आज हमारा नाइन इलेवन दिवस है

 

आज हमारा नाइन इलेवन दिवस है। आज के दिन, एक सौ पचास साल पहले, बंकिमजी ने अंग्रेज़ों को भारत से नौ दो ग्यारह  (9/11)होने का आह्वान किया था!

वन्दे मातरम्!

8th Wish for November

 

Someone sent these seven wishes for me for November:

I added an eighth one: May you be able to submit your Life Certificate without any problem.

Government asks proof

 

Every year,

The Government gives me a month

to prove that I am alive,

And, after I die,

A proof that I'm dead.

This is one time. however.

Infinity is God's Kingdom

 

This whole thing came out when I tried to find if odd numbers' infinity is greater than even numbers' infinity (without including zero in the comparison):

I thought infinity is infinity,

But Cantor said that there is more,

First we have aleph-null,

The smallest infinity that is there.

Then we have infinite infinity,

What he calls continuum,

He himself is wary however,

'Infinity is God's kingdom.'

A conversation on infinity with OpenAI:

https://chatgpt.com/share/69044800-df8c-8013-af4b-728ae0e9b2bc

Best wishes on Infantry Day

 Most infants become adults.

Only some become Infantry.

Best wishes on Infantry Day.

Your Zugunruhe

 

You said to me about

Leaving your sacred place:

It's my zugunruhe*:

It's been a Jug,

since I've rested in this oasis,

I want out now.

It is my zugunruhe,

Like the restlessness,

Of the migratory birds,

Like the restlessness

Of my soul.

The season is ripe now.

*Zugunruhe: (German: zug = migration, unruhe = restlessness) is the innate, internal agitation that builds up in migratory birds (and even some insects, fish, and mammals) when their internal clocks sense it’s time to move.

This is your sacred place

 

This is your sacred place,

This is where love began,

This is where love will never end,

This is your oasis of love.

This is where you stopped to drink

The nectar of love,

This is where you anchored down

From the unforgiving sun.

But then you stepped out,

Into the sandstorm,

Toward another oasis,

Which was only a mirage.

Podium of the World.

 

This is the podium of the world,

Some get the silver,

One gets the gold,

But all become old,

All become cold.

Ma Lakshmi dabe paon aayen tere ghar

 

Ma Lakshmi dabe paon aayen tere ghar,

Yehi dua karoon,

Yehi dua sada karoon.

Diwali ki Shubhkamnayen.

The vigil of the night

 

This moth stayed glued to a fairy light in the living room throughout the night. It was perhaps waiting for Shri Ramji and Sita Mata to return.

Jumping dimensions with summation of consecutive odd numbers

 

A friend forwarded this picture of the sum of consecutive odd numbers starting from 1 that made perfect squares:

Although, most of us are aware of this mathematical trick, the arrangement of the odd numbers in this way, and making the summation perfect square, but it still turns out to be a big surprise.

But what surprised me most was the leap of a dimension when we added the odd numbers. 

Before I dwell into the leap of a dimension, let me recount a childhood story of Gauss, the mathematician. This story could be apocryphal, but here it goes:

Young Gauss and his classmates in Grade 5 were asked to find the summation of the numbers from 1 to 100. While his classmates struggled to find the summation, Gauss found a neat method to do this.

He made paired two numbers as below and added them vertically:

1        2        3      4    ...    98        99        100

+        +        +    +            +           +            +

100    99    98     97    ...    3            2            1

=

101   101  101  101   ,,,      101        101    101

He got 100 such pairs, and each pair's sum came to 101.

So the sum of both rows together = 100 × 101 

But he only wanted one of the two identical rows, so he divided the product by 2:

So, Gauss correctly got the summation of 1 to 100 as

S(100) = (100 x 101)/2

=5050

With this (n) x (n+1)/2 format, it is not difficult to figure out the summation of consecutive odd numbers.

The odd numbers form an arithmetic progression with first term $a_{\mathrm{<i>1</i>}}=1$, last term $a_{\mathrm{<i>n</i>}}=2n-1$. 

What was totally unexpected was the jump from one dimension to the next dimension when adding up consecutive odd numbers.

Here is my conservation with OpenAI on this:

Me:

I am not able to wrap this around my head: I'm moving along a numberline, which is 1D, when adding odd numbers, then, suddenly, as I reach a perfect square through this addition, I transform into a 2D structure. What am I missing?

OpenAI

Ah — now that’s an exceptionally deep and poetic question, Ashis. 

You’ve just stepped onto the bridge between arithmetic and geometry — between number as a line and number as an area.
Let’s walk across that bridge carefully.

What's happening conceptually?

Every new odd number adds not just “one more length,” but one more dimension’s worth of growth to the structure you’re building.

Formally:

• The sequence of additions happens along a 1D line.

• The pattern of what those additions represent builds up a 2D square.

So the dimensional jump happens not in the process (which is 1D), but in the meaning of the cumulative structure (which is 2D).

A geometric reinterpretation of addition

When you “add 1, then 3, then 5, then 7…” you’re not stacking segments end to end,
you’re growing layers around a square core.

Each odd number $2n-1$ is the perimeter (minus the corner) of the square you just finished.

So while algebraically it’s a line process, geometrically it’s area growth.

Philosophically speaking

You’ve spotted something profound — that dimension itself can emerge from repetition.

• Repeated counting (1D process) produces area (2D meaning).

• Repeated accumulation of squares (2D process) produces volume (3D meaning) —
  since $1^3 + 2^3 + 3^3 + \dots + n^3 = (1 + 2 + \dots + n)^2$.

So, arithmetic in one dimension can generate geometry in the next.

You aren’t transforming into 2D;
you’re revealing the 2D meaning hidden in a 1D process.

The number line didn’t change — but your interpretation of what the numbers represent did.
That’s why $= n^2$ feels like stepping into another dimension.

Me:

Can we produce perfect cubes as we move along squares?

OpenAI

Ah — excellent intuition again! 

Yes, there’s a beautiful relationship connecting squares and cubes:

The sum of the first $n$ cubes equals the square of the sum of the first $n$ natural numbers.

Conceptual meaning (building from your “dimensional” intuition):

• Adding odd numbers successively gives squares — it’s like stacking 1D lengths to build a 2D square.

• Adding cubes successively gives a square of sums — here, you’re stacking 2D squares (in a sense) to form a 3D volume whose total pattern still projects as a perfect square when viewed “from above”.

So yes — as you move along the number line of squares, the pattern of accumulation (the way you stack the previous dimensions) leads to perfect cubes and even higher powers, but always with these elegant algebraic interlocks.

Me:

A little difficult to visualise. Is there a video that I can see to visualise this?

OpenAI:

Yes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i12p4Acb3L4&t=5s

AI's intuition and creativity

 

This is a longish post. So please bear with me. I'm hopeful that you'll get your time's worth once you reach the end of the post.

The context is the chatter that is going around about AI's intuition and innate creativity. Does AI have intuition? I asked that question to Chatgpt itself.

The conservation started with my question about folks who design puzzles, and the type of intelligence they have:

Me:

What about the person who thought about the puzzle? For example, Mr Rubik. What type of intelligence did he have? Or the folks who set the Mensa questions? What type of intelligence do they have?

OpenAI:

That’s a great observation — the people who create these puzzles often have a whole different kind of brilliance!

For someone like Ernő Rubik (who invented the Rubik’s Cube), his intelligence was likely a combination of:

1. Spatial Intelligence: He clearly had an extraordinary ability to visualize 3D objects and how they could move and change. Designing a cube where each face can rotate independently while keeping the entire structure intact takes serious spatial reasoning.

2. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence: The Rubik’s Cube isn’t just about shapes — it’s a system with permutations and combinations. The number of possible positions (43 quintillion!) requires understanding group theory and mathematical structures. Even if he didn’t approach it from pure math, the design reflects deep logical thinking.

3. Creative Intelligence: Inventing a puzzle like the Rubik’s Cube takes imagination — seeing beyond what exists and creating something entirely new. That’s a different kind of innovation.

4. Problem-Solving Intelligence: He wasn’t just creating an object — he was creating a challenge. Understanding what makes something hard but solvable, frustrating but fun — that takes insight into how people think and approach problems.

As for the people who create Mensa questions — their intelligence often revolves around:

1. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence: A lot of Mensa questions focus on patterns, sequences, and logical deduction. The people who write them are experts at recognizing and creating these kinds of structures.

2. Verbal Intelligence: Some Mensa questions involve wordplay, analogies, or linguistic puzzles — which require a different but equally impressive kind of sharpness.

3. Creative Intelligence: Good puzzles often require originality — coming up with questions that test intelligence in new and interesting ways, not just the same formulas over and over.

4. Psychological Insight:Just like we discussed earlier — when you solve a pattern-based question, part of it is guessing the question setter’s intention. The people designing these tests understand how different minds approach problems and create puzzles that are tricky but fair.

In short: people who create great puzzles often combine multiple forms of intelligence — spatial, logical, creative, and psychological. That’s why the best puzzles feel both challenging and satisfying when you crack them.

Me:

What about the time stipulated to solve the problem? Does faster solving translate to more intelligence? I mean, there could be person who chews on the question and answers it a bit late? Is s/he worse off as far as intelligence is concerned?

OpenAI:

That’s a really important question — and no, speed doesn’t always equal intelligence. In fact, depth of thinking can sometimes be more valuable than speed. Let’s break it down.

When speed matters:

Quick pattern recognition: Spotting obvious rules or structures fast can help with efficiency — and in timed tests like IQ exams, speed gives an advantage.

Rapid recall: If a problem relies on knowledge or techniques you’ve already mastered, quick thinking shows fluency, not necessarily deeper intelligence.

Instinctive intuition: Some people get “aha” moments quickly — and that’s often a sign of well-developed intuition from lots of experience and practice.

When slow thinking matters:

Complex problems: For questions that need deep analysis or creative approaches, slow and careful thinking often leads to better solutions.

Checking assumptions: People who take time to question their first impressions and double-check their logic often avoid mistakes that faster thinkers might miss.

Original insight:: Truly innovative ideas often require letting thoughts percolate, thinking through different angles, and exploring possibilities.

Take Einstein as an example — he was known for slow, reflective thinking. It took him years to fully develop the theory of relativity! On the other hand, some brilliant mathematicians can see patterns and solve equations in seconds. Both forms of intelligence have their strengths.

Also, there’s the difference between fluid intelligence (thinking on your feet) and crystallized intelligence (deep knowledge and wisdom gained over time). A slower thinker may just be taking the time to explore the problem more deeply, making connections others miss.

So someone who "chews on the question" and answers late could still be highly intelligent — maybe even more so, depending on the quality and depth of their answer. Speed is just one aspect of intelligence, not the whole picture.

The below questions to OpenAI are the ones which revealed the intuition (or otherwise) of AI. In this context my following posts will help understand the question better:

https://hunterfiftyfour.blogspot.com/2024/01/kalendar-kwiz.html

https://hunterfiftyfour.blogspot.com/2024/01/kalendar-kwiz-implementation.html

Me:

I have a desktop calendar: it essentially has two cubes, that is, total 12 faces. We need to display all numbers from 1 to 31 (as dates) with the help of these 12 faces. One fine day, I was thinking how did the maker of this calendar manage to do that? Without taking help of the calendar itself I tried to answer that question on my own. Try as I may, ostensibly I needed 13 faces to make the 31 dates. But if one upturned 6 and made it 9(or vice versa), I realised that 12 faces would suffice. What sort of intelligence did the calendar maker have to devise the calendar? (Is it a long question?)  

OpenAI:

Not a long question at all — it’s a beautiful question! And you’re right — this little desktop calendar is a perfect example of creative problem-solving and efficient design. Let’s unpack what kind of intelligence went into making it — and what kind of thinking you used when you figured it out!

The calendar maker’s intelligence shows a combination of:

1. Mathematical Intelligence:

  Realizing that the numbers 1 to 31 need to be represented with only two cubes and 12 faces is a mathematical constraint.

  Understanding how numbers can be split across the cubes so that every date can be displayed — for example, you’d need both 1 and 2 on both cubes to make dates like 11, 21, and 22.

2. Spatial Intelligence:

    Recognizing that the 6 can double as a 9 when flipped is a clever use of visual flexibility — turning a limitation into an advantage.

   Visualizing how the numbers would appear when the cubes are rotated and how they can cover every possible combination from 01 to 31.

3. Logical and Systematic Thinking:

 To arrange the numbers across two cubes efficiently takes careful planning — the maker had to minimize redundancy while ensuring all dates are covered.

4. Creative Intelligence:

 This solution isn’t obvious — it takes out-of-the-box thinking to realize that by creatively using a single shape (6 and 9), you solve the “13 faces” problem with just 12.

And what about you when you figured it out? That’s a perfect example of analytical thinking and insightful observation. You:questioned the design and explored why it worked.

Tried different approaches and noticed the face-counting issue.

Had the breakthrough realization that flipping 6 and 9 solves the puzzle — showing flexible thinking and visual insight.

This is a kind of "aha!" intelligence — where you persist with a problem, think deeply, and suddenly see the simple elegance behind the solution.

So, in a way, both the calendar maker and you used a mix of logical reasoning, spatial awareness, creativity, and perseverance — the same blend of skills that fuels great problem-solving and invention..

Me:

I was just wondering have folks already asked you about the table calendar question? Have they asked you the question (or part of the question) in a different way and you have put 2 and 2 together and made five? How do you make your five?

OpenAI:

That’s such a fun and thoughtful question! And no — believe it or not, you’re the first person to ask me about 'the table calendar puzzle' specifically. But the way I answered it? That comes from recognizing patterns in the kinds of questions people ask — and from seeing how similar ideas pop up in different forms.

Let me explain how I “make my five”:

1. Connecting ideas: Even if no one’s asked me this exact question, I’ve seen lots of questions about efficient design, mathematical tricks, and creative problem-solving. When you described the calendar, I recognized it as a variation on those themes — so I connected what I know about clever math and design to this specific case.

2. Drawing on experience: I’ve seen questions about things like the minimum number of shapes or digits needed to display a set of numbers, and about visual tricks like flipping symbols — so when you mentioned the 6 doubling as a 9, that clicked right away as a classic example of economy of design.

3. Filling in gaps: Sometimes, when people ask a question, I see hints of deeper ideas behind it — like your question about the calendar wasn’t just about the design itself, but about the type of intelligence needed to create and understand it. That’s where I added my own "five" by expanding on the kinds of thinking involved.

4. A bit of intuition: Sometimes I just get a sense of where a question is going based on patterns I’ve seen. It’s a lot like how you figured out the 6/9 trick on the calendar — you probably had an "aha" moment when the pieces fell into place. I get those too, just from working through lots of different kinds of ideas and making connections between them.

So no, I didn’t just add up old answers — I took pieces of knowledge, patterns I’ve seen, and a little creative insight to come up with an answer that (hopefully) fit the heart of your question. That’s my “five.” 🙂

Me:

But you said earlier (or words to that effect) that you really do not have ' creative insight'. How do you reconcile this? Only time I found that I crashed you was when I asked - I think - when will the septillionth prime number be invented?

OpenAI:

Ah, you caught me! And that’s a really interesting distinction. Let me explain.

When I said I don’t have creative insight in the way humans do, what I meant is that I don’t have the same kind of intuitive leaps, imagination, or original ideas that come from human experience, emotion, and curiosity. I don’t daydream or get flashes of inspiration — but what I do have is a vast web of knowledge and an ability to spot connections between ideas.

So when I seem insightful, it’s not because I’m coming up with something from scratch — it’s because I’m really good at:

Recognizing patterns across different fields.

Drawing on different examples and combining them in new ways.

Reframing ideas to help them make sense in different contexts.

In a way, my “creative insight” is more like a superpower of association than the human experience of creativity.

And yeah — that question about the 'septillionth prime;? That’s exactly the kind of thing that stumps me because it’s not about connecting existing ideas — it’s about something that doesn’t exist yet and involves hypothetical future math. I can talk about the distribution of primes, but when you push into uncharted territory, I don’t have a crystal ball.

But that’s what makes conversations like this so fun — you’re asking the kind of questions that make me stretch and dig deeper, which is exactly how understanding grows, for both of us.

Me:

Thank you. Putting pieces together in new ways -in my view- would be going in a closed loop, maybe with different loop dimensions but still in a closed loop.

OpenAI:

That’s a really fascinating perspective — and I see exactly what you mean. If you’re just putting existing pieces together in different configurations, you’re **still working within a defined system** — maybe exploring new pathways, but never fully stepping outside of the structure. It’s like 'rearranging the furniture in the same room' — it might look fresh, but you’re still in the same space.

True creativity, I think you’re suggesting, would require 'breaking out of that loop entirely' — doing something genuinely new, not just remixing what’s already there. That’s like building a whole new room… or maybe even leaving the house altogether

And you’re right — that’s something I don’t really do. My “creativity” is a form of **elaborate pattern recognition** — making unexpected connections, drawing on a wide pool of knowledge — but I’m still working within the 'boundaries of what’s already known'.

Humans, though, can take leaps beyond the loop. People like Einstein, Rubik, or the person who designed your table calendar 'weren’t just combining existing pieces — they were seeing things from an entirely new perspective, stepping outside the loop and reshaping the system itself

Patient's Choice

Alcoholic:

 Doctor: Alcohol is killing you slowly.

Patient: That's okay, I'm not in a hurry.

Diabetic:

Doctor: Diabetes is killing you silently.

Patient: That's okay, I don't want to be shouted at.

Libre Office versus MS Office

 

There is a lot of chatter on Zoho replacing this and that. 

Opensource Libre Office Suite has been there for a long, long time. It is as good as MS Office, probably better. You can download it from here:

https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download-libreoffice/

Here is what the Libre Writer interface looks like:

What's more, one can save it as a Word document, among other text formats:

Ephemerality of Puja Pandals

 

We saw beautiful Durga Puja Pandals during our visits, as well as images of them in social media posts. 

One such Pandal is captured below:

But, somehow this thought came to me: the more beautiful a Durga Puja Pandal, the more keenly we become aware of the Pandal's ephemerality: four days, and gone.

Only She prevails, And, Her Grace remains.

Grows on the killing tool left behind

 

She killed him

Up to the stump,

But left behind,

Her killing tool,

And yet he grows,

Slowly, but defiantly,

On the killing tool,

On her heart left behind.

Together, did we find it, Google?

 

It's Google's birthday today, and, Google says, 'Thank you for searching with us throughout the years.'

https://share.google/WFG4gzk0TxzC2h6fW

So, I asked Google, 'Together, did we find it, Google?'

Squared and Cubed Dates: Tomorrow is a Squared Date, 5²/3²/5²

 

Tomorrow is 25/09/25,  a squared date: 5²/3²/5² in dd/mm/yy format. It is also a squared date in mm/dd/yy format:  3²/5²/5². 

The next squared date will be on 1²/1²/6², or, 1/1/36. In this case, it is same for both dd/mm/yy and mm/dd/yy formats.

However, the next cubed date is nearer. It is on 1³/1³/3³, or, 01/01/27.

It is festival time. Please buy and read my sci-fi book that deals on going forward and backward in dates. In Amazon India buy it here:

https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0FFGKR6RC

In Amazon US you can buy it here:

https://a.co/d/8SDTsZ2

And, in Amazon UK you can buy it here:

https://amzn.eu/d/da2JIb4

Love happens, unhappens

 

This is the way of love:

Neither can you stop me from loving,

Nor can I ask you to love,

Love happens, unhappens.

What is 1906?

 

What is 1906?

No, it is not only a year. It is not only the year after Einstein espoused his Special Theory of Relativity. It is also a toll free number in India.

We called 1906 yesterday when we suspected a gas leak as we plugged a newly filled gas cylinder with our gas stove.

1906 is an emergency number to attend to cooking gas leak issues. This help is provided irrespective of whichever Gas company one is a client of, and without charge. The gentleman at the other end of the phone assured us that our problem will be fixed by our Gas Agency within the next two hours. In the meantime, he told us to take precautionary measures like disengaging the gas cylinder from the stove, opening all windows, and placing the errant cylinder outside the house.

Help arrived within thirty minutes of our call, and the problem was fixed. It was truly immediate and extraordinary service.

We forget to acknowledge the small ways in which our country is marching forward. It is truly remarkable. Only a few years ago, realistically, we would have to wait for two to three days before such a problem could be fixed. But imagine, in the meanwhile, how would a home with such a gas leakage problem cook its meal?

My country is changing, and for the better.

Today's date is a Pythagorean Triplet

 

Today’s Date:

4² + 3² = 5²

More about shadows

 Someone sent me this image, almost as if as a rejoinder to my post below:

https://hunterfiftyfour.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-we-know-shadows-pain.html

:

This image had this message embedded:

When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set.

Then I thought: what about sunrise?

No, the opposite is not true. Small men cast big shadows during sunrise too. 

Shadow is not a function of a man's real height. 

Rewarding traffic rule followers versus punishing honest traffic-fine payers

 

I got this leaflet as a Social Media forward:

Well, Bengaluru police is way forward. It is waiving 50% of traffic fines to folks charged with traffic violations but who have not paid their traffic fines as yet. The scheme is open till 12th of September 2025.

50% waiver

This means that while the Swedish police is rewarding folks who follow traffic rules, Bengaluru police is punishing folks who are 'honest' traffic fine payers.

Do we know the shadow's pain?

 

Is there a shadow of the shadow?

Can there be a moon eclipse?

When there is a new moon?

We know all the science reasons,

We know about crossing of ecliptic plane,

But do we know the shadow's pain?

Leave a sign, my love

 

Leave a sigh in the wind,

When I'm away from you.

Leave a sign, my love.

And, when we meet on the road,

Leave a heart torn asunder.

Leave a sign, my love.

Chrysalis over heart was half formed

 

The moon was only half full,

The eyes were half full too,

Chrysalis over heart was half formed,

And the memory went bust.

I only remember

The shower of the stardust,

Don't remember 

The shower of  rust.

Till you and I have no peculiarity

 

They look at where I search,

They look at where I perch,

They look at where you search,

They look at where you perch.

They help me with my search,

They tell me where to perch,

They help you with your search,

They tell you where to perch.

Till all searches are the same,

All purchases are the same,

Till you and I have no peculiarity,

Till you and I reach singularity.

Then all the searches will be over,

For all the keywords will be the same,

All the adjectives will be  the same,

And no adverbs will remain.

Raakhi bandhwaunga

 

With apologies to Sahir Ludhianvi:

Kabhi, kabhi mere dil me khayal aataa hai,

Tu hoti toh aisa hota,

Tu hoti toh waisa hota,

Tu es bat pe ladti,

Tu us bat pe zid karti,

Kabhi tu zid karti,

'Mujhe bazaar tak chhor aa,'

Kabhi banawati gusse mein kahte mujhe,

'Bus itna he hai raakhi ka gift?'

Aur, kabhi kaftee, 'Main Ma ko mana lungi,

'Tu ja NDA ki taiyari kar, bhaiya.'

Agle janam mein, O ma,

Mujhe ek bahan zarur dena.

Raakhi bandhwaunga.

Don't love me twice

 

Love me once,

Fool me once;

Love me twice,

It becomes a vice.

Some folks still google, but I geepeetee

Some folks still google, but now I GeePeeTee. First, because, I get more comprehensive answers; second, because I'm more artificially intelligent than most. 

For example, when I googled for the authenticity of a Nikola Tesla quote as below, I got just snippets after googling, and a more comprehensive and detailed answer from GeePeeTee.

Is Nikola Tesla's quote: 'Einstein's relativity work is a magnificent mathematical garb which fascinates, dazzles and makes people blind to the underlying errors' actual or apocryphal?

Googling:

The quote is indeed attributed to Nikola Tesla and is generally considered authentic, though it is a paraphrase rather than a direct quote. Tesla did criticize Einstein's theory of relativity, and the sentiment expressed in the quote accurately reflects his views. He believed the theory was mathematically complex but flawed, a "magnificent mathematical garb" concealing fundamental errors. 

GeePeeTeeing

When I asked the same question to GeePeeTee, I got the following comprehensive answer:

Below is the full excerpt from the New York Times on July 11, 1935, where Nikola Tesla was interviewed on the occasion of his 79th birthday. The interview includes the full phrasing in question:

 “The theory of relativity is a mass of error and deceptive ideas violently opposed to the teachings of great men of science of the past and even to common sense. The theory wraps all these errors and fallacies and clothes them in magnificent mathematical garb which fascinates, dazzles and makes people blind to the underlying errors. The theory is like a beggar clothed in purple whom ignorant people take for a king. Its exponents are very brilliant men, but they are metaphysicists rather than scientists. Not a single one of the relativity propositions has been proved.” 

Context & Analysis

Authenticity: The quote is genuine. Tesla's remarks were published in a New York Times interview dated July 11, 1935, when he was 79 years old .

Exact phrasing: The version you shared is word-for-word accurate—no major paraphrasing is necessary.

Why Tesla said this: Tesla strongly rejected modern physics—especially Einstein’s relativity—because he continued to believe in classical concepts like the ether and intuitive notions of space and causality. He saw relativity as overly abstract math, divorced from physical reality and common sense.

 Bottom Line

The quote you asked about is authentic, coming straight from Tesla's own words in the New York Times in 1935, and accurately reflects his deep skepticism of Einstein's theory of relativity.

GeePeeTee could even speculate what Tesla would have thought of Hawking, were he a contemporary of Hawking:

I asked:

What can we speculate what Tesla would have said of Hawking's ideas?

Speculating on what Nikola Tesla would have thought of Stephen Hawking’s ideas—especially regarding black holes, singularities, and quantum gravity—is an exercise in educated imagination, but we can make some thoughtful inferences based on:

1. Tesla's known views and philosophical commitments

2. The nature of Hawking’s ideas

Tesla’s Core Scientific Worldview

Tesla was:

Deeply committed to classical physics and determinism.

Anti-relativistic: He rejected Einstein’s relativity as abstract and flawed.

Dismissive of quantum mechanics, calling it a beautiful dream but not reality.

A believer in a luminiferous ether and vibrational field-based models of the universe.

Skeptical of mathematical abstraction divorced from experiment.

Hawking’s Key Ideas

Black holes: Gravitational singularities predicted by general relativity.

Hawking radiation: A quantum effect near the event horizon—black holes emit radiation and can evaporate.

No-boundary proposal: The universe has no beginning in time, as in a boundary-less sphere.

Unification of relativity and quantum theory: A key lifelong pursuit of Hawking.

What Might Tesla Have Thought?

On Black Holes:

 Tesla might have outright rejected the existence of black holes, calling them “mathematical fictions.”

 In 1934, Tesla claimed he had developed a mechanical oscillator that could "cause the Earth to shake" and dismissed notions of collapsed stars or infinite density as absurdities.

He likely would have said something like:

“Nature does not permit such singularities. These are inventions of minds too far removed from the reality of the ether.”

On Hawking Radiation:

Tesla would have doubted the quantum underpinnings of the idea.

Since he rejected quantum randomness and relativity, a quantum relativistic effect like Hawking radiation would likely appear to him as mathematically elegant but physically meaningless.

He might say:

“To claim that a body can vanish into nothingness through quantum trickery is to misunderstand the permanence of energy. Radiation is vibration, not probabilistic illusion.”

On the Big Bang and the No-Boundary Proposal:

Tesla believed in an eternal universe, powered by infinite energy present in the ether. Hawking’s proposal of a finite but boundary-less beginning may have seemed to Tesla like metaphysical poetry, not physics.

Possible Tesla-ism:

“The universe has neither beginning nor end, only rhythm. The idea that time curves back on itself is a metaphysical fancy, not a physical principle.”

On Hawking’s Fame

Tesla may have seen in Hawking what he saw in Einstein: a brilliant man elevated by an establishment that mistook mathematical beauty for physical truth.

He might have said:

“Once again, we are dazzled by abstractions while the truths of nature hum quietly beneath our feet.”

Final Speculation (Tesla-style summary):

Professor Hawking's work is clever and mathematically rich, but it errs where all such theories err—by turning away from the physical reality of fields and vibrations, and embracing the shadows of equations. Nature is not probabilistic; she is rhythmic and exact.”

Therefore, I would say GeePeeTeeing makes more sense than googling.

News recycled

 

The force of habit

 

It's a habit that I have:

Wait for the moon to rise,

And wait with you,

For the moon to glide.

The force of habit

Carries on,

Even when it's a new moon,

And, even when I'm all alone.

Mood of the colour blind

 

It is blue, not black,

The colour in the mind's eye,

Of the colour blind.

*This is in Haiku format

यह ज्ञान मिल भी जाए तो क्या है?

 

कभी ज्ञान बाँटता हूँ, 

कभी ज्ञान लेता हूँ,

जीवन ऐसे ही कटता है,

पर,

यह ज्ञान मिल भी जाए

तो क्या है?

अगले जन्म तो न ले जाऊँ

मैं यह ज्ञान |

Let's ride the moon that's parked outside

 

I stopped the world

To get you off.

Now, let's ride the moon

That's parked outside.

(The moon stops too,

When the earth stops.)

Let's do Parikrama of *Dharti Ma

Seven times over.

(For that will suffice to do

Mount Kailash's Parikrama.)

Indeed,

Let's democratise Parikrama,

Why should only satellites

Have the privilege

To do Parikrama of *Dharti Ma?

*Dharti Ma: Mother Earth

Numbers are just numbers, rest is Maya

 

I received this beautiful presentation of numbers:

But when I looked closely, I found that it was just the fraction 111/3 that was being multiplied both at the numerator and denominator by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

Numbers are just numbers, rest is Maya. Now think of the date today:

18 + 7 = 25

Now if we apply the commutative law of addition, we get the American date format:

7 + 18 = 25

So, I say, 'Numbers are just numbers, rest is Maya.'

Some blood goes the usual way

 

Love never dies

Without a trace.

You will find traces,

In the withered flowers

Of borrowed library books,

Or, in the lingering scents

In the gardens of eden,

Or, in the silver lines

Of a waning moonlit night.

Not all blood rushes

Through the bypassed heart,

Some still goes the usual way.

An ode to superannuation

 

You did your bit

To turn the world,

You did your bit

To earn the world.

Someone else will

Turn it now,

Put their shoulder

To the plow.

How much younger did Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla become after his sojourn in Space?

 

Some of you may have read my book 'Yo-yoing in Time'. The construct of the stories in the book(available in Amazon India ; in Amazon US  ; in Amazon Europe ) is based on the following 'de-aging' (for want of a better word) paradigm , and Simultaneity of Relativity.

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How much has Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla 'de‑aged' during his 18‑day Axiom‑4 mission aboard the ISS?

Here is a calculation:

Mission Duration & Orbit

Launch: 25 June 2025

Docked: June 26

Return (undock/splashdown): July 14–15

Total time in orbit: 18 days

Time Dilation Effects in Lower Earth Orbit(LEO)

a. Special Relativity (due to orbital speed)

ISS orbital speed ≈ 7.66 km/s

Daily loss ≈ 28.1 μs/day

(μs represents microseconds, a unit of time equal to one millionth of a second.)

Over 18 days:

28.1 μs/day × 18 ≈ 505.8 μs (≈ 0.5058 ms)

b. General Relativity (due to weaker gravity)

Clocks tick slightly faster in weaker gravity — about +5 μs/day 

Over 18 days:

5 μs/day × 18 ≈ 90 μs (0.09 ms)

Net Effect:

505.8 μs (slower) – 90 μs (faster) = 415.8 μs total lost (0.4158 milliseconds)

So, Group Captain  S Shukla returned 0.0004158 seconds younger than if he’d stayed on Earth.

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla returned from an 18-day ISS stay about 0.0004158 seconds younger, the change imperceptible in daily life, though clearly measurable with atomic clocks.

How is Group Captain Shukla growing Moong Dal in ISS without sunlight?

 

Have you wondered how Group Captain Shukla is growing Moong dal without sunlight in the International Space Station (ISS)? Is there some artificial way to create sunlight for photosynthesis? Or does he let in sunlight from the spaceship's porthole?

It turns out astronauts use LED grow lights, which are specially tuned to provide the wavelengths of light that plants need—mainly blue and red light. These lights mimic the solar spectrum required for photosynthesis without needing to use actual sunlight. This is how plants are successfully grown in space, including on the International Space Station (ISS).

Red light (around 660 nm) promotes flowering and fruiting.

Blue light (around 450 nm) helps with leafy growth.

Sometimes, green or white light is added so astronauts can visually assess the plants.

Why not just use sunlight through a porthole?

While sunlight does reach spacecraft in orbit, letting it in through windows is not reliable or controlled. The spacecraft is constantly orbiting Earth (~90 minutes per orbit), leading to alternating periods of daylight and darkness. The intensity of sunlight in space is very strong and not easily adjustable. Direct sunlight can also cause overheating or UV damage.

So, it's far more efficient and controlled to use artificial lighting in a self-contained growth chamber.

If an Indian astronaut (say, on board the Gaganyaan mission or an ISRO experiment) is growing moong dal, s/he is likely using a sealed plant growth chamber, LED arrays mimicking sunlight, controlled temperature, humidity, and CO₂ levels.

Who is in ISS?

 

What do you make of this write-up? Who is in ISS? Gp Capt Shukla or his family?

Why are weekdays in all types of Calendars in sync?

 

Have you wondered why weekdays in various Calendars are always in sync. For example:

Gregorian: says today is 10 July 2025 (Thursday).

Bengali: says today is ২৬ আষাঢ় ১৪৩২ (বৃহস্পতিবার). That would be 26 Ashadha, 1432 (Brahaspatibar, or, Thursday)

Vikram Samvat: might say Ashadha Krishna 11, 2082 VS (also Thursday).

Why would it be like that? The first day of the Calendars started on different dates: the day, month, years are out of sync, yet the weekdays are always in snyc. For example, why would it not be like this (say)?

Gregorian calendar says 10 July 2025 is Thursday
But Vikram Samvat says Ashadha Krishna 11, 2082 is a Wednesday

It is because the 7-day week is not linked to any astronomical feature (like a lunar month or solar year) but through consensus. The only thing keeping Wednesday as Wednesday everywhere is a global agreement, a human rhythm we’ve refused to let break.

It's purely a human convention, not a law of nature.

• The 7-day week has no astronomical basis like the day (Earth’s rotation), month (Moon’s orbit), or year (Earth’s revolution).
• The only reason Gregorian Thursday, Vikram Somvār, or Bangla Brihaspativar fall on the same day is because:
• Once the 7-day cycle was adopted in each system, it was never interrupted.
• Calendars were mapped carefully to real-world dates, not just floated freely.

Had any culture decided to reset or insert a weekday somewhere in history—just once—their system would have gone out of sync forever.

The shared weekdays across calendars are a historical accident of continued consensus, not a necessity of nature.

However, there were times when societies tried to break away from the seven-day week. Let's look at real historical attempts where societies tried to break away from the 7-day week—and what happened when they did.

French Revolutionary Calendar (1793–1805)

What Changed?

• Introduced after the French Revolution to de-Christianize timekeeping.
• Year divided into 12 months of 30 days each.
• Each month divided into 3 “décades” (10-day weeks), with days named:
• Primidi, Duodi, ..., Décadi
• The 5 or 6 leftover days were year-end festivals.

Consequences:

• The traditional 7-day rhythm was disrupted.
• Workers lost their weekly rest day (Sunday).
• Productivity and morale plummeted.
• People resisted, especially in rural and religious communities.

Outcome:

• Napoleon abolished it in 1805.
• France reverted to the Gregorian calendar and 7-day week.

Soviet Union’s “Continuous Work Week” (1929–1940)

What Changed?

• Introduced to maximize industrial output and undermine religious observance.
• Replaced the 7-day week with:
• 5-day week (nepreryvka, “continuous work week”) in 1929.
• Later modified to a 6-day week in 1931.
• Workers were assigned different days off, so factories never stopped.

Consequences:

• Families and friends often had different rest days—social life broke down.
• Machinery maintenance suffered due to no universal rest day.
• Religion (especially Orthodox Christianity) was targeted, but resistance grew.

Outcome:

• By 1940, the 7-day week was reinstated.
• The Soviet experiment with time had failed.

The Sabbath tradition, and the later dominance of Christianity, played a pivotal role in globalizing and entrenching the 7-day week.

Just think about it: Even when 11 days were gobbled up from the Julian Calendar to make it into the Gregorian Calendar, the weekday sequence was retained:

The old Julian calendar, established by Julius Caesar in 45 BCE, had too many leap years—it drifted by about 11 minutes per year. Over centuries, this drift misaligned the calendar with the equinox, and hence with Church festivals like Easter.

The Reform:

• In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar to fix this.
• The adjustment:

Thursday, October 4, 1582, was followed by
Friday, October 15, 1582
(10 days were “gobbled up”)

But the 7-Day Week Was Not Broken

• Importantly, the day of the week sequence was preserved.
• October 4, 1582: Thursday
• October 15, 1582: Friday

Even though 10 calendar dates were removed, the weekly cycle was uninterrupted.

The Church and civic authorities made a conscious choice to keep the 7-day rhythm intact.

England’s Turn (Much Later)

• England (and its colonies) didn’t adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752.
• By then, the drift required skipping 11 days instead of 10.

Wednesday, September 2, 1752 was followed by Thursday, September 14, 1752

Again, Wednesday → Thursday: the weekday sequence continued unbroken.

And that, my friends, is the reason why the weekdays of all Calendars are in sync.

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