Skip to main content

Are we going crazy?


Was Hanuman the first space traveller?  Did Ravana’s ten heads give him the intelligence and skills required to make an aeroplane?  Did Lord Ganesh receive his elephantine tusk through plastic surgery in an ancient All India Institute of Medical Science?

If you answer ‘yes’ to all such questions you are eligible to present a science paper in the 102nd Indian Science Congress being conducted by Mumbai University.  “One paper, co-authored by Captain Anand Bodas, retired head of a pilot training centre, and Ameya Jadhav, a teacher, claimed there was evidence of ancient aviation in the Rigveda,” says a Hindu report.  There were 200-foot planes that could fly forwards, backwards and sideways and even hover in mid-air during the Vedic age.  The Captain claimed that the planes, invented by a sage called Maharishi Bharadwaj over 7000 years ago, had up to 30 engines and were equipped for warfare.

The Head of the Sanskrit department of the University claimed that Pythagoras Theorem was actually discovered by Baudhayan in 800 BCE.  One wonders in the first place what a Sanskrit professor was doing in a science congress.  Another such ‘scientist’ claimed that cows could turn food into 24-carat gold using some bacteria in their bodies.  Well, the cow is getting holier!

One exhibitor, Kiran Naik, said that during the Mahabharata war, there was a chase in one of those Vedic planes from the earth to the moon and then to Mars, where a king attacked his rival, breaking his helmet.  More, he asserted that NASA found the helmet on Mars.


What is happening to India?  Are we becoming a nation of loonies burying our sanity under the ossified leaves of the past?
Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2015 at 11:31 AM

    There is no place for people who do not understand the ABC of scientific enquiry in a science conference. This has done the most severe harm to our reputation in global science community.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 6, 2015 at 4:02 PM

      We are making asses of ourselves. Pseudo-science is masquerading as science and perverting the minds of the citizens.

      Delete
  2. UnknownJanuary 6, 2015 at 11:37 AM

    You raised a valid question ...Mathical !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 6, 2015 at 4:03 PM

      I'm scientific in my outlook, Alka, and hence am concerned about the latest antics of the Sangh people.

      Delete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 6, 2015 at 1:26 PM

    Next we know is nobody is going to this Indian Science congress as its rubbish.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 6, 2015 at 4:03 PM

      Sanskrit scholars and pandits will be presenting science papers :)

      Delete
  4. DMR SekharJanuary 6, 2015 at 1:26 PM

    Unfortunate.

    DMR Sekhar

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 6, 2015 at 4:04 PM

      Indeed, DMR. When myths displace science in the rightful place of the latter, it is indeed unfortunate.

      Delete
  5. UnknownJanuary 6, 2015 at 6:50 PM

    Its other form of slow move towards religious conspiracy of saying being sanskritisation..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 7, 2015 at 4:39 PM

      And for what? What is anyone going to benefit through all this?

      Delete
  6. Saru SinghalJanuary 7, 2015 at 12:05 AM

    They are writing a fantasy of their own. Earlier it was religion and politics and now it's religion-science-maths-chemistry. Please bring some sanity in this country.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Online JournalistJanuary 7, 2015 at 10:56 AM

    shame ... shame .... puppy shame...!
    Theee may be the signs Kalikaalam...!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalJanuary 7, 2015 at 4:43 PM

      Want to see more signs of kalikalam? See what one website has posted:

      Predictions 1. Politicus Bharatus Janatus Indicus tri pillarus est, Vajpayum, Advanum persistum est et Narendrum Modum. Vajpayum emergum est..." The BJP will have three pillars: AB Vajpayee, LK Advani and Narendra Modi. Eventually, Vajpayee will no longer have an active life, Advani will persist and Narendra Modi will be emerging. 2. Narendrum Modum supremus chefum, ironus manus est et economicum grandum est Narendra Modi will raise himself as a national figure, not only because he is an iron man, but also because he has made of his state a model of economic efficiency.

      Read more at: http://www.oneindia.com/feature/narendra-modi-india-super-power-2014-prophecy-french-seer-1451535.html

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
18 comments
Read more

The Vegetarian

Book Review Title: The Vegetarian Author: Han Kang Translator: Deborah Smith [from Korean] Publisher: Granta, London, 2018 Pages: 183 Insanity can provide infinite opportunities to a novelist. The protagonist of Nobel laureate Han Kang’s Booker-winner novel, The Vegetarian , thinks of herself as a tree. One can argue with ample logic and conviction that trees are far better than humans. “Trees are like brothers and sisters,” Yeong-hye, the protagonist, says. She identifies herself with the trees and turns vegetarian one day. Worse, she gives up all food eventually. Of course, she ends up in a mental hospital. The Vegetarian tells Yeong-hye’s tragic story on the surface. Below that surface, it raises too many questions that leave us pondering deeply. What does it mean to be human? Must humanity always entail violence? Is madness a form of truth, a more profound truth than sanity’s wisdom? In the disturbing world of this novel, trees represent peace, stillness, and nonviol...
6 comments
Read more

The RSS does not exist

An organisation that has 80,000 branches in India does not exist legally in any document. This is the cover story of The Caravan this month. By the way, The Caravan is one of the very few publications that still continues to exist in spite of being overtly critical of Narendra Modi and his Sangh Parivar. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is not registered as an organisation under any of the usual Indian registration laws such as the Societies Registration Act or as a trust or company. It functions as an unregistered voluntary organisation, though it is arguably the largest public organisation in the country. This situation makes the organisation absolutely unaccountable to anyone, argues The Caravan . The RSS is not legally required to file annual returns to the Tax department or disclose its financial details publicly though it deals with thousands of crores of rupees every year especially after Modi became the Prime Minister of the country. The membership of the organisat...
12 comments
Read more

No Problems Only Opportunities

You’ve probably heard this joke. A young man walked into his office one morning and found a beautiful young lady sitting in his chair. He called the MD and said, “Sir, I have a problem.” The MD replied, “Don’t you know our company’s motto, young man? No Problems, Only Opportunities .” When Suchita of The Blogchatter sent me a mail with the topic of this week’s blog hop –  - the first thing that came to my mind was the above joke. I know many people – too many, in fact – who went through terrible problems. My own life was a series of problems in none of which was there the consolation of any beautiful woman. One essential lesson I learnt from life is that life is a series of problems. You solve one and then arises the next one. Now I have reached an age when problems are no more problems: they are life itself. If you ask me what was the biggest problem I ever dealt with, it was my last years in Shillong. I was a lecturer in a college drawing a fat salary stipulated by the U...
13 comments
Read more