How to Remember the Value of π Easily

The mind-boggling ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is called π (Pi). Being an irrational mathematical entity it doesn't reveal itself in fraction. Its decimal representation neither ends nor does it repeat a permanent pattern! It's an enigma. It has captivated the human intelligence for millennia.

In layman's terms pi is a never-ending number - This incomprehensible phenomenon has bothered not only the mathematicians, but also the lawmakers perhaps. On 18 Jan 1897 the state legislature of Indiana had proposed a bill (House Bill No. 246) to legally define the value of pi as 3.2! This incredible story originated from the pet obsession of a physician (living in Solitude, IN) with the age-old geometrical problem called 'Squaring the Circle'. Surprisingly that notorious bill was passed by the House unanimously (Ayes: 67, Noes:0), but it got postponed indefinitely in the Senate on 12 Feb 1897 due to the intervention of Professor C. A. Waldo of Purdue University. This bill is popularly known as the 'Indiana Pi Bill'.

With the rapid development in computer hardware and software, in this 21st century, the zeal to discover the maximum number of digits in the value of pi has touched new height. The current world record stands at 22.459 trillion decimal places!

This Wikimedia link shows the chronology of human endeavor to discover more approximate value of pi.

In 1981 an Indian could memorize and recite more than 31,000 digits of pi. A Japanese recited 40,000 digits in 1989 and broke that record. By reciting 67,890 digits a Chinese holds the current Guinness World Record.

To achieve such impossible feats these champions used an ancient method called the 'Method of Loci'. In Latin loci means places. This technique is also known as the 'Memory Journey', 'Memory Palace', 'Mind Palace'.

To follow the 'Method of Loci' you have to visualize a familiar place. Then you have to roam that location mentally and drop the chunks of the digits at various spots. To recall the complete sequence of digits you have to repeat that exact route!

To remember lesser number of digits there is an easier technique. It's a style of writing called Pilish wherein you form such a sentence that the numbers of letters of those words coincide with the digits of pi. Some examples of such sentences are -

• How I wish I could recollect pi easily today! (= 3.14159265)
• May I have a large container of coffee beans? (= 3.14159265)
• May I have a large container of coffee, cream and sugar? (= 3.1415926535)
• How I need a drink, alcoholic in nature, after the tough chapters involving quantum mechanics! (= 3.14159265358979)
• How I need a drink, alcoholic in nature, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics! (= 3.14159265358979)

There is a book written in this style; its title 'Not A Wake' is also in Pilish! This book has 10 sections and each section contains 1000 consecutive digits of pi.

Source: Amazon

Piku and Piem are two other methods for this purpose.

How to Kill the Corrupt Politicians

So the situation is grave!

Well... there are two methods to kill a corrupt politician.

Method #1 - Bullet

Its performance and accuracy have improved tremendously, but there are some grievous disadvantages of this method, i.e. -

• Using this method you no longer remain a law-abiding citizen. You become a criminal, an assassin.
• There are many corrupt politicians. It's impossible for you to kill all of them by this method.
• A corrupt politician never neglects their personal security, so it's difficult to succeed in this method.

Method #2 - Ballot

This is a much better method as it has many advantages, i.e. -

• You don't have to become a criminal to implement this method.
• You make the corrupt politicians suffer till death by not letting them retain their political power.
• You confer the power on a suitable politician and thus you kill two birds with one stone!
• It allows the law to take its course.
• This method also allows a glimmer of hope that the corrupt politicians might realize their mistakes and become good human beings.

So obviously the latter method is highly recommended.

Google India has published a beautiful video (shared below) which would definitely encourage you to opt for the 2nd method. In this video a gentleman, from Kalpa in Himachal Pradesh, shares his amazing experience of using the power of ballot.

Shyam Saran Negi, born in 1917, is a retired schoolteacher. He is the first voter of independent India.

How to Express Love without Saying 'I Love You'

But my friend, why would you not say it? You must grab this divine opportunity. Such occasions are rare! There is nothing to be worried about. Don't hesitate. Go ahead and cast the spell. I assure you - it would be a life-changing moment for you.

Essentially there is no substitute for 'I love you'. That's why it's magical.

However, as you want to postpone this moment, for any justified reason of yours, let me tell you the other two effective ways to reveal your feeling for that special someone. Disappointed? Probably you are, because I told that there are only two alternate routes. Moreover, I must tell you, these two ways are NOT as powerful as uttering that sacred sentence. Anyway, here you go.

Note: I've kept the perspective of the scenarios gender-neutral for the benefit of all my readers.

Scenario #1 - Say It Symbolically

• It's a beautiful Friday evening.
• You both have come to attend the literary festival held every year in your city.
• It was an easy day in the office.
• You know each other for some weeks. You both have joined the project on the same day.
• Like you she/he also loves the novels written by Paulo Coelho.
• In the literary festival today's topic is - Love Story!
• The panelists make the discussion intriguing.
• After this one-hour literary romance you both decide to take a stroll to the beach.
• You walk for few hundred metres and reach the lighthouse located at the southern end of the beach.
• This part of the beach is lonely now.
• In this amazing autumn evening you talk about your hobbies, likes, dislikes and then about the novels you have read.
• After a while your conversation veers to topics like life, ambitions, challenges, hope and optimism.
• At that very moment you show your utmost optimism and sincere feeling for her/him by holding a red rose out to her/him. (You have got this beautiful red rose from a flower stall located at the eastern corner of the festival ground when she/he was busy in checking the books at the nearby stalls.)
• And you say just one sentence, "This is for you!" while the numerous waves are playing the soft background music.

Source: WallpaperCave.com

Scenario #2 - It's Beyond Words!

• On a weekday you both have come to a lesser-known beautiful lake, far away from the concrete jungle and the maddening crowd.
• You know each other for years.
• After trekking for hours and talking about all the things under the sun you reach the northern bank of the lake.
• You both are almost exhausted, yet there is a certain feeling of relief - relief from the day-to-day chores of city life, relief from the rat race in the corporate world and also relief from the vigilance of the society.
• You walk carefully on the rocky bank for few feet and sit on a huge flat stone. You can feel the soothing warmth of the stone.
• Your special someone follows you and sits closely on your left.
• Now the sun is about to hide behind the hills and the western sky looks like a colourful canvas.
• The atmosphere is getting cooler. Birds are returning to their nests.
• By now there is nothing left to talk about, but you both are comfortable with this absolute silence in your minds.
• Your faces are glowing by the last rays of the day.
• At this rare moment your left hand reaches out for her/his right hand and you say, "I have searched for the right words... Searched for years! But haven't found that yet. Let me know when you hear the echo of my unspoken words in this silence - far away from the noise of our society."

Source: Pinterest

Has Your Love Life Become Boring?

Dear Friend,

You need to revisit your conclusion. Love never makes life boring! It's the ultimate happiness a human being can experience. It may lead someone to the level of intoxication and hence the person may become disenchanted with or disinterested in other worldly affairs, but it never takes a person towards that unpleasant condition called Boredom.

Many people mistake attraction and infatuation for love. Infatuation doesn't last; it stays with you just as a beautiful memory. We can call this as a nice short film. One would fall in love if the attraction becomes intense in a healthy way. But when the intensity gets misguided it manifests obsession. An obsessive person gets impatient, ill-tempered and aggressive. Sometimes it turns into frustration and extreme mental fatigue.

If a love story culminates in marriage and the day-to-day interactions become monotonous, mechanical, repetitive and completely predictable then boredom creeps into the relationship. In such cases the couple can break the deadly pattern by venturing out of the dull routine. The most prominent ways to do so are -

1. Travel to beautiful places (at least once in every quarter)
2. Watch romantic movies together
3. Read love stories
4. Explore new hobbies
5. Spend quality time at home

Thus they can create wonderful and unique memories. In short they have to rekindle their passion and reinvent the surprise factor (pleasant though) in the relationship.

3 Words as Magical as 'I Love You'

"Love you too!"

Very few mortals are fortunate enough to receive these three magical words after expressing their deep-felt love for that special someone. Nothing else can match the charm of 'I love you', the sacred sentence. You need to muster all your strength to utter the three words - I, Love and You - together.

Rest your logical and analytical mind for a while, slowly and softly close your eyes. Wait... wait... wait! Please do this only after reading my post completely. Okay? Ha... ha... ha. Then slowly take a deep breath and try to visualize this -

• You are with your special someone in a beautiful hill station. It's the month of June - the end of summer.
• In a pleasantly sunny afternoon you are driving towards a hilltop. Your special someone is sitting next to you.
• At a curve on the lonely road you pull over unexpectedly, both of you come out of the car and go to the edge of the curve.
• You see that down at the bottom the calm blue water of a beautiful lake stretches in all directions towards the other surrounding hills. Around that blue waterbody you can see green patches of land and tall straight eucalyptus trees.
• You both appreciate this spectacular beauty and share the joy.
• Meanwhile far away, on the other side of this huge lake, dark clouds have arrived at those blue hills with great speed. Now you can feel the cool breeze coming from there.
• You hold your special someone's right hand softly and pronounce, "I love you!"
• As you raise your gaze to see the facial response your heart skips a beat.
• For few seconds you both look at each other without saying anything!
• As the profoundness of that sentence sinks in a smile slowly appears on that special face. That smile becomes brighter and you hear the rarest sentence in this world, "Love you too!"
• At the very next moment it starts pouring down as a sign of divine blessing and you hug each other spontaneously and tightly as if you both were waiting for this love since time immemorial.

Note: I've tried my best to keep the perspective of the narration gender-neutral so that all my readers can visualize it easily. Hope I've succeeded!

Confused - Not Sure if You are in Love?

You must have heard this song from the Hindi movie 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham'.

Song: Suraj hua maddham...

In this song it's surprisingly clear that even the King of Romance is confused! So don't worry! This initial confusion is quite natural. Love brings a tremendous transformation in life. And that too suddenly! The thought process becomes blurred as an inexperienced heart gets inundated with strong feelings and a plethora of inner voices. Love shatters all the predefined limits of your individuality and expands the feeling of oneness. Hence while falling in love everybody encounters the fear of losing themselves - it feels almost suicidal. This causes the anxiety in the initial stage.

Falling in love can be considered as the second birth in a deeper sense. You can't see any change in the material plane, but you strongly feel that now you are a new you. Isn't that baffling? That inner contradiction torments you as your existence is about to break out of the cocoon and fly to higher realms as a beautiful and wise butterfly.

Since the advent of love in your life you have realized that modern physicists are absolutely correct when they claim that time is relative. When she/he is with you, you wish that the time should stop there forever! In her/his presence hours seem like fleeting seconds, whereas her/his absence kills you - days feel like months and weeks like years!

Slowly your rigid personal definitions of 'I' and 'Mine' lose ground and her/his smile gains prominence in your thoughts, day and night. Her/his religion, her/his caste, her/his nationality don't bother you; things like social identities and social status have become irrelevant. Your continuous urge to express yourself has found out that these human languages are insufficient and inefficient. But when your eyes meet hers/his they speak volumes fluently.

You become filled with so much love that everybody who meets you feels awesome! All of a sudden every bit of this world feels wonderful, every second gets you the joy of a lifetime and you start hearing the subtle music in your heartbeats.

If all this is happening then you are truly in love! Many (not all) Hindi movies have polluted the meaning of love. Please refrain from that version! You must be wondering why I haven't covered the bitterness which people go through when they fall in love. My friend, that bitterness comes into the picture only when you impose your expectations and/or restrictions on her/him. Remember this!

Who is a Soulmate?

Disclaimer: I'm not a spiritual master. Hence I don't have the knowledge (in its true sense) about soulmates.

Nevertheless recently what I've read about this concept in the book called 'The Laws of the Spirit World' makes sense; at least I feel so. Khorshed Bhavnagri, the author, could contact her two deceased sons - Vispi and Ratoo - after those two brothers had a fatal car accident. Using the Automatic Writing method those two departed souls dictated all the contents of this book to their beloved mother.

Source: Amazon

Popular Misconception

Somehow the concept of 'Soulmates' has got distorted. Many people think that a soulmate is someone who is naturally and absolutely compatible with them, someone with whom they would have an always-smooth romantic affair and someone who they can marry and live happily ever after. This notion feels so good, but it isn't the truth.

Source: Pinterest

The Truth about Soulmates

God created souls in groups. The souls who belong to the same group were created at the same time. Hence essentially no soul is alone in this world. As per this book they are called Group Souls. They take birth together, life after life, and help each other pay off the karma and grow spiritually. Group Souls are popularly known as Soulmates. Not just your girlfriend/boyfriend or your spouse, your parents, your siblings and your relatives could also be your soulmates. Even you may find a soulmate in a platonic relationship.

What is Karma?

Karma is the consequence of a soul's thoughts, words and actions. It's the inevitable effect of a cause or a combination of causes. Negative karma is like a debt which you owe to somebody and positive karma is like a blessing.