Illusion of Touch (Tactile Illusion)

B Premanand

Our sense of touch comprises of five mechanisms registering pain, heat, cold and pressure, as well as physical contact with object at the most basic level. The innermost working of the complex network of nerves that communicates signal to the brain from all part of the body’s surface and the way in which we then interpret them as conscious feelings, are not within our comprehension any more than a total understanding of the other sense organs.

Rub your nose with the pointing finger and the middle finger of your hand and you will feel the tip of your nose. The information imparted to the touch receptors on the inner side of the pointing finger and the adjoining side of the middle finger which is transmitted to the brain, is pieced together to form a mental image corresponding to the nose which we know. Now cross those same two fingers and rub your nose again. This time you will feel two noses, the result of familiar stimuli traveling to the brain by two paths. Not used to merging in our mind the impressions made on the opposite sides of the two fingers, namely their outer edges, we find it difficult to register a single nose.

Experiment -13

Effect: One marble rolled with crossed index and middle finger seems to be two marbles.

Props: Two big marble balls.

Method: Try rolling a large marble between your crossed fingertips on a table and you will feel two marbles. You will obtain the best results if you roll the sphere in such a way that it touches first one finger and then the other in turn. It is also necessary that you close your eyes.

You can try this on a volunteer by showing him two marbles and asking him to close his eyes. You then guide his crossed finger to rest on them while actually keeping only one marble in his palm and keep the other in your pocket. Ask him how many he can feel. He will say “two”. Then ask him to open his eyes and two his surprise he sees only one marble.

This is because two separate nerves on the outer side of the index finger and the middle finger send the touch impression to the brain at the same time. Thus the brain registers the feeling of two marbles.

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Lord Ram’s Story: Many Tellings

Ram Puniyani

Ramayana Javanese Ballet Dance

 
Recently Delhi University Academic Council (Oct 2011) decided to drop the scholarly essay “Three Hundred Ramayanas” of A.K.Ramanujan, on different telling of Ram’s story from the syllabus of ‘Culture in India’ for BA Honors students. Of the four experts on the committee, one of them, whose opinion was finally accepted, said that undergraduate students will not be able to tolerate the portrayal of divine characters in the different versions given in the essay. In response to the ban while Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, which is an affiliate of RSS, and company celebrated, the staff and many students protested against this ban. Just to recall earlier in 2008 ABVP activists had protested against the introduction of this essay, and indulged in vandalism on the issue.

This essay by the much acclaimed scholar, A.K.Ramanujan is part of his "The Collected Essays of A.K.Ramanujan (Oxford 1999). Earlier in the aftermath of Babri demolition, a Sahmat exhibition on different versions of Ramayana was attacked by RSS combine's goons in Pune in 1993. This was done on the pretext that one of the panels based on Jataka (Buddhist version) showed Ram and Sita as brother and sister, and it is an insult to their faith. Ramanujan's essay talks of different versions and presents five of them as an example.

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Illusion of Smell (Olfactory Illusion)

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 B Premanand

Every object that we smell throws of molecules, which are wafted by air towards the approximately ten million olfactory cells that comprise the sensitive nerve endings situated on the roof of both nostrils. Each odor, of varying molecular size and shape, stimulates a specific pattern amongst the receptor cells. These cells use an electrical charge to dispatch the information to the olfactory lobe in the brain, where smell is eventually registered and interpreted.

We scent every single thing we consume, whether through the nostrils or by the rear access to the nasal opening at the back of the throat. Roast beef, salmon and cabbage, for example, rely for taste almost entirely on their aroma. When next you eat any of these, hold your nose before the food come too close to your mouth. Then place the food on your tongue. It will be tasteless. Inhale through your nostrils, however, and its taste will return. This is because the combination of smell and taste results in flavor.

A mock hypnotic stunt used on stage involves the hypnotizer showing a red and a green apple to his victim before blindfolding him. He is then told to pinch his nose and guess from the taste which apple he has been offered. In fact, the performer cuts a slice from a potato. Not only is the victim unable to guess the truth, but he actually swallows the potato before his error is drawn to his attention.

The most intriguing demonstration of how smell can affect taste involves eating an apple as you hold a more pungent pear beneath your nostrils. The smell of the pear will obliterate that of the apple to such an extent that the flesh of the apple you eat will assume the flavour of a pear.

Experiment – 12

Effect: Making each volunteer smell the soap which he uses.

Props: A bottle of any perfume spray, pieces of paper, pencil.

Method: Spray a bit of any perfume on your index finger so that only very little of the perfume can be smelt when you take a deep breath. Call a volunteer and have him write down the name of the soap he uses regularly. Ask him to close his eyes, recite the name of the soap mentally without pausing, simultaneously taking deep breaths in and out as he concentrates on the perfume of the soap. Take the bit of paper with your perfumed index finger on top of it and bring it closer and closer to the nose of the volunteer asking him whether he can smell his brand of soap. When he gets the smell from your finger due to breathing in, he will say he indeed smells the soap which he uses.

This illusion is created because each volunteer is concentrating on the smell of his soap, and any slight smell, makes them say that it is the smell of the soap which they use.

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On Being Rational - An Introspection

P L Rao  

   

Image Courtesy: creations.blogspot.com

“Why I am a rationalist?”  Each time someone asks me this question, it sets me thinking: "Is it a right question?"  As human beings, we are gifted with a brain largest among all species, which has been tremendously researched upon and according to this, the left side of the brain takes care of academic capability as reading, writing, language, mathematics etc and the right side controls skills such as art, crafts, music, dance creativity, inter personnel relationship, management etc. This consequently places man at a higher pedestal over the rest of the species as a “biped animal capable of thinking”. My utilizing the brain to its assigned function of reasoning and inquiry does not warrant titling me as a Rationalist. 

Many of us believe that all rationalists necessarily are non believers. But, at same time, no theist will admit to being irrational. It is like every national, whether it is Indian or European, considering himself to be superior to all others. The truth however lies elsewhere. The term rationality encompasses all facets of life of which spirituality is only one element. Again, one’s choice in life of being a believer, pagan or agnostic etc is a subjective matter dictated by the individual’s understanding of the subject. In my case, I have drawn the boundary of inquiry to only the fields within my grasp, as this cannot operate in areas yet to be explored by science and the unknowable. However, I can vouch that all religious scriptures misfit with our times as they are merely the collective works of imagination of the people  in earlier eras. Yet, I desist from branding myself as atheist, which implies shutting the doors on any further inquiry.   

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Godse’s Children- Hindutva Terror in India - Book Review

Ram Puniyani

(Godse’s Children- Hindutva Terror in India, Pharos Media, Delhi, Pages 400, Rs 360, Pb)

Terrorist violence has been one of the major problems of recent times. This phenomenon came to popular notice more so after the 9/11 attack on WTC, which was followed by, apart from other things, popularization of the terms ‘Islamic Terror’, ‘Jehdi terror’. The popular perception associating Terrorism with Islam and Muslims dominated the ‘social common sense’ and acts of terror got associated with Islam and Muslims. It is in this context that when two Bajrang dal workers died while making bombs in Nanded, Maharashtra, the Maharashtra ATS, did not pursue the investigation to its logical conclusion to unravel the whole truth. It is in this light that when most of the acts of terror took place around Parbhani, Jalna, Aurangabad, Ajmer, Mecca Masjid, Malegaon, and Samjhauta Express blast, that authorities rushed to investigate those acts on the lines that ‘all terrorists are Muslims’, many a innocent Muslim youth were arrested and some of them released much later for the lack of proper evidence, whatsoever, by which time the lives of most of them were ruined.

It was Hemant Karkare, who meticulously investigated the Malegaon blast and, much against the intimidation from the likes of Narendra Modi and Bal Thackeray, put forward the truth of involvement of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Swami Dayanand Pandey, Lt Col Purohit and other groups associated with RSS ideology. With further perusal of the issue gradually the role of Hindutva groups Sanatan Sanstha, Abhinav Bharat and even some members of RSS started coming to light, in cases of blasts which occurred in front of mosques when congregation was just over, or in Samjhauta express blast.

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