Change is the only constant...
Yet another new beginning for the Letters from Nakul Shenoy!
Hello! It is my pleasure to introduce you to yet another edition of Magical Musings. It feels like an eternity since I sat down to write a letter to you and shared some of my thoughts and updates. Well… it feels like an eternity because it clearly has been one!
How have you been? What have you been up to? I hope the first half of 2023 has been kind to you, and I wish you all the very best with the rest of the year. While the pandemic appears forgotten in the far distance for many of us, it has left an indelible scar on all our lives. If that was not enough, every now and then it appears to raise its head to scare us, and ensure we behave in the new normal.
Change is the only constant…
“The only constant in life is change,” said Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher from 500 BCE.
Even if I am sometimes unsure about other things in life, this is surely true of my occasional newsletters. These letters became so far apart and rare, that I now appear to be forced to find a new medium to stay in touch with you. What originally began with manual emailing of a hand-curated group of addresses, got set up on Mailchimp, then Tinyletter, back to Mailchimp, and now most recently here. This time round a lot of options were tried, opinions sought, alternate modes like Ghost were also set up and given a spin — only to settle on what I think is indeed our best option for now: Substack.
As many of you know, I am always trapped in a quandary of sorts: the need to share my thoughts and updates with you my friends, versus these emails being seen as unwelcome and worse spam. This is where I think Substack helps us all the more, as you can control whether you want to receive these letters as email, or you will read the posts directly through the Substack App or website.
Best of all, I think this should allow me to focus on writing letters to you, rather than worry about the tech and hosting which always takes me down multiple rabbit holes. Most of you have been with me right from the day this journey first began 12 years back in June 2011!
For your continued encouragement and avid support, I humbly say: THANK YOU!
Since today’s theme emerged to be about Change and its impact on life, I updated an old article that begs the question, “are we always ready for change?”
Change is here and ready. The real question is, are you?
This curious incident occurred nearly 10 years back, but the memory is as strong today as if it happened yesterday. The lesson learnt is of course evergreen.
Are we the ones wearing blindfolds?
Taking on fake psychics, godmen, and pseudoscientific frauds appears to have become a part and parcel of my life. From the early days in magic where I tried to demonstrate how the Ganesha idols drank milk (or really not), to exposing the so-called manifestations of Satya Sai Baba at every given opportunity, to rallying online against televangelist Benny Hinn during his visit to Bangalore, it is easy enough to think all that was behind us.
I think all these early initiatives were mere preparations to take on senior ministers of the country when they launched the Tiranga tri-vortex all-healing bangle, and to take on the scam that is mid-brain activation where our children are coerced to peep from under their blindfolds, to display their so-called intuitive powers. This last one has recently become the pet favourite of both Sri Sri and the Kailasa fugitive, fooling their followers in their own unique ways.
Magicians have been performing these effects for entertainment for eons, and still we have these godmen building a following of the gullible by just performing one single effect. Nothing proves the “less is more” philosophy of magical performance more than this. With just one magic trick, mostly performed rather crudely, these godmen are able to set up mini-religions, raking in millions both in money and followers.
And the latest of these cons is Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, who has been drawing shockingly large crowds of hundreds of thousands of people to large open-air venues all over the country, but especially the northern parts of India like Uttarahalli Pradesh and Bihar. And what a fine act this man is!
I will write in more detail about this latest con and how he is fooling millions in my next letter, even as our political masters try to see who can best use him to rake in the vote-banks.
It is not for nothing that P. T. Barnum is believed to have said, “there’s a sucker born every minute”. So is it really that we the people want to believe and thus have an innate need to be fooled? Here’s an old article that I had penned on this thought.
Driven by a Perennial Need to be Fooled
Are we driven by a need to be fooled? A look at the intrinsic need among people to believe in the make-belief.
And now for the most-awaited contest!
It is 12 years since this initiative of a newsletter first began. So it is as perfect an occasion as any to offer something special for you. On a recent visit to a local bookstore, I found some boxes of the otherwise out-of-stock, The Thinking Kit! And clearly that is as awesome as any bumper prize can be!
As mentioned on Twitter, LinkedIn, and here, one of you is going to win this exclusive, magical kit! Two consolation prizes will also be awarded to two lucky winners in addition to the bumper prize!!
Here’s wishing you all the very best!
Puzzle # 1A: What am I?
You can keep me or share me. But if you share me, I will disappear for ever. What am I?
Puzzle # 1B: Card Divination
At a banquet in honour of King Arthur, a conjuror amazed the gathering with a most amazing magic trick! He invited a courtier to draw a card from a deck of thirty two cards. Declaring that he would divine the playing card held by the courtier, the magician started by asking him a few questions…
Does the card have a number? Yes. Is it an even number? Yes. Is it the number 8? No. Is the suit black? Yes. Is it a club? No.
The magician then proceeded to correctly divine the card chosen by the courtier!
What playing card was the courtier holding in his hand?
To win this contest, you will have to answer BOTH the above puzzles accurately.
You can submit your entries to the contest by replying to this email or sending your responses directly to nakulshenoy@substack.com
The chosen winners will be announced in a forthcoming issue of Magical Musings. I will also send you a fresh set of puzzles to solve and a chance to win some more exciting prizes in future newsletters too.
Thank you so very much for reading till the end of this first letter in a long time. There is so much more to tell you, especially about some personal updates and about some books that I read (& heard) recently. But all that will have to wait for the next instalment of Magical Musings. Perhaps I can send that over much quicker?
Please do write in to me with your thoughts on this latest initiative, and what you would like to hear or read more of in these occasional letters.
Stay well. Stay safe.
Yours magically,
Nakul Shenoy
Bangalore, India
www.nakulshenoy.com