Tides of Thoughts

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...

  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...

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...

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...

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...

Once upon a time, there lived a king known for his judicious, courageous, compassionate and wise nature. He expanded the kingdom over a period. It extended 3000 km from east to west and 4000 km from north to south. Since he couldn't be everywhere, he started to administer the whole kingdom in bits and pieces by appointing governors, justices, administrators, tax collectors, and other supporting administration staff for each territory. Though the king was pious and honest, the people surrounding him were not so honest. Some used to do favours to their friends, family and relatives as and when possible. Some used to create new opportunities, jobs, and were favoured in establishing businesses, showing partiality for people of their community. Some others used to show partiality for the people who bribed them. Some others used to show partiality based on regionality, and so forth and so on. Though the king knew that some of his administration was corrupt and dishonest, the king didn...

Book-1/2025 Title - Conversion - An Assault on Truth Authors - Dr S.L Bhyrappa, M. Chidananda Murthy, David Frawley, R Ganesh, N.S Rajaram, Swami Dayananda Saraswati. Publishers - Sahitya Prakashana, Hubli First Published Year – 2009 Image courtesy – www.exoticindiaart.com   The book deals with religious conversions in India, the Indian perspective and global phenomenon, and the impact of religious conversions on Hindu demographics.   Before going into a detailed review of the book, I want to express a little about my perspective on religious conversions, which I will later elaborate on and make into a book.   For me, there are three perspectives for analysing religious conversions.   Morality - To give a brief about the idea of morality from a non-religious perspective, in general, morality refers to the principles that define good or bad, right and wrong behaviour. If we remove the class and religious perspectives of individuals, the...