Dr Rajiv Desai
An Educational Blog
SUPERSTITIONS
SUPERSTITIONS: _ _ Prologue: I was traveling from Yanbu to Jeddah by plane and it was my first experience with Saudi Airline. Just before takeoff, as plane was standstill, I heard “Allāhu Akbar (الل أكبر)” [god is greatest] thrice and then plane took off. I never heard similar thing in Indian airlines planes praying Hindu Gods. Is Indian Airlines plane less safe than Saudi Airlines plane simply because a prayer is not recited before takeoff? Has superstition become pervasive in contemporary culture? Did you know that insects could be tried for criminal acts in pre-industrial Europe, that the dead could be executed, that statues could be subjected to public humiliation, or that it was widely accepted that corpses could return to life? What made reasonable educated men and women behave in ways that seem utterly nonsensical to us today? Strange histories present a serious account of some of the most […]
INTERNET CENSORSHIP
INTERNET CENSORSHIP: _ Caveat: Please do read my previous article on ‘The computer and internet” before you read this article as it will make basics of computer & internet easy. Various circumvention techniques discussed in this article are purely for educational purpose and cannot evade existing laws of land. All court orders by competent court must be respected regarding viewing and/or publishing objectionable content on Internet. In many jurisdictions, accessing blocked content is a serious crime, particularly content that is considered child pornography, a threat to national security, or an incitement of violence. Thus it is important to understand the circumvention technologies and the protections they do or do not provide and to use only tools that are appropriate in a particular context. Great care must be taken to install, configure, and use circumvention tools properly. I am not expert on computers, internet or information technology; and therefore technical […]
THE SCIENCE OF CRIME
THE SCIENCE OF CRIME: _ _ Prologue: I was facing litigation from my estranged wife. I was in Saudi Arabia and she was in India. My monthly salary was 6500 Saudi riyals as a doctor and my estranged wife had a document supporting my salary of 6500 riyals because I left India with her full support and knowledge. However, as the marriage broke down, she alleged in court of law that I ran away from India without her knowledge after committing cruelty on her, and to extract money from me legally, she forged the document containing my salary statement by putting 1 before 6500 so that my salary became 16,500 riyals and she submitted forged document in the court of law. The estranged wife became a criminal. The greed for money was responsible for the transformation. Crime has often been considered, especially in ages of deep religious feeling, to be […]
CREATIVITY
CREATIVITY: _ Have a look at a picture below. What do you think? A non-creative brain sees only a hodgepodge of disconnected shapes, but a creative brain can go beyond common sense and find the connecting concept that makes sense of the shapes. The picture is of a dog drinking from a stream, with its head in the middle of the picture facing down to the water and its tail off to the right. _ The picture above shows how your brain can even create things that don’t exist. If you can see the white triangle – the one with its apex pointing up – it’s because your brain has created that triangle to unify what is otherwise simply a collection of angles and Pac-Man shapes. There is, in fact, no white triangle there. _ If you measure these two tables with a ruler, you will see that they […]
THE ANGER
THE ANGER: _ Prologue: Back in the 1700’s there was a Scottish surgeon called John Hunter regarded as one of the most distinguished scientists and surgeons of his day. He had a very bad temper and, not surprisingly, suffered from angina pectoris. He used to say: “My life is at the mercy of any scoundrel who chooses to put me in a passion”. This was prophetic. At a meeting of the board of St. Georges Hospital, he became involved in a heated argument, walked out, and dropped dead. The government of India wrote to UN that my personality is not good and I have to improve. They were referring to my alleged angry nature. I am using the word ‘alleged’ because the government had no contact with me and based their judgment on mere ‘hearsay’. Indian TV channel was investigating my performance in government hospital secretly and found that I […]
