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Dharmaraja's Gamble - Draupadi's disrobing - A myth and a lesson.

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Dharmaraja . Yudhishthira . The man who needed no introduction. In the grand epic of the Mahabharata , he stands as the embodiment of Dharma . His brilliance shines in the episode of the Yaksha Prasna. His restraint, wisdom, and commitment to righteousness define his character across the epic. And yet — there is one moment. One devastating moment in the Mahabharata where Dharmaraja crosses the fragile boundary of conscience — and pays for it instantly… and for the rest of his life. Yes. The gambling episode in the Kuru Sabha . Most of us remember it through television and cinema: Yudhishthira loses the game. Duryodhana orders Dussasana to bring Draupadi . She is dragged into the court. Someone protests weakly. Dussasana attempts to disrobe her. Krishna appears miraculously with endless sarees. The villain collapses in exhaustion. Powerful scene. Dramatic. Memorable. But not entirely faithful to the original narrative. In the Sabha Par...
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Potato Paradox - Intuition vs Intelligence

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Assume you have 100 kg of potatoes, which are 99% water and 1% mass. They dried for one day, and the water percentage reduced by 1%. What is the new weight? When I asked this question orally, the common answer was 99 kg. However, when I asked the same question in writing and gave 1 minute to respond, the answer was 50 kg. The gist of the paradox lies in how 1% change in water led to a reduction of 50 kg in weight. Let the new weight be X. When we say the water percentage was reduced by 1%, the new water percentage is 98%. So, what is the other 2% made of? It is 1 kg of mass.  1 kg of mass = 2% of X X = 1 kg/2% = 1 * 100/2 = 50 kg. So, why do many people fail to answer the question when asked orally? Instead of doing the above steps, we simply tend to reduce the 1% mentioned in the question from the overall weight of the potatoes and end up with 99 kg as the answer. When we were given time and resources to calculate the percentages on a piece of paper or a calculator, we tend to foc...
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Saranyu - Surya's wife - Book Review.

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  SARANYU: Surya’s Wife by Saiswaroopa Iyer My rating: 5 of 5 stars Saranyu, Surya's wife, is a retelling of the story of Sandhya and Chaya, with a mix of fiction that incorporates contemporary storytelling elements. Sai Swaroopa, the author of this book, was a well-established and renowned figure in the retelling of Indian mythological stories such as Abhaya, Avishi, and Draupadi. The plot of the story is about Saranyu, Chaya (the illusory of Saranyu) and Vivaswan during the twilight period (we call it Sandhya between two manvantaras). This story is quite popular among the Hindu readers who read epics. This story stands apart from all the earlier novels by the author in terms of narration and plotting. One important aspect is not deviating from the underlying philosophical outline of the original characters of Sandhya, Chaya and Surya. Though the book is termed as fiction, as the narration goes around the Hindu devas and daityas, a period of conflict between two manvantaras, it...
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Chaos Theory & The Butterfly Effect

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Chaos theory is something you might have heard about. If you haven't heard of it, it states that what seems to be randomness in chaotic complex systems is often associated with underlying patterns, interconnections, and is highly sensitive to the initial conditions. For non-science students, a chaotic complex system is any complex system that is made up of multiple factors influencing the outcome of such a system. Basically, such systems are represented as mathematical functions, and chaos theory suggests that the output of such mathematical functions (chaotic systems) depends on the sensitivity of the initial conditions. The impact of initial conditions on complex systems has been discussed for a very long time. But a verifiable proof was established by the meteorologist Edward Lorenz in the 1960s when he was working on weather predictions. This is the best example I observed so far, despite the theory being extended to many other systems in many fields, including many manufacturi...
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Abhinav's Dilemma

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Abhinav was a smart boy. He was in senior kindergarten . He loves to learn in school. One day, the teacher taught road rules . She had shown him the traffic signal . She talked about wearing a helmet. She told them to walk on the left side. Abhinav listened carefully. After school, his father came. Father made Abhinav wear a helmet. Abhinav was excited and said, “My teacher taught me this!”  They started driving home. Suddenly Abhinav asked, “Papa, why are we on the right side?” Father said, “We can go faster this way.” Abhinav was confused, but he kept quiet. At the signal, the light turned red. Father stopped for a moment, then he drove forward again, though the signal was still red. Abhinav said, “Papa, the signal is still red. We must wait for green.” Father said, “No cars are coming. It is okay.” Abhinav still felt worried. At the next road, people crossed randomly from every side. There was no zebra crossing . Abhinav asked, “Papa, why are people crossing everywhere? ...
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Guha, Godavari and Ganga - A myth, a king, and an epic.

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Guha, a character that needs no introduction to people who have watched or read something about Ramayana. Many of us remember this character as someone who helped Rama cross a river. But how many of us remember or correctly know which river Rama crossed with the help of Guha? I asked the same question on different social media platforms with the following options: Ganga, Yamuna, Brahmaputra, and Godavari.  The question received 60 votes as below: Ganga (33.9% - 20) Yamuna (14.3% - 9) Brahmaputra (3.6% - 2) Godavari (48.2% - 29) Godavari got the highest number of votes, but the correct answer is Ganga . Then how did we end up with Godavari getting the highest votes? This can be attributed to movies in regional languages and a slight mistranslation of the Valmiki Ramayana. So, what does Valmiki Ramayana have to say about Guha and his role in Ramayana? The episode of Guha begins in Ayodhyakanda, Sarga 50, with Rama reaching the banks of the Ganga. The intro of Guha goes like this: तत्...
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Putrakameshti - Birth of Rama

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Image source: AI generated by me with ChatGPT. We all know that Sri Rama Navami is celebrated on the 9th day of the ascending moon of Chaitra Masam in the Hindu calendar. We also know that Rama was born after Dasaratha and his three wives performed the Putrakameshti yagam. So, the question is, Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata & Shatrughna were born after how many months/years from the completion of Putrakameshti? When I asked this question on X, it received 38 votes. 15 people opted for 9 months, 15 others opted for 12 months, 4 people opted immediately, and another 4 opted for 6 months. I am not surprised, as I saw similar responses for earlier questions on Ramayana. So, what was written in the Valmiki Ramayana about Rama's birth date and the timelines from the Putrakameshti yagna? In Valmiki Ramayana, Balakanda, Sarga 13,14, 15 & 16 details the performance of Rajasuya yagna and Putrakameshti by Dasaratha and his wives under the guidance of sages Rishyashringa and Vashishta. Sarga...
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