RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Sir Garfield St Auburn Sobers. What a name — and, description. A gallant knight and the game’s ultimate all-rounder. Sobers, who made his Test debut, against England, at Kingston, 72 years ago [1953-54], was a total cricketing phenomenon. A three-, or four-in-one, marvel. He’s a Brian Lara with the bat, an Alan Davidson […]
Author Archives: Rajgopal Nidamboor
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Aug
Aug
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR When the Austrian paediatrician, Clemens von Pirquet, MD, first used the term, allergy, in the early 1900s — from the Greek allos, for altered state, and ergon, for reaction — to illustrate excess physiological responses to substances in the environment, the fascinating expression caught the fancy of the world. Today, allergy is, doubtless, the most clichéd […]
01
Jul
Jul
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR There is ‘participation’ in everything that happens, or does not happen, around us. This is nothing short of a profound sense of reciprocation — one that may also express what is obvious. Your hand is able to touch things, because it is a touchable thing all by itself. It is also a part […]
01
Jul
Jul
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Consciousness is, in essence, something that exists with its own identity. It may, therefore, be construed that it is distinct from all other objects, processes, energies and also realities the physics of consciousness would reveal. More so, because physicists do not mean anything that constitutes the substance — or, what is meant by the […]
01
Jul
Jul
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Comparisons are odious. But, comparisons are part of life. A cricket bat isn’t a bat without the willow for reference. Hence, the equation — a unique object, or organisation, halts assessment and comprehension, because it is singular. This explains for human aptitude to ‘inventing’ technologies. It’s not that animals don’t invent; they use […]
01
Jul
Jul
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Our mind is more than an advance — a mirror to life itself. It’s also far ahead of what René Descartes, the mediaeval philosopher, reasoned: “I think, therefore, I am.” We all know it — that within the world of matter is the body, even though our fundamental body goes beyond matter in […]
01
Jul
Jul
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR What has colour fluctuation in certain leaves got to do with the change of seasons? More than meets the eye and mind. The changes are collectively called biological rhythms — or, behavioural changes that may not be just passive responses to environmental variations. Such changes are driven by ‘endogenous oscillators,’ called biological clocks, […]
01
Jul
Jul
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR The horrendous COVID-19 pandemic compelled us to realise that the most expensive things in life do not really bring profound happiness. Yet, the fact also is — blame it on our short-term memory — we are always drawn to them. It is rightly said that objects imitate life at the material level. In […]
01
Jun
Jun
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR What has genetics got to do with tennis? More than what meets the racquet sport. Witness: family ties in the form of Venus and Serena Williams, two sisters who traded skewers and flyspecks not just on their march to the top of women’s tennis, but also on their way up the ladder towards […]
01
Jun
Jun
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR The quintessential discovery of hypnosis is attributed to Franz Anton Mesmer, MD, the ‘non-conformist’ 18th-century Viennese physician. Mesmer, it is now evidenced, used a method similar to modern hypnosis, or hypnotherapy, with the sole intention of removing neurotic symptoms. Mesmer discovered that when he applied magnets on some of his patients, their psychological […]