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Just when you thought that ENT surgeons are, well; just think about them that is all! Now why I mentioned ENT is because of a war!

Now there have been several wars but did you know that there is a war fought for an EAR! In fact the war itself is called The war of jenkin’s ear!

The War of Jenkins’ Ear was a conflict between Great Britain and Spain, primarily fought in the Caribbean and North America, from 1739 to 1748. It began due to trade disputes and colonial tensions, but gained its popular name from the incident in 1731 where a Spanish captain severed the ear of British captain Robert Jenkins. This incident was used as a pretext for war, although the underlying causes were more complex.

The war stemmed from British resentment over Spanish restrictions on trade in the Americas, particularly the activities of Spanish guarda costas (coast guard vessels) that harassed British ships. The incident involving Captain Robert Jenkins, whose ear was cut off by Spanish authorities, fueled public outrage in Britain and provided a rallying cry for war!

The war officially lasted from 1739 to 1748, though the major fighting in the Caribbean largely concluded by 1742. A notable victory was the capture of the Spanish port of Portobelo in 1739!

Now this is the official version! According to Bill Bryson in His novel about American History it was just an ordinary war with two major results!

First things were some interesting linguistic spin-offs. The first one came with the introduction of a daily ration of rum and water for the sailors on the instructions of the commander of the fleet, Edward Vernon.
Vernon’s nickname was Old Grog – no one seems to know why – and the drink, as you will doubtless have guessed, was soon called grog. Which is why even now those who drink too much would perforce become groggy!

Another achievement was due to the fact that Vernon was by all accounts an inspiring figure, and was greatly loved by his men. One of his colonial officers, Lawrence Washington who was half-brother of George, was so taken with the admiral that he named his Virginia plantation Mount Vernon in his honour! It stands there to this day! Now you know why it is called so!

The final contribution according to Bill of the war of Jenkins’ Ear is that it marked a telling semantic transition. It was then for the first time that the British began to refer to their colonial cousins as Americans, rather than as provincials or colonials. American had been recorded as early as 1578, but previously had been applied only to the native Indians. No one realized it yet, but a new nation had begun!

All because of the EAR!

Now do not ask what happened to Poor Jenkins! And no jokes on the EAR! Or you will get an EAR full!

That’s the strength of the EAR! Strength or shakti reminds me of Shakthiman aka Mukesh Khanna!

Shubh ratri!

Heart is probably one of the most favourite organs for poets and singers alike! Starting from ‘My heart will go on’ (which is now so famous that it is one of the most irritable songs for many!) to ‘dil ki dhadkan’; lyricists and singers would be unemployed if it were not for the heart!

Pages after pages are written everyday about the heartbeat! How it increases when you look at someone or think about someone or something! Or when someone steals your heart! Or when your ‘heart’ is not in the right place or when the heart no longer beats for someone or something!

You can be ‘heartless’ in spite of a beating healthy heart! Or you can have a ‘hearty’ meal when it is the stomach which is full!

It is all in the heart!

The interesting thing is that the whole beat starts in a single point!

It is also interesting to note that this is the only organ which has to beat constantly every single day and minute! In a heart transplant or in some surgeries it is literally stopped and restarted! The whole surgery depends on the ability of the heart to restart! Constantly this little pump beats and pumps blood over and over again!

Now you may wonder that since most of the ‘heart’ related feelings are expressed by men; this may be the reason of calling the connecting bundle between the two chambers of heart as Bundle of HIS! Well, before you take out the sexist spears let me assure you that it is not so!

So, in the year 1839, Jan Evangelista Purkinje discovered a net of gelatinous fibres in the subendocardium of the heart which are named after him!
Later on a conducting bundle between the atrium and the ventricle was found by Wilhelm His, Jr in 1893! (THAT’S WHY ITS CALLED BUNDLE OF HIS! NOTHING MASCULINE ABOUT IT!)
Later on in 1906, Sunao Tawara found a “complex knot” of tissue at the proximal end of the His bundle. He concluded that this was the inception of an electrical conducting system which continued from the AV node through the bundle of His, divided into the bundle branches, and terminated as the Purkinje fibres. Finally Arthur Keith and Martin Flack discovered the sinus node which is the beginning of your heart beat!

The sinus node is thus the beginning of your heart beat! So if you want to be technically true poet or if you are a medico who likes a Cardiologist then you can write about the SA node to impress him or her!

Then again if your heart is not in it then it may not be that ok! Dun kya!

Now calm your heart and sleep!

Shubh ratri!

As far as the number game goes the limbs take it all! Does the work and then takes the fall!

Quantity matters since numbers make up percentage and percentage make up the votes! This is not political thought! It is your body! One of the few places where numbers may not matter!

Everyone knows that an adult human skeleton consists of 206 bones in total!

Then again if you count the numbers the adult usually has lesser number of bones than the child! The adult of course counts more than the child officially  but everyone knows that children are the kings and queens! At the time of the birth they have around 270 bones! Do we treat them wit so much kindness and concern since they have so much bones! Interesting line of thought!

As they grow older the bones start to fuse and finally they the numbers settles to 206! Which is also when they become more rigid and inflexible and well, when they are no longer the recipients of much concern or love! At least not easily available! They have to earn it!

Again as far as the number game goes; More than half of your bones are located in the hands, wrists, feet, and ankles! There are a total of 126 bones in the limbs (both upper and lower). Each limb has 30 bones, so two arms and two legs account for 120 bones. Additionally, the shoulder and pelvic girdles, which connect the limbs to the axial skeleton, add another 6 bones! With such a huge ‘majority’ stake; the limb is the ‘decision’ maker! or at least ‘implementer’! If you want to pick up something or do something, you need the limb! If you want to run away or towards the danger, you need the limb! Then again, like most ‘majority’; even if you have the number, you literally do not have the brain! The brain with absolutely no bone of its own which is like zero number, finally makes the decision! Then again the strongest bones are ’employed’ to protect it!

Interestingly, the largest bone in the human body is the femur, also known as the thigh bone. The smallest bone is the stirrup bone or my favourite stapes bone! which is located inside your ear drum. So your largest bone makes you run while the smallest makes you listen! Our whole life is spent between these two activities! We either run away or towards something or someone or we listen or try not to listen to something or someone!

Then you also have the boneless stomach which can eat and store anything and everything! But is does not have any protection like the brain which is may be why it tries to escape from the front as soon as you become an adult! The muscles are those security with absolutely no power than just the uniform unlike the bones which makes it difficult for them to control the stomach! Yes! You can use that to explain your pot belly!

By the way, even though it is surrounded by bones, even our tongue does not have any bone! Then again it also has no brain! Which is why it is free to say stuff which does not make sense while the upper limbs with no brain (again!) is free to type nonsense!

With all these going around though, you would realise that the limb and the tongue actually do not have any bad intent! That originates only from the boneless brain! The brain would make you do and say senseless stuff and leave you to face the brunt of ‘its’ actions while being safely tucked away in the center safe which is the skull! This is just like the center leaders who would incite the brainless limbs and tongues to cause problems and face the music so to speak while being safe themselves! Our body is a literal country!

Finally you have the court jester which tries to stay away because all this is really amusing or funny for it! Which is why this particular bone is called Humerus!

Occasionally though tongue not having a bone makes it and the other boneless structure like vocal cords produce amazing songs like by Hemanth da!

Now close your boneless eyes and sleep!

Shubh ratri!

A mother’s love has no equal for the simple fact that the child was a part of her body at some point! Yes, that is putting it bluntly but that is a fact!

The greatest issue in the world and people which causes depression and sadness and ironically sometimes happiness is; COMPARISON!

Some things cannot be compared and should not be compared! It is like how a child asks a parent which child the parent likes more! There can never be a true answer for that! Of course there would be circumstances which may force some change, but a parent would always love all his or her children equally!
The eldest may get more responsibility, the youngest some more liberty and well, the middle ones usually get a mixture of the two but always wanting for more of either!

There is no equation which can determine the exact amount!

On that note it is also not fair to compare a mother with a father!

Then again life is not a fairy tale! It actually begins when the fairy tale ends! They lived happily ever after is actually the beginning of endless struggles being a parent! Starting from the birth to the education and to the settling down! A parent is a parent for life!

In the modern age apart from the biological aspects, the ‘traditional’  roles of father and mother are no longer the same! You may have a father who cooks well and a mother who is the actual earning member of the family!

The stern father who may not express his love for the kids and would always first say no is changing! Our father and Grand Fathers do not remember the last time they hugged or kissed their father! Or even told them how they love them! You would have done that to your kids yesterday! Or maybe not! All fingers and fathers are not the same anyway!

In one book called the 48 laws of power, the author tells how a son can be better or at least as good as the father and one way is to select to do something very different than you father! To try and shine beyond your father’s legacy is difficult so it is better to create a new one!

Or the best way to go about is not to think about impressing anyone too much and simply try to be a better person than the man or the woman in the mirror every single day! Of course that is the theory!

What is a father’s day without a blog on, well; Father! Am sure Ganesh Acharya’s father would be proud of him!

All I can say for now is that I am proud of my father and I hope my daughter and son would be proud of me too!

Happy Father’s day!

Shubh ratri!

Do you know what is “tada yori takai mono wa nai.”

It is ok if you did not know! it is Japanese!

The translation is free but it comes with a cost!

The book 48 laws of power by Robert Greene talks about how that there is no free lunch! Which basically means that if you are getting something or someone for free then you will have to pay for it in one way or the other!

This is when he mentioned the above Japanese proverb, “tada yori takai mono wa nai.” which means that “There is nothing more expensive than something free”

It of course means that when you accept something for free, you might be asked to do something or pay for something else in return, so that you might end up having to spend more than what you thought you had gained!

Even when you read this blog for ‘free’ you are actually giving me something which is most important to you! Your time!

When you get some app or material for ‘free’ like lets say for a trial then you develop a sense of ownership and then you would not mind paying for it later since the loss of ownership is big!

One of the most common things which you get for free always is Opinion and advice! Those are the two things which are both useless and in fact dangerous!

There is also a big issue in which when you get something for free, you tend to expect it to be free always and when you have to pay for it then you feel let down!

This is specially true when you are down and someone gives you something for ‘free’! Later on this very ‘free’ gift would turn out to be so costly in the long run!

Politicians giving freebies are the worst! When you are using the state or country resources to give something for free then someone somewhere is actually paying the price for it!

Most of the times people get attracted to the magical word ‘FREE’ and end up paying much more that they bargained for! Like you get a free gift and you have to enter your credit card details for the nominal ‘delivery fee’! Since the free item is pretty big and you have been hooked, you would not mind paying the small fee! Only to end up being defrauded by a credit card scam!

Many of my patients who are close to me actually ask me to charge them something and not give the treatment for free since they feel that unless they make a payment, the treatment will not work!

So in this day and age, the most dangerous word is FREE!

Now pay for the song properly and listen to it! Maybe one composed by Pritam!?

Shubh ratri!

He was just an ordinary sailor but in the end he has not one but two continents named after him!

Some of the most amazing inspiring stories when you are growing up seem so unreal! Then finally you find out that it is unreal!

This story though would be as shocking as it comes!

In the novel Bill Bryson’s “Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States”; every page is a story worth telling!

One story was specially interesting!

So the person in context did make some voyages to the New World (authorities differ on whether it was three or four), but always as a passenger or lowly officer. He was not, by any means, an accomplished seaman. Yet in 1504-5, there began circulating in Florence letters of unknown authorship, collected under the title Nuovo Mundo (New World), which stated that he had not only been captain of these voyages but had discovered the New World!

The mistake would probably have gone no further except that an instructor at a small college in eastern France named Martin Waldseemüller was working on a revised edition of Ptolemy and decided to freshen it up with a new map of the world!

In the course of his research he came upon the Florentine letters and, impressed with their spurious account of the sailor’s exploits, named the continent in his honour.

Ok now enough of suspense! The name of the sailor was Amerigo Vespucci!

The continents named after him of course was America!

Of course it was first translated into the Latin Ame-ricus and then transformed that into its feminine form, America, on the ground that Asia and Europe were feminine. They also considered the name Amerige by the way!

Of course the fact of the matter remains that two whole continents are named after an obscure sailor who may have probably not even set foot on them!

That’s may make you smile! It’s needed nowadays…catch a P. V. Jagadish Kumar movie maybe!

Prayers and wishes…

Shubh Ratri…

Mother, father, husband, wife, son or daughter they were all. So many lives just in an instant. The friability of life cannot be more real…

The flight was on time, the numbers were sound. There were many who had hoped for this very day to go to a different country for the first time.

That student who burnt the midnight oil or the saw the rising sun for years and with persistence and conviction got the opportunity to go to UK! He or she would have just now tearfully said goodbye to his or her parents and near and dear ones! He or she would have felt gloomy and alone but comforted himself or herself about a bright future. Sadly there is no future…

The young professionals who would have gone for a business deal or for work or simply for better opportunity. Did they get to say goodbye? Well, it does not matter now anyway. All gone up in smokes…

The cute little family excited to go for that international trip! The little ones who could not decide which movie to watch or the older ones who would rather read a book. The mother who was thinking about food and the father who wanted to just catch some sleep. They will never have any troubles now…

The Manager who was unhappy in the economy and the CEO who wanted company in his Business class. The crash does not differentiate…

The crew who were just getting ready for a long haul of endless calls and service and blanket delivery; it does not matter now…

Those poor students who after a gruelling class and work simply wanted a hot meal or at least some meal even if it not home cooked and even if it tastes bad. They will never be hungry now…

All that argument, all that debate, those huge egos and those low self esteems; the crash did not care. It came in an instant and levelled everyone and everything.

My heart goes out to those poor souls. Pray to God to give their families strenght to get over this. Of course you can never get over the loss, but time can make you deal with it. Everytime now when you get on a Plane or even see one, all you can do is say a silent prayer and hope for the best.

Heartfelt condolences

Om shanti…

Do you know what’s a Bonobo!? Cool! Now do you know what is the connection between Bonobo and Google!?

Well, they say what is in a name!? The answer lies in the spelling says me!

Now in case you didn’t know what is a Bonobo! Then do not get angry if someone calls you that! Since it is both comforting and insulting depending on your mood!

Well, Bonobo, is the common name for apes!

So what is so special about this name, well it was the spelling error which made became permanent and then legendary! The same thing happened unintentionally with Google and intentionally with many brands!

So Bonobo  sounds like some sort of translation of a meaningful term, but in fact, it was the result of a typing error! Researchers reputedly first found the animals in the town of Bolobo, Zaire, in the ’20s, but the name of the place was misspelled “Bonobo” on the shipping crate in which the animal was placed, leading others to refer to the animal by the name, which stuck!

What about Google you say!? Well, the tech giant’s name was actually a misspelling of “googol,” the mathematical term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros!
When founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were brainstorming names for their search engine, they wanted something that represented the vast amount of information they planned to organize.

The misspelling happened during a domain name registration! Luckily they did not fire the ‘Bonobo’ who made the error but they kept it and built one of the most valuable brands in the world around this happy accident!

Taking inspiration from the Bonobo and Google you actually have so many instances of intentional misspelling!

Take Reddit for example (do not literally take it though!). So the popular discussion website’s name came from the phrase “read it,” as in “I read it on Reddit.” By removing the “a” and doubling the “d,” the founders created a unique, memorable name that cleverly referenced the site’s function while being easier to trademark!

Everyone also knows Flicker! This photo-sharing platform originally started as a feature within an online game called ‘Game Neverending’
!The developers wanted to name their photo service “Flicker,” but the exact domain name wasn’t available. Rather than choosing a different name altogether, they simply dropped the “e” and created the distinctive “Flickr.” This shorter, quirkier spelling became instantly recognizable and helped the brand stand out in the early days of social media!

Brands like Tublr, Netflix and ToysRUS all use this same strategy to intentionally misspell to create a unique brand name which sounds good but may give Sahshi a nightmare! Now do not be a Bonobo and concentrate on your spelling! Not all spelling errors would be tolerated! Then again if you are a journalist who is almost broke, you would do anything to survive! In this case, write and sell a novel to become a legendary novelist!

The Day of the Jackal was written to make some money! It made his life! My favourite though is The devils alternative! Then again I have read all his works! The Odessa files to the Avenger; the Afghan to the Cobra to the Kill list! His short stories called the Veteran would give the master short story writer Jeff tough competition!

His last was one of his best! It was called The Fox! When the world of espionage met a hacker! Frederick Forsyth, you were a legend! Your work will be remembered forever!

The Dogs of war do not negotiate!

That will do Fred…

In the story narrated by you or your story, you are always the lead! The whole story is your point of view!

In the sense of the world if you are wrong then it is the whole world which is wrong while you are just in the wrong place at the wrong time!

Then again, if you are right then you are, well, alone!

The same thing happens in any issue! There is a minimum of two point of view! Sometimes many more! The biggest example is in a family where each of the spouse has a different version of the same story! Or the siblings have a different take on the same ‘fight’!

In the novel “The Clifton Chronicles by Jeffery Archer (the last tolerable Novel by him!)”; the Jeff presents three different versions of the same story!

The start was so good and so complicated! To write three different point of view of the same event or story was nothing short of extraordinary! Of course he could not stick to that line of storytelling and the novel just tumbled down in the series! So much so that I was just waiting for the closure!

But the very fact that a single event can have different interpretation is dependent on an effect called the Rashomon effect!

The “Rashomon effect” refers to the phenomenon where multiple witnesses to the same event provide contradictory accounts, leading to uncertainty about what truly happened.

It’s named after Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 film Rashomon, which explores this concept through the differing narratives of four witnesses to a crime. There have been many movies and stories both from reel and real which have been affected by this affect!

The same incident even in the era of reels and social media everywhere can have different interpretation!

Of course the legal issue is that the Rashomon effect highlights the unreliability of eyewitness testimony due to factors like individual biases, selective memory, and the influence of social and cultural contexts.

In Rashomon, the audience hears four different versions of a murder, each from a different character’s perspective, raising questions about the objectivity of truth.
The term has been adopted in various fields, including law, psychology, and film, to describe the phenomenon of contradictory accounts and the potential for misinterpretations of events.

The Rashomon effect underscores the idea that truth can be subjective and multiple perspectives can exist, even when describing the same event.
In legal settings, the term is used to describe how different witnesses might present conflicting accounts of the same incident, which can make it difficult for jurors to determine the truth!

The effect is not limited to legal issues also! You can have the same effect in day to day interactions and each and every walk of life! A 6 from your point of view is 9 from the other side! So next time you are in a argument you can think either about -(Dash) mon (if you are a mallu!) or Rashomon or padukon! The last one was only to get Prakash Padukone!

Now hopefully all would agree at least in this part of the World that it’s time to sleep!

Shubh ratri!

When you hear the words Retina display or Megapixel your eyes literally become wide! Now cameras use the eye as the role model!

Now remember that nifty feature of landscape and portrait mode! Or how accurately your phone ‘maps’ your direction and takes you to the proper place! When there is a change, the phone tells you to ‘recenter’!

Well all that and many features of the phone are inspired by your EARS!

The ear is the a major component of your balance and orientation! Of course the brain is the most important and integral part but the ears give the most amazing signals!

There is a fluid deep inside our ear called the endolymph in the inner which are responsible for balance! In very simple terms the changes in the fluid when we move tells our body of our position and makes the brain maintain balance!

We have specific ‘parts’ of even the inner ear which detects position when you are standing still and when you are moving! We also have a complex array of canals which ‘detect’ the motions and orientation in all the three dimension! A complex interplay of these canals keep you, well straight!

As otologists and as balance specialists; we are still understanding the complex interplay of all the canals and the signals to the brain, but the concept has been very well utilised in the design of your phone!

So a Phone orientation detection relies on the synergy of three key sensors: the accelerometer, which measures linear acceleration and gravity, the gyroscope, which tracks angular velocity and rotation, and the magnetometer, which senses the Earth’s magnetic field, collectively working together to provide a comprehensive understanding of the device’s position and orientation!

Accelerometer design which is a direct inspiration from the inner ear consists of a small device that contains a mass that is suspended by a spring. When the phone is tilted or rotated, the mass moves, and the spring stretches. The amount of stretching of the spring is proportional to the acceleration forces acting on the phone. The accelerometer converts this information into an electrical signal that can be read by the phone’s operating system!

The accelerometer can also be used to detect changes in the phone’s orientation when it is not being held in your hand. For example, if you put the phone on a table and then shake it, the accelerometer will detect the changes in acceleration forces and use this information to determine that the phone is being shaken!

The gyroscope contains a spinning wheel that is suspended by a gimbal. The gimbal is a set of three rings that allow the spinning wheel to rotate freely in any direction! You will be surprised to know that even we have three canals which detect the ‘angular’ movement and in any given moment at least two and many times three canals are stimulated which signals the brain on the direction and orientation! It is simply mind boggling!

When the phone is tilted or rotated, the spinning wheel tries to maintain its original direction of rotation. This creates a force on the spinning wheel that is proportional to the rotational forces acting on the phone. The gyroscope converts this force into an electrical signal that can be read by the phone’s operating system.

The gyroscope is also sensitive to changes in the phone’s orientation. When the phone is rotated, the spinning wheel will start to rotate in the opposite direction.
The gyroscope is a very sensitive sensor and can detect very small changes in the phone’s orientation. This makes it ideal for applications that require precise measurements of orientation, such as virtual reality and augmented reality!

The magnetometer contains a magnet that is surrounded by a coil of wire. The magnet is free to rotate in any direction. When the phone is placed in a magnetic field, the magnet aligns itself with the field. This movement of the magnet generates an electrical signal in the coil of wire. The magnetometer is sensitive to the Earth’s magnetic field and so the magnetometer will measure a slightly different value of the magnetic field depending on the phone’s orientation. The phone’s operating system can use this information to determine the phone’s orientation relative to the Earth’s magnetic field!

Most of the phones you have right now especially the high end phones have all of these complex instruments and sensors inside which guide you day in and out! The next time you see and photo in the portrait and landscape mode immediately the moment you turn the phone, take a moment to appreciate the complex interplay involved and also marvel the ‘nature or creator’s’ design of the inner ear which made all this possible!

Possible is also the motto of Kiran Bedi!

Now, remember how you can walk in a dark theatre!? It’s because of your inner ear!

Think about it!

Shubh ratri!