0.

Introduction 4

1. The MacGuffin 5

2. Comet Tails 6

3. Greek Sculptures 7

4. Mushy Facts 9

5. Productivity Bias 10

6. Cookie! 11

7. A Genre is Born 12

8. Unexpected Chain of Events 13

9. Time Perception 14

10. Shakespeare 15

11. Seneca Cliff 16

12. Pythagoras 17

13. Masters of the Toy Universe 20

14. Show me the money 21

15. Give and Take 23

16. Words can hurt me 24

17. Caution, high voltage 25

18. Learning Styles 26

19. Measure it well 27

20. The Blues 28

21. Feline Factoids 29

22. The Two Rebellions 30

23. To the Bitter End 31

24. Inventing Poetry 32

25. Aesthetic Labour 33

26. Anchor in troubled waters 35

27. (Mis) Information Age 36

28. Zeno’s Paradox 38

29. Inevitable Chaos 40

30. Laundry List 42

31. And since we’re talking about clothes…. 43

32. Powerful lies 44

33. Sellout, Burnout, Rinse and Repeat 46

34. Marketing the ick 48

35. Science is Unbiased… 51

36. Pizza Break 53

37. It’s a date! 54

38. Absent Love 56

39. What’s My Age Again? 57

40. Lightbender 59

41. Razor Sharp 61

42. Trollin’ 62

43. Built to Break 63

44. Barnum-ing Myself 65

45. Order of Language 67

46. The Third Place 69

47. Common Confusions 71

48. A Light Conversation 72

49. Origin of Life 74

50. A Super Turnaround 75

51. Grass is Greener 76

52. The End 78

- Epilogue 80
 Introduction
People from my generation are often jokingly described as having been
“raised by the internet”. I was 13 years old when my parents bought a
dial up connection for our home. It changed my world forever- I could
access journals and books, talk to strangers, connect with friends, and
discover music and poetry that I wouldn’t have known otherwise. So,
there’s a grain of truth in that sentence – the internet is responsible for a
vast array of knowledge that I wouldn’t have gained otherwise. At 14, it
helped me learn about the pop punk scene in the US, while being a kid
from a small Indian town. At 20, NPTEL* lectures helped me pass
GATE and BITSAT and get into a master’s degree without expensive
tutorials.

Alas, as a millennial hitting my late thirties, I realise that the internet for
most part has been reduced to a handful of social media sites, mindless
scrolling and dark patterns trying to sell us stuff. Advertisements
everywhere, sometimes creepily close to what we were just talking about. I
sought to make this year a year of mindful consumption again, and I turn to
my student life patterns – making notes, cross-checking them with sources
or trying things out on my own. I took the advice “follow your curiosity”
seriously and realised that my curiosity is not an ant patiently marching in
line, it is a butterfly flitting about. In these 52 weeks, I learnt recipes and
cleaning tips. Ideas and discussion points. Facts and opinions. Mundane
things like laundering clothes properly. Not-so-mundane things like the
reason for a comet usually appearing green. But any bit of information
made it to this book, please note that it is a jumping-off point. It is not an
in-depth analysis, it is simply what occupied my brain for a few days,
leading me to wikipedia and youtube spirals. I hope that something in here
catches your eye, and that it leads you down an internet burrow of your
own. Just be mindful – and always read up more. Caveats done, let’s go!

* National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning: a series of lectures by professors

from various Indian Institutes of Technology
 1.
The MacGuffin

Plot device used by filmmakers, usually associated with Alfred

Hitchcock, though the term was not coined by him. A MacGuffin is
something that moves the plot along but is ultimately totally
replaceable to the narrative. For example, the heart of the ocean in
Titanic- the necklace may as well have been a suitcase of money or a
tiara – it doesn’t matter. The same can be said for the suitcase in Pulp
Fiction.

George Lucas tried to make the MacGuffin into something the

audience cared about – but most critics do NOT think that this is the
correct use of the term.

Hopefully, you can use this in conversation with your cinephile

friends! Speaking of cinephiles, other terms you could drop in
conversation with your screenwriting enthusiast friends – Deus ex
machina, Chekhov’s gun and big dumb object (just make sure that
you know what these are, first :D)

Why do I start here? Because my best friend is a cinephile and I need

to converse intelligently with him. Whenever he recommends a movie
or a show, I tend to deep dive into it (my brain is obsessive) and I
have to find all the tropes and techniques used in it. As you can
imagine, this is a time consuming process and I have therefore
watched about 10% of the movies that he has recommended. We will
get there someday.
 2.
Why are comets usually green?
Colours of cosmic objects are very useful in determining the chemical
nature of the object. In the 1930s, Gerhard Herzberg, Nobel laureate in
Chemistry, guessed that the process behind the green comet glow might
involve a molecule made from two carbon atoms bonded
together, called dicarbon. This molecule reacts almost instantly with
oxygen, and so is very rarely seen on the Earth. Comets contain
acetylene (the gas that we use for welding), and the carbon can break
free of the acetylene molecule and form a dicarbon (C 2 molecule).
However- heat from the Sun breaks the dicarbon apart and it gets
pushed back to the tail. Hence, the green glow is missing in the tail and
seen only in the core.

(Image Source: https://bigthink.com/hard-science/green-comet/)

So, our high end telescopes and spectroscopy proved that Herzberg was
right all the way back in the 30s (even though he did not get the
mechanism right).

The next comet sighting is expected to be on December 25, 2023.

Comet Tsuchinshan is likely to be visible from most of the northern
hemisphere. Let’s hope we get to witness it. If not – the night sky is full
of wonders, nonetheless.
 3.
The Myth of White Ancient Sculptures

When we think of ancient Greek or Roman sculptures, we think of

alabaster marble columns with no surface paints or embellishment. That
is how we found them, but there is sufficient evidence to show that the
original sculptures were brightly painted. The paint simply wore away
after centuries of ruin. The recreations with the original paint look gaudy
by contrast! Unfortunately, that just goes to show that our idea or
“gaudy” or “elegant” was misinformed. Western media very much
whitewashed its own history to twist it into the ideals of minimalism,
taste, and elegance. Since ancient Greece was to be upheld as the
pinnacle of aesthetics, mainstream scholars presented Greek history as it
fit their own ideals of beauty.
In those days, maintaining white clothes and décor was a lot more
difficult (commercial bleach was not yet invented) – so those pure white
robes that you think of were likely a shade of dusty pink.

(Side note – this is why blue ink was more popular earlier- the pages
were yellow, not white, and blue contrasts the best with yellow, making
the words easier to read. Now, black ink is the standard for printing
because the paper we use is bleached white.)
(Image source: https://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/gods-in-
colour2.jpg)
 4.
A fun fact

And by fun, I mean everyone’s favourite fungus, the mushroom! Button,

Cremini, and Portobello are the same mushroom! In their youngest stage,
they are called button mushrooms (or champignon, if you’re French or
fancy). They grow a bit more and are sold as cremini mushrooms. And if
they grow lovely and large, they are then called portobello mushrooms.
This also explains why portobellos are the most expensive of the lot –
somebody had to look after that growing mushroom for a lot longer.

(Image source: https://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/images/agpcw.jpg)

 5.
Sometimes, it is better to do nothing.

Penalty shootouts are super fun to watch during football matches, but
they also tell us something about human nature. There is a fairly equal
probability that the kick would be aimed left, right or centre- but the
goalies dive left or right, almost never staying at the centre. It feels better
to have done something, even if there is no tactical advantage in doing so.

(Image Source: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2018/06/29/penalty-shoot-outs-

are-basically-still-crap-shoots)

This is shown by novices buying mutual funds or stocks as well – where

experts advise people to not touch their investments for 5-10 years, it
becomes tempting to buy and sell when the market fluctuates, leading to
losses in most cases. This also leads to people honking in traffic- when
we are stuck and frustrated, we just want to feel like we tried to do
something to help the situation.

Human beings are creatures that value action. We have to consciously

remind ourselves that sometimes, the best course of action sometimes
might just be…. inaction.
 6.
Skillet Cookie

Because, dammit, sometimes the only nice thing in this grind is a warm
cookie and a glass of cold milk. This is my version, derived chiefly from
Sorted Food and Nigella Lawson.

50 g butter (if you use salted butter, omit the salt from this list)
50 g light brown sugar
30 g cane sugar (aka regular sugar)
Pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
Vanilla extract
90 g plain flour (or as Indian people call it -maida)
½ tsp baking powder
Chocolate chips or chop a chocolate bar (I use 70% dark chocolate)
I have not given measurements for vanilla extract and chocolate chips
because I firmly believe that some ingredients are measured from the
heart. So, melt the butter, slowly mix in the sugars and the salt. Ensure
that the butter is no longer hot. Add the egg yolk in and the vanilla
extract. In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder. Mix in the
butter-egg mix in the flour and knead gently. The mix is wet, do not
panic! Add in the chocolate chips and refrigerate for an hour or so (you
can refrigerate overnight; it will be fine). Press the dough down into an
oven-safe skillet (butter the skillet before pushing in the dough) and
bake for 8 min on 200oC. Add another 2 minutes if required. You’ll end
up with something like this:
 7.
An Auguste Beginning

For the longest time, I associated Edgar Allen Poe with spooky poems.
And as much as I love the ominously haunting quality of “Quoth the
Raven, Nevermore”, I never thought of him as the pioneer to my
favourite form of fiction – the murder mystery.
Poe pioneered detective fiction with Murders in Rue Morgue. Mystery
writing obviously predates him, but he was the first English-language
writer to have had a single character- detective Auguste Dupin- solve a
murder. This character is not even a police professional. He is an
amateur who believes in ratiocination- the process of finding the truth
by rational means. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? *cough Sherlock Holmes
cough*
The only reason why I started thinking about Edgar Allen Poe again is
because I started watching Wednesday on Netflix. I re-read Murders at
Rue Morgue and yes, it feels dated (and you can sort of tell what is
happening, but considering that it was written in 1841, we can let that
slide) I shall be reading The Purloined Letter soon. Have a read and see
if other writers that you love have written something left of field for
their genre. I am going to look up poems by Jane Austen for good
measure. If anyone here knows how the murder mystery genre started in
other languages, let me know!
 8.
The Original Chainsaw Massacre
Most of us associate chainsaws with the timber industry. The modern
imagery of the chainsaw is closely related to lumberjacks using them.
The original use of the chainsaw was to aid childbirth. Yes, you read that
right – it was a tool to be used by gynaecologists performing a C-section.
Granted, it was not the same design as that of the modern chainsaw
used to saw through trees, but it was still quite brutal. However, it was
still relatively less dangerous than trying to widen the pelvic opening via
other means. In general, pregnancy and childbirth has been a dangerous
business for most of human history.

This version of the chainsaw was invented in 1780 Credit: Sabine Salfer/WikiCommons

The sadder part is that the very origins of modern gynaecology are racist
and misogynist. While traditional midwifery was very much a profession
created by the women for the women, gynaecological surgery was
pioneered by Dr. James Marion Sims. Dr. Sims was a slave owner who
performed surgeries on enslaved women without anaesthesia. The
motive was pure economic gain – reproductive health of an enslaved
woman was protected so that she could perform hard labour and
produce more offspring, all of whom would be enslaved by birth. Some
academics opine that this disregard for the patient’s comfort in many
gynaecological practices, such as the use of cold metal speculums and
the two-finger test comes from these misogynist origins.
 9.
A different point of view
Trying to swat that pesky fly and it just keeps flying away? It’s built
different, bro. And I mean that literally! Our perception of time
depends heavily on how fast we receive and process information
from our surroundings. Generally, smaller the animal faster its
processing rate, so flies are literally watching you in slow motion.

Critical flicker fusion frequency is the frequency at which light is

flickering too fast and it just feels like a constant, unblinking light.
This frequency is a LOT higher for little insects. Flies, for example,
can see a light flicker even at frequencies four times the critical
frequency for humans, leading to a completely different perception of
time. Larger animals (especially the ones with slower metabolism) will
perceive us zipping about, but for smaller species (including domestic
dogs and cats), we are lumbering creatures, moving slowly and easy to
dodge.

I suppose no one told Mr. Miyagi about this.

 10.
By the Bard
Shakespeare invented quite a few words. For example, I know that the
phrases “love is blind” and “fight fire with fire” and “star-crossed
lovers” were invented by him. I had no idea that he’d invented quite so
many – here’s a (partial) list of words and phrases that he invented:

● Ode
● Skim milk
● Sanctimonious
● Dexterously
● Break the ice
● Laughing Stock
● In a pickle
● Pound of flesh
● Wild goose chase
● Dawn
● Frugal
● Panders
● Radiance
● Outbreak
● Zany
● Own flesh and blood
● It’s Greek to me
● Wear my heart upon my sleeve

These were just the ones I could find! SO maybe next time we invent a
word, we’re not saying gibberish… we’re taking after the Bard.
(Gibberish is such an excellent word! I wonder where that came from?)
 11.
An uphill battle
Seneca was a Roman philosopher who preached stoicism – emotional
resilience to all types of life events by focusing on virtue instead. The
mathematicians used a line penned by Seneca to illustrate a rather
unfortunate phenomenon- the Seneca cliff.
In his book “Letters to Lucilius”, Seneca writes “Fortune is of sluggish
growth, but ruin is rapid.” Mathematician Ugo Bardi created a growth-
decline model that predicts just that:

(Source: https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2011/08/seneca-effect-origins-of-collapse.html)

This model has been applied to companies that once thrived but rapidly
bankrupted (such as Kodak) and to something as personal as a burnout.
The peak of the Seneca graph is actually over capacity – as soon as the
growth reaches a point where the output is beyond the capacity of the
system, it will reach a state of overwhelm and fall into rapid decline. If
growth is gradual, the system does not realise that it has overshot
maximum capacity. Many economists have also postulated that we are
facing the Seneca cliff of the fossil fuel economy – we are consuming
beyond the point of overshoot and the rapid decline will occur in the
near decades. Let’s hope we’ve figured out renewables by then.
 12.
The Cult of Pythagoras
Quick, what comes to mind when I say Pythagoras? Probably this:

(Image source:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z93rkqt/articles/zgf8ng8)

Arguably, this is one of the most recognizable theorems across the

people who have studied high school maths.
However, in early 2023, another image captured my attention:

(Image source: https://www.roleplaygateway.com/alignment-chart-how-get-theorem-named-

after-you-t115441.html)

In all honesty, I had never even heard of Cantor-Schroeder- Dedekind-

Bernstein Theorem, and I am not going to pretend to be smart enough
to understand Fermat’s last theorem. But Pythagoras? The theorem that
I’ve been using since grade 7? A cult leader? I had to look it up.
Apparently, there are no written words from Pythagoras directly. But
more than a mathematician, he was hailed as a sage in ancient Greece.
Pythagoreans believed that the soul is separate from the body and can
reincarnate as another animal. They also believed that the nature of
reality is fully explainable by numbers- hence his followers were
perpetually trying to describe the world mathematically. Many of his
disciples attributed superhuman qualities to him – Aristotle wrote that
Pythagoras was seen in many cities at the same time. Other accounts say
that he bit a poisonous snake before it could bite him! The ideas of
having a soul separate from the living body and a great knowledge of the
mathematics of triangular forms may have a much simpler source –
travel to Egypt. It was not uncommon for wealthy Greeks to travel to
Egypt, and Egyptian mythology does prescribe a cycle of birth and
rebirth to an immortal soul. Further, Egyptian architects had a profound
understanding of geometry. So, our 6th century superhuman cult leader
mathematician may have just been appropriating Egyptian knowledge.
The truth, unfortunately, is lost to history. Since most accounts on
Pythagoras’s life were written centuries after he died, none of them are
quite reliable.
 13.
In a Barbie world
He- Man and the Masters of the Universe was one of the first animated
series that I watched as a kid. Skeletor memes are now a thing, and it
tickles me no end that a generation that never watched the cartoons (or
read the comic book) is coming up with these:

(Image source: https://mstdn.social/@Skeletor@shitposter.club/media)

Imagine my surprise then, to find out that the entire franchise was
created to sell action figures! Having declined Star Wars merch and
regretting that decision, Mattel wanted to sell toys that would appeal to
boys (because Barbies have cooties, ew). They came up with the toys first
and then created the comic books to go with. Eventually that led to the
animated series. Dolls have been popular for children since antiquity,
but Barbie changed the game – it became so specific to little girls that
toy companies seized the opportunity to do the same for boys. Tin
soldier inspired G.I. Joe dolls (sorry, action figures) were soon a hit with
boys. Now, of course, Barbie has a whole movie franchise behind it and
several other toys are taken directly from animated series.
 14.
Let there be money!
In the midst of the crypto crisis, there’s one term that was used over and
over – Fiat Money. Frankly, if anyone had asked what Fiat money meant
in 2017, I would have told them it was money required to buy a Premier
Padmini. (Indian 90s kids will relate).

(Image source: https://www.cartoq.com/15-car-ads-from-the-past-that-

your-dad-uncle-loved-tata-mobile-to-mahindra-commander/)

Fiat money is basically currency that has value because an authority has
decided that it has value. Gold coins are not fiat money, since there is an
intrinsic value associated with a precious metal. Similarly, bags of grain
are not fiat money because there is an actual value of foodstuff. A one
dollar bill is fiat money, because it is a legally declared value by an issuing
government. (This was not true in the past- earlier, the value of $1 was
equal to approximately 1.5 grams of gold). The US government could
print more dollars or stop the printing. The ultimate control of such
currencies lies in the hands of the issuing authority.

Since the whole point of crypto was to not have issuing authorities, it is
not fiat money. There are no central banks for crypto, nor are there
checks and balances that may be applied by a government. Most
countries do not even have clear laws of decentralised money in general.
 15.
Bartering the Truth
Since we are on the topic of finance, perhaps the most profound book
that I read in 2022 was David Graeber’s “Debt: The first 5000 years”.
For most part, even in school, we were told that money evolved out of a
barter economy, as an obviously more efficient way to trade a
universally-valued commodity (say, gold or salt or cowrie shells etc.)
than some arbitrary exchange between goods and services.
Anthropologically, this has very little evidence. Indeed, there is far more
evidence of humans existing in communes – the hunters hunted for the
whole community, all the children were cared for by most adults, the
cloth makers made clothing for everyone…. You get the gist. The idea is
everyone owes somebody something, so everyone works for everyone.
The gift economy was so prevalent that to this day, there are some tribes
in which paying off all debts counts as breaking all bonds with someone-
the end of a friendship. In fact, barter started after nation-states started
issuing money – once you are used to impersonal trade transactions
outside your village, and for some reason the issued money runs out,
then barter becomes common.

Adam Smith, the author of “Wealth of Nations” imagined the idea of

modern economic systems starting with barter economies without
stating any evidence of it. But since that book was immensely popular,
nobody cared that he essentially imagined an entire system that he could
retrofit his ideas on to. (This seems to be sadly common). Aristotle had
similar ideas, but then he was wrong about the physics of moving
objects as well, so that’s that.
 16.
Random Attack

stochastic
stō-kăs′tĭk
adjective
1. Of, relating to, or characterised by conjecture; conjectural.
2. Involving or containing a random variable or process.

Terrorism, by most definitions, is a violent action taken by a group or an

individual to strike fear in a given population. Stochastic terrorism
means instigating people over and over again by fear mongering and
giving hate speeches when you know enough powerful people are
listening – one or some of them will eventually commit the hate crime
for you.

A certain former US president comes to mind, who in his speeches,

maintained that he had won the election even when he had lost badly. A
small example of this: Trump went on record to say “68% error rate in
Michigan Voting Machines. Did the Michigan Secretary of State break
the law?” This, of course, was entirely false, but statements like these
incited a crowd to enact the January 6 Capitol Hill attack.

Think of all the speeches made by people in positions of political and

social power, dehumanising an entire section of people as “vermin” or
“termites”. Think of self-proclaimed misogynists like Andrew Tate, who
encourage their young followers to be violent when a woman says no.
When someone actually acts on those words, they can deny everything
and say that the attacker exercised their own free will. A large section of
people also believe that claiming words to be an act of terrorism goes
against free speech, and that the onus is on the listener to use their
discretion while consuming politically or emotionally charged content.

As always, you decide.

 17.
Goes all the way to 11.
I have always been confused as to why voltages seem to be provided in
multiples of 11. The Indian standard voltage is 220V, 50 Hz for
residential supply. The Transformer near my home steps down 33kV to
440 V. The US standard seems to be 110V, 60Hz. So of course, I asked
the internet about it and of course, I found many answers. Some
answers seem unnecessarily convoluted, such as those involving form
factor* of a sine wave, others seem more straightforward – we actually
want 200V, so we supply 10% extra to account for losses – hence 200V
intended are supplied as 220V etc. But I soon discovered that my
question was wrong to begin with. You see, the 220V Indian standard is
just the middle of the acceptable range of 200V-240V. The European
standard is 240V, whilst the American standard is 110V. The 110V was
largely a standard created by Westinghouse Electric and Thomas Edison
for the American lines. Japan, which inherited this standard, receives
anywhere between 100V -127V for a residential line. Europe lagged the
USA and later decided on the 240V transmission for better efficiency.
(Originally Europe was at 120 V too, just like Japan and the US today,
but it was deemed necessary to increase voltage to get more power with
fewer losses without changing the copper wire diameter.) This standard
was given to India as well – we are a former colony after all. Sometimes
scientific questions have geopolitical answers. There are several standard
voltages in use, including 110V, 115V, 120V, 127V, 220V, 230V and
240V – it depends on the country of origin. My original question was
wrong – most voltages are not supplied in multiples of 11 – it was just a
regional observation.

(* Form factor is the ratio of root mean square value of a waveform to

its average value)
 18.
Sensible Learning
You may have seen people describe themselves as a “visual learner” or
even teachers describing their students as a more “kinesthetic learner”.
Heck, even Ted Lasso pitches in:

(Image source: https://www.tzr.io/yarn-clip/34d7ffb8-6034-407c-9135-85b922197efd)

The four learning styles are auditory (learns by hearing), visual (learns by
watching), kinesthetic (learns by moving with things, or by doing things)
and writing (learns by reading and writing). This is a persistent myth in
education – most students simply respond better to a multisensory
approach. If you present a concept visually, then read it out, and allow
the students to write about it in their own words, it will generally stick
better than just reading about it. Much like the MBTI personality types
and other such pseudoscientific methods of classification, it simply does
not work. As of 2023, there is no evidence in support of this
classification of learners. Any classification that says that a human being
is a static “type” is probably not worth our time. Boxing your child (or
even yourself) into one category does more harm than good, because
you are less likely to explore learning aids of other styles. The idea is to
take input in as many different representations as possible to really make
it stick.
 19.
Measure twice
While the old adage “measure twice, cut once” is usually good advice for
woodworking and sewing projects, let us examine complex systems
today. The measurability bias states that what is the easiest to measure
will be measured. Which means that key data may be lost because it is
difficult to measure.
For example, as an educator I see a hyperfocus on grades. No one is
measuring if the student has gained actual skill if they score high on a
standardised test. There are no measures of knowledge retention after a
year or two. A simple test paper is the easiest measure- and hence that is
what gets measured. Not skill, not happiness or creativity or curiosity.
Similarly, when corporations want to greenwash their products they say
that they are going to plant x number of trees to soften the
environmental blow. “Number of trees planted” is a super simple
parameter to measure. However – were those trees taken care of
afterwards? Were they of native species that could grow easily with the
forest cover? Were any of them of an invasive species? How long would
the corporation take care of those trees? Will they be immediately felled
upon reaching maturity to provide commercial lumber? Hard to
measure, hence not measured.
We have devised truly ingenious methods to collect data that could not
have been measured a few decades ago. The problem of the future
perhaps, would be to figure out what to measure.
 20.
चार बदूं ों वाला

Many Indian people will recognize the jingle “आया नया उजाला, चार बूंदों वाला”
(here comes new “Ujala*”, all you need are four drops). I was today
years old when I found out that fabric-brightening bluing solutions were
used on pet fur and human hair, too! Apparently, the new-fangled purple
shampoos for bleached-blond hair are based on the same concept –
blue/purple are the opposites of yellows and oranges on the colour
wheel, so they cancel each other out, leaving the hair look bouncingly
white.
All I can say is that this knowledge is making it very difficult for me to
not attempt bluing Mishko. (Don’t worry, I won’t).

Mishko in all his off-white grimy-pawed glory

*popular brand of bluing solution for white clothes

 21.
Feeling Catty
I am the proud preferred human of two cats (don’t tell my husband
this). As a result of this, I have learnt several cat facts – that they are not
apex predators, they are hunted by larger cats. So, they have behaviours
of the predator and that of the prey. They do have faster reflexes than
those of snakes, so they have the upper hand while hunting rats. Earlier,
it was thought that the cats bond more to the house than to the human,
but this is not true- just because they are not as needy as dogs doesn’t
mean that they don’t love their primate overlords as much. Also, many
cats have white paws (even though the rest of their coat may be dark)
because the cells that give cat fur its colour first appear as neural crest
cells, which are located along the back. The cells migrate down the body,
and sometimes the cellular print ink runs out by the time they reach the
periphery!
Some of these adorable weirdos like the taste of human earwax, since it
contains proteins fundamentally required by their body. And yes, a
happily purring cat will heal you – listening to the purring sounds a
happy kitty makes are linked to release of anxiety and faster repair in
humans.
Here’s hoping that you find a feline friend to love.

Mishko and Renuka, who have my heart.

 22.
The alternative of peace
I’ve come across a hypothesis today that makes a lot of sense. However-
I cannot substantiate this, so consider this my opinion. For a political
movement to be successful, there need to be two versions of the same
movement - one completely non-violent, and the other more militant.
Consider the case of the black liberation movement in the 60s. The
Black Panthers and Dr. Martin Luther King both wanted the same thing.
Their methods may have differed, but their larger goal was the same -
the end of racial injustice in the United States of America. Was it the fear
of the Panthers that made more “civil” options like Dr. King acceptable?
The politicians in power knew that they could negotiate, and if
incremental changes could be made, the people of colour in the USA
would be pacified and the support from the more militant factions might
be withdrawn.

Closer home - was it the fear of the Indian National Army and HSRA
that made Gandhi look like a better option to the colonial powers? If
they complied to the Indian National Congress’s demands, they would
not, at least, have to deal with Indians allying with Japan in world war 2.
This, of course, rests on the assumption that common people do not
become violent unless there is an absolute need for it. Most people,
anywhere in the world, do not simply become rebellious against their
governments unless faced with absolute tyranny. Rebellion is an
exhausting exercise and for most rebels throughout history, it is the very
last resort. History treats rioteers and freedom fighters unjustly - they
chose violence in response to the violence done to them. That is merely
self-defence. In the words of Malcolm X:
“We are nonviolent with people who are nonviolent with us.
Concerning nonviolence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend
himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.”
 23.
Bitter Medicine
Human beings can sense several tastes - sweet, sour, umami, salty and
bitter. However, we have evolved a lot more sensitivity towards bitter
tastes as compared to any other. We have more genes controlling our
ability to taste bitterness, because our ancestor’s survival depended on it.
Bitter and spicy tastes come from plants' natural defence systems. Very
bitter leaves and fiery-hot pepper berries were less likely to be eaten.
Some humans may be sensitive to a spectrum of bitter chemicals which
are not sensed by others, making them dislike the taste of crucifers or
certain herbs (all of us know someone who hates coriander).
We have evolved to use spices judiciously in small amounts. However,
some bitter plant alkaloids, such as hemlock, infamously used to poison
Socrates, still remain poisonous to us.
We have also used agricultural practices to mitigate some of the
bitterness - many modern citruses, for example, have been cross-bred to
be sweeter than their ancient ancestors.
But, as principles of medicine say - all medicines are poisonous, all
poisons are medicine- only the dose and the condition of the human
differentiates the two. There are many bitter compounds that are helpful
to us. Quinine is an antimalarial compound, originally derived from the
cinchona tree, which is extremely bitter. (Gin and Tonic lovers, this is
how you got your tipple of choice - quinine-laden tonic was too bitter
for British colonists, so they added gin to make it palatable, and protect
themselves from the mosquitoes of the tropics.) Caffeine in tea and
coffee is helpful in small doses as well. So we developed a complex
flavour network of sweet, fat and spicy around the bitter flavours which
were good for us. Most cultures have a method of preparing bitter-but-
good-for-you food in a palatable way. (I still refuse to eat bitter gourd
curry though.)
Different humans have evolved different taste receptors - so be
compassionate to your friends who find brussel sprouts or IPA
unbearable!

24.
Of Rumi and Hafez
Even after all this time,
the sun never says to the earth,
‘you owe me.’
Look what happens with a love like that!
It lights up the whole sky.

These lines have graced many instagram posts, often attributed to the
14th century Persian poet, Hafez of Shiraz. They were not written by
him at all - they were written by Daniel Ladinsky who translated and
subsequently wrote in the style of Hafez. Many poets of Sufiyana
Kalaam were rebels and revolutionaries of their time - they had great
knowledge of Islamic scripture but also freely critiqued the hypocrisies
of the religious class.
Rumi is another oft-quoted Sufi poet - and again, all nods to Islam have
been removed in the English translations. Coleman Barks, an American
poet, pretty much stripped Rumi’s work of any religious context and
wrote a bestselling book about him. The mysticism and spirituality have
been appropriated to read almost like a poem from the romantic era of
English literature. The Sufi idea of love as a deity has been loosely
translated to a supreme, all-consuming love. The idea is to extend love
to all of the almighty’s creations - to approach the whole universe with
love.

Perhaps the price of fame is a poor translation- as the Bhagvad Gita

became the hustlebro’s guide, the deep mysticism of the Sufi became a
love song. One way to mitigate this is to find several translations of the
same work. Until then, we know that Rumi, at least, knew that his
symbolism will be misunderstood:
"I tell you a story that can't be spoken
And hide it from observers when I say it.
Except for your ears no one hears my story,
Even though I tell it openly amongst people."

25.
Beauty is pain work
As a teen of the aughts, I have been subjected to an impossible beauty
standard in my formative years - to be cool meant that you needed to
have a flat, flat stomach that would look good in low waist jeans (let’s be
real- almost no one did). Now, even as we enter the era of “body
positivity” I realise that the real beauty standard has always been about
how much time and money and work one can funnel into their
appearance.
When Kim Kardarshian’s body became the gold standard of aesthetic
appeal in the 2010s, it was not because she was naturally curvy. It was
about faking an extreme hourglass shape with surgery, photoshop and
shapewear. It was clear that only people with a LOT of money and time
could achieve that. As of early 2023, buccal fat removal is literally
everywhere - and it makes people look gaunt. It’s “pretty” because it has
no real consequences of being ill - just a look of extreme unhealthy
thinness that has been the beauty ideal for the last century (hourglass
shapes also fall into this category - a waist that tiny in comparison to
broad hips can scarcely be achieved naturally).

Something as natural (and fortunate) as ageing has been demonised by

this beauty circus - elderly people (usually women) are showing off their
social status by undergoing botox and other surgeries to look youthful.
And while that has been around since several decades now, the average
age of starting anti-ageing procedures has now fallen to 27 in the United
States. The beauty standard is also deeply racist - people with Asian
features often end up getting monolid surgery, and people of African
descent show up for rhinoplasties to have a smaller, more european-
looking nose. Skin lightening lasers are rampant in most of Asia.

I am hopeful that there will be a trend reversal of sorts and people will
get off this mad hamster wheel of moulding and contorting their faces
and bodies into airbrushed versions of themselves. Until then - try out a
small exercise with me. Log the time that you dedicate to beauty labour
(not basic hygiene like showering). Log the minutes and money required
for all the makeup and the creams and the trendy clothes that you didn’t
actually need. The tally at the end of the month might surprise you.
 26.
Anchoring Ideas
I think that there are 3000 buses on the road on any given day in
Bangalore. What do you think?

When I did not make the first statement and simply asked people how
many buses they think Bangalore has running at the moment, I got
answers from 500 to 20000. With the first statement though, the range became
2000-5000. For the record, the actual number of buses in Bangalore is
about 12000. This is called the anchoring effect - the first number cited
affects the rest of the discussion. This is the reason why a T-shirt sold at
₹500 seems like an okay deal, but a T-shirt marked down from ₹800 to
₹500 seems like a much better deal. Our brain has already accepted the
first number quoted as the reasonable starting point. This is also why
during salary negotiation, employers will usually cite an offer which is
less than what they are prepared to give you (but not so low that it
seems unreasonable), so that a lower number anchors the discussion.

In any given context, we rely heavily on the first piece of information

that we receive. This is also why people stick to an original plan of
action even after they’ve received better information - the first bit of
data is held as important even if it is falsified. And we are not sure why
this is so. One proposed explanation states that human beings are
required to make adjustments to their judgement on their everyday
actions, and usually the adjustments are small. Hence, people tend to
make only small changes to the first bit of data that they deem
trustworthy. (Tversky and Kahneman, 1974). Further, sad or stressed
people seem to be more susceptible to anchoring bias as compared to
happy people.

Anchoring bias drives planning fallacies, but beware! Simply knowing

that a bias exists usually does not lead to action. I was asked the bus
question and fell right into the trap, even though I have read about the
anchoring bias previously. One of my friends had a better approach -
when asked, he simply asked a bus conductor and got the right answer.

27.
Modern mythology
No, goldfish do not have 3 second memories. No, 420 does not refer to
the California Penal Code for cannabis. No, vaccines do not cause
autism. No, Albert Einstein never failed a Math test. No, hippo milk is
not pink.

Urban legends have a degree of plausibility. People keep believing them

far after they’ve been debunked. Everyone wants to have something
interesting to say, and sometimes people add an extra layer of the
supernatural to their stories as well. Many Indian millennials would’ve
heard the story that the WWE wrestler “the Undertaker” died and rose
from his grave (the rumours are even harder to kill than a person I
guess). Or that Kurkure contains plastic. And now such stories are
circulating faster than ever thanks to social media. (“Educated by
WhatsApp University” has become an insult of choice).

Why do urban legends persist? A part of it may be protecting oneself

from harm. Sure, a serial killer hiding in the shadows of a particular
street may just be a story, but isn’t it better to avoid that area? Similarly,
a snack may not have plastic in it, but choosing to not consume it is the
more risk-averse option. And risk aversion is hardwired into the human
brain. Another component of it is that stories are compelling. People
want to root for an underdog. So stories of world famous scientists and
CEOs struggling with a rigid academic system make them more likeable
than say, a nerd who sailed through school with no difficulty. A shared
belief or story will also strengthen the bonds of a community- teens
gathered around a bonfire sharing ghost stories comes to mind.

The unfortunate part of all this is that the burden of disproving such
myths falls on scientists. This is inherently unfair - they have to spend
time and energy in debunking obvious myths. The burden of proof must
always lie on the party making the extraordinary claim. Some urban
legends are harmless, fun stories - it is fun to look for UFOs or Yeti
footprints. But a lot of these myths are actively causing harm. For
example, there was a moral panic against AIDS patients in the 90s. As
the myth goes, HIV positive patients would prick themselves with
needles and poke unsuspecting moviegoers in dark cinema halls, thus
“initiating” them into the community. In the 90s, when people afflicted
with AIDS were already marginalised, such myths led to further
ostracisation. Bottomline - don’t believe anything too early on.
 28.
In my boundaries, I am infinite
Zeno of Elea was a 5th century BC philosopher. While he devised many
paradoxes, but let us examine the most famous one:

“That which is in locomotion must arrive at the half-way stage before it

arrives at the goal.”

So, if you need to run a kilometer, you need to reach the halfway mark
first. Then at the half-kilometer mark, you need to travel half of the
remaining distance, so a quarter-kilometer. So on and so forth:

(Image source: https://itotd.com/files/2018/05/Zeno_Dichotomy_Paradox.png)

By this process, you can halve distances infinitely, so you’ll never reach.
While this is an admirable attempt to apply mathematical logic to the
natural world, we know that you will, in fact, reach your destination.
Represented as a mathematical series, the movement can be written as:

½ + ¼ + ⅛ +......
And though the series is infinite, the sum is not. This is a geometric
progression. It sums to …. 1.(Sorry for any flashbacks of high school
maths class). The physical justification is this - there are no
instantaneous magnitudes of motion. Since time is continuous, motion
must also be continuous, and cannot be broken into discrete halves. But
what if we create discrete halves? Thomson’s paradox goes like this: We
have a lamp with an ON/OFF switch. Now, when our runner runs ½ a
kilometre, we switch the lamp on. When they run the next quarter, we
switch it off. When they run the next eighth of a kilometre, we turn it
on. So on and so forth. At the end of the kilometre, is the bulb on or
off? Think about it!

Hat-tip to Raj for this one.

 29.
Entropy
A lot of us were taught that entropy is a measure of the disorder or
chaos in a system. So ice, with its molecules neatly packed in a crystal
structure, has less chaos, and thus less entropy, than water in which the
same molecules can move around more freely. This simplification is
great for initial visualisation, but is not quite the complete picture.

Each molecule holds little packets of energy. If the molecules of an

object hold more energy, that object is at a higher temperature. Imagine
that we place two objects right next to each other and one of them is
warmer than the other. Let us say that the warm object has 5 energy
packets and the cool object has 1. There are many ways in which these
energy packets can be distributed - all 6 could go to one object, each
could have 3 etc. However- some of these energy distributions have a
larger probability of occurring. The energy configurations in which
energy spreads evenly are the most probable. Entropy can be thought of
as the probability of this energy spread. There are fewer configurations
in which energy is concentrated in one spot. There are a lot more ways
in which energy can be spread around.

So the energy from a hot cup of coffee in a cool room will result in tepid
coffee, not hotter coffee and a colder room. It’s not because some
mysterious force of nature “wants” more disorder - it is because disorder
is statistically more likely.

(Image Source: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/entropy)

 30.
Don’t throw away that shirt
The last few chapters have been rather theory-heavy, so let’s get back to
practical matters. Indian households throw away upwards of a million
tonnes of textiles per year. This is nowhere close to the developed
nations per capita, of course, since we still have some reuse culture and
tailoring services are affordable (I am picking up a skirt made from
mum’s saree from the tailor today), but it is a large number nonetheless.
So let’s learn how to get some common stains out, shall we?

1. Soak up oil stains with talcum powder and then wash with dish
soap.
2. Any stain that has protein in it ( think - eggs, blood, milk etc) must
be washed in cold water. Hot water will coagulate the protein and
it’ll set in worse.
3. Sugary stuff washes right off, be patient! Soak in warm water for a
few hours.
4. If a white cotton or linen fabric is stained, spot-clean with bleach.
For a more natural option, try lime juice, which also tends to
bleach the fibres and removes yellowness.
5. Get smells out of clothes by rinsing in vinegar water and drying
them in sunlight.
6. Diluted hydrogen peroxide can be used on tough stains. The 3%
solution can also be used to sanitise clothes.
7. If all else fails, dye it a darker colour ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Go back to the basics on this one - repurpose your clothes as much as you
can. The fashion industry is the second biggest polluter on the planet- second
only the petrochemicals industry. Keep your clothes longer, every little bit
helps!
 31.
Know your fabrics, yo
First and foremost , Satin, Chiffon and Georgette are not fabrics. They
are weaves. If something is labelled “chiffon” and seems suspiciously
cheap, it is likely made of polyester or nylon, not silk. Even cotton can
be woven in a satin weave, giving it a smooth feel on one face of the
fabric. Similarly, “jersey” is a knit, which can be made from several
possible raw materials. Woven fabric has multiple yarns criss crossed
over one another, knit fabric has one yarn looped over and over. Weaves
stretch lengthways, knits stretch across the width. Thread count is the
number of threads woven per square inch of fabric.

Lyocell is made of wood pulp and considered semi-synthetic. It

biodegrades. Tencel is similar. Modal is made specifically from Beech
trees. All of these have environmental pros and cons associated with
them, but all of them are generally better than petrochemical-derived
fabrics such as polyester, polyurethane and acrylic. Organic cotton and
linen both require a LOT less water to grow and process as compared to
cotton. All natural fibres are more breathable than synthetic fibres. In
general, thicker fabrics will last you longer.

Why should we know all this? So that we can make environmentally

better choices. So that we are not duped by brand labels and actually
know which ones are using more expensive raw materials. So that we
wash and take care of our attire properly. The “hand” of a fabric is
literally how it feels in your hands. Try it out! See how cotton feels
different from silk and polyester. See how a different mix of fabrics feels
on your skin. Figure out which one feels the best!
 32.
Of bystanders and hot coffee
Heard of that frivolous lawsuit against McDonalds when a silly person
spilled coffee on themselves and sued? The classic case of libel-happy
Americans getting a neat sum from corporations, am I right?
Yeah, no. Think about this critically - in any given situation, who holds
the power? A working class person with no backup or a global
multibillion dollar business?

Stella Liebeck was the woman who spilled McDonald’s coffee on her lap
and it gave her third degree burns (please ask a doctor how painful those
are). She required skin grafts! She wasn’t even the first victim -
McDonald’s had received over 700 reports of people burning
themselves by that time. The coffee was near boiling point and it was
not safe at all. She wanted her medical bills to be covered, but when
McDonald’s tried to settle for $800, she sued. If anything her case was a
rare example of a working class person getting their due from a powerful
corporation. Of course, this win made corporates unhappy - and they
launched a serious disinformation campaign to make lawsuits like this
look greedy and petty. That way, they can keep making unsafe products
and people suing them will simply not have the public support they need
to stand against the giants.
(Image Source: https://9gag.com/gag/a3qDjd8)
Let’s examine another well-spread story, shall we? It’s called the
Bystander Effect. (Or Bystander Apathy). It was framed in 1964 after
the murder of Kitty Genovese. It was said that there were 38 witnesses,
but no one came forward to help her, and no one called the police.
Hence, it was postulated that if there are many witnesses, a victim is less
likely to get help because everybody hopes for someone else to step up.
This sounds plausible, but is simply not true. Subsequent studies have
shown that more the number of people, the greater the likelihood of the
victim getting help. So…. why was the Bystander Effect so widely
circulated?
The idea of “38 witnesses” and those witnesses being apathetic comes
from the initial police report- that’s why the story stuck- it came from an
“official” source. It was later revealed that witnesses did, in fact, call the
police. An old lady from the apartment building held Ms Genovese in
her arms 'till she passed, trying to comfort her. The police concocted the
story to cover up the fact that they did not show up on time - and it is
heavily implied that they did not show up because Ms Genovese was a
lesbian. The other examples of bystander apathy usually occurs when the
bystander finds themselves incompetent to help (for example, in medical
emergencies) or from cases where the crime is committed by someone
powerful and the bystanders fear for their own safety.

Why did I pick these two myths? Because they illustrate that the public
perception is built by people in power. Whenever you look at popular
media building a narrative, think of the power imbalance in the situation.
Sometimes, when people ask you to “trust the official channels” it is
because they control the official channels.

33.
Watterson’s Way
The Spice Girls was a girl group formed in 1994 in London. Girl pop
took the world by storm, and the Spice Girls hit platinum on the record
sales multiple times. Of course, as they rode the wave of success, they
decided to get a new manager-Simon Fuller. This new manager did not
want the girls to just be a band. He wanted them to be a brand. In the
span of a year, they had over a hundred trademarks. They were
endorsing everything from Pepsi to Polaroid and we all know what
happens when a star is overexposed to the public. The star loses their
appeal. The public is bored of seeing the same faces everywhere. The
ladies were exhausted by the endorsements and their music, the thing
that made them special in the first place, suffers. We see this pattern
repeat over and over ‘til we land into this era - where anyone who is in
the limelight for even a minute wants to get as much exposure as
possible, make their money, and leave. And then, there’s Bill Watterson.

Bill Watterson is the creator of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes (and
if you haven’t read that comic, pause. Go look it up and read a few strips
and come back). Calvin and Hobbes was hugely popular and the
syndicate wanted to move on to the next logical step - merchandising.
Watterson refused. Think of all the merch you see from popular
characters - the tees, the mugs, the action figures, the socks. Watterson
could’ve made millions, but instead chose to fight his publishers and
eventually take an indefinite pause. Every piece of Calvin and Hobbes
merchandise we see is contraband. And Bill Watterson is still the gold
standard of what a cartoonist should be.
He cameoed unannounced in the comic strip Pearls before Swine in
2014 and people wept upon recognizing the art style.
( https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2014/06/05 )
His next book - after a hiatus of two decades is going to be out in
October 2023 - and the fans are waiting with bated breath.

A lot of people chastised Watterson at the time, saying that he should’ve

been happy at the opportunity to go big. He outclassed us all. He will
always be the artist who chose staying true to his art above making a
quick buck. For now, here’s a personal favourite strip to end this chapter
with:
© Bill Watterson

34.
Manufacturing Hygiene Routines
Human beings are fairly disgusting. We have snot and sweat and poo.
And while some hygiene practices have a solid foundation in medical
science- washing your hands after using the loo is pretty much required -
others are marketing hokum. I heard Jessica DeFino say that “I want
what I want is a capitalist lie” and I realise that a lot of so-called “basic
hygiene” is rooted in manufactured insecurity. Take for example,
deodorants and antiperspirants. Yes, humans have used perfumes since
antiquity, even Egyptian mummies were occasionally buried with some.
But the whole point of deodorants was to make it icky to have any body
odour at all - here’s an actual vintage deo ad:

(Nowadays, of course, the message is that if you don’t smell like Axe
deodorant, you won’t get a date with Nora Fatehi).
We are being shamed for having body hair, which is very much the
hallmark of being mammalian. Gillete literally started shaming women
so that they could double their consumer base:
Hand soap sold because people dreaded getting “dish-pan hands” :

We are being shamed into using bath gel instead of bar soap because the
same bar of soap goes on your bum and on your face! This ploys
masquerades as hygiene advice but soap can NEVER harbour the
amount of bacteria found in old loofahs and washcloths. Soap is literally
too caustic to be unhygienic - so yes, it can dry your skin out a bit, but it
is fundamentally safe (unless you have specific allergies). Most liquid
soaps have the same active ingredient - SLS. This is the same as what
you will find in dish soap and laundry detergents as well. But no, buy
bath gels in plastic to go with plastic loofahs because it helps the
petrochemical industry grow keep you cleaner. Most of the developing
world uses the same soap for body, face and hair and their skin turns out
fine. So the next time folks are trying to sell you over packaged plastic
derivatives by making your feel awful about your natural human body,
remember that it’s from an industry that did this:

Up next : shaming men for not being muscular enough, so that they
become compelled to buy protein powders.
 35.
….but the scientists are not
Some of the most influential works in science were written by 18th and
19th century western men. These works are deemed important because
these were precisely the people who held all the power - financial and
societal- to become academics in that age. And they really, really wanted
to hold on to their worldview. So when hunter-gatherer societies were
being archaeologically discovered, of course they came to the “logical”
conclusion that the men - strong and adept in using tools were the
hunters and the women were stay-at-home gatherers. And that there
were only straight couples with women only ever mating with men. Of
course, none of this is true - fossil records show equal participation in
hunting by women, many hunter fossils are those of women buried with
their weapons. They hunted big game
(https://ucalgary.ca/news/women-were-successful-big-game-hunters-
challenging-beliefs-about-ancient-gender-roles) and were adept and both
forging weapons and using them. Men gathered as well- that was an
opportunistic activity for all genders. And it’s almost a running joke in
the LGBTQIA community that same-sex couples buried together (very
much in the fashion of married couples) are labelled “best friends” or
“housing companions” by regressive archeologists. Goddesses of the
ancients become “fertility deities” because god forbid women could pray
for just good sex, not progeny. I mean, a dude literally looked at this and
called her Lajja Gauri!!! ( Lajja means “modesty” or “shame” in Sanskrit).

(Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lajja_Gauri)

Living creatures are not made of binaries. Intersex and transgendered

individuals occur not just in humans, but in every species. Binaries are
created, and are often created to prove that one of the given two
categories is better - stronger or smarter or more valuable. And scientists
who are convinced of this binary (mostly because the binary suits them
just fine) will try to force-fit scientific data onto the position they already
believe. Even the scientists we adore fall into the traps of their own
biases- Sir C.V. Raman refused to guide women who wanted to
complete their Ph.D., and Nikola Tesla abhorred “modern women ''
who took up “manly” professions. Eugenicists believed for decades that
there was “real data'' to back up the superiority of white genes over
other races. It became the basis of colonial oppression - the inferior
races were the “white man’s burden”. It never had a basis in science,
powerful scientists believing it was enough.
Biases make bad scientists out of all of us. One solution then, is to have
a diverse group of scientists that can hopefully, call out each other’s
biases.
 36.
Recipe time!
Doughs are a game of ratios. The pizza dough ratio that works out best
for me is 5:3, that is 5 parts flour to 3 parts water. Here’s my version of
it:

250g AP flour (maida)

150g water, tepid
5g instant dry yeast
1 sp sugar
½ tsp coarse salt
1 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp semolina ( sooji/rava)

Add the sugar to the water and mix in yeast. Let it stand undisturbed for
10 min. The yeast should froth up - if it doesn’t, try again with another
batch of yeast. In a large mixing bowl, mix salt with the flour and trickle
in the yeasty water. Knead ‘til the dough comes together and let it stand,
covered with a damp tea-towel, for at least 2 hours in a warm place.

Punch your risen dough in with oiled hands and knead for at least 5-10
min ‘till very smooth. (Keep oiling your hands as necessary). Let it stand
for another 2-3 hours.

Section the risen dough into 3 small balls. Sprinkle semolina on the
rolling surface and roll them out thin. Add your favourite toppings and
bake!
 37.
The months

I was once looking at numbers in latin -

1: um
2: duo
3: tres
4: quattuor
5: quinque
6: sex <cue juvenile jokes>
7: septem
8: octo
9: novem
10: decem

Heyyy, wait a minute - these are months! September! October!

November! December! But if octo = eight (as in octopus), then why
does “October” stand for month number 10?

Let’s go back to Roman times, which serves as the origin of our

modern calendar. January and February were not originally named -
they were just dead months of winter to somehow endure before the
year could start. So March was the first named month of the year.
(The word month itself has the same word root as “moon”, since the
month was originally counted with the phases of the moon.) March
was named for Mars, the God of war, since the military operations
resumed then, after a two month winter break. Quintilis, the fifth
month, was renamed to honour Julius Caesar and became July.
Augustus, not to be left behind, renamed the 6th month, and sextilis
became August. These months were also given an extra day to note
the importance of the king - which is why these are the only two 31-
day months that occur back-to-back.
We aren’t even sure about the name “April” - some argue that this
month was named after Goddess Aphrodite. Others believe that it is
based on the latin word aperio - “to open” because flower buds begin
to open up again.
The modern world still has the choes and the artefacts of the
ancients. We need only look- and find dead languages alive around us.
 38.
Jaun Elia and the art of unrequited love

Love is a complex number, in the sense it has both real and imaginary
parts.
Think of an awful vacation, the very worst one of your life. You
probably still dislike that town, even if some time has passed. Was
that city really so bad, or is it bad because all you have of it are bad
memories? The reverse works for me as well. When I love something
or someone with my whole heart, their bad bits become fuzzy to me.
The kind old granduncle who passed when I was 7 - he’ll forever be a
perfect gentleman in my memory. When this carries over to past
loves, I understand what Jaun Elia meant when he said:

हमने दे खा तो हमने ये दे खा
जो नह ीं है वो खब
़ू स़ूरत है

[ I have seen only this/ the one absent is the most beautiful ]

We’ve done this to icons - Marilyn Monroe, absent in her old age, will
be forever beautiful. The what ifs bestow beauty on the best and
worst of the ones missing.
Memory is an imaginary plane. Jaun Elia could not break the spell of
his absent lover (ये मझ
ु े चैन कयूँ़ू नह ीं पड़ता-एक ह शख़्स था जहान में कया?
[why don’t I find peace/ was there only one person in this entire
world?]) Maybe that was the genius of his poetry - his longing was so
great that he could make anyone remember the ones they longed for.
But poems aside, I am over this romanticization of the past, the
absent. Quite by accident, I have found a cure. You see, I met an old
teenage crush as an adult. The person who had once wholly captured
my interest turned out to be utterly ordinary. The second part of the
cure was finding very real loves - cities and people and activities that
are very much present in my life and thankfully, love me back. I
daresay I have romanticised them too - perhaps they are better people
and better cities in my imagination.
But love, love is a complex number. And a little bit of imagination
never hurt anyone.
 39.
Generation confused

By almost any classification, I am a millennial. And in saying that, I

know that you already have certain stereotypes about me. Think again
- the categorization of humans just on the basis of when they were
born is lazy at best. Most stereotypes of Boomers, Gen X, Millennials
and Gen Z are incredibly USA-centric. The rest of the world simply
did not grow up that way. In the 60s, when the United States was
embroiled in the Cuban Missile Crisis, the USSR was pulling the
Indians out of the war with China. The US was coming out of World
War 2 as a victor, but at that time, a great many Indians were seeing
their country free from British rule and undergoing a painful
partition.The shoulder pads and the big hair of the American 80s only
reached us in the mid-90s. Now that social media has connected us
all, maybe we can all talk about the same world events simultaneously,
but they simply do not affect us the same. You’d be surprised at the
attitudes of Indian people born in the 1920s - some older ladies from
the tribes don’t feel the need to wear a blouse under their sarees and
accept genderfluidity as a very normal way of being. I can show you
people born in the 2000s with more regressive opinions. Umbrella
terms are often used to pit elders against youngsters - any generation
born before you destroyed the planet and any generation younger
than yours is full of lazy slackers. Personally, I’d say many of the
American GenX and GenZ stereotypes apply to me, and I do not fit
into either due to my birth year.

Global systems - upheld by many people from various generations-

caused us problems. And people from all generations are trying to fix
it. Other markers - such as economic status, country of birth, gender
and education might play a bigger role in a person’s worldview as
compared to a time of birth. Of course the time that we live in affects
all of us - but we all have different responses to it and use different
tools to deal with it. Think of it this way - we had to go through a
terrible pandemic recently. Of course it shaped the world around us
and it will be a formative event in the life of many teens and children
especially. But some of those children were on the road. Some of
them were orphaned. Some of them had to drop out of school. And
others had to adapt to online learning. Some found respite from
school, and some others were trapped in abusive households. Those
children are not all going to come out the same. As an oft- repeated
internet quote goes - we might be in the same storm, but we are not
in the same boat. Some of us were born on cruise liners, and some of
us are on a precarious plank. The date happened to be the same,
surely that matters less.
 40.
Gravitational Waves

Remember studying light for the first time in middle school? One of the
first things that we learn is that light travels in straight lines, which is
why it casts shadows - it cannot bend around an opaque obstacle.
Further, light has no mass, so it doesn’t drop to the floor like a ball.
Here’s the thing - these statements are great as a starting point for a 10
year old, but they’re gross oversimplifications. Light is a wave. And most
waves can bend around obstacles (which is why you can hear people talk
in the room next to yours). And light interacts with gravitational force as
well. Just that the gravitational field of the Earth is not quite strong
enough to produce a very visible effect. In a very strong gravitational
field, such as the field close to a large star, light either bends or shows a
frequency shift. However, unless the gravitational field is incredibly
strong, this shift is so small that it cannot be detected without specialised
equipment. Even without direct evidence, it was postulated by Einstein’s
General Theory of Relativity.

The space around us is often visualised as a fabric held taut and heavy
objects placed on that fabric, causing it to curve. A planet, like the Earth,
would be akin to a little pebble, but a massive star would cause more
curvature, like a dense iron ball on the cloth. Now, if a particularly heavy
object moved, it could produce ripples and wrinkles on the surface of
the fabric. This is the basic visualisation for ripples caused in space due a
shift in very heavy objects (such as black holes)
An artist's impression of gravitational waves generated by binary neutron stars.
Credits: R. Hurt/Caltech-JPL

This is exactly what the LIGO (Laser interferometer Gravitational wave

Observatory) detected - a squeeze and stretch of space, rippling through
at the speed of light, caused by two black holes colliding. This provided
physical evidence in support of General relativity.
 41.
Trimming philosophically

I was very young when I came across Occam’s razor - “the simplest
explanation is usually the best one”. Later, I came across Carl Sagan’s
razor- “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. It was this
week that I came across the idea that such philosophical rules of thumb
are called “razors” because they help us “shave away” unlikely answers

This approach applies quite well to data analysis, where complex models
are disproportionately affected by noise but simple models give more
reliable outputs. But razors are not infallible rules. The same Occam's
razor often fails in Biological sciences. For example, a patient’s
symptoms can often arise due to complex interactions between a
disease and underlying health conditions. Hence, there are anti-razors as
well - Kant’s anti-razor states “the variety of beings should not rashly be
diminished”.

In general, razors are not 100% correct all the time, but can be seen as a
mental shortcut. In many practical situations, the simplest explanation is
rather likely. It is very much a human desire to simplify methods. Our
brains are great at pattern matching and in day-to-day decisions, it is not
always possible to keep heuristics in mind. However, there will be cases
in which nuances are required to reach the right answer. To paraphrase
Einstein - everything should be made as simple as possible, but no
simpler.

42.
Hot-headed

In Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, trolls are creatures made of either rock,

or composite materials, or diamonds. They are considered dumb until
we see a troll in a very low temperature setting - the troll begins to
behave intelligently. This uncharacteristic intelligence indicates that trolls
simply have a heat regulation problem - overheating causes their brain
circuits to misfire. Consider actual silicon (which comes from sand) -
based electronics. They show decreased resistance upon heating, causing
more current to flow through them. However, more current causes
further heating, causing a “thermal runaway”. This is why thermal vents
and cooling mechanisms are often provided in most computers, among
other current-limiting devices. Now, I do not know if Terry Pratchett
knew about electronics, but cool correlation nonetheless, eh?

Here’s the opposite - most human beings actually feel more happy and
functional when they are not feeling cold. I remember reading Enid
Blyton books in which English children were revelling in sunshine. (I
could not relate, because in my hometown, sunshine and warm weather
meant 45oC.) Unfortunately, this was picked up by the climate change
misinformation movement - surely the planet warming up was a good
thing, right? If only that were true. First of all, it isn’t just the
temperature. With climate change come two other dangerous factors -
humidity and poor air quality - both of which are heavily indicative of
impaired learning. Hot and humid climates are the worst for logic and
reasoning functions of the brain. Further, change in food patterns and
rapid ecological change can leave our brains overwhelmed and
exhausted. Heat exposure also increases the chances of migraines and
stroke. It is also more conducive for the spread of infectious diseases. In
short - we are not going to end up like the children of old English
novels, frolicking in sunbeams. We are going to end up like Terry
Pratchett’s trolls.

43.
Lightbulb Moment

I write this while replacing the aux cable on my headphones for the third
time this year. They just don’t make ‘em like they used to, we lament.
But there’s a reason why they don’t. Our story begins in 1924.
Germany’s Osram, the Netherlands’ Philips, France’s Compagnie des
Lampes, and the United States’ General Electric face a collective
problem - now that everyone who could afford to buy lightbulbs had
bought some, the sales had fallen sharply. They form the Phoebus cartel
- not only to pool patents together, but to cap the lifetime of a bulb at
1000 hours. Before this decision, most bulbs could survive 1500 to 2500
functioning hours. And since ALL the bulbs on the market now have
the same lifespan, none of them eats into the other’s market. They also
collectively raised the price of their inferior product without inducing
competition. On paper, the cartel was an international alliance to
research better technology. In actual practice, it started what we now call
“planned obsolescence”. Cut to 2023 and we have phones which glitch
with every software update and washing machines that break in 5 years.

A similar start of the story of planned obsolescence begins in 1920 with

General Motors ruing the loss of revenue - no one wants to buy new
cars because their old cars are working just fine. They thankfully did not
start making their cars worse - they just fed the public an idea that cars
should reflect your personality. So as you evolve through your life, your
car should change just as your style changes. A car could last 20+ years,
but if treated as a fashion accessory or as a marker of social status,
consumers could be made to buy them a lot more frequently. We see the
fallout of this as well- we’re supposed to change furniture in a year or
two to keep up with trends (my parents, on the other hand, inherited
their furniture from my grandparents).

All of this has led to out of control consumerism. Nothing lasts, and
even if it does, we’re socially pushed into being bored of the things we
once wanted so badly. We are forced to throw away a LOT - and we
have the landfills to show for it. As with most things, I expect it to get
worse before it gets better. Be prepared for flimsy overpriced everything
before we see a consumer revolt.

(Image Source: https://marketoonist.com/2012/04/planned-obsolescence.html)

 44.
Write your own horoscopes

What’s your sign? I am ENFP, enneagram path 9. What’s your love

language, your attachment style, your angel number?
It’s inherently human to want to know your own self. Personality tests
have held that appeal, and they are especially booming in this era of
social isolation where scarcely anyone feels understood. And while
everyone can have a bit of a laugh at Buzzfeed-esque quizzes telling you
which type of bread you are, highly respected personality tests such as
the MBTI or Love Languages etc have about the same amount of
scientific research. The MBTI, for instance, was created by Isabel Briggs
Myers and Katherine Cook Briggs, the daughter and mum duo who
were bored of writing murder mysteries and gleaned over Jung’s
archetypes to come up with this system over a dinner table. And now,
this test is literally used by potential employers to judge applicants. The
Love Languages come from a former pastor and is dripping in Christian
rhetoric. The focus of it is to keep a marriage together, not to actually be
honest about your relationship.
So what’s the appeal of these? There’s a wide category of statements that
sound profound and personal, but are extremely vague. Most people will
just project what they need onto that given statement and it will feel like
it applies to them. Such sentences are called Barnum statements - here
are some examples:
1. You have a great need for other people to like and admire you.
2. You have a reserved side which very few people know about.
 3. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not
turned to your advantage.
4. You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept
others’ statements without satisfactory proof.
As long as the content is mostly positive and the negatives are shown to
come from the external world, most people will tend to agree with such
statements. Research shows that there is no significant difference
between male and female participants- all genders feel that such
statements are accurate.
There’s one way in which I find such statements helpful - comforting
my own self. Poetry and art bring great comfort because they have an
intentional vagueness in which I can insert myself. I can look at it in any
way I see fit, without boxing myself into a “type”. The problem with
these tests, is that they are vibes pretending to be science- I’ve no
problem with the idea of creating a story for yourself to find motivation
in the moment. So, read all 12 horoscopes and roll with whichever one
you want to apply for the day.

(Image Source:
http://orig02.deviantart.net/a456/f/2008/011/0/4/ewcomics_no__12___horroscope_by_edds
world.jpg)
 45.
‘twas a stormy dark night

As we learn languages in school, there are many grammar rules that are
taught to us. I distinctly remember studying active and passive voice
during my English lessons and learning singular and plural tenses in
Hindi class. However, many rules seem implicit, known only to native
speakers. For example, all objects are gendered in Hindi, and it is
completely arbitrary- rain is written female but water is male. Similarly,
in English, adjectives seemed to go in a particular order - “ I wore a
long green dress” sounds correct. “ I wore a green long dress” sounds
odd. Turns out, that this is NOT intuitive, there are actual rules for this:
(Source: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/adjectives-order)

Similar rules seem to hold for Hindi as well, but not quite so rigidly -
खबसरत रे शमी कुताा (beautiful silk tunic) sounds more proper as compared to
रे शमी खबसरत कुताा (silk beautiful tunic), but the latter also works. What are
the rules of your spoken language that seem implicit? Also, if you do
know about Hindi rules for adjectives, enlighten me
 46.
Home, Work, -?
Ray Oldenburg was an American sociologist. He was greatly in favour of
a “third place” for urban existence, the first two being home and work.
In rural settings, the first two places merged - people worked and lived
in their farms, and community gatherings were also often hosted
amongst families. However, in the urban context of the 20th century,
the workplace became isolated from home. The factory or the office was
a separate space, and many “third places” also became popular - for
Brazilian men, it was barbershops. For upper class Indian women, there
were kitty parties. Oldenburg opines that such places are necessary for a
healthy community, and, by extension, a healthy democracy. While I
disagree with his hierarchy of home being the most important, work
being second, and social sphere being the third, I do agree that there’s a
need for inclusive community spaces.

However, there has been a steady decline in ALL third places. As a cost
of living crisis unfolds in many countries, the first thing to go is social
interaction - people spend the extra hours in second or even third jobs
to make ends meet. There’s also a growing trend of people just being
uncomfortable with teens loitering about in the neighbourhood ( I
remember growing up, just hanging with my friends, maybe playing gully
cricket and most folks did not have a problem with that.) And of course,
car traffic has increased so much that the gullies are not all that safe
anymore anyway. More and more places for community come with an
obligation to pay - good playgrounds are privatised, events are often
hosted by commercial organisations, not by communities. This excludes
a large swath of the population already reeling under inflation. The
pandemic exacerbated this situation by making people even more
isolated for nearly two whole years. We’re left with people trapped in
their little bubbles, unable to interact with fresh ideas. Online social
media platforms do remedy this to an extent, but that is also increasingly
being invaded by ads and paid content.

Now that our first and second places - work and home - are blending
into each other again, I feel that there’s an even bigger need for a third
place. Bring out the folks setting up chess and carrom tables on the
sidewalks. Ask your government to create a few car-free streets. Set up
community gardens. No man is an island, and we all need each other.
 47.
Puzzling Physics

As a Physics teacher, here are some things that students often get
muddled. Two years of online-only, on-again-off-again classes certainly
did not help. The first, is that many, many students think that
gravitational pull and vacuum are interrelated. This is common, because
we teach them that outer space has no atmosphere, or is a vacuum, and
we say that there’s no gravity in outer space. Hence, some students were
very confused as to why things still fall inside a vacuum tube. So,
remember, a gravitational pull is a force acting on every mass. We are
close to a very large mass - the Earth - and hence the Earth’s pull is the
largest gravitational pull that acts on us. If we create a vacuum chamber
on the Earth, the gravitational pull is going to act on us regardless- we
are still close to the Earth. In deep space, there’s no discernable force of
gravity because every large mass is very far away. Even so, the
gravitational pull is NOT zero, it’s just a lot less than what we’re used to.

Also, another common misconception is that meteors burn up in the

Earth’s atmosphere due to frictional heating. (Unfortunately, many
textbooks still say this). It is actually because of gas compression - a fast
moving particle compresses the air in front of it- and the temperature of
the gas increases rapidly due to this sudden compression.

Finally, there’s no force required to keep an object moving with constant

velocity. We often observe objects coming to rest if we just let them be -
a ball rolled on the floor will stop after a distance. But it stops only
because the friction from the floor opposes this motion. If there was
zero friction and air drag, it would roll on forever, until stopped via an
external force.

Former students of Physics, what misconceptions did you have?

48.
Laser Focus

Have you used a laser pointer during a presentation? Used one to play
with a cat? Did you know that “laser” is actually an acronym? It stands
for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. The main
differentiators between lasers and “usual” light are that lasers are
monochromatic, i.e. contain light of a single colour and that lasers do
not spread out like ordinary light from a bulb:
(Left: Laser light with a single colour (green in this case) in a concentrated beam, right: white
light from a torch, which is a mix of many colours, spreading out. Origin of image unknown.)

Now, we could get a parallel beam by simply using special lenses or

reflectors with ordinary light:

(Image source: https://www.parabolixlight.com/fresnel-lens-and-parabolic-reflectors)

However, the light does not get brighter upon such refraction or
reflection. How do lasers “amplify” light energy? In order to answer
that, let’s understand where light comes from. In any atom, electrons can
have certain “packets” of energy. If the electron absorbs energy, it jumps
to a higher energy state and if it releases energy, it does so in the form of
light and jumps an energy down an energy state. There are certain
materials that we can pump a lot of energy into, we can “stimulate”
them into releasing that energy as light. So if we supply the energy via a
voltage such that most electrons are in the high energy state, then we
will have a LOT of light emission. Now, we place this in between two
parallel mirrors so that multiple reflections occur. Voilà, we have a laser.

Now, this was an obviously simplified explanation, but my point is this -

our understanding of light has evolved so much that we can literally
concentrate its energy so much that it cuts through steel. And we use it
to play with our cats

49.
LUCA, is that you?

DNA is the molecule that carries the genetic blueprint for the
development and functioning of an organism. In the past few decades,
our understanding of DNA and genes has improved dramatically. You
may have heard of human beings having the same genetic makeup as
many other primates, such as chimpanzees. Humans and chimps share
about 98.8% of their DNA. Now, primates are just our closest surviving
genetic relatives. We have many genes in common with other mammals,
with fish, and even with plants.

About 4 billion years ago, when the first life forms were appearing on the
Earth, they were single celled organisms that lived in underground vents.
They breathed in hydrogen and carbon dioxide (because molecular
oxygen was unavailable at that time). They could make their food from
the iron and sulphur present in the environment, much like plants make
their food from sunlight and carbon dioxide. How do we know? Because
we looked for genes that are present in every organism- hence, LUCA -
Last Universal Common Ancestor - the organism that started the tree of
life. It doesn’t have to be the first -it’s very possible that the first few life
forms didn’t survive long enough to mutate and evolve into separate
species. But LUCA survived - and spawned us all over the course of
millions of years. Currently, scientists have identified 355 genes that seem
to occur in all organisms. And while there’s much to learn here, it’s a
reminder that we’re all related to all other forms of life.

50.
Our favourite Italian Plumber

It’s 1983. The video game market is facing a lull after the success of the
mid-70s. Atari, the biggest name in gaming, rolled out Atari 5200, their
home console system that flopped so bad that it had to be discontinued in
just two years. Everyone’s making the same derivative games - the
timelines are so short that most game designers have no choice but to
create bad games.

Enter the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is strategically named

“entertainment system”, not “gaming console” to make it look like an
option for people who did not consider themselves to be gamers. It even
looked like a VCR player. One of the best games on the NES was Super
Mario Bros, a follow-up to the 1983 arcade title Mario Bros. This
phenomenon of a game captured people’s hearts, spawned multimedia
sequels, and ensured that by 1986, Nintendo held 98% of the market share
in gaming consoles. What was so special about this game? Ninetendo
hired the very best game designers and allowed them to create something
simple, but impactful. Mario Bros was intuitive and easy to follow even
for someone who had picked a game for the very first time, but had
tougher levels that could keep seasoned gamers engaged. It encouraged
exploration and was made with love. In fact, its creator, Shigeru
Miyamoto often cites exploring the Japanese countryside as one of his
greatest inspirations.

Now, I’m not a gamer- my only exposure to games is on the phone. But I
saw the same situation in the mobile games market right now. Most of the
games look like the copy of a copy, with copious amounts of ads or a
hellish amount of microtransactions. Maybe the next gaming revolution,
this time for the phone, is right around the corner.

51.
Because we keep watering it

The most watered crop in India is rice. This was to be expected, since rice
requires standing water to be cultivated. However, the most watered crop
in the US is lawn grass. Lawn grass! That’s not food! In fact, it was a
marker of wealth precisely because it isn’t food - 17th century Englishmen
used lawn to show off the fact that they had so much land that they could
afford to leave some of it uncultivated. And well - the British colonised
much of the globe at one point, so their aesthetics bled into the rest of the
world.

But lawns are not just an aesthetic problem. The use of ornamental, non-
native grass requires copious amounts of fertilisers, pesticides and water.
Further, since ornamental grass is not in the local food chain, it leads to
biodiversity loss. Butterflies move away because their caterpillars are only
evolved to eat certain local plants. Pesticide sprays kill insects which the
sparrows require as food. Now, there are house associations that force
people to maintain lawns because a certain “look” ensures high property
rates.

It wasn’t always this way. During world war 2, president Woodrow

Wilson had asked the public to maintain “victory gardens” and grow
whatever bit of food they could, at home. This warded off the fear of
food shortages during the war.

Closer home, we were always an agriculture-based economy. Neighbours

grew food and shared with each other as a matter of course. (To our next
door neighbours and family friends - thank you for sharing! And thanks
to my landlord, who used to freely give away the mangoes and the mint he
grew.) But as lawns grow more prevalent and society grows more
individualistic, there’s a decline in native edible plants and the rise in grass
lawns. I do hope that people all over the world realise how useless this is
(and the environmental nightmare of golf courses….. where do I even
begin?) I hope you pick native wildflowers and fruit trees and shrubs over
lawns. And I hope you experience the pure joy of sharing the output of
your garden with your friends.
(Image Source : https://www.gocomics.com/duplex/2003/04/27)

52.
And We Begin
I have been blessed in many ways, but my biggest blessing is this - I
know what I want and I know what I’m good at. By age 11 I was
quite sure that I would teach science in some way shape or form. And
that I’ll be writing in some capacity. At 36, these are very much my
bread and butter. But this blessing came with a curse - I was so good
at identifying my strengths and honing them over time, that things
that don’t come naturally to me become impossibly daunting. I have
never been athletic - I tried kickboxing for six entire years before
realising that I’ll always be the worst in class. And I suppose the only
real antidote to this sort of friction is to find comfort in doing things
badly.

I didn’t have to kickbox well, I was having fun in class blowing off
steam in a way only physical activity can. My own expectation of
every joy amounting to something bigger caused my disappointment.
I come from a system that punished “failure” in its mildest form so
severely that I stopped trying hard things. And we’ve all been shaped
by a culture of toxic productivity where everything has to amount to
some monetary value or some prestigious award. Maybe we could all
do with some deprogramming. The last thing that I’ve learnt, and the
last thing that I’m adding here, is simply this - it’s okay to learn things
slowly. It’s okay to be “bad at learning”.

I’ve picked up a skateboard (thanks to a very supportive husband)

and I’ve stopped thinking about how I’m doing - who cares if I am
the worst in class? It’s a hobby class that people sign up for because
an activity brings them joy! The fear of failure has made a coward out
of me and I will fight it everyday. Writing this was fighting it everyday.
Maybe what I’ve written is bad and I’ll be ridiculed for it - I’m still
better off for having written it than having vague ideas that I never
acted on. I have a little list of things that will likely improve my
quality of life and my long term happiness, things that do not come
naturally to me at all.
And I begin again, looking for a challenge. Looking for something
that makes my heart happy, even if it is hard for my brain to
comprehend.
 Epilogue

The point of knowledge is that it evolves. I mean, there was a point in

time when doctors thought bloodletting was a good idea. (Ain’t it great
that we don’t do that anymore?) Rationality is looking at new evidence
and frameworks and to question long-held ideas. To allow fresh
information to update one’s worldview. Unfortunately, ideologies today
have become inflexible- as though asking someone to perhaps do a little
more reading or to have a look at statistics is a personal attack on who
they are. It is highly possible that by the time I get to publish this, my
knowledge on the topics presented here has already been updated
because I stumbled upon new data. The point of this book is to allow it
to happen. Yes, some beliefs were programmed into us when we were
very young. Like some folks might still believe that eating vitamin A
would give them amazing vision. I am a bag of personal biases too- and
this book very well would reflect that. It is inescapable. However - our
understanding of the universe has increased exponentially in the two
centuries. And all I ask of you is to seek data that disagrees with your
present worldview. If it turns out to be bad data – congratulations, you
were right all along! If not, isn’t it better to let go of old beliefs? Your
knowledge of the world is not your identity, even if it is sold as such.

I am not an original person. I am just a potato on the internet. The ideas

in my head have come from people far more intelligent and
knowledgeable. I must thank them all, but it is impossible, for I have
learnt from hundreds of people - in person and on the internet. Thank
you all. And the most heartfelt thanks to:

Arun and Bryan, who read this first.

All the people at TED Ed, Our Changing Climate, Second Thought,
India in Pixels, PhysicsGirl, 3Blue1Brown, Minute Food and
Veritaseum.

To Dr. S.C. Dutta-Roy, Noam Chomsky, Carl Sagan, George Carlin and
Dan Ariely.

This book was written only for the joy of writing and for kicking my
brain back into learning mode, which is why I am circulating it for free.
If you do want to toss a coin to your teacher, you can donate through
Paypal - I’m on Paypal as sunandakhosla@gmail.com. Alternatively,
Indian readers can send a donation to this QR code through any UPI
platform:
Love and peace,
Sue.