ramadocblog

Think of detective and Sherlock and maybe Poirot come into your mind! But having read most stories of sherlock and Poirot; I have a special bias to Byomkesh dada! Of course it is because his stories are relatable for an Indian since they occur in the by lanes of India!

Unlike Sherlock or Poirot; Byomkesh was not quirky and was not exceptional! He was like the Batman of Superheroes! Mere mortal in every sense which made him more closer to the audience and readers!

One of the best stories (there are many!) is in which he meets a person in a function who happens to be a police official (If my memory serves right but that is not important!); the officer then proceeds to tell a surprising story in which they could not find the suspect who had apparently disappeared! The twist was that with a twinkle in his eye Byomkesh tells the official that “I know who is the culprit!”  The official is taken aback when he and we the audience realise that it was the official who was the culprit all along who either overestimated his own intelligence or underestimated Byomkesh! In hindi the story is called Anjaan Khooni!

Then again Byomkesh is a mortal in every sense!

In fact, like every other mortal Byomkesh gets old, gets married and has a kid! He even gets a small plot of land in Kolkata and makes a small house there like a middle class Indian!

Of course I never liked the fact that he smoked! But his love for tea was tolerable! Which again makes him a mortal!

Byomkesh never like the name detective or investigator but he called himself the seeker of truth! The original novels were written in Bengali though you can get the translated ones! Or you can watch the famous DD serial starring Rajat as Byomkesh!

So when Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay created his Satyanveshi or the seeker of truth Byomkesh Bakshi, he never thought that the character will become so famous!

In fact just like return of Sherlock Holmes after Reichenbach Falls, after a hiatus of four years he started writing Byomkesh stories again! His last story of Byomkesh was unfortunately not complete.

In an interesting twist he had predicted that  Satyabati (Byomkesh’s wife) would never own a car! In the last story she was waiting for a taxi and finally Byomkesh compromised and thought of getting a second hand car! The story was not completed since Sharadindu passed away suddenly without writing the end which is the best part of his stories! Satyabati though never got that car just like how Sharadindu predicted!

In the crowd of Sherlock and Poirot, do not forget Byomkesh! Like we do remember Sunita but let us not forget Butch Wilmore also! Here’s to Butch! Welcome home!

SHubh Ratri!

Sometimes knowledge is a tricky thing! Too many options spoil the choice! It is like when you have time during weekend and then you decide to watch a movie with the family! 

Now if it was the once a week movie in DD; you simply had no choice! All work would be done and you will promptly sit in front of the TV and watch the movie in between the ads and maybe even the news!

Now you do not have ads and the time is yours and you have a thousand movie to choose! But still you have difficulty in selecting what to see! You have more than one option but still may not be hundred percent sure which is the best!

Welcome to the state of Epistemic Ambivalence!

First you must know what is Ambivalence!

So Ambivalence  is the emotional state often arises in complex relationships, where an individual’s feelings are influenced by conflicting behaviors or traits of the other person. For example, you might like your friend but also feel frustration due to his or her annoying habits! You also respect and love your parents but know that they are not perfect since neither are you!

Epistemic Ambivalence is almost the opposite idea of what ambivalence means because to be epistemic means you know, you are sure! 

Epistemic ambivalence is when you may know the truth of a situation but cannot say which truth it is, because there is more than one option!

Confused!? Well, imagine a situation and then imagine more than one option. Or imagine a parallel universe where more than one option exists at the same time though in this universe only one of the options is true!

Epistemic Ambivalence creates a delicate interplay between uncertainty and confidence, distinguishing it from epistemic uncertainty that typically diminishes with new information. 

It’s like Schrodinger’s cat analogy where you can have both options!

Doctors face this many times since they have the option of treating a condition in more ways than one and depending on the situation every option may be different but still valid and may work! Then again you may never know which is right or wrong till you do it! Of course that is experience! In medical practice that is one of the most important factor! 

Then again Epistemic Ambivalence may just be another fancy term to confuse us all the way to space! Anyway that talk about space and you know our stranded Astronauts who had a plan of maybe some days, ended up for months so far away uncertain of the future! 

For them and in fact majority of people in the world, life needs to be simple! A routine which is a dream for many and not some fancy sounding word!

Wishing Sunita Williams and  Butch Wilmore a comfortable night’s sleep with gravity on a cozy bed on Earth!

Oh yeah! You already have that don’t you!?

shubh ratri!

Life leson time!

Next time if you are preparing to make an important decision in your life and you are troubled whether it is right or wrong then you must drink a lot of water, make the ac super cool and wait for the bladder to fill up!

Apparently you make great decision on a full bladder! Full mind, well that it not very important!

This theory which got an Ignoble award was put forward by Mirjam Tuk!

Mirjam Tuk is from the faculty of behavioural sciences at the University of Twente, Netherlands. She and her colleagues won an Ig Nobel prize in medicine for their research into the effects of controlling your bladder on your ability to control decisions in other areas. The Ig Nobels, in their 21st year, are awarded for improbable research that “first makes people laugh and then makes them think”!

Of course it is intended to be taken in proper spirit or in this case, water!

But there is research into bladder and decision making which can actually make sense and maybe get a Noble next time!

Tuk came up with the idea after drinking several cups of coffee in an attempt to stay alert during a long lecture about biological factors that have a detrimental impact on self-control.

This made her and her team to experiment on her hypothesis!

One such experiment involved asking participants either to drink five cups of water or take small sips from five cups. Forty minutes later, the average amount of time it takes water to reach the bladder, participants were asked to make eight choices that would affect whether they received a small reward immediately or a large award later on!

The researchers also found that simply thinking about urination had the same effect in similar experiments.

Does that mean we should wait until our bladders are full before deciding whether to buy that house or car, invest in a certain stock or make a marriage proposal?

Well; take a drink of water and find out!
Now of course if the decision is to be the James Gordon in Gotham then Gary Leonard Oldman is definitely a choice made in a full…ahem brain!

Now don’t try that before you sleep! Don’t drink and sleep!

Shubh ratri!

Some dress materials like the Silk and the Suits are costly! But they are actually more costly to maintain!

This is of `course because they have to be dry cleaned!

Also it was invented because of a clumsy maid!

Now everyone knows that in dry cleaning garments are placed in a large dry-cleaning machine, which uses a solvent that removes dirt and oils. While normal washing uses water to flush out dirt, the dry cleaning solvent cleans without saturating the fabric with water!

Giving clothes for laundry is such a rich thing to do! So those days it was reserved only for the clothes which were actually rich! Since they would always be returned ironed and cleaned it was like getting a new dress again!

Specially our dhoti or suits or sometimes even some high priced shirt! If you are too lazy to clean and iron and take care while throwing it in the washing machine, the best alternative is to send it for dry cleaning!

Now of course it is a mighty industry and dry cleaning is only a small part of it! They are now the stain removal experts! They of course survive on bedsheets and carpets! The history though like most history is really interesting and not at all dry!

The history of dry cleaning is associated with Jean Baptiste Jolly who worked in the clothing industry as a textile maker in France which is supposed to be the origin of dry cleaning!

The French Federation of Dyeing and Cleaning gives an account of a servant in the household of Jean-Baptiste Jolly in Paris in 1825 who spilled the contents of a lamp on a soiled tablecloth.

When the tablecloth dried, the spots had disappeared!

The liquid in the lamp was probably camphene, produced from pinene, which is the main ingredient of turpentine. Camphene was initially used as a spotting agent, but it was later used for complete cleaning by hand.

Use of volatile organic liquids to clean cloths became known as ‘French cleaning’ in Scotland and ‘chemical cleaning’ in Germany!
Eventually, such processes were called ‘dry cleaning’ because they do not involve the use of water!

A dirty cloth, a clumsy maid and broken lamp with an astute observer created a very successful modern industry of dry cleaning! A great voice and some training with real talent can create success like Alka Yagnik!

Listen to some songs by her and think about which dress to give for dry cleaning soon!

Shubh ratri!

You say the same thing in your native language and then someone else comes and speaks in English with an accent then more often than not, he or she will get all the attention!

Thats quomodo sit! No, that was not a spelling mistake!

But read on to realise that though now English gets a high enough respect, at one time it was considered to be crude and barbaric!

So now Impromptu means spontaneous or without preparation, Quid pro Quo means “of equal exchange or substitution.” Literally, it means “something for something”

Per se is In itself, intrinsically, of an inherent nature while A Priori is Based on hypothesis or theory, rather than experience. Derived by logic, with no observed facts!

Ad hoc mean for one specific case, many times can be replace by “specific”.
Bona Fide indicates Unquestionable or in good faith while Pro Rata is Proportionally, in equal parts and Ergo means Therefore, consequently.

Finally Audio literally means I hear while Video means I see!
Also the Thats quomodo sit above means ‘That is how it is!’

What’s great about these words is that they are all latin in origin!
Yes! What you actually pronounce is the literal meaning in Latin!

In fact one of the most derived languages in the world in English and Latin is the source for more than two thirds of the words in English!

For every word rooted in a “barbarian” tongue like Anglo-Saxon, there is a word from the Latin for the same thing. So writers can choose between the Old English “face” or the Latin “visage”; “hear” or “auditory”; “touch” or “sense.”!

Latin is often referred to as a Mother Tongue because so many modern languages descend from her. These include French, Romanian, Italian, Spanish, and many others. These are called “Romantic” languages because they descend directly from the “Roman” tongue, Latin!

But English is not a Romantic language. It is a West Germanic language that developed far away from Rome.

And yet, over 60% of English words are Latin-based. These tend to be the longer and fancier words, so the more syllables you add, the higher the percentage.

In the 15th century, English had produced no great poets, philosophers, or playwrights.

But they were seen as the exception that prove the rule: English was a lowly, crude, and “barbaric” language with little literary or artistic value!

Any great minds or artists to come out of England at this time preferred to write in Latin. They thought English was inadequate for lofty ideas or artistic expression! Now of course the whole thing is changed!

That is history! Language and customs and civilizations which were actually top notch or most developed even before many had started making clothes unfortunately get no respect while the ‘remixed’ language and neo cultures get the craze!

Then again, gold may get old but it will always glitter while the Aluminium will fade eventually!
Old comedy reminds me of the old movies of Goundamani! Now I have never been his fan since his usual bit used to be a combination of body shaming and just abuse! Then again after watching some stand up nowadays with only curses and expletives; I guess he was much better!

Guess Thats quomodo sit! Or that is how it is!

Now bonum noctis! Or shubh ratri in Latin!

The stereotypical scientist is usually the one with the white coat who is clumsy and awkward!

He or she may not be very steady in spite of not having a drink of alcohol!

Butterfingers is his or her middle name!

But a keen curious scientific mind will compensate! A butterfinger scientist’s clumsiness is now responsible for one of the greatest inventions in glass!

Actually even Butterfingers has an interesting story!

A butterfingers is someone with a clumsy tendency to drop things they’re holding. Being a butterfingers is considered a particularly bad trait in baseball, for obvious reasons. The common use of this term by sportscasters in the 1920s inspired the name for the newly-invented candy known as Butterfinger!

One such butterfingers was Edward!


One fateful day in 1903, scientist Edward Benedictus was working in his lab when he accidentally knocked over a flask.

However, when Benedictus looked down, he noticed that rather than breaking into a million little pieces, the glassware had actually just cracked slightly while maintaining its shape!

Further investigation made him realize that a film had formed on the inside of the vessel! The vessel had contained an alcohol solution of collodion, a plastic made by treating cotton with a mixture of sulfuric and nitric acids!

When the solvent evaporated, a film of plastic was left on the inside of the glass. An interesting observation but Benedictus thought no more of it until he read a story about a young girl being cut by glass in one of the first automobile accidents. He then spent the night trying to make a coating on glass and within a day had produced the first sheet of “safety glass” which he named “triplex” since it consisted of a sandwich of two sheets of glass with a film of cellulose nitrate in-between!

Even if the glass broke, the pieces were held in place by the plastic layer!

In 1909, Benedictus applied for a patent and triplex went into production. The first practical use turned out to be in the face shields of WW I gas masks, but by the 1920s triplex became a standard item in American automobiles!

One problem was that the cellulose nitrate yellowed with age. In 1933, triplex was replaced by cellulose acetate, which was not quite as strong but did not yellow. The synthetic resin, poly(vinyl butyral) eventually was found to be superior and has now been the standard in windshields since 1939.

And it all began when a chemist couldn’t hold on to a flask because of his butterfingers! And then we got the safety glass which is a class apart! A big class apart and very much loved by one and all was also Puneeth Rajkumar
aka Appu! He will not be forgotten for sure…

OM shanthi…

Shubh ratri!

Do you know what is Overview effect!?

Well, it is profound! Just as the astronauts who were stranded in ISS for nine months are coming back soon; they all would have faced this effect looking at the Earth from above!

The feeling that our planet is just a simple fragile speck in the whole Universe!

That is called the Overview effect!

The overview effect is a cognitive shift reported by some astronauts while viewing the Earth from space.

Researchers have characterized the effect as “a state of awe with self-transcendent qualities, precipitated by a particularly striking visual stimulus”.

The most prominent common aspects of personally experiencing the Earth from space are appreciation and perception of beauty, unexpected and even overwhelming emotion, and an increased sense of connection to other people and the Earth as a whole!

The effect can cause changes in the observer’s self concept and value system, and can be transformative.

Of course you do not have to spend nine months in the ISS to get these effect! If you face a life changing experience then you would start to realise that fact life is so fragile that you must enjoy and take care of it as much as possible! You must appreciate the small things in life which are actually the best!

For many people, a regular office job with a steady salary and more or less steady health is Utopia!

The effect on astronauts seems to take hold of astronauts regardless of culture or nation of origin and it has been observed that cultural differences, including differences in religious and social identity, affect the ways in which the effect is experienced and interpreted.

Author Frank White, who in the 1980s coined the term overview effect after interviewing many astronauts, said that the overview effect is “beyond words”, requiring experience to understand, even likening it in this regard to Zen Buddhism!

He said that astronauts’ very first views of the planet were generally very significant, adding that some experience the effect “in a moment” while in others it grows over time; and generally that the effect “does accumulate”.

Of course not all astronauts experience the overview effect.
This is true for professional astronauts, who are focused on their missions—versus people who have recently been going into space “with an intention to have an experience” and who may already be aware of the overview effect. Also it depends on the time of stay which can have a profound effect on the feeling of the finite nature of life!

Of course many state that it may actually a mental disorder stating that the effect embodies a natural imperative for humans to pursue space travel and colonization! In fact there is a concern that a perception of having achieved a new level of enlightenment can cause a feeling of ‘divine experience’ which can actually lead to what some call the “overlord effect” akin to some spiritual guru having a divine transformation!

Then again, it is better to not over analyse things too much and just be happy that they are coming back! Just remember that seeing our home against the blackness of space is a profound experience that leads to a greater appreciation for Earth and its apparent fragility, and a deep connection to humanity as a whole!

And this is a feeling for anyone who has been away from his or her family for a long time! For them simply spending time with their family is pure bliss! Bliss is also listening to music and for some listening to poetry! Which reminds me of the legendary
Devanahalli Venkataramanaiah Gundappa, popularly known as DVG! Celebrate his birth anniversary by reading couple of his great works and you will feel bliss and sleep well!

Shubh ratri!

The safest ice cream is the vanilla but for many, the preferred ice cream is the chocolate! Then you have the smell of chocolate or freshly baked chocolate cookies! You can now almost feel Elsa and Anna say to each other, “What’s that smell? oooh! Chocolate!!”

Many who actually love the chocolate and the chocolate flavoured stuff actually like only the sugar though! Then again the famous cookies made popular by the series Friends was in fact a sugar sweet accident!

The truth and more importantly (you may ask what is more important than truth; well it’s chocolate!) cocoa is bitter!

That’s because flavanol-rich cocoa has a bitter taste, so sweet manufacturers add lots of fats and sugars to create commercial delicious tasting chocolate!

Even the famed chocolate milk shake is simply sugar with chocolate flavour! You like the sweet! Of course cocoa does enhance the flavour and boosts the  taste so it is not all in vain! Which is why you can add some to your coffee like me! Not to filter coffee though! That’s blasphemy!

Chocolate is defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica as a “food product made from cocoa beans”, which come from the cacao tree.

Cacao is actually Greek meaning “food of the gods.”
The Beans harvested from the cacao tree are processed into cocoa powder or cocoa butter which is then incorporated into a wide variety of foods and beverages. Cacao trees were first cultivated more than 3,000 years ago by the Maya, Toltec, and Aztec peoples, and used in ceremonial beverages, currency, and even as a treasured item to be buried along with dignitaries for the afterlife!


Now remember Phoebe’s french grandmother who made the best chocolate chip cookies and turned out to be Nestle Toll house!? That was funny! But how the cookie were invented is actually chocolatey and sweet!

Ruth Graves Wakefield (where have you heard that before!? Corn flour and baking powder perhaps!?) was the co-owner of the Toll House Inn.

One fine day she was preparing some chocolate cookies for her guests when she realized that she was out of baker’s chocolate!
Thinking on her feet, Wakefield decided to chop up a block of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate, assuming that it would melt and spread evenly throughout the batter!

Instead, what came out of the oven was the very first batch of chocolate chip cookies! It was called the Nestle Toll house cookies! Now of course you have dozens of varieties of these cookies but that was the first and probably the best!

Hopefully all that chocolate talk made you hungry!

If not listen to some songs by Sreekumaran Thampi and maybe it will stimulate your taste buds!

Have a chocolate sweet sleep!

Shubh ratri!

Technology of the Gods; The incredible sciences of the Ancients by David Hathcher Childress

Audiobook read by Paul Woodson

Non fiction Genre

Close to ten hours of listening time but to understand the amount of information given may take time

In the beginning itself the author states that many of the ‘claims’ have to be considered with an open mind!

He states that technology is really amazing since we do not know what actually happened!

He also states that the history is always written by the winner!

So skeptics and those who questions even their own mirror image are sincerely advised to skip this book!

One of the first things to discuss was the fact about drainage and sanitation!
The author give so many examples of the fact all over the world! How closed drainage and freshwater (though available in most places only for the upper echelons of the society) were available in many houses and places! How Romans had amazing drainage systems! How hygiene was of prime importance and thus maintained in ancient India!

The two chief civilizations which has been praised for their knowledge and may be even magic and technological prowess beyond imagination is Indian and Egyptian!

One of the widely speculated and interesting work is on the mysteries of the Sphinx and the Pyramids! With so many speculations and theories you can very well know that no one knows what and how they were made! No one can even say confirmatively on what what the function of these structures!

The wild theories are then not limited by imagination!

Then the author almost eulogises the great works of India namely the Mahabharata and Ramayana (of course he gets most of the pronounciation and stories wrong!). He also tells about the surgical techniques as enumerated in Sushruta Samhita and of the secrets and designs of an advanced flying machine in Vimana Shasthra!

Not to forget the description of the weapons of mass destruction in vivid detail! In fact one of the description was eerily close to the description of the nuclear bomb of the modern time!

Even if you think of the description of the flying crafts mentioned in these books as simple flights of fantasy, the technical description will certainly shock you and how!

Then you have the Mercury vortex! This is like the power system of the ancient times and the author gives a lot of examples of their use!

He also gives examples of previous nuclear explosion like the glass sheets which could have happened only if the sand had melted in very high temperature like maybe during a nuclear explosion!

In many places it has also been suggested that the Earth is like a power source and many structures are like power stations!

A whole section about the Pyramids including many theories on their structure and functions including and not limited to alien technology!

Of course you need a very high level of openness to even start accepting even the most basic explanation!


There signs of an highly developed civilization called the atlantis all over the world which is by the megalithic structures and many cities found underwater. Here the author also mentions how the kingdom of Ram in India was also a well developed one! He states how the developed world of today is simply a redeveloped world!

There have been evidences of modern and primitive people or civilizations living together and it is likely that we were the primitive civilization of the past who have simply reached the development already attained by a previous civilization ages ago! The evidences of their glorious past are either indirect or it is possible that the advanced weaponry developed by them finally lead to their destruction! He also mentions how we are also going in the same path!

He also tells the story of osiris and how his ‘pieces’ are buried in different places of importance in relation to technology for instance.

A section about metallurgy states the fact that separation of metals is a complex and advanced science which has been around for ages and there have been evidences of this all over the world! This includes the separation of iron and other metals.

But the most interesting this is the separation of aluminium since that separation from the ore Bauxite needs electrolysis! Which of course needs electricity! So if aluminium is found in ancient times then it may point towards the fact that the ancient people had access to electricity in one way or the other?

Then he mentions about the mercury vortex engine and the separation and uses of mercury linking it to even the modern use which was pretty interesting to say the least!

Then another chapter on ancient electricity! Yes!  2000 years old electrical battery! 

Then a chapter on ancient flight and aerial warfare! Here you have ancient rockets and aircrafts!

Then you have accounts of ancient atomic warfares all over the world not to leave out Ramayana and Mahabharata! Imagine that the fused green glass was found which could only be formed by such great explosions!

Of course a large section has been dedicated to the mystery of Egypt like the Sphinx and the Pyramids. Since no one knows who, why and how they were built; the speculations are so many and many of them are really creative!

In one section he tells about this old chamber where there was a specific frequency which was the resonant frequency all over and in fact even in Indian history this frequency is deemed important further supporting the notion as power stations of the Earth! A 438! Sounds very mysterious and historical indeed!

All in all you must have a open and imaginative mind to even begin to read or listen to this one!

A thrilling ride nevertheless!

Do you know what is a mainspring!?

Lemme tell you a little story first!

Took my wrist watch one fine day and thought of repairing it! It did not matter that I was only 12 years old! I saw a small thread like structure sticking out! Thought that it is obstructing the tick of the watch and took it out!

That was the moment I decided to not become an engineer!

What I had removed was the heart of the watch called the mainspring!

A mainspring is a spiral torsion spring of metal ribbon—commonly spring steel—used as a power source in mechanical watches, some clocks, and other clockwork mechanisms. Winding the timepiece, by turning a knob or key, stores energy in the mainspring by twisting the spiral tighter. The force of the mainspring then turns the clock’s wheels as it unwinds, until the next winding is needed!

Now do you wonder why watches are called watches!? Of course you are a normal person who does not take out the mainspring of a watch and wonder these things but in case you do then this is why a watch is presumably called a watch!

The watch was developed by inventors and engineers from the 16th century to the mid-20th century as a mechanical device, powered by winding a mainspring which turned gears and then moved the hands; it kept time with a rotating balance wheel.

So one account of the origin of the word “watch” suggests that it came from the Old English word woecce which meant “watchman”, because town watchmen used watches to keep track of their shifts.

Or like many old theories, this could also be related to the sea! This states that the term came from 17th-century sailors, who used the new mechanisms to time the length of their shipboard watches (duty shifts)!

I love to watch watches! The different clocks and the wrist watches give me so much thrill! The regular ticking of the old mechanical watches still gives me a sense of routine and regularity! It could be because I like to be punctual and looking at the time or ‘watch’ every other instant is a habit and a curse! Which is why when I do not have access to time, I feel the time is getting lost or wasted!

So in spite of having an assortment of digital watches, one of my favourite is still the mechanical pocket watch which I have! I take it out, check the time which is mostly wrong and put it back again! Yeah! That is definitely a waste of time or being crazy!

Then what would you call someone who buys a watch which basically tells you the same time for $55 million dollars!?

Do you know the costliest watch in the world? Well, for now Claiming the title of the world’s most expensive watch is the Hallucination by Graff Diamonds.
The watch is set into a platinum bracelet and made from 110 carats of rare coloured diamonds of various cuts and finishes and if you use your bargaining skills, you can get it for around 55 millions dollars (taxes extra!)

If that’s making your head spin, you can unspin by watching a Rohit Shetty movie! Full paise wasool!

Now watch your watch for alarm and sleep!

Shubh ratri!