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‘The one thing’ is by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan is one of the best sellers in the ocean of best sellers in the self help section!

But (a blog without a but is not a blog at all!); the chief aim it tends to portray is really interesting!

There was this big conference going on and one of the most experienced surgeons was placing the microscopic piston on the microscopic hole! It was a tense moment! The whole audience was silent and holding their breath!
Then one of the eager beavers from the audience started to ask a question! The Chief immediately shut him down saying, “You must know when to ask a question!”
The crux here is that no one can do many things or even two things at a time! Especially when both are important!

Human beings like to multi task just like computers which is a big hoax according to this book!

Apparently even the computer known for multitasking can only write one code at a time! It can of course do lots of processes but the doing multiple tasks is difficult even for a computer at the same time!

It is like how you speak and drive! You think that it does not matter but in the book it has been said that speaking on the phone or texting and driving is similar to drinking and driving! You can never give full attention! And this is a task which needs your full attention!

It is the same with the lists apparently! You simply cannot do all the work at the same time!

The priciple of the book is that you can do only ONE THING at a time with full attention! Only after you complete that can you give your full attention to another!

The book states that they studied people who were known to multitask! It was found that though they are doing lot of work at the same time; they are apparently doing mediocre multiple work rather that doing a good single work!


The book cites Clifford Nass, a professor a Stanford University, who set out to study multitaskers as he realized he did not possess the skill. “I was sure they had some secret ability,” he said, but at the end of the study, multitaskers “were outperformed on every measure. Although they’d convinced themselves and the world that they were great at it, there was just one problem… multitaskers were just lousy at everything.”

“The truth is multitasking is neither efficient nor effective.”

There are a million pages apparently on Multitasking! This means that there are guides and videos and even books on how to multitask! If you can multitask then I will give you a simple exercise!

Count from one to seven!

Now tell all the colors of the rainbow in order!

All ok for now!?

Now alternatively tell one number and one color in order!

Saw how the mighty multitasker falls!?

Of course this does not mean that you must not do lots of different work! Take lots of work, then select the top thing to do! And only after you finish that must you move on to the next thing!

Hope now you understand how when you are speaking to your spouse and he or she is texting on the phone; she or he just nods along! Believe me! He or she has not heard or understood a word you said!

Now that is definitely not funny! Funny though is the movie Pyar Kiye ja or Kadalikka nerammillai directed by Chithamur Vijayaraghavalu Sridhar!

Now do the only task which you are best in! Sleep!

Shubh ratri!

Recently we were watching this amazing series starring Pankaj Tripathi called the Criminal Justice in which they show the poor police trying to find the murder weapon (in this case a surgeon’s scalpel!) which is thrown along with garbage!

When they showed the mountain of waste we generate; it was mind boggling!

At some point in the near future the best minds have to start thinking of the greatest problem mankind would face! GARBAGE!

Raccoons are well known for their affinity for garbage but in reality humans stand out as the trashiest animals on Earth. The average person produced 4.9 pounds of trash a day and globally we produce 4.5 trillion pounds per year!

Now as normal humans, when the trash is too much you put it on your neighbor’s yard! Till he or she does the same and you end up with your waste!
Everyday I am shocked at the amount of Garbage we generate! Even the cleanest and swankiest place in the world has to generate Garbage! Just because they hide it well does not mean that it does not exist!

It is like how even the most beautiful looking building or a palace would  have a dirty basement!

The global waste problem is a significant and escalating issue, with billions of tons of waste generated annually and a projected increase in the coming decades. This waste has serious environmental, health, and economic consequences, including pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and strain on resources.

The world generates over 2 billion tons of municipal solid waste each year!

Plastic waste is a major contributor to ocean pollution, harming marine life. While improper waste management can lead to the spread of diseases! Then you have the poor people who scavenge through waste can be exposed to hazardous materials.

Not to mention the effect of garbage on air water and even tourism!

If you want a Nobel Prize or at least want to do something Noble then you must invest your time and energy in solving the Garbage crisis!

Now of course measures like reducing the amount of waste generated through conscious consumption and sustainable practices is crucial. We can also expand recycling programs and promoting reuse which can divert waste from landfills.

In fact the proper use of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence must not be for war! But for sorting recyclables!

Some bright person with ‘street’ sense may suggest the ‘lets put the thrash on the neighbor’s yard!’ In this case, maybe take the thrash and ‘shift’ or ‘throw’ it on to the space or maybe even the poor moon!

But it is not possible! Not to mention that it is highly offensive in all sense!

Sending all of Earth’s garbage into space is prohibitively expensive. Estimates suggest it would cost trillions of dollars annually, and the technology to do so on such a massive scale doesn’t currently exist!

Launching even a portion of our waste into orbit would be incredibly costly, with estimates ranging from £20,000 to £40,000 per kilogram for near-Earth orbit!

The cost of transporting the 300 million tons of plastic waste produced globally each year, for example, is estimated to be at least £6,000 trillion annually!
Even Apple cannot think of this and apparently they think of everything (ten years after Android thinks of it though!).

Humanity’s current space-faring capabilities are insufficient to handle the volume of waste produced. There simply aren’t enough rockets or launch facilities to manage such a large quantity of garbage!

Even if the cost and technology were available, the sheer volume of waste would make it a logistical nightmare. It would be far more efficient to focus on reducing waste generation and improving recycling and waste management practices on Earth!

In short; try to create less waste, dispose of them properly and invest more time and energy in future tech on garbage disposal! Just make sure that the Prize you get for efficient management of waste is recyclable! 

Efficiency and not waste though is the acting by Aditya Srivastava!

Now throw the thrash and sleep!

Shubh ratri…

The thrill of watching a 3 d movie further accentuated when you hear words like 4d  or 7d! In these movies, in addition to the 3d effect you also have water or wind blowing to your body and you are in a chair which gets lifted along with the characters of the movie!

So when you hear the words like 7D movie, also known as 7D cinema or 7D theater, you must realize that it is an interactive movie experience that combines 3D visuals with physical effects like motion seats, wind, water, and even smells!

It often includes interactive elements like shooting targets with guns, making it similar to an immersive game. You may have Motion Seats in which you have Seats that move, tilt, and vibrate to simulate the action on screen! Other effects like Wind, water (rain or mist), smoke, fog, lightning, and even scents are used to enhance the realism!

Whatever be the name though; most objects which occur in nature cannot be in any dimension other than 3! In fact no other dimension is actually seen! Not even one or two which may be just drawn on a piece of paper! Like a dot with one dimension theoretically and a line has two!

But the fact is that no object in nature can be truly one or two-dimensional. While we can conceptually represent objects as lines, surfaces, or even points, these are idealizations. In reality, all objects in our universe, even the smallest ones, have three spatial dimensions (length, width, and depth)!

In all these though there is a fourth dimension! But it is not the water jet to your face or the smell! The fourth dimension is the most important which joins physics with philosophy!

Now look at yourself now! If you think you are fat or thin  or the same (lucky you! and lying you!) then you are actually comparing yourself in 3d to a time when you were not like this!

Yes! The most important aspect of dimension here is one which does not wait for anyone! TIME!

So you can have a video or a photo of yourself and compare to the mirror (which usually does not lie!) and you are comparing using the fourth dimension of time!

Some genius (or crazy depending on your dimension or definition!) minds have actually postulated that there are more than 4 dimensions! Some say that it can be more than even 10 or 11!

This concept of more than four dimensions exists in some advanced physics theories. Some physics theories, such as string theory and M-theory, require the existence of extra spatial dimensions to be mathematically consistent. These extra dimensions are often proposed to be curled up or compactified at a very small scale, making them unobservable in our everyday experience.

The String theory typically requires 10 or 11 dimensions, depending on the specific formulation. These theories attempt to unify all fundamental forces of nature, including gravity, and may explain the weakness of gravity compared to other forces. Now while these extra dimensions are a core part of some theoretical frameworks, there is currently no direct experimental evidence to confirm their existence. Then again if extra dimensions do exist, they could have profound implications for our understanding of gravity, particle physics, and the overall structure of the universe!

Now do not get your mind go up in or tie up in knots since everyone including Penny knows that there are no knots in anything more than 4 dimensions!

Many dimensions and facets also are a personality trait of talented actor like Ravi Kishan!

Shubh ratri!

This was named after his own name and was just a time pass!

Then it became a world wide sensation!

You can play it on your phone or your computer and the best thing is that all you need is a basic knowledge of English!

It is also dependent on luck! In fact if you know too much then it is an issue since you will have too many options to choose when you have only 6!

If lucky you may finish it in less than a minute but on some days you may take more than 5! Most days you may get the word but some days you may not be lucky!

In fact getting it in the first or second attempt is rarest of the rare occasion unless you cheat!

The game was free for some time and now it has been taken over by a media chain though it still remains free! Just like you!

Without further ado, the game is WORDLE!

Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn, knew his partner loved word games, so he created a guessing game for just the two of them. As a play on his last name, he named it Wordle! He introduced this game to his family WhatsApp group and when it was a hit he released it online!

On Nov. 1, 90 people played and Just two months later, more than 300,000! Of course now it’s a worldwide phenomenon!

Wordle wizards should understand though that being good at this game doesn’t necessarily mean you’re smart! It demands both a decent vocabulary and a smattering of strategy.

The former is an indicator of crystallized intelligence, the latter of fluid intelligence! Also sometimes overthinking makes it hard so much so that kids get some words faster than many adults since they don’t analyze too much! Insertion of the first word also depends on your luck!

The best way to play is to get all or most of the vowels in and then hope for the best! You may remember the game Hangman and this is a variation of that but with more fun!

Now since it has become a worldwide phenomenon; the analysis is too much! Previously it was suggested that words like Adieu or Audio is the best strategy since you have included many vowels but now the most preferred first word is changed!

There have in fact been teams and sites dedicated to analyze and recommend the best first word!

The best starting word for Wordle is CRANE, according to Word Raiders analysis, as it considers all possible solutions. Tom’s Guide recommends STARE, as it incorporates common letters and maximizes information gathering!

Some also suggest using words like ROATE, RAISE, and SAUCY. Ultimately, the optimal starting word depends on your strategy and whether you prioritize ruling out letters or finding actual letters in the answer!

One of the most complicated situation in Wordle is when you have repeat of letters! That is the tricky part!

Word games like Wordle are fun! Then again you will think what is the point!
Well; Playing Wordle offers several benefits, including stress relief, social connection, and cognitive advantages like enhanced vocabulary, improved problem-solving skills, and increased mental agility!

The daily challenge also provides a sense of accomplishment and can be incorporated into a routine, boosting overall well-being! You can see how nice you may feel when you get the word! A sense of achievement however small may go a long way to pep you up!

A long way also could be the trajectory of Harrison Ford! Can’t believe he is over 80 years old now and still going strong!

Now finish your worldle soon and sleep!

Shubh ratri!

When a blind man cries
Lord, you know
He feels it from his soul…
Is the lyrics of a famous Deep Purple song…touches your heart!

As an Otologist though

When a deaf mute wants to cry…
He or she does not even know how…

And that I feel is more sad…
Specially when you know that most deafness can be treated if detected early and acted upon as soon as possible…

In many cases though parents feel that he or she will start listening or speaking the next month. That gut feeling that every mother and nowadays many father feel that his or her child should have spoke by now or at least turned to him or her by now!

Initially he or she will be proud that the child does not react even when there is a loud noise or thunder! The mother would get scared and jump while the child would not react! The father or some relative may think that his child is a boy! So strong and fearless! But the primary caregiver knows that something is not right!

Now who would bell the cat? Even when they come to us in the initial stages and we deliver the news that he or she cannot hear properly (Even that news is a big shock!); it takes some time to get used to…The stages of acceptance is the final stage in any grief including this one…

In fact many may repeat the tests; many may optimistically think that maybe he or she has some cold or fluid in the ear! Or maybe he or she has lots of wax! Of some parent would have done some research and think it may be a simple case of tongue tie which is why he or she is not speaking! Many cases do turn out to be the above though! But the story of removing a big chunk of wax to return or give the sense of hearing is not that common! More often than not, if you suspect the child cannot hear then he or she probably cannot.

The issue here is not only that he or she cannot hear; if he or she cannot get a stimulus then how would he respond? Which is why kids who cannot hear cannot speak!

And to think that in most cases both could have been treated! They could have had normal schooling! They would enjoy the music and they would hear the praise! The hearing aid or the cochlear implant gives them normalcy! Makes them a part of the sound of the world!

Some satisfaction though that they may not hear you scream or shout at them but then again when one sense is limited; others will compensate or exaggerate! They may not hear your abuse but believe me, they do feel the pain…

Just that they do not know how to cry…

Spare a thought for them and for those who sacrificed their lives for us! Like Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon, PVC!

Shubh ratri…

Remember the joke about how a KG of cotton and a KG of jute weigh the same!

Well; because they do!

But (no but, no blog!); the original KG has more security than even the most secure military facility!

Now of course you have the digital weighing scale but not so long ago every shop had these stone like weights which used to measure the weight!

It was magical seeing the shopkeeper navigate the balance to equal the KG bar!

How the shopkeeper would add a few grains to make it an even Kg and then add some more much to the delight of the buyer! Of course that is just for show! If the balance is hand held, you can always manipulate! In fact you can even manipulate the weights! Normally you need to get an inspection done so that the Kg bar is accurate but then who has the time!

The most interesting ones though were the smaller weights of quarter size! Which is why you normally would even buy stuff in those measurements! In multiples of half or quarter!

You had a similar measure for the liquids which was in liters! Even that was a fascinating experience! The biggest confusion was whether to buy the oil in terms of KG or liter! The liquid oil was bought in liters while the ‘solid’ Ghee or Vanaspati was taken in KG itself!

I used to wonder whey it was like that since I had seen Ghee only as a liquid on my plate! Mom used to heat it and pour it during special functions when we used to have the first course of dal and rice! Just hot ghee salt dal and rice! Heaven!

The KG weight though is actually supposed to be a certified copy of the original KG which has been defined for more than 135 years! This is because Kg is an artificially defined weight! The horse or the elephant may weigh several Kgs! But they do not know that! They may weigh themselves in terms of a banana tree for all they care!
KG is our way of weighing so that we have a uniformity!

So since 1889 the magnitude of the kilogram has been defined as the mass of an object called the international prototype kilogram, often referred to in the professional metrology world as the “IPK”!

The IPK is made of a platinum alloy known as “Pt‑10Ir”, which is 90% platinum and 10% iridium (by mass) and is machined into a right-circular cylinder. The IPK and its six sister copies are stored at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in an environmentally monitored safe in the lower vault located in the basement of the BIPM’s on the outskirts of Paris.

Three independently controlled keys are required to open the vault! Official copies of the IPK were made available to other nations and these are compared and calibrated to the IPK roughly every 40 years!

Then in the year  2019  the whole scenario has changed! Do not worry! You still weigh in KG!

In 2019, the kilogram was redefined based on fundamental physical constants, replacing the IPK as the defining standard.

In 2019, scientists redefined the kilogram using the Planck constant, a fundamental constant in physics. This change was made because the IPK, being a physical object, was susceptible to slight changes in mass over time, even with careful handling and storage! Which means that the official KG may become lighter by a few atoms! This may not affect your weight much but it does have a greater impact on other more accurate measurements!

Which is what makes the redefinition of the kilogram a more stable and accurate standard for mass measurements, not relying on a single physical artifact!

Of course sometimes words are more heavier than the KG! Maybe from a poet like Shailesh Lodha!

Now do not let that ‘weigh’ on your mind!

Shubh ratri!

This is something which you get for free but it is so irritating that you are willing to pay to get rid of!

Sometimes they are very entertaining but because they are repetitive and most of the time inaccurate, you start hating them!

Do you know that the average cost of printing a paper or a magazine and circulating it is so high that this is the only way you can get a paper for less than five rupee!
This is the only reason why FB and other social media including you tube is apparently free for you!

The reason why all the influencers and youtubers get money is because of this!

Any function or any big event can only work or happen if they are in it!

It is getting annoying right?

That is the best definition of this!

The thing I am referring to is AD! Or advertisements!

There was a time in DD history when the ads were so much that it was crazy! The movie sholay is for three hours or so! But when it came in DD, I remember it stretched to close to five hours because of the ads!


Did you know that one of the first ADS was actually by Benjamin Franklin who placed it in his own paper mentioning about a RUNAWAY SLAVE!? Now do not start getting up that pitch forks! He later was strictly anti slaves!

Or the fact the one of the ad was so misleading in that it recommended you to SMOKE! Forget that (please do!); one ad categorically said that Their brand of cigarette is DOCTOR recommended!

There was one in which you could even cure a smoker’s cough by smoking, so long as it was Old Golds you smoked, because, as the slogan proudly if somewhat untruthfully boasted, they contained Not a cough in a carload’.

As Bill Bryon states in his book Made in America; As late as 1953, L&M was advertising its cigarettes as just what the doctor ordered!’

Then you have this whole Betty Crocker phenomenon!
Even now you see the smiling lady who knows all the great recipes and bakes the best cookies! Her cookbooks and special secrets are must have! Over the years her face has changed and become modern and so has her voice! She is just too perfect to be real! Which is actually true!

Betty Crocker is not a real person!
She is a fictional character created by the Washburn-Crosby Company (later General Mills) in 1921 to answer customer baking inquiries. The name was chosen for its friendly sound, with “Crocker” honoring a retiring company director! She became a popular icon, evolving from a signature on letters to a voice on radio and television, and even a cookbook author.

That is the power of an AD!

Of course some people like Tanikela Bharani are not only real but also so talented that you don’t mind seeing some ads to watch him!

Now try closing that small close ad button on your phone and sleep!

Shubh ratri!

Vision is right up there when it comes to senses but believe me; Sound is also on the top!

In fact Sound is the drive behind an almost blind bat, the SONAR and even the USG machine!

It is all in the sound!

Then again too much sound is also not good! Which is why you have this reflex which is done by the smallest muscle attached to the smallest bone in the body which protects you even when you are asleep or unconscious (to an extent!)!

To think that all this is routine for the flying fox!

The reflex is called the Acoustic Reflex.


The acoustic reflex, also known as the stapedial reflex, is crucial for protecting the inner ear from damage caused by loud noises and for enhancing speech perception in noisy environments. It involves the contraction of the stapedius muscle, which reduces the intensity of sound reaching the cochlea. This reflex also plays a role in speech discrimination, particularly in the presence of background noise. In humans there are in fact two muscles which get contacted namely the stapedius and the tensor tympani!

Of course the primary function of the acoustic reflex is to protect the inner ear (cochlea) from potential damage caused by loud sounds. When a loud sound enters the ear, the stapedius muscle contracts, stiffening the ossicular chain (bones in the middle ear) and reducing the sound’s transmission to the cochlea.
This protective mechanism helps prevent damage to the delicate hair cells within the cochlea, which are responsible for transducing sound vibrations into electrical signals for the brain. This acoustic reflex can also improve speech understanding in noisy environments. By reducing the intensity of background noise, the reflex can make it easier to hear and understand speech, especially low-frequency sounds.

This is the reason why the acoustic reflex test is a standard part of audiological assessments. By the way this reflex is the most social! Even if one ear is stimulated, if everything is working well; both ears are contracted equally!

This is of course more important in Bats!

In echolocating bats, the acoustic reflex acts as a protective mechanism, attenuating the intensity of incoming sounds, especially those produced by the bat itself, allowing them to hear faint echoes without being overwhelmed by their own vocalizations.
Bats use echolocation to navigate and find prey by emitting high-frequency calls and analyzing the returning echoes. These calls are relatively loud, and the acoustic reflex helps prevent the bat’s own vocalizations from damaging its hearing!

By reducing the intensity of self-produced sounds, the acoustic reflex allows bats to maintain their high sensitivity to faint echoes, which are crucial for accurate echolocation. The acoustic reflex is a relatively fast mechanism, with a latency of a few milliseconds, ensuring that the attenuation occurs quickly enough to protect the bat’s hearing during the brief interval between vocalization and the return of echoes. Of course even this tiny gap can cause trouble in the long run!

So while the acoustic reflex provides significant protection, it may not always be completely sufficient, and bats may still experience some level of hearing loss, particularly with age or due to prolonged exposure to loud sounds.

Old age though should not limit anyone! Fauja Singh was one such exceptional personality who became a legend after the age of 80! How he ran!

Such a great tragedy

Heartfelt condolences

Om shanti…

It is a little concerning that the correction of the shape of your nose is technically called a RHINOPLASTY!

You may think that the Rhino is the final look everyone is going for!

Do not worry! The root here is the word Rhino which actually means nose! In fact a nose specialist is called a Rhinologist!

The animal Rhino is a short form!

It is of course short for rhinoceros, which is derived from the Greek words “rhino” (nose) and “ceros” (horn)! The emphasis on the horn!

Now did you know that they are one of the heaviest animals now on land but still they are dwarfs when you compare them to their ancestors!?

Some son’s can never become bigger that their father apparently!

So rhinoceroses are some of the largest remaining megafauna: all weigh at least one ton in adulthood!

Their thick skin are like impenetrable armour! In the marvel series there is a villain Rhino who has similar capabilities and that armour is his weakness since he cannot tolerate high temperature! Also the suit makes his movement to be restricted in that he can move only in one direction and cannot change it suddenly just like our actual Rhino!

But you would be surprised to know that the present Rhinos are dwarfs when you compare them to their ancestors who were the largest mammals!

That species was Paraceratherium and the exact size of Paraceratherium is unknown because of the incompleteness of the fossils. Paraceratherium means “near the hornless beast”

The shoulder height was about 4.8 metres (15.7 feet), and the length about 7.4 metres (24.3 feet). Its weight is estimated to have been about 15 ton!  (33,000 to 44,000 lb). The long neck supported a skull that was about 1.3 metres (4.3 ft) long!

Bigger and heavier than our Rhino! But still it got extinct due to multitude of reasons like climate change, low reproduction rate, and invasion by other species. Our Rhino is also susceptible to extinction since many feel there are some medicinal value in its horn! How horny…I mean corny can you get!?

Then again there are those who do not any Rhino…Plasty that is! One such natural actor with grace and beauty was Bangalore Saroja Devi! A great life lived with glamour and grace! She will be missed!

Heart felt condolences

OM SHANTHI

Do you know what is an electric eye?

Not the famous song by Judas Priest!

That “Electric Eye” of course was an allusion to the book Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, in the use of the name of the pseudo-omniscient camera that watches over the community at all times.
In the novel which is so popular now because of its so called predictions which are true; you have a camera that can ‘see’ people who rebel against the goverment or the ruler and they conveniently ‘disappear’!

This is not that electric eye though it may be closer than you think!

How about Iconoscope? No! It is not an iconic scope!

Well, how about electric telescope? Then again many advanced telescopes now are electronic only! They can see stuff so far and well miss out a few of them much closer to home!

How about radio vision? A radio with a vision!?

Well, now you are getting close!

This is a device which has made you an idiot! One of the most iconic inventions of the century which when first invented was predicted to be a big failure!
In fact as mentioned by Bill Bryson; it was dismissed as a fad!

Now there is no house which does not have this invention! Some have one in each room! Mobile is a close and calculated guess but it is the grandfather of the phone!
Then again it itself is the son or the grandson of the radio!

Though apparently it has been in vogue along with the radio albeit in a limited way. The issue was of course hardware! Now you may not imagine even a single day without this ‘iconic scope!’

In case you still have not go it; I am referring to the Television! or the TV!

Radio was also an iconic invention which took the world by storm! There was no house without one in the olden days since TV signals and reception was not available everywhere! Of course now you see the people on TV presenting news are always well dressed and groomed; but there was a time when even those who presented news on the radio wore a Tuxedo!

Now of course the TV is also slowly getting replaced by the Phone and other ‘screens’! The day of usual TV broadcasting and programs such as the days of the DD are numbered. Enjoy the idiot box before that!

Or maybe the radio! Of course that’s been replaced by Electric EAR! Which is either Alexa or Siri  Then you can listen to songs penned by Vairamuthu!

Shubh ratri!