Dheeraj Kalgutkar

  Photo by Kate Trifo on Unsplash   Cases in China are skyrocketing and although they have been doing so for months now, scaremongering in India has only begun recently. Let me not go into why that might be and instead stick to the virus and its shenanigans. Reports from China indicate BF.7 has the strongest infection ability out of the Omicron subvariants in the country, being quicker to transmit than other variants, having a shorter incubation period, and with greater capacity to infect people who have had a previous COVID infection, or been vaccinated, or both.  To put this into context, BF.7 is believed to have an R0, or basic reproduction number, of 10 to 18.6. This means an infected person will transmit the virus to an average of 10 to 18.6 other people. Research has shown Omicron has an average R0 of 5.08.  The high transmission rate of BF.7, taken with the risk of hidden spread due to the many asymptomatic carriers, is understood to be c...

It is six months since the genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2 was published by Chinese scientists and was available to the world. What has India done since that January should find no excuse in the otherwise legitimate accusation that China did not inform about the novel virus to the world in time or it kept WHO in dark. It is true that China erred and it is also true that there are reasons to scrutinize WHO. But what have we done since it indeed released the information about the virus? For instance, while some countries like Taiwan, South Korea, Japan had cases of probable infection long before China released the vital information, India registered its first case only in late January, long after China had published genome sequence of the virus and WHO had informed the world about such an outbreak. So unlike those countries, and they have it under control now and cases are breaking new records in India, we cannot blame the outbreak on Chinese malfeasance. Whatever situation we are in to...

Monsoons evaded Maharashtra in 1992. In a country where even today agriculture is largely dependent on rains, this naturally made people distraught then. In this helplessness, blankness, in this void came Maharashtra governor’s appeal other rather a dictate. On a particular day at 11 am, people were to collectively pray. Authorities jumped in to enforce the governor’s appeal. Directions were announced left, right and centre. And pray people did. Newspapers were awash with pictures of people praying for relief from imminent danger, ordinary people to district collectors to workers. Everyone obliged. If WhatsApp University existed then, I’m sure it’s double degree holders would churn out theories of how collective prayer would kindle the kundalini and force gods of rain to bring showers upon them. And we will all be sharing these forwards because why not?! Fast forward to 2020 and coronavirus. Modi came on national television, and like the big boss from that horrible show, ga...

Around 11am today when my first meeting (online) was over and I was out of my house, I came across a group of not less than twelve men standing at the dilapidated gate of an abandoned plot by Kali river. Each one of them knows there is a lockdown, a national curfew. Just days ago on one night, there was a vehicle roaming on street with a loudspeaker announcing ‘hereby people are informed not to gather in a crowd of more than five, to maintain a distance of at least six feet, not touch each other’ so that COVID-19 (a type of coronavirus) does not spread. I was curious about what they were discussing and what was really happening. What was so important that these people thought to gather like this against the advice risking not only their life but also of their families. I was just looking and one man from the group walked up to me. Before he walked over, one of them had asked me to bring a pen and paper — I had rather rudely ignored the request and just moved into my house then. T...

  India is a strange country but more stranger are its people. The old towns and villages have their own gods and those gods have their own homes aka temples in this country. It’s an established order. The temples have their annual anniversaries, gods go to jungle tours, river bathing, to meet other gods in other temples; all on the decorated vehicles pulled by the ever-growing tribe of humans. But that’s in old towns and villages. What happens in newly built cities? The old temples I have visited have their own stories, how they came into being. The stories with myths and magic. If the building isn’t very old then there would be someone with a mystic dream in which certain god comes into their dream and throws in his/her wish (or rather a command) to have an abode of his own in that village. And in most cases, these stories are highly unverifiable (of course, what did you expect? — peer-reviewed theories?). It’s not my desire to find the god himself (or herself!) but ...

  A man just died on the LOC — Line Of Control. A man-made line since 1947 on this globe that came into existence long long before those who ‘drew’ it came into existence themselves. This line was drawn to mark and differentiate two countries namely, India and Pakistan who till that day lived in co-existence as colonies under another nation called England who had built an empire where ‘sun never set’. These two nations called it quit and actually, this was the first BRexit from history! But alas, like many other inventions from subcontinent, this too went unnoticed. He didn’t simply die like god would will it otherwise but was shot. A whizzing bullet straight to his head, sideways. Someone aimed it center but missed his mark yet the man died. What a poor creature. This planet of ours which is revolving around a star named ‘Sun’ in a galaxy called ‘Milky Way’ and universe which is infinite with umpteen galaxies, and still more umpteen stars and planets is inhabited by many...

Waking up to conversations is a great way to start your day provided what the topic is and where it leads. “Do you believe in the concept of soul?” - I was asked by a friend of mine who had just woke up from his sleep. For a moment I thought he was still asleep or in a dream or attempting just plain mischief which we do most of the times. Nevertheless it put me into thoughts; not that I had not thought of this before but have never arrived to any conclusion to state anything on this matter of fact. So I was silent for sometime and was trying to indulge in some buffoonery. “I'm not sure of any side but I do believe there exists something more complex than DNA to which we all attribute life. As far as I can tell science doesn't deny nor agree the existence of soul but do believe that there is something that we all call life; nobody knows what exactly makes us ‘living’ beings, what is that which gives us life.” For instance if we dissect a man into his constituent pieces ...

Ever wondered why all of a sudden after sex or ejaculation you gain your Sherlock instinct back? Or why you lose your instincts or power to think rationally while you are horny or busy thinking about the person of your dreams or anticipating a good drive of lovemaking with that dream person? Don’t worry. You are not alone who loses his instincts at that high time. Most of us do it too. Like any other stuff, there is a whole lot of science behind this losing of Sherlock instincts. Here what it is... First things first. The way you feel when you are anticipating the intimacy or the way you feel when you are horny is controlled by your limbic system. It orders the body to redirect as much blood as it safely can do to the genitals. People who were attentive during 8th grade science lessons will remember how genitals don’t have bones like most of the other parts of the body has. So it is this blood which is pumped at this moment that helps it harden. In the meantime, the higher thou...

Researchers gave dung beetles caps to block out light. An insect with a tiny brain and minimal computing power has become the first animal proven to use the Milky Way for orientation. Scientists from South Africa and Sweden have published findings showing the link between dung beetles and the spray of stars which comprises our galaxy. Although their eyes are too weak to distinguish individual constellations, dung beetles use the gradient of light to dark provided by the Milky Way to ensure they keep rolling their balls in a straight line and don't circle back to competitors at the dung pile. "The dung beetles don't care which direction they're going in; they just need to get away from the bun fight at the poo pile," said Professor Marcus Byrne from Wits University. The dung beetle is the first animal proven to use the Milky Way for orientation. Byrne and his team previously proved that dung beetles use the sun, the moon and polarised li...