Witty Scribble

Sachin Tendulkar.  Hearing the name, the thing that comes to mind is 'GOD of Cricket'.  Roger Federer . Tennis/Wimbledon is where you are transported to.  Lionel Messi . A guy dribbling the football, making fool of the best of defenders.  Pankaj Advani . A genius, with a cue stick in hand, standing next to a Pool table. Or is it a Snooker table? No, it's a Billiards table. Ahh.. Let's find out.  Pool, Billiards and Snooker look almost the same on the face of it. A pair of sticks, a group of balls and a plush, exquisite green table. Collectively, they refer to a class of games known as  Cue sports . Cue sports, invented around 15th century, were invented as the indoor versions of the outdoor games such as Golf, Croquet, Trucco. These outdoor games were prominent among the elite, the royalty and no surprise, even the Cue sports were the favourite time pass for the  rich . What are Cue Sports? Cue sports, also called Billiard sports, are played with a Cue

Merry Christmas. And since it is Christmas week, we are going to talk about the most popular and most loved Christmas tradition. Yup, you guessed it right, it is the Santa Claus. Ho! Ho! Ho! Santa, as all of us know, comes to visit us on the Christmas Eve, climbing down the chimney with gifts for the kids who have been good throughout the year and the ones who have been naughty get coal from him (I believed this throughout my childhood and probably still carry a part of it in me today as well J .) Let us dive into the history to see how the tradition started and evolved through time. A Santa Figure Who was Santa Claus? Santa, as we know him today, is significantly inspired by Saint Nicholas , a Greek bishop from 4 th century. He had a habit of secretly gifting the things of use to the needy and this turned in to the gift giving tradition of Santa. However, the appearance of Santa as white bearded man, wearing red fur was adopted from the illustration for Santa in

Long ago in the dense forest lived a rabbit. Quite fast and agile, the rabbit challenges a Tortoise for a race...... This is too common a tale not to be a part of anyone's childhood bedtime stories. At the end, was a life long advice from the story.... Slow and steady wins the race. As we grew up (90s kids specifically), bedtime stories gave way to addictive video games. Ninja Turtles was one of them. The turtles had to fight the likes of powerful 'Shredder' to save the city and win the game...   Well this article isn't about stories or games or lessons learnt etc. I suppose you must have guessed it. Yes, it is about the difference between Tortoise and Turtles.  What is the difference between a Tortoise and a Turtle? For the very first difference, Tortoise dwell on land while Turtles mostly live in water. This can be easily correlated with the story of Rabbit and Tortoise. Since the race was on land, we can infer and also remember that Tortoise is a la

Imagine you are driving your lovely car at a decent pace and suddenly see an animal on road. You hit the brake hard and as Newton’s law of inertia has it, you get a jerk forward, about to collide with the steering wheel, while your beloved sitting next to you spills the coffee cup and is about to hit the dashboard and the windshield. But you are not tensed in that fraction of second, because you ‘belted up’. Yes, the seat belt comes to rescue, saving the driver and passenger from colliding in to the car’s body. Masterpiece! You can pull it all the way to the buckle while you pull it slowly, but it senses the jerk and lock itself, so that people in the car are safe. Let us talk a bit about this life saving engineering masterpiece. Seat belts were first invented in mid-19 th century and the credit goes to an English engineer, George Cayley. However, the first patent for using belts as a ‘safety measure for humans using hooks or other equipment to secure the body w

'What's in the name? A rose by any other name would still smell sweet' , says Juliet to Romeo. People literally feel it right when they think about the 2 island nations: Greenland and Iceland . Ever wondered why Greenland is called Greenland and not Iceland, while Iceland is called Iceland and not Greenland ?? Does it sound confusing ? It is.. But really, do you know the reason why? Greenland is covered with more than 80% of ice, which is greater than ice cover in Iceland. But then, why are they named like that? What is the reason for the anomaly? Well, the legend goes like this…. The story dates back to the year A.D. 982 when a young Norwegian, named ' Erik The Red ' was exiled from Iceland. He travelled up north to reach an uninhabited, dry, snow covered land. On returning to Iceland post his exile, he wished to inhabit and settle in the exiled place, which has been his home for 3 years. But to bring people along, he calls the newly found

Water, one of the essentials for existence of any life form on planet, is available to us as a gift of nature in many forms. We have various water bodies that cover more than two thirds of our planet. Let us talk about some of these water bodies and how to identify them. Ocean :  The largest of all the water bodies on planet, oceans are salty and cover 71 percent of earth’s surface. Sea :  It is a large water body of saline water which is usually connected to an ocean. However, there are few large (really very large) salt water lakes, like Dead sea and Caspian sea, which are surrounded by land from all sides but still referred as sea. Bay :  Bay is a water body that is surrounded by land from three sides. On the fourth side is usually a bigger water body like an ocean. Gulf : A larger bay. Moat :  A deep trench like structure which surrounds an establishment like a city or a fort.                                 A Moat Lagoon :

During our childhood days, most of us loved the sight of an airplane  wheezing  past over our head, high up in the clear, blue sky. At times, the plane left a white trail behind. Many kids credited it to rocket, destined to the outer world. It wasn't until class 4, when the mystery of the 'white linear clouds' was resolved by my dad. But do you know the reason for the formation of trail?  Let us understand the science behind it. What are the white trails formed by a jet? When an air plane flies high in earth's atmosphere, we at times see it leaving a trail, that tells the 'road' travelled. The reason behind this phenomenon is ' Condensation '. The exhaust from the plane, pumps water vapour in the air, which on mixing with the outside cold air, condense quickly to form a 'white cloud', as viewed from the ground. These are, in science terminology, called ' Contrails ', short for Condensation trails. Why some trails are

English is a funny language ...So says Amitabh in the the movie Namak Halal. It truly is; you may enjoy another cult classic 'Chupke Chupke' and giggle in the very naive-yet-difficult questions from Dharmendra. Well this blog doesn't talk about the funny side of English; rather it tells you about the different facets of the language.  What are Oxymorons?  Oxymorons are the words that have two opposite meaning words or self-contradictory words that we often find in use in spoken or written language. The term originated in Latinised Greek and comprise two parts: Oxy , meaning sharp or keen and Moron , meaning dull or foolish. Did you notice what they did there? Yes, you got it right. The word Oxymoron is an oxymoron itself. Beauty!! But is this just one such word? No, with vast scope of English as a global language, definitely not. Words such as these, that are themselves the example of the term they denote, are called Autological or Homological words. Few

From the fiercest to the swiftest, the 'Cats' are rightly the 'Lords of the jungle'. While Lions take pride in their loud and thunderous roar, a Cheetah's scary and fixated look makes even the lionhearted tremble.  And then there are the 'cousins' in the Cat family : Tiger, Leopard, Jaguar, Panther. But how to differentiate amongst these beasts? Not that you have to, during your out-of-luck-day, but probably the article will be of help to you, during your next visit to a zoo or a safari. While Lions and Tigers are easily identifiable, one tend to confuse amongst Cheetah, Jaguar and Leopard. And it is quite usual for us to not able to distinguish between them. The major difference amongst these felines lies in their skin pattern and body structure.  While Cheetahs have black solid spots running through the fur, Jaguars and Leopards have Rosettes pattern adorning the skin. Furthermore, Jaguars rosettes have spots in the centre; the structure that di

Chocolate, not just a word but also an emotion for many. With numerous variants from milk to dark, hard to soft and what not, I have never come across a person who can say s/he never liked chocolate in his or her life. Such is the charm of this masterpiece, created from the nature’s gift of Cocoa. When was the chocolate first used? Chocolates, as we know of them today for being an incredible delight to the sweet-teeth, was not always a dessert. First use of chocolates were far more indulging. They were used in fermented beverages and served as alcohol and such uses of chocolate and cocoa date back to 1900-1400 BC. Cocoa beans were considered extremely valuable and a gift of 'God of Wisdom', and even served as a currency in ancient Aztec civilizations. However, the chocolate got sweet in 16 th  century, when sugar was added to it and it found its way from the rich and royals to the commoners. Cocoa beans were first domesticated in the Meso-American region (parts

Tea(or Chai) for many, is the first thing that is gulped down the early morning. Over the time, people have become accustomed to wide varieties of tea, some just for having multiple options, but majority, because of the health concerns. Green Tea / Black Tea have become a common name, but are you aware of the difference that exists among the various categories ? Let's read it in the section below. How is Green tea different from White/Black/Yellow Tea ? Tea is generally categorized based on how it is processed and the level of oxidation the leaves undergo. Usually, it is classified as : 'White', 'Yellow', 'Green', 'Oolong(or Wulong)', 'Black(called red tea in China)', and 'Post-fermented tea'. The point worth mentioning here is:  ' A lesser processed Tea leaf is greater in antioxidants and hence is best for health'                                                                            

Before the later part of the decade of 1990s, it was a common sight of a ‘wake’ of vultures feasting on the carcasses of dead animal(s). Vultures, Indian vultures in particular, are one of the nature's best scavengers. Often quoted in ancient literature for their farsightedness (remember Jatayu and Sampati from Ramayana?), Giddh Drishti, they soar high in the sky looking in the vicinity of human population to find their food. Vultures are naturally gifted with a digestive system capable of breaking down their food, which is hazardous otherwise, thus making them a major contributor in the animal disposal system. It takes a few minutes for a ‘wake’ to completely clean off a full grown dead cattle. But where are they now? Animal dead bodies are still seen frequently, but the vultures are nowhere around. The population of vultures in India declined sharply (upto 99 percent decline as per some studies) between 1990 and 2007-08. The reason was uncertain, until befo

The ship of desert, as the camel is widely referred to, is really a life saviour in the rocky, arid, vast expanse of desert. A tall lad, with a shy attitude, is a champ when it comes to braving the odds in the most toughest of environments and climate. While a human, on an average, can survive without water for just  4-5 days , a camel can live quite longer without the life giving fluid. But what makes it so special? How is it able to sustain in such harsh conditions?  The secret lies in the lump present at the camel's back !! How does the 'hump' helps the Camel ? The projected mass, generally referred to as 'hump', makes camels travel over 100 miles without water. You will be surprised to know that the 'hump' is not present in the new born calves, but it grows with age. The  hump  contains  FAT (& not water)  which the beast converts to energy and water as per the exigency. Once the fat is exhausted, the hump(s) become soft and loose.