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Do you know what is the The gateway drug effect?

If you did not know that then you probably would have also believed that Vaping is ok!

read on!

There are approximately 600 ingredients in cigarettes. When burned, cigarettes create more than 7,000 chemicals. At least 69 of these chemicals are known to cause cancer, and many are toxic!

Now unfortunately there is another evil which is like the stepping stone to the cigarette and has been found to be as dangerous as the cigarette! But why would a device which does not emit tar be dangerous!?

Remember that lung cancer was once a very rare disease, so rare that doctors when confronted with a case, thought it a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence! It’s like how many doctors have seen a case of Rabies! (I have!)

Mechanisation and mass marketing towards the end of the 19th century popularised the cigarette habit, however, causing a global lung cancer epidemic!  Even when many studies saw the link cigarette manufacturers disputed this evidence, because they had the money and lots to lose!

It is the same with e cigarettes!

In fact the propaganda was so strong that as far as in 1960s, many used to dismiss the association of smoking with lung cancer! In spite of the fact that there were so many evidence and observations to the contrary!

Now even though there are some evidences that vaping is bad; the real issue is the gateway drug effect!


The gateway drug effect is also called the stepping-stone theory or escalation hypothesis, or progression hypothesis!

This is a comprehensive catchphrase for the often observed effect that the use of a psychoactive substance is coupled to an increased probability of the use of further substances.

Possible reasons for the connection include environmental influence, impulsive people seeking both soft and hard drugs , alterations in the brain due to earlier substance exposure, as well as similar attitudes of people who use different substances, and therefore experience a “common liability to addiction”.

In simple words you can understand that this is like a STEPPING STONE! The next step has a very high probability to be smoking!

Irony is that the e cigarette was the device made to assist in the stepping down of addicts from smoking to non smoking and now there is a high risk of it becoming the stepping stone to full blown smoking!

Now the greatest fact about humans is that everyone is unique just like everyone else! So this may not be applicable to everyone who takes the first step! Which is why ‘every step’ is important! If you stop with the spark then you will not be the reason for the fire!

For all that talk about e cigarettes; a special dedication to the great first stated about the fact that when the rate of smoking increases; the rate of lung cancer increases! Dr Isaac Adler in his classic book called the Primary Malignant Growths of the Lungs and Bronchi!

An ode to the legend!

Now do not smoke or Vape! Just have warm water and sleep!

Shubh ratri!

The greatest aspect of any democratic or civilised court is that the rules are made in such a way that the whole system is there to make sure that even if ten guilty walk free, no innocent must be prosecuted!

The root of the whole system then is the attorney client privilege!

The attorney client privilege is a crown jewel of the legal profession.
Attorney client relationship refers to the disclosure of potential sensitive information from clients to their attorney and law requires that an attorney does not reveal or disclose such information or communication between them to any third party.

The Act in many countries lays down some exceptions like a communication made in the furtherance of any illegal purpose; and any fact observed by an attorney in the course of his or her employment that shows a crime or fraud has been committed since the start of his or her employment!

Of course that definition and exception is the legal jargon which is often misused! Imagine that a client has committed the crime and then he or she mentions this to the lawyer! The lawyer now is actually bound by the attorney client privilege to keep it as a secret or else he or she would lose his or her license to practice!

In the novel “The Firm by John Grisham” this was the greatest irony faced by the lawyer who finds out that the Firm he is working for is actually a money laundering center for the mafia! The issue here is that although the right thing to do is to report them at the cost of his life or safety to the FBI and lose his license to practice or keep his and his conscience silenced!

The origins of attorney–client privilege trace back to medieval England, where the king presided over trials and relied on attorneys to present cases. Because attorneys were considered officers of the court, they were expected to fully disclose all relevant information. However, as legal representation evolved, courts recognized that forcing attorneys to reveal client confidences undermined justice. This led to a principle that even the king could not compel an attorney to disclose privileged communications!

Now, remember that if you are the client, it is your privilege. You can break it at any time either by assertively waiving it, or by talking about what you talked about with your attorney to anyone else, in front of anyone else, or publicly!

Many professions in fact have such attorney client privileges!

This includes the medical profession also. Which is why you absolutely cannot disclose any details of the diagnosis or findings of any patient to anyone, forget posting it on social media unless you get a formal permission from either the patient or his or her guardian!

Of course if you make sure to hide the identity of the patient and only present the important clinical finding then that is still valid! But before you place anything else on the net for everyone to see, make sure you know the attorney client privilege! Since here the privilege is of the client and not of the attorney  or the professional!

Finally you as a professional also have the right to reject a client which is your professional right! Most of course do not use this right though since privilege comes with responsibility while art comes with no boundary!

A speck of colour on a black and white sketch on world art day! The skin tone has been added by the iPhone camera…

Now use your privilege as a human and sleep!

SHubh ratri!

Your computer is stuck! The printer is all red light! The screen is frozen!

It is an all out war zone out there!

You call tech support and he or she will listen to your rattling your problems for some time before suggesting this!

It is the same with your old phones or even smart speakers!

All you need to do most of the time is Restart!

One tech article explained this in a very simple way in which he said imagine you start on a long journey and then you get lost in between! Then it is always better to go to a familiar place or position! Then you can restart your journey again!

The tech world also works in a similar way! When you restart the computer or the phone; the devices basically starts from the very beginning! This is familiar territory!

It is the same with most of the devices! Our RoboVac when it gets stuck somewhere, all you need to do is start at the very beginning!

There is this nifty little device called the amazon echo auto which gets nutty sometimes! You scream at it and it does not work! Even the troubleshooting wizard in the guide book says; switch off your device for ten seconds and restart! And lo! Like magic it works most of the time!

Even the onboard computer of your car gets crazy sometimes! There also the first thing you do is turn everything off and restart again! And most of the time it does work!

There are situations in which the heart also starts beating so fast especially the ventricles; so much so that the beat is high but there is no blood getting pumped out! We call this situation V-FIB or ventricular Fibrillation. The treatment here is the electric shock! What it does is to immediately STOP the heart! Then in a favourable outcome, the heart restarts! Hopefully returning to the normal rhythm!

The idea of time is actually relative and this is a universal phenomenon! The time being divided into years and days and hours is only for our own convenience! But for as far as civilization is there, we do have a single year which is 365 days and then some! Before the whole shift of the calendar to January, it was April which was the first month!

Which is why we have the April fools day! That is also a human creation! But even now, many parts of the country and the world; celebrate this month with different specific dates as the new year! It is of course a personal choice when you want to celebrate your new year though!

The aim of new year is only to reset! Whatever issues, troubles, fights and problems (all are more or less the synonyms of the same thing by the way!) which you have in your life, this day or month is your chance to restart! Start afresh! Take a breath (continue doing it of course!) and begin a new year!

Since today is the new year for Kerala which is the Vishu; made a quick sketch of the legendary artist from Kerala Raja Ravi Varma! And since it is a new year we would like to wake up in the morning and see prosperity on a tray! Fruits, grains, laxmi and god! We also gently wake up our children and closing their eyes take them to the temple where they open their eyes to see the VISHU KANI! Vishu Kani is also the money we get from our elders! It is usually a token amount but you feel so nice getting it!

So have a look at the bright yellow flowers which are symbol of happiness and joy and reset! Start your year with a smile! 

Happy Vishu once again!

Shubh ratri!

The one who is one of the best and smart and intelligent is usually the leader! While the one who is none of the above is usually… the BOSS!

The leader leads the way and shows how to do it! While the boss would stand back and complain while talented people are forced to act like chimps for bad ideas developed by him or her!

The leader does not need your praise while the Boss survives in them and your servitude! The first thing anyone must do after joining any work is to define whether his supervisor is a leader or a boss!

Then you must read these two stories!

The first law in the book 48 laws of power is that you must always treat your master (or boss!) as superior! Never show him or her that you are better than him or her! These are the two stories which demonstrate just that!

Nicolas Fouquet, marquis de Belle-Île, vicomte de Melun et Vaux was the finance in charge to King Louis XXIV. He once threw an extravagant party for his King with a lavish buffet and performances to show that he wants to pamper his King at the opening of his new home and castle!
The pomp and grandeur would have made anyone glow! However it had the opposite effect! The next day he was arrested on charges of financial misappropriation and sentenced to life imprisonment!

Peering through his newly-improved 20-power homemade telescope at the planet Jupiter on Jan. 7, 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei noticed three other points of light near the planet, at first believing them to be distant stars.  Galileo correctly concluded that they were not stars at all but moons orbiting around Jupiter. He published his discoveries in a book titled Siderius Nuncius (The Starry Messenger). He proposed to name them after his patrons the Medicis which made him an instant hit among his patrons and assured their support! So even though he was much cleverer than his master and patrons; he knew how to lift them!

The king may not be the cleverest person but he or she must be the centre of attention! Galileo had called them the Medicean moons in honour of his patrons (the Medici family),

The king of the yesteryears have been replaced by the Boss of today while the great advisors and saints may become leader! Sometimes (it is usually all the time!) it’s better to act dumb in front of your boss or master so that he or she gets his or her way!

Make sure to nod along and laugh the most at his or her bad jokes! Speaking of laughter reminds me of the laughing face of Dinesh Hingoo!

Now practice the Dinesh Laugh and sleep!

SHubh Ratri!

Do you know what is an Ingress Protection rating?

Sometimes you get confused when you are presented with the full form when you actually know the short one!

It was an early problem in Google Maps when it normally tells the full form of a road or street while we always knew the short form! Like Sadar Patrappa road! That sounds like a confusing road in Bangalore while the fact is that everyone knows the short form SP road!

When I was asked a question in a interview, Who is Inder Kumar G? I was really confused! The interviewer understood! He then mischievously asked, “Don’t you know I K Gujral!?”

Now coming to the Ingress Protection rating! It is simply IP rating which we all know! Of course the minute details may not be known to all but the term IP rating is almost general knowledge in the era of Mobile Phones!

Everyone knows how electric and electronic equipment deteriorate or malfunction when water or dust enters the device. The older mobile phones falling on a puddle of water was a death sentence! To know how much dust and water your phone can ‘tolerate’ the

The IEC or International Electrotechnical Commission has developed the ingress protection (IP) ratings, which grade the resistance of an enclosure against the intrusion of dust or liquids.

The first edition of IEC 60529 was published in 1976 with the aim of creating a single document to bring together all requirements regarding protection by enclosures.

The IP code is composed of two numerals:
The first numeral refers to the protection against solid objects and is rated on a scale from 0 (no protection) to 6 (no ingress of dust).

The second numeral rates the enclosure’s protection against liquids and uses a scale from 0 (no protection) to 9 (high-pressure hot water from different angles).


There are also levels of protection against immersion at varying depth and levels of drops protection in the solid category

While the top most liquid protection is  9 which is the Protection against high-pressure, high-temperature jet sprays, washdowns or steam-cleaning procedures!

A typical  rating for solid objects like say IP 6, means it lets in very little dust and dirt, and a water-R rating of 8 indicates it can be submerged in water for minutes at a time.

A phone with those specs would earn an IP68 rating!

Now, high IP rating  actually indicates that when dust and water does make its way through a phone’s seams, it won’t enter in quantities to cause malfunction!

However, the rating system was not designed to be mutually inclusive, meaning an IP67 certification does not automatically equate to certificates for grades 1-6!

Of course the ratings are only one assessment for buying the phone! Many do take these into consideration but with the advent of Flip and Fold phones; there are some adjustments!

For now just make sure that whatever be the rating; water and dust is not a good friend of your phone!

If that’s over your head then head over to read about the one who took the Britishers in their own turf! Chettur Sankaran Nair !

One of the many freedom fighters forgotten and almost lost from memory! Do read about him…

Shubh ratri…

In a book called 48 laws of power by Robert Greene it is understood that there are at least 48 laws of power! Many of the laws are actually complimentary while many contradict each other!

Each law is presented with a story or a context and it is a really good book to read! Then again you will get impatient to move on to the next law as soon as possible!

In this context Robert states how impatience is human while patience is godly! 

He says how whatever be the situation, if you are patient then the problem or issue will settle! Like God who has lots of time and can literally watch the person perish or flourish! 

Time also has been the focus of study for everyone! Often, we think of time as simply a number assigned to a specific event. However, time is also thought to always “flow” forwards, so could it therefore be considered as a vector!

From a modern physics viewpoint, time is not a vector neither a scalar, it is a coordinate!

This is because time is relative depending on the observer, so it cannot be defined as a scalar or a vector. 

In Newtonian physics, however, time has a universal meaning and is usually thought of as a scalar! 

My English professor explanation of theory of relativity also was related to time! He used to tell that when you are sitting on a hot stove, every second feels like an hour! While if you are sitting on your partner’s lap then every hour feels like a second! That is the theory of relativity!

Then you have the whole going back to time! Can you actually do time travel!? From the begining of time as such, people have been trying to do time travel! Then again you have the issue of parallel time lines in case you do have a succesful time travel! Which means that if you go back in time and change something then you have actually created a new timeline! The old timeline is no longer the one in which you are there! 

Finally at the end of it all; everyone simply wants time! If you have time then you can have anything if you try hard enough. But if you do not have time then you have the short end of the stick. You would most of the time see young kids would always be in a rush to do or tell something but old people would try to tell or do stuff as slow as possible! Irony is that the young have loads of time while the old have less of it! Then it may actually be a subconcious attempt by the old timers to try to slow down the time! Maybe if you talk or do stuff slowly you may reduce the speed of the time! Of it may just be the fact that they know time is the precious commodity so they want to experience it as slowly and carefully as possible! 

Watch out for a future where you will get time for sale! And no prime deal since you would be ready to pay anything to even get a additional second!

For now though it’s time to listen to Jaipur Gharana Kishori Amonkar and sleep!

Shubh ratri!

The loss of these ‘hair’ causes you to not hear people properly!

Of course even if you do hear then sometime you do not listen! Starting with your parents and then possibly you ‘friend’ or your partner and finally your children may tell you at some point that ‘you do not listen!’

There is nothing you can do to change that though!

Now the hair on top of your head may also make you not listen or hear properly if they are a lot! Then again the hair I am telling about are much inside your head!

They are deep inside a bone which is shaped like a conch shell! Surprisingly you use a conch shell to make a loud noise and wake up the divine ‘ears’!

These hair cells are in two different places called the outer and the inner hair cells and the loss of these cells makes your hearing go down! The former makes your not discriminate speech while the latter makes your perception to reduce! Unlike the other hair on top of your head, you cannot suggest a hair transplant for these!

Also did you know that your ears also keep you in balance!?

Without your ears, you would lose your balance! Luckily like an automatic machine, ears, ears are self-cleaning!

Also when you sleep, ears are always awake! The sensors of ears are like the microphones of Alexa or Siri which are always listening for the wake up call!
Unfortunately now though Alexa and Siri simply listen to everything! But our ears still follow some protocols!

It takes time during sleep not because ears are not working but the brain has gone into the screen saver or power saver mode! Which is why they respond to the most important wake up call to ‘wake up’!

Like how someone mentioned that your name is simply the noise someone makes to get your attention! The wake up call is your name told a little boldly and loudly in increased intensity depending on the depth of your sleep!

Of course a kick or a spray of ice cold water also helps!
The structure and function of our ears are so complex that we still get to know new things every day! The average ears have to filter out so many noise including the loud environment of our own body to give you a pure DOLBY SURROUND experience!

It knows which sounds to amplify and which to reduce! It can also give you form which direction the noise comes from! Which is why in people who have limited vision, the ears locate! Many can even train the ears to ‘see’ like a bat!

In fact echo location; the technique used by many people with visual disability uses the full function of the ears!

Which is why when the ears have issues, you not only cannot hear properly, you also have difficulty in concentrating and maintaining balance. Some also start ‘listening’ to sounds which cause more problems and the treatment of these is a big challenge!

Another wonderful thing about the ears is that it is the source of information for speech! All the words you say are the ones you have heard someone speak! This even includes your name! If the ear does not tell you what the sound is of a particular word then you will not be able to say that properly!

Which is why if a kid can’t listen he or she can’t speak which is why in spite of having vocalizing capability, kids who are born deaf if not treated, also cannot speak! In the original movie of the Planet of the apes; The researcher ‘Chimp’ tells this very thing! You see a monkey speak is amazing but that was the direction of evolution in that movie! She says that these ‘creatures’ called the ‘humans’ actually have a fully developed vocal cords but they do not know how to use them! Which is why they do not speak!

This is exactly the reason why a child with limited hearing must be ‘treated’ as soon as possible so that he or she will have a normal speech and not have any reduced ability in the future.

My father always asks why we have two ears but only one mouth!
Of course it is to speak less and listen more! Also eat less! Then again if it’s made by celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor then you can eat a little more!

Now have a light dinner and protect your inner hair cells by keeping ears closed and safe from loud noise and sleep!

Shubh ratri!

What if? Well, that is not a question; well, actually it is but that is not the point! That is the name of a very popular book currently at its 10th edition with updates every year written by Randall Munroe!

The book seeks to answer questions which may be considered absurd or silly or may even initiate a psychiatric evaluation!

Now although the questions may be absurd, the author has made every possible attempt to answer the questions as scientifically as possible!

Growing up you might have asked questions to your parents like where does the rain come from or why it becomes dark in the night or where does the sun disappear!

And many times your elders like your parents or your grandparents would either tell you a fact which may seem scientific or some times simply give you an answer so that you would stop annoying them!

I have had answers like rain comes when someone opens the taps in the sky!

Of course when you were young (er!); you used to take the answers as they were given and even narrate the same to your friend with so much confidence that even Newton would be proud!

You would also think that the elders are so wise! Till you grow up and find the correct answer! What you think after that is up to your maturity!

With the advent of Mr Google and the net; children do not waste time asking such questions to you! Even if they do ask, more often than not, rest assured they would counter check your answer so do not give the ‘tap in the sky’ answers!

Luckily though there is so much information on the net that your role of giving a specific answer is still valid!

With that in mind; Have you ever wondered that well, for now the sun is so hot! But how long would it take for it to cool down so much that you could literally touch it!? If you were alive of course!

The answer in the book was there as an answer to another question and unfortunately is not very comforting!

Lets see what is the timeline of what is ‘theoretically’ (because this is only a theory! No one is going to be there to validate it you see! Or at least you and me may not be there to confirm the findings!)

Now in about 10 billion years, the Andromeda galaxy will have merged with the Milky Way. The Sun will be gone and its debris will be spread across new star systems but still the parts would be hot!

100 billion years in the future: The accelerating expansion of the universe is now carrying other galaxies away from us so fast that their light becomes too stretched out for us to detect, rendering the universe outside our galaxy effectively invisible! Now the sun is cooling but still not very cool! Literally!

Finally at about 1 trillion years from now, the long-lived white dwarf stars start to burn out! The good news though is that the remnant of the sun cools to the point where you could finally touch it! It may still be a little warm though!

Oh yeah I know you do not like cliffhangers! So in around 1000 trillion years from now, any remaining planets orbiting the remnant of the Sun will have been ejected into the void or crashed into it! The stars are dark and the sky is empty! You may of course get to say, “I told you so!”


You can tell that or maybe sing! Though it may not be like the sweet voice of Hariharan!

Shubh Ratri!

If you had seen the movie interstellar then you are brave! If you have understood it after viewing it once then you are either lying or being pseudo brave!

The way it tells about Black hole and the passage of time is really super cool though! Then again this has been mentioned in a book written thousands of years back!

Hope you know Balarama!

The plough wielder!
The mighty mace warrior!
Guru to Bhima and Duryodhana
In Bhagwath Puranas he is known as the ninth Avatar of Vishnu

we will come to the link later!

Let us go back to Interstellar!

In movie interstellar, Coop’s (now do not ask me, Coop who!? The name is not important but the essence of the message is!) team decide to land on Dr. Miller’s (?? again not important!) ocean planet.

This planet is orbiting Gargantua, the massive glowing black hole that exists in the foreign galaxy. Due to Gargantua’s massive gravitational pull, “every hour on that planet is seven years on Earth”!

A massive tidal wave hits the spacecraft and delays their exit! When they finally go back to the space, by their calculation only three hours had gone! But for the person waiting for them in the dock and for people on the Earth; they find to their shock that 23 years have passed!

This is because Gargantua warps space-time; its gravitational strength bends Miller’s planet, stretching and squeezing it toward and away from the black hole. Einstein’s theory of relativity is key to all this. His revolutionary 1915 theory proposed that the larger the object, the more spacetime is warped and twisted.

One hour for someone maybe a lifetime for someone else! Coop’s daughter who was hardly 8 years old, three hours back is now close to 32 years! She has not been in touch with her father for so long! In fact when he goes to another planet and revisits his daughter on Earth station; his daughter is now an old lady over 90 years! While he was still 30 odd years old!

Emotional but so much science and physics which only Nolan being an engineer himself could have imagined!

Now for the interesting part (finally! I know reading this blog feels like being close to the black hole!!)

In Bhagwat Puran there is a story where the King of Mathura or Revata left to Brahma Lok to find a groom for his daughter REVATHY!
They will go and meet Brahma who was let’s just say a little busy so they waited for a while, then they met Brahma and were blessed that Revathy would marry a great warrior who wields a plough!

What they did not realise is that though it was only one year since they left Earth and went to meet Brahma; when they returned thousands of years had passed! Since one year for one year of Brahma and Brahma loka is many years for mankind and when they returned thousands of years had passed!

So much so that even humans who were apparently huge when Revata was king were the size you see today! Now of course all did end well in his case since Revathy did end up marrying Balarama! 

But the warping of time and the passage of time close to the black hole and the Brahma loka would definitely make you wonder for a while or eternity depending on how close you are to the black hole!

Now if that is making your brain spin and dance then please do! As Remo D’Souza says! ABCD! Any body can dance!

Shubh Ratri!

There is a singer who performs and sings continuously all through the night!
Without missing a single line and without referring to notes!
What is more surprising and amazing is that he does not know how to read a single letter!

William Dalrymple’s seventh book is about the lives of nine Indians, a Buddhist monk, a Jain nun, a lady from a middle-class family in Calcutta, a prison warden from Kerala and a devadasi among others, as seen during his Indian travels.

If you chance upon the audible version narrated by the author himself you can feel the passion and intent! You can understand how he is completely in awe of the culture and traditions! It is like a person roaming in the desert all his life and then given a taste of the best drink in the whole universe! Water!

You of course have to ignore his pretty abysmal pronounciation of Indian words and his really poor understanding of many things which are happening! Even some basic stories he gets so wrong but the point here is not the fact but the message!

I have always stated this that in the quest of correctness, do not miss the intent behind the message!

Another puzzling thing is how in spite of his limited knowledge of language or culture he knows so many things with pride while we run away from tradition!

He talks about the Bhopas!

The Bhopa people are the priest-singers of the folk deities in the state of Rajasthan. They perform in front of a scroll, known as phad (par in the Rajasthani language) that depicts the episodes of the narrative of the folk deity and functions as a portable temple.

William Dalrymple narrates in his book about the most famous Bhopa artist called Mohan Bhopa who used to perform continuously and even over night!

He used to remember his lines when in fact he was illiterate!

You would think why he had to be illiterate! But sometimes the mind has to be empty before you fill it!

So being illiterate is apparently a requisite since then you would just repeat what you heard without your own ‘literate’ mind! Of course the talent is natural and made better with practice! The song and the words has already been written and perfected and those who have to carry on the tradition must be expected to do so without any ‘remixes’ or new thoughts and modifications which may hamper the sanctity of the original!

Of course many may not accept this ‘condition’ which is why there are only a few singers and maybe even some of the last ones.

There are also very few actors of the calibre of
Manoj Kumar! Even now the scene where he played Bhagat Singh is forever frozen in our memories.

He literally invented the hand over face style! Can’t sketch him without that!

You will be missed

Jai Hind…