Beware Dear Reader!

Greetings!

As I promised earlier, today I am ready to give you goosebumps. I'll make sure to run a chill down your spine.

Don't be scared of the ghosts, just look for them. Look to your left, to your right, under your bed, behind your dresser, in your closet; but never look up for he hates being seen.

The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door.

You think that's not spooky enough?

Read these lines said by a father-

"I begin tucking him into bed and he tells me,"Daddy, check for monsters under my bed." I look underneath for his amusement and see him, another him, under the bed, staring back at me, quivering and whispering, "Daddy, there's somebody on my bed."

Imagine a man working the night shift alone. There is a face in the cellar staring at the security camera.

My cat's eyes always seemed to be fixated on me. Until one day, when I realized that she was always looking just behind me.

Another man ordered a few mannequins and they were delivered in bubble wrap. Horror struck him when he began to hear popping from the room where they were placed.

And just when you think it can't get any spookier, it does!

You get home, tired after a long day's work and ready for a relaxing night alone. You reach for the light switch but another hand is already there.

"I can't sleep", she whispered, crawling into bed with me. I woke up cold, clutching the dress she was buried in.

Phew!

Enough chills, I guess!

So, ghosts. Ghosts have always remained one of the most discussed topics in literature and movies. Have you ever wondered why is it so? Do you think it is because they are believed to be scary? Or because they are not seen by everyone? That whether they exist or not is a mystery? Possibly.

Ghosts are earthbound spirits. They can exist in the form of smoke, blurred images or sounds. They are people who do not want to leave Earth. These aren't mere theories but facts which are well-proven by the scientists. Some other interesting facts about ghosts-

• Ghosts aren't harmful. They can't/won't do any harm. They just want to be noticed. That is the reason why they haunt people. 
• People who die in accidents or crimes without justice tend to appear as scary form of image.
• Ghosts are cold. That is why if they are present in the room, the room feels cool.
• They can see your future. Sometimes they want to tell you the same through your dreams.
• They do not stay at their remains or cemetery. Usually they stay at the church. More ghosts are at the church than at a cemetery.
• Ghosts have feelings but no sense.
• Ghosts are either seen by a person who was close to them or by a person who was involved in causing their death.
• They can't kill you but they can use you to kill yourself.
• Spirits have only 12 nights to stay in their house after their death as a human being.
• The ghost of a child below 1 year is considered as an angel.

If this wasn't enough, how about checking out the list of the spookiest places of the world? Here's a list of some websites which are guaranteed to give you even more goosebumps-

http://listverse.com/2014/04/16/10-alleged-ghost-sightings-with-bizarre-consequences/

http://www.walkthroughindia.com/location/top-15-spookiest-and-haunted-places-in-india/

http://listverse.com/2014/02/20/10-spine-chilling-ghostly-tales-from-vermont/

http://www.hauntedrooms.co.uk/21-most-haunted-places-in-the-world

Personally, ghosts have always been my favourite topic of discussion. I am planning to write a short horror story soon and I'll surely share the same with you, right here. I hope you might have enjoyed this sneak peek into the 'other world'. Allow me to sign off until I meet you next time with some really interesting facts about the magic number '7'. Bye!

A Self-Loving Post

Greetings Dear Reader!

As I promised, today I have come up with an interesting story which is also believed to be the origin of an English word.

Have you ever had a look in the mirror and thought, "How beautiful I am!" or do you adore yourself whenever you look in the mirror? If your answer is 'yes', then probably you are a 'narcissist'. And that is the word which I am going to discuss.

Narcissist, literally means 'a person who is overly self-involved or in love with himself.'

The origin of the word lies in the Greek mythology. The famous story of Narcissus and Echo goes like this-

Hera, the Greek Goddess of women and marriage (whom the pronoun 'her' is named after), felt jealousy towards her husband Zeus for his many affairs. Whenever she was about to catch him, a nymph named Echo distracted her with lengthy conversations. When at last Hera realized the truth that her husband had an affair with Echo, she cursed her. From that moment on, the once loquacious nymph Echo could not initiate a conversation but only repeat the most recently spoken words of another person (which is also the function of an echo and hence her name is also the origin of the word).

Some time after being cursed, Echo spied a young man named Narcissus whilst he was out hunting deer with his companions. She immediately fell in love with him and started following him quietly. The more she looked at the young man, the more she longed for him. Though she wished with all her heart to call out to Narcissus, Hera's curse prevented her.

During the hunt, Narcissus got separated from his companions and he started calling out, "Is anyone there?" only for Echo to repeat his words. Startled, Narcissus answered the voice, "Come here" only to be told the same. When Narcissus saw that nobody had emerged from the glade he concluded that the owner of the voice must be running away from him and called out again. Finally he shouted, "This way, we must come together." Taking this to be a reciprocation of her love, Echo concurred ecstatically, "We must come together!"

In her delight, Echo rushed to Narcissus ready to throw her arms around her beloved. Narcissus however was appalled and, spurning her, exclaimed, "Hands off! May I die before you enjoy my body." All Echo could whisper in reply was, "Enjoy my body" and having done so she fled, scorned, humiliated and ashamed.

Despite the harshness of her rejection, Echo’s love for Narcissus only grew. After some days, Narcissus came by a fountain, with water like silver, which was not defaced with fallen leaves or branches, but the grass grew fresh around it, and the rocks sheltered it from the sun.Narcissus stooped down to drink, and saw his own image in the water; he thought it was some beautiful water-spirit living in the fountain. He stood gazing with admiration at those bright eyes, those curled locks, the rounded cheeks, the ivory neck, the parted lips, and the glow of health and exercise over all. He fell in love with himself. He brought his lips near to take a kiss; he plunged his arms in to embrace the beloved object. It fled at the touch, but returned again after a moment and renewed the fascination. 

He could not tear himself away; he lost all thought of food or rest, while he hovered over the brink of the fountain gazing upon his own image. He talked with the supposed spirit, “Why, beautiful being, do you shun me? Surely my face is not one to repel you. The nymphs love me, and you yourself look not indifferent upon me. When I stretch forth my arms you do the same, and you smile upon me and answer my beckoning with the like.” 

His tears fell into the water and disturbed the image. As he saw it depart, he exclaimed, “Stay, I entreat you! Let me at least gaze upon you, if I may not touch you.” With this, and much more of the same kind, he cherished the flame that consumed him, so that by degrees he lost his colour, his vigour, and the beauty which formerly had so charmed the nymph Echo.

Narcissus talking with his own reflection

Narcissus started wasting away before his own reflection - consumed by a love that could not be. Echo mourned over his body. Narcissus, looking one last time into the pool uttered, "Oh marvellous boy, I loved you in vain. Farewell." Echo too chorused, "Farewell." A flower grew at the place where the corpse of Narcissus lied. Today, we call that flower by the same name.

Narcissus flower

Eventually Echo too began to waste away. Her beauty faded, her skin shrivelled and her bones turned to stone. Today, all that remains of Echo is the sound of her voice.

Being narcissist up to some extent is normal but if a person is excessively in love with himself, we regard it as a psychological disorder called as Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NDP) in which a person is excessively preoccupied with personal adequacy, power, prestige and vanity. The patient is mentally unable to see the destructive damage they are causing to themselves and others in the process. It is estimated that this condition affects 1% of the population of the world, surprisingly with rates greater for men. NDP was first formulated in 1968 and is a form of severe egocentrism. Read more about NDP here.

You can take the 'Am I A Narcissist?' quiz here.

With this, we come to an end about the discussion of the word 'narcissist'. You may also read other versions of the myth here. I hope you are loving the posts. I would love to hear from you. Kindly drop your reviews/suggestions in the comments below. This is Vandit signing off until we meet next time. Bye!

P.S.: Reader beware, the next time we meet, you'll be in for a scare!

Sources:
http://myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/userstory948-story-of-echo-and-narcissus.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_(mythology)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder

The Very First Post

Greetings Dear Reader!

I recently met an old friend of mine. After conversing for some time, he asked me, "Have you stopped being mad?" After hearing the question I realized that I could not answer it. If I answer "Yes", it would mean that I used to be mad in the past. If I answer "No", it would mean that I continue being mad. Such examples lead us to a deeper mire of logical thinking.

Today I shall discuss about 'paradoxes'. Paradoxes are members of the family of Logical Thinking. A paradox starts with a given set of statements and through the application of rules of logic arrives at a situation wherein following either of the options "Yes/No" leads to contradiction with what was initially stated.

 According to Wikipedia, "Paradox is a seemingly absurd or contradictory statement or preposition which when investigated may prove to be well founded or true."

A simple example of a paradox is given above. The text says to ignore it but you don't know what it says until you have read it.

                      “I can resist anything but temptation.” – Oscar Wilde

This famous quote by Oscar Wilde happens to be a paradox.

In the famous play of Shakespeare, Hamlet, the protagonist Hamlet says,

“I must be cruel to be kind.”

So the question is, why is paradox used when the message can be conveyed in a simple and straightforward manner? The answer is the purpose of literature. One function of literature is to make the readers enjoy what they read. Readers enjoy when they extract the hidden meaning out of the writing rather than something presented to them in an uncomplicated manner. Thus the chief purpose of paradox is to give pleasure.

If someone says "I always lie", are they telling the truth? Or are they lying?

The famous story of Pinocchio has it's own version of paradox ;)

The paradoxes that follow should give your brains a good tease.

• I am nobody.
• Truth is honey which is bitter.
• Child is father of the man.
• Don't go near the water until you have learned how to swim.
• Answer truthfully (yes/no) to the following question: Will the next word you say be 'no'?

These are, however, simple paradoxical sentences. There are real-time situations where paradoxes actually take place. Consider the following examples:

1.) The following is written on opposite sides of a card:

Back side:

THE SENTENCE WRITTEN ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS CARD IS TRUE.

Front side:

THE SENTENCE WRITTEN ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS CARD IS FALSE.

2.) Russel's paradox titled 'The Village Barber'

A village barber makes a rule that he will shave those and only those who do not shave themselves. The question is, does he shave himself?

Suppose he does. Then he belongs to the class of those who shave themselves. Such people are not serviced by the barber as per his rule. So he does not shave himself. Thus we have a contradiction.

If we assume the other alternative, namely the barber does not shave himself, then he belongs to the class whose members are served by the barber. Again we have a contradiction: we arrive at the conclusion that the barber shaves himself, starting from the exact opposite.

3.)  The Witch's Curse

The famous duo Gilbert and Sullivan have written comic operas with funny plots and the one called Ruddigore illustrates another paradox.

A baronet ruling a region was a good person except that every evening he would commit a crime. Puzzled at his odd behaviour, a young man (and a good logician) asked him the reason. The baronet replied that a witch had cursed his family saying that the Head of the family must commit a crime everyday, failing which he would die a painful death before the end of the day. That was the reason the baronet as the head of the family committed a criminal act everyday.

The young man thought over the matter and came back with the following solution of the baronet's problem. Said he: "Sir, I suggest that you deliberately refrain from the criminal act. Nothing will happen to you." The baronet was puzzled and asked why. The young man replied: "Sir, by not committing a crime you are inviting your death. This is like suicide and attempting suicide is a crime."

Paradoxes are vital in the field of Logical Thinking. Few interesting websites on the internet which will help you to explore the topic more are given below.

http://listverse.com/2010/05/28/11-brain-twisting-paradoxes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paradoxes

http://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/paradox.htm

I would love to hear from you. Please provide your reviews/suggestions in the comments. For now, this is Vandit signing off until next time when I shall meet you again with an interesting story which proves to be the origin of an English word meaning 'a person who is overly self-involved'. Bye!

Sources:

http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-paradox.html

http://brainden.com/paradoxes.htm

Manorama Yearbook 2015

Prologue

Greetings Dear Reader!

"To blog is to share.
To blog is to connect.
To blog is to create.
To blog is to inspire."

Welcome to my blog. The credit of motivating me to start writing a blog goes to Dr John Watson (Martin Freeman) from the very famous British television series 'Sherlock'. I visited http://www.thescienceofdeduction.co.uk/ for the first time before a week and I frequent it just to get delighted to know what marvels can a blog do to you.

In this blog I will take you on a journey of knowledge. I would try my best to provide rare pieces of information along with latest buzz on the Internet. The information will be served in my unique way. I will also try to include my personal experiences in each topic and keep the content relatable.

I would now like to introduce myself. My name is Vandit Nanavati. I am pursuing my B.Tech. Degree in Computer Engineering from Marwadi Education Foundation, Rajkot. I stepped out of teenage on the 7th of this month (yup, that makes me 20 years old). 

As you might have already guessed from the theme of this blog, I am a bibliophile. I love reading anything and everything ranging from novels to magazines to blogs to articles in newspapers to e-books. I am tagged as 'bookworm' among friends, which, according to me, is an achievement. I am an avid personality when it comes to acquiring knowledge of something which I am unaware of. I also love watching movies of thriller and horror genre. 

I need all the luck for this venture. I promise to keep you entertained with the posts. After all, that's my responsibility. I would love to get feedback and suggestions from you. I request you to share you views on my posts in the comments. I am really looking forward to see you all in 'The Very First Post' coming up really soon. :) Bye!