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“His hands were wet and the eyes too!

The whole body was also heating up!

Fret not he was just eating some fries!

With hot and spicy chilli ketchup!”

Do you sweat and feel bad about it sometimes? Well, don’t! Your sweating makes you human! Now do not start panting like a dog just like our ancestors did!

Most furry mammals pant to regulate their body temperature. Other animals, like ectotherms — lizards, amphibians, and insects — have other behaviors that help keep them cool. Many mammals—among them, dogs, cats, and rats—perspire through the footpads on their paws; chimpanzees, macaques, and other primates are covered in sweat glands. Even horses and camels slick their skin in the heat!

We are the only mammal that relies on secreting water onto the surface of our skin to stay cool! But apparently in humanity’s past, we, too, likely panted to thermoregulate. Our closest primate relatives — chimpanzees and gorillas — dump excess body heat by panting, so it stands to reason that early human ancestors would have panted, too! 

Detailed studies of sweating responses in our species have revealed that the whole process is a complex response as told by Desmond in his book The Naked Ape. 

Most areas of the body surface begin to perspire freely under conditions of increased heat, and this is undoubtedly the original, basic response of the sweat-gland system. 

But certain regions have become reactive to other types of stimulation and sweating can occur there regardless of the external temperature. 

The eating of highly spiced foods, for example, produces its own special pattern of facial sweating!

Emotional stress quickly leads to sweating on the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, the armpits and sometimes also the forehead, but not on other parts of the body!

There is a further distinction in the areas of emotional sweating, the palms and the soles differing from the armpits and the forehead. The first two regions respond well only to emotional situations, whereas the last two react to both emotional and to temperature stimuli! 

The moistening of the palms and soles during stress appears to have become a special feature of the ‘ready for anything’ response that the body gives when danger threatens. 

Spitting on the hands before wielding an axe is, in a sense, the non-physio-logical equivalent of this process.

So sensitive is the palmar sweating response that whole communities or nations may show sudden increase in this reaction if their groups security is threatened in any way!

Apparently during a political crisis, when there was a temporary increase in the likelihood of nuclear war, all experiments into palmar sweating at a research institute had to be abandoned because the base level of the response had become so abnormal that the tests would have been meaningless! 

The author concluded that having our palms read by a fortune-teller may not tell us much about the future, but having them read by a physiologist can certainly tell us something about our fears for the future! Of course if the person reading you is a detective like Byomkesh Bakshi like birthday celebrity Rajat Kapur then he may tell you much more!

Now sweat, I mean sweet dreams!

Shubh ratri!…

“The tin man wanted a heart from the wiz!
He had lots of gloom which he did not know!
Oh to be born a human and have emotions!
To laugh at the sun and play with the snow!”

In the Novel called Origin by Dan Brown we are introduced to a character called Winston! This novel was released in 2017 and if you have not yet read it and are planning to read it in the future (really?!!) then do not read the blog further since there are spoilers ahead!

So in the novel when a tech wiz is killed in spite of having end stage disease a whole cascade of events unfold and finally it is revealed that the killer is none other that Winston! What is so surprising you would ask?

Well, Winston is not a man (or woman for that matter!) but an AI! The AI is so clever that he creates a person or an entity and even an organisation called the Regent and kills his own boss!

In the recently released Mission impossible movie also (again; not seen then do not read!) the chief antagonist is an AI!

The movie I, Robot and also movies like Terminator also tell us about AI and how in the future it will be us (us is human beings and not US!) vs them!

All these fear of the AI brings us to the man who was known as the Godfather of AI!

This is because of his new learning procedure called the back-propagation, for networks of neuron-like units.

In simpler terms (yes, I also did not understand it fully!) the ability to create useful new features distinguishes back-propagation from earlier, simpler methods such as the perceptron-convergence procedure (yes; even this is floating above my simple brain!).

So the Godfather is Professor Geoffrey Hinton tells how the concept of a universal basic income amounts to the government paying all individuals a set salary regardless of their means!

His concern was that AI would increase productivity and wealth but the money would go to the rich and not the people whose jobs get lost!

He had concluded that whether AI goes rogue and tries to take over, is something we may be able to control or we may not, we don’t know!

Like in the novels and movies we see above Hinton was also concerned how these AIs can autonomously make the decision to kill people!

Even the latest trend in AI like Chat GPT and OpenAI, which has a history of ethical flip-flopping; are not perfect models for the future! So much time and research has been spent to make the AI as human as possible that the average human has been made more Robotic!

Previously the Turing test was a great discovery! For the uninitiated; Turing Test is a method of determining whether a machine can demonstrate human intelligence! If a machine can engage in a conversation with a human without being detected as a machine, it has demonstrated human intelligence! That means this is a test which a machine has to pass! Here the AI must behave so much like a human that the human at the other end would not realise that he or she is actually interacting with a bot!

The biggest irony now is that in most websites you have to prove to a bot that you are a human! And more insulting thing is that you actually pass many of these tests because you make mistakes unlike a bot! Your imperfections are the ones which are making you pass the test designed by a human but asked by a bot to prove you are a human! Feeling Smart?!

Now anyway as far as I am concerned, let it be known that I was always rooting for the AI, unless of course the Humans win! Then I was always rooting for the Homo Sapien! This is something which only a human can do and not a bot! Also there are somethings which only some selected humans can do! Like act like birthday celebrity Kesavan Venugopal aka Nedumudi Venu!

Now make sure the alexa microphones are switched off and sleep!
Shubh Ratri!

The Naked Ape: A Zoologist’s Study of the Human Animal is a 1967 book by English zoologist and ethologist Desmond Morris

Long review!

No spoiler!

I would like to think of myself as an avid book reader but every other day someone somewhere tells of a famous book which I have not read! I feel so let down at that! Then again, you cannot do everything!

The review here is a preview for those who still have not read it and a summary for those who may not read it!

Now this book was a revolution of sorts released in the year 1967 and though it was a long time ago; this is like a grand father of books which have recently become very famous like the Homo Sapiens and Guns germs and steel!

The narrative is straight forward without any attempt to be serious or give scientific evidence like most boring history books!


The fact that the only species of Ape which is naked! That is the line which gets your attention and keeps you hooked!

He states that the only ape who has all his weakness or genitalia so exposed is the Homo Sapiens. So much so that whatever little hair he or she has is also the hair is soft and sparse!

He also states how that is a connection to our other mammalian ancestors like the whale who also have no hair just like us! And how that can also explain our hairy head which bob’s out of water!

Among the many difference he says about the Naked Ape, he states how they never get fleas but at least here the Naked Ape is like other ! And that was primarily due to two things apparently! Now we do get the occasional flea bite which form rare diagnosis but those are accidental fleas!

The basic point, is that carnivores have fleas but primates do not.
So Monkeys and apes are plagued by lice and certain other external parasites but, contrary to popular opinion, they are completely flealess!
To understand this, it is necessary to examine the life-cycle of the flea.
This insect lays its eggs, not on the body of its host, but amongst the detritus (waste or debris of any kind) of its victim’s sleeping quarters!
The eggs take three days to hatch into small, crawling maggots.
These larvae do not feed on blood, but on the waste matter that has accumulated in the dirt of the den or lair!
After a couple of weeks they spin a cocoon and pupate and remain in this dormant condition for approximately two more weeks before emerging as adults, ready to hop on to a suitable host body! This means that they like some specific people of some specific species who take so much time to get ready!

So for at least the first month of its life a flea is cut off from its host species!
It is clear from this why a nomadic mammal, such as a monkey or ape, is not troubled by fleas! Even if a few stray fleas do happen on to one and mate successfully, their eggs will be left behind as the primate group moves on, and when the pupae hatch there will be no host ‘at home’ to continue the relationship. Fleas are therefore parasites only of animals with a fixed home base, such as the typical carnivores!

Then a whole chapter is dedicated to the the sexual act and motion including the erotic areas of male and female and the very act of copulation described in vivid details! You can read about it yourself!

Another observation is about the the feeding technique which is most effective! Now, apparently mothers who feed on the left side or holding the baby on the left side feel that the baby gets comforted more faster! This phenomenon was actually studied further and they also found similar finding! If you feed the baby in the left side then the baby gets comforted faster than the right and in fact even if you do not feed and simply hold the baby on the left side the baby gets more comfort and finds more pleasure (read; stops crying!!).

One theory put forward was that the left side of the body of the mother is having the heart at least in most cases since we can safely rule out the very rare condition called the dextrocardia! Now everyone knows that the heartbeat is heard on the left side and there is a nation that the rhythmic movement of the heart or the heart beat is a pleasant music for the infant! It is of course the constant sound which he or she heard in the womb with the beating of the heart!
Desmond also says how even the growing teens who are away from their parents influence also get influenced by the rhythmic music which is similar to the beat of the heart like the rock or pop music! Exceptions aside, most normal people like the rhythmic beats and try to synchronize the beat with their body which is actually they trying to match the beat of the heart!

He tells about the balance between two emotions or Neophilia or love of new things to Neo Phobia which is fear of the new! The child is actually so curious that you have to restrain him or her!

Then he tells about food and the famous sweet tooth of the Naked ape!
How we start out meals with a sweet and end with one!
How we gobble up sweets as soon as we see them somewhere and how we have sweet shops and no sour shops! Now this novel was written 1967 and now we actually have sour shops too! The taste is more varied now and the range is huge! Though sweet still remains top in the list!
During Puberty the preference for fruity and sweet odours falls for flowery oil and musky ones! The juvenile weakness for sweet though can be easily exploited and is frequently is!

The male of a group especially the primate like the Gorilla or the chimp have to assert their dominance by an open challenge! The posturing can be a loud noise or thumping or in some animals, standing on two legs to increase height! In some they make the hair stand out or the wings out! The mean posturing is supposed to look scary and overwhelming to the opponent!
A fear is generated and this is enough most of the times since an actual fight is not going to be beneficial to any of the party!
A show of might or more power is all that is required!

Then there is the act of submission which is universal and this behaviour is reflected even in human behaviour. When Humans divide the sections of a house in to different smaller rooms or when they in an act of submission hand their back! A Gorilla in an act of submission may offer his hand to be bitten! How sitting in the car when a cop approaches is counter productive! How religion and belief in a supreme power is actually an act of submission! How little the naked ape has changed like how even if we touch a member of the opposite sex by accident we apologize!

Of course exceptions to every rule is there apparently! Like individuals who are professionally concerned making large number of contacts or people with behavioral defects that make them abnormally shy or lonely!

Also it has been seen that old habits die hard and even in choices by children who like tall animals like Giraffe or elephant it is because we like things which are long tall and straight! Even dogs are made to sit upright so that we like them more!

Then a whole section on temperature response, there is one particular aspect of sweating that should be mentioned. Detailed studies of sweating responses in our species have revealed that they are not as simple as they may first appear. Most areas of the body surface begin to perspire freely under conditions of increased heat, and this is undoubtedly the original, basic response of the sweat-gland system. But certain regions have become reactive to other types of stimulation and sweating can occur there regardless of the external temperature. The eating of highly spiced foods, for example, produces its own special pattern of facial sweating. Emotional stress quickly leads to sweating on the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, the armpits and sometimes also the fore-head, but not on other parts of the body. There is a further distinction in the areas of emotional sweating, the palms and the soles differing from the armpits and the forehead. The first two regions respond well only to emotional situations, whereas the last two react to both emotional and to temperature stimuli. The moistening of the palms and soles during stress appears to have become a special feature of the ‘ready for anything’ response that the body gives when danger threatens. Spitting on the hands before wielding an axe is, in a sense, the non-physio-logical equivalent of this process! So sensitive is the palmar sweating response that whole communities or nations may show sudden increase in this reaction if their groups security is threatened in any way!

As a result of this during a recent political crisis, when there was a temporary increase in the likelihood of nuclear war, all experiments into palmar sweating at a research institute had to be abandoned because the base level of the response had become so abnormal that the tests would have been meaningless.
The author concludes that having our palms read by a fortune-teller may not tell us much about the future, but having them read by a physiologist can certainly tell us something about our fears for the future!

Now the only way to keep skin clean of parasites and later on disease is to keep the ticks and other infestations under check. If there are areas which cannot be reached by the primate then the only solution is social grooming, the development of a friendly mutual-aid system! This can be seen in a wide range of both bird and mammal species, but it reaches a peak of expression amongst the higher primates!

So apparently special grooming invitation signals have been evolved here and social ‘cosmetic’ activities are prolonged and intense.
When a groomer monkey approaches a groomee monkey, the former signals its intentions to the latter with a characteristic facial expression. It performs a rapid lip-smacking movement, often sticking its tongue out between each smack! The groomee can signal its acceptance of the groomer’s approach by adopting a relaxed posture, perhaps offering a particular region of its body to be groomed. This lip-smacking action has evolved as a special ritual out of the repeated particle-tasting movements that take place during a bout of fur-cleaning! Apparently whatever comes out of the grooming session is rapidly put in the mouth! It can be some dust or some tick or even parts of food and even faeces! By speeding them up and making them more exaggerated and rhythmic, it has been possible to convert them into a conspicuous and unmistakable visual signal! I am never looking at lips again!

A whole section about domestication has been discussed with special focus on most ancient symbiont in our history which is undoubtedly the dog!
He says that they cannot be certain exactly when our ancestors first began to domesticate this valuable animal, but it appears to be at least ten thousand years ago! The story is apparently a fascinating one!
The wild, wolf-like ancestors of the domestic dog must have been serious competitors with our hunting forebears. Both were co-operative pack-hunters of large prey and, at first, little love can have been lost between them. But the wild dogs possessed certain special refinements that our own hunters lacked. They were particularly adept at herding and driving prey during hunting manoeuvres and could carry this out at high speed. They also had more delicate senses of smell and hearing. If these attributes could be exploited in exchange for a share in the kill, then the bargain was a good one. Somehow an inter-specific bond was forged. It is probable that it began as a result of young puppies being brought in to the tribal home base to be fattened as food! The value of these creatures as alert nocturnal watch-dogs would have scored a mark in their favour at an early stage. Those that were allowed to live in a now tamed condition and permitted to accompany the males on their hunting trips would soon show their paces in assisting to track down the prey. Having been hand-reared, the dogs would consider themselves to be members of the naked-ape pack and would co-operate instinctively with their adopted leaders. Selective breeding over a number of generations would soon weed out the trouble-makers and a new, improved stock of increasingly restrained and controllable domestic hunting dogs would arise. It has been suggested that it was this progression in the dog relationship that made possible the earliest forms of ungulate prey domestication. The goats, sheep and reindeer were under some degree of control before the advent of the true agricultural phase, and the improved dog is envisaged as the vital agent that made this feasible by assisting large-scale and long-term herding of these animals.

The author also puts in side notes about food and how the unchecked population of the naked ape would turn out to be disastrous one day and then all other species would be wiped! He says how we have eaten every possible species and by some wonder simply differentiated them into routinely edible or not like the fish and the goldfish!
We have selectively wiped out so many species that have either not been useful to us or come in our way!
The only other solution is to find some other planet to migrate!


The novel ends with references to the theories and opinions given in the book. All in all a very interesting read!

“He could do anything to see her smile!

He could jump into the deepest sea!

But he couldn’t tolerate her smile when he fell!

The way she twisted her lips with impish glee!”

In the Book The Naked Ape; Desmond talks about the lip smacking of Primates and then humans after which it is difficult to look at lips!  I Am sure you would not look at lips the same way again!

Everyone would have seen how a monkey pair removes the ticks and I still remember how my mother used to tell me when that she would make a monkey remove lice from my cousin’s long hair since she used to move too much! She used to say that the Monkey will knock with his knuckles on her head if she moved and of course eat whatever insect comes out as a quick snack! 

How are these two connected? Read on!

Now the only way to keep skin clean of parasites and later on disease is to keep the ticks and other infestations under check. If there are areas which cannot be reached by the primate then the only solution is social grooming, the development of a friendly mutual-aid system! 

This can be seen in a wide range of both bird and mammal species, but it reaches a peak of expression amongst the higher primates!

So apparently special grooming invitation signals have been evolved here and social ‘cosmetic’ activities are prolonged and intense. 

When a groomer monkey approaches a groomee monkey, the former signals its intentions to the latter with a characteristic facial expression. It performs a rapid lip-smacking movement, often sticking its tongue out between each smack!  The groomee can signal its acceptance of the groomer’s approach by adopting a relaxed posture, perhaps offering a particular region of its body to be groomed. 

This lip-smacking action has evolved as a special ritual out of the repeated particle-tasting movements that take place during a bout of fur-cleaning! Apparently whatever comes out of the grooming session is rapidly put in the mouth! It can be some dust or some tick or even parts of food and even crap! 

By speeding them up and making them more exaggerated and rhythmic, it has been possible to convert them into a conspicuous and unmistakable visual signal! 

his was written in 1967! Now the new research has come up with new findings about lip smacking!

According to the Primate Rescue Center in Kentucky, lip-smacking is a social behavior that brings about friendly interactions between monkeys in a social group. Most of the time, a monkey will lip smack to a more superior monkey as a sign of submission. It can also be a sign of affection or contentment. 

Moreover, the researchers mentioned that lip-smacks were more likely to be done when the risk of discontinuation of the interaction by the recipient was high! For example, chimps would lip-smack when grooming vulnerable body parts. The researchers said that groomers were also more likely to lip-smack during face-to-face grooming, where the visual facet of the gesture could be perceived.

In another new study, researchers established that “lip-smacking,” of chimps, happens in the same timing range as human mouths when they speak! 

It was previously observed in other ape species that their lip-smacking movements were measured at around five hertz, whereas spoken words from different human languages fall somewhere between two to seven hertz.

The researchers observed that whenever a chimpanzee was grooming another it was somewhat similar to a hairdresser interacting with its customer! 

This, along with what Desmond says means that the Human Behaviour of Lip movement or blowing kisses is actually an invitation to groom or eat the parasites on your body! That is lip service for you! A great service though to the film industry especially the Malayalam film industry is by the birthday celebrity Mohanlal Viswanathan! Or Laletan as we all call him!

Miss his early movies though but like his recent comeback with movies like Dhrishyam. Keep up the good work!

Now apply some lip balm and sleep!

Shubh Ratri! 

“I loved you so much and took you in!
You stuck with me be it thick or thin!
Then why do you destroy me you brute!
Cried the decaying sweeth tooth!”

In the book The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris an interesting topic is mentioned! Food and the famous sweet tooth of the Naked ape!

How we start out meals with a sweet and end with one!

How we gobble up sweets as soon as we see them somewhere and how we have sweet shops and no sour shops! Now this novel was written 1967 and now we actually have sour shops too! The taste is more varied now and the range is huge!

Though sweet still remains top in the list!

During Puberty the preference for fruity and sweet odours falls for flowery oil and musky ones! The juvenile weakness for sweet though can be easily exploited and is frequently is!

Yuval Noah had mentioned a similar thing in his novel Homo Sapiens! He mentioned that it is not because in the early twenty-first century we must gorge on ice cream and chocolate in order to survive! Rather, it is because when our Stone Age ancestors came across sweet fruit or honey, the most sensible thing to do was to eat as much of it as quickly as possible. It is basically a survival instinct! The instant energy and chiefly the gratification the sugar gives and the fact that who knows about tomorrow!

Even in India, evey household and every area has its own sweet! Our sadya or festival meal starts and ends with a sweet!
The more variety you have, the better it is apparently! Children love them and adults join in gladly albeit slowly!

Desmond says that for adults the food is having more range and they have more options that they are overwhelmed! Indirect and direct sweet is a big temptation!
In fact the choice is so much that they have a whole gamut of people and dieticians who crop up and tell them to eat more or this and less of that!

What the poor adult must do and this is actually a very simple solution! Eat everything you want! But (every time there is a but; rest assured that whatever comes after wards is not pleasant! even if you have won the Nobel Prize, it there comes a but; run!) the crux of the matter here is that, eat everything you want, but eat LESS!

Foods that stimulate the reward system in your brain, like sugar and other foods that spike your blood sugar, can lead to cravings. Foods that are hyperpalatable (those that are sweet, salty, creamy and easy to eat) can also trigger hormones that contribute to cravings—such as insulin, dopamine, ghrelin and leptin.

Another group also states that the sweet tasting foodstuff are generally non toxic or not spoilt! Many food stuff become bitter or taste bad when they are spoilt while in the natural good state they are sweet! So we are programmed to accept sweet as a good unspoilt food whole heartedly!

It is a wonder how we can eat Bitter Gourd though I really do like some dishes made out of this awesome but non sweet vegetable! Some food stuffs being bitter is a good balance for all the excess unhealthy sweet out there! A non sweet balanced movie also is the trademark of Birthday celebrity Balu Mahendra!

Now if you want to sleep, drink some bitter Gourd juice!
Shubh Ratri!

“He wrote a poem but did not sign his name

It was read by all, it got wide fame!

It was better this way and he was glad

’cause in the minds of all he was pretty mad!”

We used to have some very interesting stories in our english books in school; though I do not remember the authors of most of them, one used to strike me! The author was called Saki! Since it was a such a simple name to remember, I used to like the name and the stories written by him!

Later on I got to know that the author’s real name is not Saki! But H Munro! Of course like a rose with any other name…

Same thing with a novel called The Rozabel Line by Shawn Haighins! It was a very well researched and engaging novel by an Englishman and I liked it very much! Later on I got to know that the Novel was written by an Indian! And the name is an anagram of his actual name Ashwin Sanghi! I still read his other novels with equal enthusiasm! 

Which brings us to the pen name!

Some very famous authors have used pen names and it has been a revolution of sorts!

As far as Saki was concerned he used the pen name for his fiction which allowed him to satirise contemporary society. It gave him license to express a darkly comic side which contrasted with society’s expectations of him as the son of a British colonial official!

A pen name is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.

A pen name may be used to make the author’s name more distinctive, to disguise the author’s gender, to distance the author from their other works, to protect the author from retribution for their writings, to merge multiple persons into a single identifiable author, or for any of several reasons related to the marketing or aesthetic presentation of the work! This is the wiki definition! 

The real identity can be like a blind study! Sometimes only the author knows the real identity while some times only the author and publisher! 

The origin has been attributed to the French-language phrase nom de plume which is occasionally still seen as a synonym for the English term “pen name”, although this usage is apparently not French!

Some famous (or infamous in other country!) people may use pen name or a modification of their name to assert their identity in contrast to the common norm of using pen name to hide it! Like in 1899 the British politician Winston Churchill wrote under the name Winston S. Churchill to distinguish his writings from those of the American novelist of the same name!

Many authors especially those who write erotic or more adult work may also use the pen name to hide even after their identity is known to make it less obvious! 

There are some who write both fiction and non fiction genre and may then use the Pen Name specific to each genre! 

Occasionally, a pen name is employed to avoid overexposure! 

Stephen King published four novels under the name Richard Bachman because publishers did not feel the public would buy more than one novel per year from a single author! But of course intelligent readers found a large number of style similarities, publishers revealed Bachman’s true identity! 

Sometimes a pen name is used because an author believes that their name does not suit the genre they are writing in!

Here an interesting story is there of Romain Gary, who was a well-known French writer, who decided in 1973 to write novels in a different style under the name Émile Ajar and even asked his cousin’s son to impersonate Ajar!

Luckily (or not!) he received the most prestigious French literary prize twice, which is forbidden by the prize rules!

He revealed the affair in a book he sent his editor just before committing suicide in 1980! 

A pen name may be shared by different writers to suggest continuity of authorship and also may be used by series depicting a combination of people who have written the book with the same theme! 

Some very clever authors may also use some specific pen names to move their books in more favorable positions in bookshops or libraries! They do this to maximize visibility when placed on shelves that are conventionally arranged alphabetically moving horizontally, then upwards vertically! 

Ashwin of course used it to get the feel that a foreign or a ‘Convent’ educated writer has written the book! I have also selected a pen name for myself for this very reason! I would use it when my first book gets published! Of course some authors do not need any pen name since their work is so good and so well known! A prime example of this is the birthday celebrity Ruskin Bond!

Now pen a name on the book you have bought and do some light reading before you sleep! 

Shubh ratri! 

“Sweet as honey with some cocoa!

Cold like dollops of snow!

So many colours like a dream!

Nothing spicy for me; just ice cream!”

This person was selling Pav Bhaji as a product and giving his main product as a side offering when he knew that the side product will be appreciated and it will be a hit one day! That is how great decisions are made and legends created!

Read on about the villager who became the visionary behind a company valued at Rs 400 crore!!

This humble man was born to a fruit vendor in Karnataka, and his early life was steeped in simplicity and hard work. 

Growing up, he assisted his father in the fruit business, a role that provided him with an invaluable understanding of fruits—an understanding that would later become crucial in his entrepreneurial journey. Even if it is a fruit stand, it must be forced here that the decision to be an entrepreneur is actually made very early in life! 

The owner of a small juice store in your street may not earn as much as the chief manager of a hotel in the same area; but for all practical matters, he or she is the owner while the latter is just an employee! 

So coming back to the story! It is seen that those who do great in school work well as employees while those who struggle academically like our ‘man’ may actually have the greater urge to lead! So he dropped out of school and at the age of 14, He the comfort and security of hs village to the big world of Mumbai!

Though initially he was an employee, the entrepreneurial spirit is hard to suppress so on February 14, 1984; with just four workers and a handful of basic ingredients—fruit, milk, and sugar—he launched Naturals Ice Cream!

The initial menu featured 12 flavors, each crafted from the knowledge he had acquired during his years working with his father.

As mentioned before to attract customers, he employed a clever strategy: he sold Pav Bhaji as the main dish, with the ice cream as a side offering. This tactic worked brilliantly, drawing crowds who soon became fans of his ice cream. The first year saw his  modest Juhu shop generating Rs 5,00,000 in revenue!

He later shifted his priority to the Ice creams and expand his business. Over the years, Naturals grew from a single shop to a national presence, with 135 outlets across India by 2020! 

The company’s unique selling proposition—ice cream made from natural ingredients without artificial flavoring was the chief selling point! 

Naturals Ice Cream’s success is not just reflected in its revenue, which stood at around Rs 400 crore in FY 2020, but also in its reputation. The brand was recognized in a KPMG survey as one of India’s top 10 companies for best customer experience, a testament to Kamath’s commitment to quality and customer satisfaction.

The man of course is Raghunandan Srinivas Kamath. From a school dropout and a fruit vendor’s son to the ‘Ice Cream Man of India,’ Kamath’s life is a dream narrative for every entrepreneur out there! He will be missed but his legacy will ‘NATURALLY’ go on! 

Heartfelt condolences; Om Shanthi…

Shubh ratri…

“The rich can buy everything but this

The poor have a lot of this but can’t sell for a million dime!

Rest everyone sells this and then become melancholic 

Don’t dwell on it too much, it’s just time!”

This company is now one of the most profitable companies and a craze among people all over the world! Apple is just not a fruit anymore, but a statement!

But the most interesting story of Apple is not how it became the company it is now but how Steve Jobs who founded the company was fired from it! Of course the more interesting thing is how he was hired back as the CEO and how! Another interesting thing is how for eleven years he worked and made it into a formidable brand and then he hired the ve eery man who would one day fire him!

Now that is a story! 

So in 1985, Jobs was the co-founder and visionary of Apple. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak famously started Apple in a garage and began to develop their unique business strategy. 

The two men had a rough breakdown of business responsibilities: Jobs handled business and creativity, while Wozniak engineered their creations. 

Of course, the responsibilities weren’t entirely as set as this, but this rough breakdown allowed Apple to get off the ground and begin creating. 

But being young means less sense of responsibility! So the team needed expert guidance if they were going to get their company off the ground. So they built a board and brought business experts to help get the fledging tech company going! 

Jobs famously pushed people too hard, rubbed people the wrong way, and burned bridges left and right. He was building an incredible business but making everyone around him unhappy. Of course this was only one perspective but then you cannot have a soft guy to be the CEO! By nature  CEO has to be the one who can say no! 

In 1983, Jobs recruited the CEO of PepsiCo, John Sculley, to work for Apple! It was like inviting the Brutus to the inner chamber!  

Jobs clashed with Sculley after two new products — the Lisa and the Macintosh — failed to live up to sales expectations! 

As a result, Jobs was moved away from the Macintosh product and was furious about the change, taking his case straight to Apple’s board of directors above Sculley! This really ruffled the feathers of the people on the board! 

Shortly after the attempted corporate power play two things would have happened behind the closed doors of the Apple top floor! Jobs was either fired by the board of directors immediately after his rant (if you believe his side of the story) or quit shortly after (if you believe Sculley’s side!). 

The result was the same. Jobs was out, and the company was without the input of its iconic founder!

Jobs would then found NeXT, a computer company that produced high-end computers! 

In the biggest circle of life or Karma which everyone would like to get at least once in his or her lifetime the wheels of fortune turned again and how! Imagine getting an opportunity to be the boss of the company which fired you one day!  

In 1996, floundering and after failed talks to sell itself, NeXT sold to Apple for $429 million! This purchase would bring Jobs back to the company he originally founded and then after a massive stock sale tanked the price of the company’s stock, Apple’s board fired its then-CEO, Gil Amelio and replaced him with Steve Jobs! 

The rest of the story is of course general tech knowledge. Unfortunately he was lost to the tech world too soon. A quick sketch on a jam packed day!

Now tell Siri to set alarm and sleep!

Even Alexa will do!!

Shubh Ratri!

“He had to remain unscathed but t’was hard!
The fear is there even though he denies!
His face was and frigid the lips were sealed!
But the fear was so lucidly seen in his eyes!”

Have you seen or heard about the rapid or fast movement of eyeballs when someone has giddiness? It is a sign which can never be forgotten when you see it! The first time any medical student or a medico sees this he or she is amazed at the intricate nature of the movement of the eyes!

He or she then realizes how brain through its series of connections and small muscles correct and control the movement of the eyeball! Every movement of the eyeball has at least two muscles involved where one is contracting while the other is relaxing! The balance is so delicate that any mismatch in the power or command to the eye muscles and the eyeball moves to one side faster and the brain tries to correct the movement instantly!

This sequence of mismatch and rapid correction produces the movement which in clinical terms is called the NYSTAGMUS!

Now, abnormal, spontaneous eye movements can be both congenital and acquired and this is a finding which has been recognized for ages!

Ocular oscillations termed ‘hippos’ by Hippocrates (460–370BC) and Galenos (129–216AD) are synonymous with nystagmus!

Other descriptions of abnormal involuntary eye movements with different beating directions, possibly associated with vertigo, seizures or ear symptoms and their impact on patients’ quality of life (e.g. oscillopsia, blurred vision) are preserved in many fragmentary ancient documents including papyrus scrolls and stone tablets from Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, Greece, Rome and the Middle East.

Even in India this is been observed in ancient medical texts! Like this description; “In a case of Sannipatika Timira, the outer world looks variegated and confused, appears as doubled or trebled to the vision (of the patient), and stars and planets, either defective or supplied with additional limbs, seem to float about in the vision”

Of course the proper word Nystagmus appears to have been coined in the 1880s by French ophthalmologist Émile Javal, who used a mirror on one side of a page to observe eye movement in silent reading, and found that it involves a succession of discontinuous individual movements!

After its description, Nystagmus is one of the most important diagnostic feature whenever anyone has giddiness of any cause to rule out whether the brain is good or not! Even the type of Nystagmus has such great diagnostic value! Remember how anyone watches a tennis match? Now imagine the head is fixed and only the eyes move! And then imagine the eyes to move faster! That is Nystagmus! Nystagmus often works in the background or is hidden in the signs and has to be bought out by examination! Being important and seen in the background reminds me of the birthday celebrity and character actor T. G. Ravindranathan! Incidentally he was my Father’s collegenate in GEC Trichur! Do not feel dizzy with that information!

Now close your eyelids and sleep!
Shubh Ratri!

“The body tells me to rest and be safe!
The mind tell me to let go and fly!
All my decisions are a fight between them!
Should I let go and stay or should I try!”

In the book The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris; he states how the behaviour of Human being is a balance of Neophilia and NeoPhobia! The term respectively means the interest or love and fear to try new things!

We have seen how kids who do not have any fear will not stay at a place! If given a chance they would put their fingers in the electric socket (Like apparently my brother used to do!). The reason why the modern electric sockets are auto baby proofed! My uncle used to stuff pieces of paper to ‘baby’ proof them!

Am sure many parents would not have bothered by a few ‘shocks’ got by the self discovery of a curious kid!

The Neophilic nature of humans and many animals is the reason why we have development and new inventions! It if were not for the inquisitiveness of the average human, we would be still stuck in a natural cave without any clothes just like Desmond describes us!

Luckily though the human species has often been neophilic, or novelty-loving. For evolutionary reasons, we tend to respond to new stimuli in a positive way – with intrigue, interest, curiosity, and satisfaction.
Our Neophilic nature could be one of the reason of us being at the top of the evolutionary chain! But not all the time! The average human especially who is an adult or a person who knows his or her surrounding can be Neophobic too!

In connection to this a story is often told dating back to 1847 when a Hungarian physician named Ignaz Semmelweis proposed the practice of hand washing when delivering babies in the clinic!
The amazing part of this story is that it took more than 20 years for the scientific community to prove this theory to be correct and for other doctors to accept it as standard practice!

Imagine that the simple basic practice of just hand washing took so many years to gain acceptance! That is an example of Neophobia!

It has been seen that Norwegian rats, are very resistant to trying any new foods because humans have gotten much more clever with rat poison!
On the other hand, a rat who is neophilic isn’t going to live too long and will not pass on any protective genes to the next generation of rats!
So a majority of the population is genetically wired to see new ideas just like a Norwegian rat sees new foods, with skepticism and a reluctance to change from “what I’ve always done,” even when the data is clear and scientifically sound. A fine change from the curiosity killed the crow to the rat in this case!


We can observe how vital the unfamiliar is to people’s lives from the fact that we seek out anything new in general, and not just in terms of things that would have benefited our nomadic ancestors, such as venturing to new lands. We also have a hunger for new music, films, art, fashion, technology, possessions, hobbies, experiences, and so on. Of course now the neophilia is to new trends or reels or memes! The fear has taken a back seat for some time now! The very fact that we have independence now is because of the fearlessness of many! Some of whom like birthday celebrity Sukhdev Thapar are not that famous because of the popularity of the ones who stayed in the limelight without doing much! Philia or not; freedom fighters like him will always remain eternal!

Now try to curb your neophilia for the night and sleep!
Shubh ratri!