Proof, courtesy Indian television

Read the headline on the next frame. Can you believe it? Yes, India TV has found that the legendary Sudarshan Chakra of Lord Vishnu is not a myth but is a reality.



How does the channel get to this conclusion? By getting a piece of news that paleontologists have found a head of a crocodile which lived around 60 million years ago, and was killed by a sharp object which severed the head from the body. Ofcourse this could not have happened other than the mighty Vishnu killing it himself, according to a fable (The one where the said crocodile catches hold of an elephant, who happens to be Vishnu's devotee. The elephant, seeing inevitable death, cries out his Lord's name, and Vishnu comes running barefoot to save his devotee, and to achieve this end, uses his Sudarshan Chakra to cut off the crocodile's head).

The deeply religious folks at India TV saw this as proof that the fable actually happened.


Even though the head was found in Brazil, while Vishnu is an Indian deity.


Who is the expert they are consulting here? A certain Pandit Ajay Gautam, who is apparently an expert on the Vedas.

No, they don't feel the need to consult, interview or publish words of the team who is supposed to have been involved in this excavation and is responsible for this discovery. Not their opinions, not their clarifications, not what they derive from this, not what impact this discovery could have on their field. And no, they did not flash or tell us the names, identities or even nationalities of the scientists involved in this.

The story carried no identifiers using which we could search for more information on this excavation. Only low quality video footage of some people holding a crocodile head's bone structure. And repeat "flashing news" snippets that the mighty Sudarshan Chakra has been now proven to exist. All with 'expert comments' from Panditji who is an expert on Vedas, not paleontology, carbon dating or archeology.


So dear friends, if you are an atheist, start repenting now, and if you are an agnostic, don't be one - here's proof. Courtesy Indian news television :)

Asbestos - dangerous???

I didn't know about this disease called Mesothelioma (sometimes called Mesothelima), which is a cancer of the inner lining of internal body organs called the mesothelium, caused by exposure to asbestos, until a friend told me about it today. If you work in an environment where exposure to asbestos dust is frequent or even if any of your family members works in such an environment (thus making exposure possible through the dust settled on their clothes) or have had a construction work at your home where asbestos cement or any other asbestos related products were used, you stand a chance of contracting this disease.

What makes this scary is the ubiquitousness and supposed innocuousness of the source. Though smoke is ubiquitous too, we are aware of its harmful effects, and many of us avoid second-hand smoke if we're conscious of our health. Asbestos? I didn't know it could be this harmful. This site here claims this disease has a chance of becoming an epidemic by the year 2015. That does not seem too far away, does it?

Another issue that intrigued me with this case is the legal aspects, which inevitably exist with any issue of such danger. Litigations related to asbestos usage and safety had started way back in 1929, and we still see such widespread usage of this substance around us - so much so that even young students are exposed to it, though in small quantities.