Witty Scribble

'London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down, London bridge is falling down, my fair lady!' A famous nursery rhyme toddlers learn in kindergarten. With the advent of technology, platforms such as YouTube have made it easier for parents to make kids learn these jingles. And the same is true at my home. While listening to the poem recently, a question struck me: Why is it the London bridge only? Did it really fall? Is there some story tied to the song? And I was not disappointed browsing the subject over the net; in fact, it inspired me to write this blog. Well, let us go ahead and hear out the stories credited to inspire the lyrics.      Firstly, yes, the London bridge indeed fell down. And several times! However, two major tales are considered the progenitor to the lyrics. The first and the earliest recorded instance of the bridge falling down dates to the onset of 11th century, a period when attacks on English by Vikings were common. That slic...

News is an important part of our lives. Few of us start the day with the newspaper while a few choose to catch up the daily bulletins on the TV during evening ours. Many choose to have news apps on their phone which brings them the news almost instantly as it is out. Hello, I am back after a long break (or sabbatical should I say!!) and this blog post is not about the various ways to get the news or habits about the news. This is about one recent news in particular. Most of the news in recent days touched primarily three topics: Covid-19, Demise of a talented actor who’s gone too soon (RIP SSR ☹ ) and the border situation between India and China. While none of these is positive news, there was one news in middle of all this, which drew my attention and awakened the curiosity bug: “ One-fifth of Earth's ocean floor is now mapped. ” Well, what does it really mean? Why do we need to map the ocean floor? Let us dive in to know more details and find these answers. lif...

"I wonder why scientists are not able to create a vaccine for a virus which can be killed by a 10 rupees soap!", read one of the memes over the pandemic. The message made me laugh and feel sad at the same time. The last few months have been tragic, fearful, and chaotic…to say the least. The world has been in the grip of a virus, with lock-downs enforced in numerous countries. The cases are heading north with no respite in the near future. Vaccine has been a topic of discussion in recent times. Though theories on vaccines being in different stages of development are doing rounds, it is highly unlikely that one will be available for general use by the end of 2020. Though, I sincerely wish it does. But do you know how vaccines work? How do they create a protective shield around our body? And how did the name 'vaccine' come into existence? Continue reading. How was the name 'Vaccine' coined? Let us commence by reading about the word itself. 'Vaccine...

The last three to four months have been a total hysteria for cricket fans across the world. And why not, it was show-time. First was the money oozing fest 'IPL' in May, accompanying all the glamour and who's who of the cricket world: players, coaches, support staff, owners. Following it was the grand quadrennial event: the ICC Cricket World Cup. And all of it further escalated to a new level with the nerve-wracking final. The Eng-NZ final face-off game will be remembered for generations and will often arguably be quoted as one of the best one-day matches in cricket history. As a supporter of New Zealand team (of course after India), I was disappointed to see them bag the runners up trophy 'again'; more so because of the debatable, odd rule that separated them from earning the coveted crown. Kudos to the England team as they played like champions and being the host, the victory served like a cherry on the cake.   Well, Wales was the other country from Great Britain a...

Parts of America are colder than Antarctica! This was the headline in major journals worldwide and surely has been the hot (or should I say cold) topic discussed & debated amongst environmentalists and people across the globe recently. The conditions were certainly quite harsh in a few areas of the USA. The temperature has been recorded as low as -40 ° Celsius; said to be the lowest the mercury has dipped since several decades. The reason for this sudden sweep of cold winds is attributed to 'Polar vortex'. What is this Polar Vortex? Is it some newly coined term or it has always existed? Has the temperature ever been so low in USA because of it in the past? How long is this to stay? Read on to get the answers to these questions. Cassini model over Saturn's North Polar Vortex: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Kevin M. Gill What is Polar Vortex? Before answering the question, let me talk about a few basic terms from Geography. As we all know, Earth is divided into 2 halv...

As we close the year end and welcome the new year with all the joy and zeal, let us know a bit about the first thing that changes with the year: The Calendar . In this age of technology and gadgets, many people still use the traditional wall calendar or other printed forms. It is arguably the most efficient tool in Indian household to track the absence of milkman or the maid. As we near the year end, I thought it will be apt time to talk about our friend on the wall, the Calendar. Oh! don’t worry, I am not going tell you about leap years and century years and stuff, I know you know that already (although you may find one of our older posts about leap second a little interesting). So right before we change the calendars, let us talk about how calendar has changed over time. Based on whether the calendar represents the cycle for sun or moon, it can be a Solar Calendar or Lunar Calendar. However, most of the early calendars were lunisolar, considering both lunar and solar p...

'Where words fail music speaks'. A famous quote, from a renowned author 'Hans Christian Andersen', is undoubtedly true. Music/Sound transcends the language-barrier to work as a common medium to elicit happy, melancholy, annoying, devotional, calm, energetic etc. feelings. Though oldest musical instrument is contested, the records definitely ascertain the fact that music is much old than we generally think it to be. The contested slice of history is w.r.t. two finds in recent times. One is called the " Divje Babe Flute ", discovered in Slovenia and estimated to be 43,000-67,000 years old. The other is the pair of flutes found in Germany and estimated to be around 40,000 years old. These flutes, made of Mammoth's ivory and Swan's bone, are generally accepted as the oldest musical instruments. Divje Babe Flute (Source: Wikimedia) So much on the musical instruments history. Let's come to the present, in the world where Hip hop/Rap & ...