How old is urbane Indian civilization?

Our world is full of ancient mysteries. From Mayan or Aztec or Mesopotamia or Egypt or India, thing & events have remained unexplained, and will remain so for generations to come. Of all these ancient civilizations, India’s Indus-Saraswati civilization is most urban of all, at the same time being categorized as one of the oldest.

Archeologist dates back Indus-Saraswati civilization to around 3500 BC. Discovered on sites at Harappa & Mohenjo-daro are baked bricks buildings providing an impressive vista of urban architecture, drains and wells, seals. The use of inscribed seals, along with various forms of writing on a wide range of artifacts (which is still no deciphered), & use of weights & measures appears to be directly associated with the need to communicate social or ritual status and for economic control. Truly, an urban civilization. 5000 year ago it was at its prime.

But then I read about the the discovery of lost city of Dwaraka . In earlry 80s, the Marine Archaeology Unit of the National Institute of Oceanography started offshore exploration and excavation of the legendary city of Dwaraka in the coastal waters of Dwaraka in Gujarat under Dr S. R. Rao. Since then, they were able to discover may artifacts, stone anchors, etc. at the site.

Unlike Atlantis, Dwaraka is for real.  Legend has it that Dwaraka was built by Vishwakarma by reclaiming land from the sea, on request of Sri Krishna. After his death,  36 years after the Mahabharata War (3138 BC), the city was taken back by the sea triggering the start of Kali Yuga.

According to Graham Hancock

The remains of what has been described as a huge lost city may force historians and archaeologists to radically reconsider their view of ancient human history. Marine scientists say archaeological remains discovered 36 meters (120 feet) underwater in the Gulf of Cambay off the western coast of India could be over 9,000 years old. The vast city – which is five miles long and two miles wide – is believed to predate the oldest known remains in the subcontinent by more than 5,000 years.

Last ice age was roughly 20,000 years ago. The last ice age did not mean the entire planet was frozen. During that period the ice caps were much larger with a very large percentage of Earths water frozen on land over most of the northern hemisphere. The world’s sea level was about 130 m (426.51 ft.) lower than today, which meant the coast lines were extended much further out then they are now. Check below the Google map’s satellite image. The light blue color near the costal lines represents the shallow sea shores.  20,000 years ago whole of this would have been land. Map of India would not have been much different then what it is today, only a little fatter. :)


View Larger Map

So this takes back the known date of Urban Indian civilization by few more thousand years, probably to 10000 years. I have always been fascinated by stories of Ramayana & Mahabharata. Believe they are true… :) Who knows that ancient Indian civilization my be even much older. I remember somewhere reading that Vedas were first written in 23000 BC!!

PS: Another legend it that Dwaraka was claimed by the sea six times. The present Dwaraka is the seventh. (Wikipedia)

Males don’t have Bloodline & Lineage?

Origin of life & its brances

Model of human migration based on Mitochondrial DNA

Recently my wife was reading Kathy Reichs novel where she has described about mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Kathy Reichs is also producer & writer of the popular TV series Bones. Before hearing about mtDNA, I had very little idea about any types of DNAs, except  Y & X chromosomes. My DNA knowledge is/was limited to doing paternity test ews. :) Scientists believe that all origin of human life on earth can be traced back to East Africa. Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup are used to represent the mtDNA tree. Using this, evolution of life can be traced back to Africa approximately 170,000 years ago. Surprisingly mtDNA is transferred (or inherited) from one’s mother.  

mtDNA & Y-chromosome are used to trace ancestry. mtDNA is generally passed unaltered from mothers to children of both sexes, along the maternal line. Whereas DNA in the Y-chromosome, called yDNA, from father is passed only to son. Y-chromosome is highly susceptible to mutation due to environment they are housed in or the process of passing it thru sperm. This means that a male may never pass his  Y-Chromosomes if he only has female offsprings.  But what’s the point of passing the gene if its not the same?

Reading more on this I realized how misinformed our society is. Unlike common belief, it is the female lineage that is carried forward, not the male. Our society behaves quite opposite to that, where bloodline & lineage is primarily associated with men. In reality men are just the source of providing the sperm for the egg. mtDNA of a man are transferred thru sperms & are destroyed by the egg after fertilization, so in a way male mtDNA is not carried forward. yDNA is highly mutable so may not be same as that of grand fathers.

Another chocolate cocktail

image

Just tried a new cocktail. Have not given a name yet, but it was good. Chocolate is the theme of the month.

Here are the compositions:
45 ml vodka
15 ml cointreau
15 ml triple sec
30 ml chocolate syrup

Add all in a cocktail shaker, with lots of ice. Shake well and pour in a glass with all the ice. Put chocolate powder on top.

Katta-katta bechara bakra, katta-katta bechara… :)

Have you ever seen any chicken or mutton being happy when their fellow chicken or mutton is getting ready to be slaughtered. But humans are different. My best friend V has finally decided to get married and I m so happy about it. Only humans can do that. He is the last one of us to get married. I m sure he can now corelate to some of our pain points. :)

Congratulation & best of luck, V! Welcome to the club!

Today’s bar menu

Well my friends dropped down at my place today for drinks (All boyz party, perks of wife not in town). So I thought I will try some new cocktails, anyway one does not get guinea pigs easily these days. :)

Today’s bar menu was summer special:

  1. Coffee Mojito -  Bacardi White Rum (60 ml), triple sec (12 ml), green mint leaves ( (5-6), lemon wedges (3),  lots of crushed ice, & top with sprite, coffee powder (half tea spoon)
  2. Boston Ice Tea – A variation of Long Island Ice Tea (LIIT). White Rum, Tequila, Vodka, Gin, Triple sec, lemon wedge (20 ml each), lots of ice cubes, top with orange juice & Lipton ice tea… Make it a Patiala… :)
  3. Mocha Martini – Vodka (60 ml), triple sec (30 ml), coffee powder (half tea spoon), chocolate scraps  to sprinkle generously over the drink. Shaken not stirred!  Here is another summer killer. :)

Review: HTC Legend

HTC Legend

Recently changed my phone, wanted to try Android platform. Google’s Nexus One is not available in India, though you can still find it in grey market without any warranty. I wanted to by HTC Desire, which is said to be next version of Nexus One, but a month back it was still not launched in India. The next few options were to go for Sony Xperia X10 and HTC Legend.

Few key differentiators:

  1. Price – X10 is Rs. 8000 costlier then Legend
  2. Platform – X10 has Android 1.6, whereas Legend has Android 2.1
  3. Size – X10 is big with 4” LCD screen, where as Legend has 3.2” Two things which go in favor of Legend are low price & newer platform.

I have been using Legend for a month now, and here are my experiences:

Good

  1. OLED screen is bright & responsive, shows well under sunlight also
  2. Highly responsive touch screen, (I do not miss my N97 at all). 
  3. 7 home screens, give the power to add widgets, programs, & shortcuts on the these 7 screens
  4. Sync contact from Exchange, Gmail, Facebook, twitter, & phone in one repository
  5. Contact list has indicators to see updates from your friends across the above mentioned social sites
  6. From contact list, you can also see all your communication with that person from one place
  7. Android application market is not as big as itunes, but it has all the required applications, and its growing fast
  8. Some of the really handy apps that I installed are 
  9. Google gesture search 
  10. Evernote – Notes synced with your online account
  11. Google Shopper – image search, barcode search
  12. Friend Stream – Updates twitter & Facebook messages

Not so good

  1. Camera is of low resolutions but pictures quality is good. Lacks a dedicated camera button.
  2. No front camera, (but who needs it anyway)
  3. Keyboard is good and easy to use. Guys with big fingers or girls with long nails may find it difficult.
  4. Battery drains very fast, which is not its best selling point. In my first few days it only lasted for 8 hours only, had to charge it twice. Now it last for a day, so I only have to change once a day.
  5. In-built speakers are of low quality. Ringtone are not loud enough even at full volume. I keep missing my wife’s call. 
  6. Futuristic optical track-ball, which is not much in use. I sometimes think that space could be used to increase the screen size.
  7. Single USB wire for charging and data transfer. Problem in ergonomics of charging dongle.
  8. No PC software to take backups.

Over all, a good phone. Value for money. Highly social people are going to like this phone. My rating 4/5.

My first tattoo

imageYesterday I got my first tattoo – a flying Pegasus, which was quite a painful experience but totally worth it. Some initial few days care is important, have to keep it moistened till it heals & apply ointment 3 times a day for next 5 days.

Nasca Lines – The mystery continues!

nasca figure of astronaut look alike There are very few places on earth more mysterious than Nasca Lines in Peru, South America, with Pyramids of Egypt still topping my list. Nasca is one of the driest places on earth, and that is one of the reason they are well preserved. Around 1500 figures have been discovered till now, made of straight lines forming geometric shapes, animals, birds, human look-alike, etc. Many of them are are as huge as a 40 storey building, e.g. The Heron, which is 900 ft. , a lizard is 617 feet, etc. It is widely believed that the Nasca culture flourished from around 350 B.C. to 600 A.D. though it may be possible that these line are much older, because practically it may not be possible to date them as the line will be dated same as the stone cleared to make them.

There are multiple theories for why Nasca people made such huge figures. Some of them are:

  1. Alien landing stripe: Erich von Däniken, author of book Chariots of the Gods,  argues that the huge geometric geoglyphs (e.g. trapezoids) can be understood as “an airfield… built according to instructions from an aircraft.”
    Read more: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/episode/nasca-lines-the-buried-secrets-4477/Overview13#tab-theories#ixzz0nP39yRCe
  2. Giant astronomical calendar: Linking the figures with stars, and astronomy, same as Pyramids astronomical significance.
  3. Subterranean Water Theory: David Johnson links the Nasca geoglyphs to sources of underground water that would have been critical to desert-dwelling people
    Read more: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/episode/nasca-lines-the-buried-secrets-4477/Overview13#tab-theories#ixzz0nP2w85BB
  4. Sacred purpose: Artifacts of the Nasca culture show a preoccupation with death; other major monuments of the ancient world are known to be ritual in nature;The Nasca Lines may have been ritual centers for helping the dead achieve immortality; they may have been an offering to the gods; or they could have been a major pilgrimage site.

There are no solid proof to justify any of these theories. Practically it is not possible to draw such huge figures with such preciseness without looking from high up in the air. Even though most scholars attribute the figures to Nascans, but there are still no proofs that they actually built them. The ‘primitive’ Nascans must be have very sophisticated technology to survey the area in order to build massive drawings so precisely.

Some related readings

  1. The science of Peruvian Geoglyphs: http://www.nazcamystery.com/nazca_science.htm
  2. Areal Tour (Nasca in Picture): http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/episode/nasca-lines-the-buried-secrets-4477/Overview11#tab-geoglyph-photos-1
  3. Geoglyphs across the globe: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/episode/nasca-lines-the-buried-secrets-4477/Overview25#tab-map-other-geoglyphs 

The story of ‘Communication Gap’

You all know i believe in aliens… That is why my blog’s name is also alien world.  My apartment is a multi-storey complex. I live on 8th floor.

One night, After a busy day in office, I returned home. I was still waiting on the ground floor for the lift to open, when I heard someone coming down soft but swiftly from the stairs. And then the door of the lift opened. I got in, and realized someone entering behind. The door closed, and I couldn’t see anyone, only to found that the creature was much smaller in height. Had four legs, white fur, big black round eyes. I gathered all my courage and asked "which floor?". Without any answer, those big eyes kept looking at me. The creature was trying harder and harder, I felt that he want to communicate using mind waves… But I was not receiving anything, my receiver was down after a whole day of work. Not getting answer to my question I pressed button for 8th floor. On the way we kept looking at each other, and after half way I asked again "which floor?". Probably by that time, that creature had lost all his hope on me. He made a strange sound "waaaau", coming deep from the depths of the stomach. That was something I did not understand. My floor was near, but it felt like it’s going to take forever to reach my floor. It was so slow that I could see my nails growing. Probably it was this alien effect. But finally the LCD in the lift indicated the 8th floor. Door opened & I carefully stepped out. Took a sigh of reliefs. Happy to be alive & still human. As I walked towards my apartment, I noticed that the four legged creature was following me. I increased my speed. When I reached near my home, I looked back only to found him still standing. I thought, he was lost, left behind by the mother ship, like E.T. So I went near, tried to look friendly and asked again “are you lost?”, and pointed him towards the stairs as I had no intentions to go back with this creature in the lift again. The creature looked at me, repeated those words again twice "waaaau" "waaaau", and then turned back towards the direction of stairs.

From the balcony, I kept looking at that four legged, furry creature with big eyes. He went to each floor in the same direction where my flat is. Looked at the flat on each floor, repeated "waaaau" and then moved on. Finally he stopped at 1st floor. I heard the creaking noise of door opening, some dim light coming out and the creature disappeared. I think "waaaau" was the command to open the spaceship gates, some secret code…

What is the Correlation between stability of a society and the growth of human race?

The answer is simple –  Stability allows a person the freedom of choice. People can pursue their dreams only when they are living in a society where survival is not a daily threat. We don’t need a stats professor to tell this. Surprisingly I found these very thoughts in ‘The Immortals of Meluha’, which is a novel based on Lord Siva. The plot of the novel is set in 1900 BC, which holds true to even this day and probably forever.

I think for stability & security few things are very important for the society to prosper

  • Political & economic stability
  • Strict law enforcement
  • Ability to question without fear
  • Mutual respect for people from every level in the society, and
  • Civic sense and respect for law (I have purposefully made two separate points for law enforcement and respect for law).

In a society without security and stability, there are no intellectuals, businessmen, artists or geniuses. Their is only one of the two thing in mind – how to survive or how to kill. Man is constantly in fight or flight mode. Nothing better than an animal. In such a mode, there is no chance to allow ideas to nurtured or dreams to be pursued. That is the way all humans were before societies were formed, and that is the way humans are today where there is no stability in the society (read country). Without taking names, there are many countries today in South Asia, or Africa where the civilization has reached its bottom. People are barbaric and there is no progress. Civilization is very fragile, all it takes is a few decades of chaos for us to forget humanity and turn into animals. Our base natures can take over very fast. We can forget that we are sentient beings, with laws and codes and ethics.