Category Archives: adaptation

Decoding Gay Behaviour: Part I

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decoding gay behaviour

Source: The Hindu

 

After seeing a lot of traffic on my blog yesterday, I could make out 1 thing. Many people were interested in it. Today, in this post we will try to understand or deliberate – should we tolerate Gay behaviour or not?

After going through some articles on the origin of homosexuality, I was thoroughly confused. The confusion was primarily this – is homosexuality an adaptation or genetic trait. There have been many unsuccessful researches and findings till now and we are still unsure. So I turned to animals. I considered animals because if they displayed homosexual behaviour on instinct, then man being no different may be allowed to do so.

I delved into 10-20 popular articles and there were 2 broad schools of thought.

Thought 1 – Animals do exhibit homosexual behaviour very similar to humans.

Thought 2 – Animals do display homosexual behaviour like genital rubbing etc. but only to co-exist peacefully in society, after minor battles over food and territory.

A widely demonstrated example was that of Bonobos (member of chimpanzee family). You may read about both, in many articles on Google. I’m just listing down 2 better ones which offer both opinions.

 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13674-evolution-myths-natural-selection-cannot-explain-homosexuality.html#.UqraHPQW3pt

 

http://www.narth.org/docs/animalmyth.html

 

Still, even if we consider both schools to be correct, there is another conflicting question…in animals we also see killing of babies and group mates which zoologists and wildlife scientists term as ‘Filicide’ & ‘Cannibalism’. Two typical examples are eating up of its eggs by snakes and killing of the previous cubs by the new leader of the pride, in case of lions.

If at all, we consider animals for this case too, then we have to permit ‘Infanticide’ too. We should also be ready to tolerate ‘Psychopaths’ and ‘Sociopaths’. Then again we have to resolve whether these 2 psychological problems are genetic or result of an adaptation/accident.

Not confusing my readers any further, I would like to end with the BIGGER question, which is

“How far should we go accommodating exceptions in our society?”

Whenever we come across the development of an aberrant group, will we be compliant every time? I repeat again, that I am not against gays/lesbians but if homosexuality is allowed then even eunuchs should be given a respectable place in society. Think over it.

 

 

The Power of Memory!

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After your heart-warming response to my previous post

http://nandishmalhotra.blogspot.in/2013/09/the-ill-effects-of-forced-ambidexterity.html

I am so excited to post this one. Some of you, who have gone through my previous post must have read about the magical memory which comes as a positive effect of neural re-circuiting. In this post, I would be elaborating more on it. So read on and have fun!

I knew well, that forced ambidexterity was something that had to be put out of the scene for some time. But, as I said and I repeat…I wanted to have some other superpower in replacement. And Ta-Da!…I decided it was time to unleash the Power of Memory….Huhuhahahaha.

For the past few months, I had noticed that my observation to detail had increased significantly. Now I decided to measure it. Accordingly, I drew a 3 * 3 matrix. Next I randomly plotted 5 black dots in the matrix drawn below. (The matrix has 9 small square boxes.)

412b1-5-1

Why 5 dots? Because I have read in numerous articles and science journals that the human brain finds it very convenient to associate with 5 things and consequently its multiples such as 10 etc.. Let me just give you a few examples.

1. A toddler conveniently counts from 1 to 5.He struggles with number 6. The mommies must be knowing this quite well. And then again, he struggles to register the number 11 in his brain.

2. Why the decimal system is widely followed? Any guesses?

3. It is very easy to recollect 5-lettered words. Have you ever wondered why a kindergarten kid never struggles with the spelling of Apple? And again moms must be knowing this quite well how Chintu or Pappu or Nandu learned the spellings of Papaya and Banana. They had to literally nod their heads in rhythm with the phonetics to make them learn it…Hehehe.

4. Try remembering a 5 digit number and then a 6 digit number. You’ll know what I’m talking about.

I can site numerous other examples…if you want to know more about the number 5 fixation g-mail me, anytime of the day (or night…:P).

Coming back to the 5 dots on the matrix, I focussed on them for 10 seconds and removed the paper out of sight. I repeated the same process with another 4 randomly plotted 3 * 3 matrix sheets (which makes it “5” sheets).

Then I tried to recollect all the dots’ position on the 5 sheets of paper. I was quite amazed when I got 4 totally correct. I misplaced 2 dots on last sheet. But all in all, I knew what to do next.

I practised the same exercise for about a week after the college classes. There was negligible improvement in this period. I realised the exercise was futile and plotting dots was no fun. I knew I had to visually click something more interesting, something which would give me the kicks to improve and improvise a better method for spontaneous eye-photography. Now, I was strolling on the road to the girls’ hostel where couples used to flock and cuddle and ET CETERA, pondering over these thoughts. Being a shy single boy, I forcibly tried to be oblivious to these things (and because I had no other option). But wait! How could one not notice the perfume in the whiff created just behind my shoulder. Eva Tease definitely! My heart skipped a beat as I turned over to see…I already knew what I should be expecting!

05b8e-5-2

 Eye-kohl check.Face blush check.Blue star-shaped earrings check.Left cheek dimple check.Lip gloss check…………….. check check check check.

Hardly 2 seconds and more than 10 things scanned! I knew what to practise on in the coming week.

Every day I would give myself 10 seconds to observe and scan a new object (let’s keep it scientific guys…:D). After 10 seconds I would try to recollect as many things as possible.

This activity continued for another 2-3 weeks but then all targets got exhausted. So, I began to lose interest too. Nevertheless, it had laid the foundation stones of developing a better memory.

I then proceeded to mobile phone number memorization. Now I am sure if I tell you my mobile number on the way, you won’t be able to recollect unless you have it noted down (my mobile number is not that simple…:P). I had to come up with a method to feed mobile numbers in the first go. And it took me no time in coming up with one.

Well now my technique is quite advanced but let me put it down from the basics. How do I learn a difficult mobile number?

The Power of Memory!

 

Let’s take my mobile number 9888160902 (don’t try to call ladies it’s no more registered under my name…:D)

How would you remember it? I’ll list down a few ways people often memorize…

1. 9888—-160—902(in this case you are bound to forget the middle or last part.)

2. 9888—16—09—02(this method is ok, but my method is superior.)

3. And there may be many more ways…since I have taken a single number I can’t show you more examples.

Here’s my method – based on the logic of 5-Point someone (kindly take note- I am not referring to any novel).

I register this number as 98—XX—16—9—2. You can very well see that what I have done is broken this number in 2 * 5 digits.

Over the years, I have modified my technique. I now associate numbers with a 10-point teddy bear body and alter his head ears eyes limbs according to the number given to me.

I don’t want to make this article any longer anymore. If anyone is interested in knowing more about memory techniques write to me or post below. I’ll be back with more tips soon. Till then goodbye and LIVE LIFE!

The ill effects of forced ambidexterity.

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As a kid, I always believed I had superpowers. A die-hard fan of Dragon Ball-Z, I always thought there was a Goku inside me. As time passed, I grew up to find out to my utter disappointment that I had none. Nevertheless, I started building some. It may sound funny (crazy that I am), I started to torture myself into forced adaptations. One of them was…what we commonly call AMBIDEXTERITY. In my case – forced ambidexterity.

Caution: Forced ambidexterity can cause tremendous mental stress. In some severe cases it may lead to mental retardation. Try at your own risk. I did and would STRONGLY RECOMMEND AGAINST IT!

 
 

The first few days…

 
The initial few days are both amusing and hugely challenging. It really feels like you are learning to write, all over again; takes a lot of effort to draw those circles, triangles and squares. Scribbling A, B, C, D seems such an arduous task. Accompanying it, is a funny feeling. It feels as if you are watching over a kid struggling with his grip on the pencil; your unconditioned hand assumes an identity of its own, it isolates itself from the conditioned body and brain. You realise what a nursery child has to go through; you understand his psyche, you understand his helplessness.
 
By the end of the 1st month (if you can somehow manage to make it that far) your letter formation and subsequently word formation improves considerably.
 
Just a random fact – In case of forced or adapted ambidexterity, your left hand and right hand writing doesn’t match; it MAY match if you are congenitally ambidextrous.
 

After 2-3 months…

 
Though your adapted hand continues to improve, your other hand begins to start de-functioning. Due to nervous re-circuiting your right hand writing suffers a major blow. You get confused more often while writing. Your letter formation goes haywire. You realise something is terribly wrong! There is a strong urge to drop the practise altogether. Thankfully, I persisted. But little did I know this was just the beginning…
 
 
 

Another 2-3 months later…  

 
You get gifted with something absolutely remarkable! There comes a day when it suddenly dawns upon you …things, events, people, places are being registered in greater detail. You tend to RECORD practically everything that you see. Mark my words…RECORD (and recording and recollection are two different things). I don’t know why this happens. My guess…a part of your subconscious infringes into your conscious.
 
Now, whenever I tell this to people they start testing my memory skills. Guys, listen…once and for all…RECORDING and RECOLLECTION are 2 different entities. Let me explain it. If Nandu (forced ambidextrous) and Pappu (normal guy) both go to a psychiatrist, Nandu would be able to recollect more than a 1000 things on hypnosis whereas Pappu would struggle to give out even a 100.This is because Nandu’s recording was much superior to Pappu. Let’s just say Nandu recorded it in 1080p whereas Pappu in 180p (‘p’ stands for pixels). Accordingly, we require more buffering time to recollect. I hope I made my point clear.
 
Nevertheless not to disappoint my friends, I do try to recollect and recount the exact scene, event or object in great detail (and so can many ambidextrous people) and often leave them dumbfounded. But, the entire process takes a heavy toll on us. Believe me…it is very, very exhausting. In a nutshell, I can just say we have to play the part of both the hypnotist and the re-collector in this case but it takes 4 times the energy!
 

When I couldn’t take it anymore…

 
After 7-8 months of regular writing, I decided to move to the next level. I had seen many Youtube videos in which ambidextrous people used to write mirror images with their left and straight images with their right hand. I couldn’t wait to achieve this feat. Every day, whenever I had free time, I would sit down and write and write and write for hours together. The entire exercise had a debilitating effect on my vocals. My power of speech slowed down…I began to stammer. Being a passionate talker, I took notice of the imperfection in no time. I had no option but to quit… :(.
 
Within a day or two, the stammering disappeared. This further confirmed its causal action. I knew I had to abandon the exercise completely. I was far too terrified to continue.
 
 
 
 
There are people who tell me that you try to show off, try to stand out, you make up things etc. etc…. maybe I do. I NEVER ask you to believe me just as I never asked you to read through this lengthy article. But just in case you are thinking of trying out something very similar to forced ambidexterity, please do consult me. I will be more than happy to help you.
 
It has been more than 2 years since I dropped practising ambidexterity.How much of it do I still retain?…Well, I can still write on a whiteboard with both hands equally well, the superb recording power is still intact and even after 2 years and 3 months to be precise, I still pass both the tests for ambidexterity – the both-sided tongue flip test and the one-eye closed reading test. How credible are these tests I can’t say…but these seem to be the only ones we have right now.
 
 
If you want to know more about me and/or ambidexterity in detail, feel free to contact me via mail or post.