a Simpson watching pad for me!

Then I had to unlearn the most common shortcut keys most windows users would know and use as many times as possible! 

The CTRL c or v or z and finally x are maybe one of the commonest pressed keys in the history of world computing! This is for the general public who are not computer grads or software professionals of course! 

Your level of computer literacy is then dependent on the number of shortcut keys you know! At one time I used to even know the shortcut keys of Adobe Pagemaker and other softwares and had impressed quite a few people including my future wife!

Another way you can recognize a computer wiz is how many keys for shortcut he knows and how long can he or she avoid touching the mouse!

If you can start, browse and create word document and maybe even print it without touching the mouse or faster than a person using the mouse then you are the real deal!

Short cuts such as ALT with other functions like close a window or open one! Not to mention using them to print without using the mouse!

Among all these shortcuts though the most popular and the ones which are known to most are the ones for copy and paste! My favourite though is the undo!

So when I was trying the same with Apple, it was very frustrating that it had its own set of shortcut keys! Instead of CTRL you are supposed to use this button with an odd design called the Command! I was so irritated with Apple (again!) that it shows that it does not follow the routine!

Then when I was looking at the history, it dawned on me that it was Apple which had these shortcuts first! So let me put aside my personal dislike for Apple and dive into the wonderful person who invented this superb shortcuts!

The story goes in this way; while developing the user interface for Lisa, Apple programmer Larry Tesler chose to use the Z, X, C, and V keys in conjunction with Lisa’s Apple key to represent Undo, Cut, Copy, and Paste. Together, they made Apple+Z, Apple+X, Apple+C, and Apple+V.

When investigated on why she chose these letters it was described in her own words as below.

She in fact chose them herself. X was a standard symbol of deletion. C was the first letter of Copy. V was an upside down caret and apparently meant Insert in at least one earlier editor!

Z was next to X, C and V on the U.S. QWERTY keyboard. But its shape also symbolized the “Do-Undo-Redo” triad: top rightward stroke = step forward; middle leftward stroke = step back; bottom rightward stroke = step forward again!

Tesler also notes that the Apple+Z key originally served as both an Undo and a Redo key—instead of the multi-step Undo we now know today (with Ctrl+Y usually being Redo on Windows), which makes his symbolic explanation of the letter “Z” for Undo make more sense!

These keys are also handy in that they are located in the lower-left corner of the keyboard near meta keys such as Apple (on the Lisa), Command (on the Mac), and Control (on PCs). So if you’re using a computer’s mouse with your right hand, you can quickly trigger these frequently-used functions with your left hand!

When Apple developed the Macintosh, it brought forward the Lisa’s Z/X/C/V keyboard shortcuts but adapted them for the Command key that was unique to the Mac platform like I got to know now!  So on a Mac in 1984, as with today, you’d press Command+Z for Undo, Command+X for Cut, Command+C for Copy, and Command+V for paste!

Now also note that everything is not because of Apple! In fact the the actual concepts for Undo, Cut, Copy and Paste originated earlier with interfaces for software developed for the Xerox Alto in the 1970s! 

Finally the most popular place for these shortcuts which we all know! The windows! At the dawn of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) era for Microsoft, Apple licensed some elements of the Macintosh OS to Microsoft for Windows 1.0, but Redmond took care to not exactly duplicate the Macintosh interface. It’s probably no surprise then that between Windows 1.0 and Windows 3.0, Microsoft originally assigned different shortcuts for Undo, Cut, Copy and Paste than the ones most people use today:

Undo: Alt+Backspace

Cut: Shift+Delete

Copy: Ctrl+Insert

Paste: Shift+Insert

You would be surprised to know that windows still supports these legacy shortcuts!

The at some point during the development of Windows 3.1, Microsoft brought Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, and Ctrl+V to Windows as well. 

They had already appeared in Word for Windows 2.0 in 1991! And the legacy continues! Another great legacy of close to 7500 songs and around 7 national awards is held by birthday celebrity Vairamuthu Ramasamy!

Now use ALT and F4 and turn off your computer and sleep!

Shubh Ratri

“Think once and take a step!

Don’t worry, ’twill be called hep!

Many will come and go away

But a leader will only work this way!”

What is the difference between wife and girlfriend?

Well, a girlfriend will tell you, “be a hero!” while a wife would tell you, “Do not try to be a hero!”

Do not worry! This is not a life lesson! In fact the moment we tell anything to kids in a serious tone and the words exceed the limit of a standard tweet, my kids exclaim, “Aw! Do not give us life lessons!”

The theme today is being a Hero! Being Heroic may not always be good! In medicine once it was almost barbaric by today’s standards!

read on!

Now even a mother would give this advice to kids. Do not try to be a hero and this is not gender dependent! Your mother may not want you to take unnecessary risks! Now if you are the mother of the crazy dude in KGF then that is an exception and not an example!

By and large an average human who is salaried and married and has kids lives his or her life by being in the sidelines! Following rules is the norm and not taking risk is the way to go! You do not get into any unnecessary fights and you do not argue if you can!

You have realized that you cannot change anything much even if those reels tell you to stand up and fight!

Even as doctors with the advent of litigation and consumer acts, many practice what is known as a defensive medicine. They will keep you safe after they make sure that they are safe! Now whether this is good or bad is a blog for another day!

What we know now when we read history of medicine is that when an average doctor today thinks twice before even giving in injection; there was a time when medical practitioners used to much more which could be deemed even savage now!

That whole phase of medicine was ironically called Heroic medicine!

Heroic medicine, also referred to as heroic depletion theory, was a therapeutic method advocating for rigorous treatment of bloodletting, purging, and sweating to shock the body back to health after an illness caused by a humoral imbalance. 

Between 1780 to 1850 it rose to the front of orthodox medical practice and at the time was known as the “Age of Heroic Medicine” !

Pockets of medical methodology that can be classified as “heroic” appear in the early 17th century with Parisian physician Guy Patin and French anatomist Jean Riolan the Younger. Patin, nicknamed “Le Grand Saigneur” (the Grand Bloodletter), was infamous for his rigorous procedure plans, which included intensive courses of bloodletting and application of Senna!

Intensive bloodletting treatments can be identified throughout American history, with William Douglass in Massachusetts advocating for a heroic treatment plan in the early 18th century.

Many associate Benjamin Rush with an abrupt acceptance of heroic techniques into the realm of mainstream medicine, especially in America. Founding father, creator of University of Pennsylvania’s medical school, and known as the “American Hippocrates,” Rush was well respected and revered in the medical field. 

The Philadelphia Yellow Fever outbreak in 1793 is looked upon as a major event in the merging of heroic medicine into the course of best practices in the medical profession.

Much of the city was left incapacitated by the rampant epidemic. As healers fled the city, Rush bravely remained to treat people, and ultimately himself, with drastic regimens of intensive bloodlettings and purgatives.

Heroic medicine was used to treat George Washington on his deathbed in 1799. He was bled repeatedly and given Mercury chloride (calomel) and several blisters of cantharidin to induce sweating. Washington died shortly after receiving this rigorous heroic treatment!

Not that heroic you would say right!?

Now when you read this you may feel that this type of medicine has no basis or was practiced by Quacks but during the peak it was very much in the hands of the professional, as the invasive interventions involved were beyond the capabilities of rustic practitioners!

 The thought process was that the symptoms were not regarded as the body’s attempt to fight the disease, but were considered a complication that would exacerbate the patient’s condition and do further harm. Practitioners believed that a fever should be suppressed and any drugs used should be powerful and given in large dosages. 

Now see the simplicity of the solution! The blood pressure is high so reduce the blood and it will reduce the pressure! Now that may be a plumber thinking but he may feel that it is right! 

Of course now the doctors are not that Heroic if you consider the old term! Knowledgeable and great diagnosticians are better pronouns for them right!?

Now of course hero is a better pronoun for some at least like birthday celebrity Shivraj Kumar…

Now don’t be a hero and sleep on time!

Shubh Ratri!