Someone said that while the Taj Mahal is beautiful and all that, it is rather tragic that while the treasures and wealth of this country was being spent on a mausoleum, on a tribute to a dead queen, on a vanity project for an Emperor, in Europe, Oxford & Cambridge were being established.
I want to say that while he is right in his sentiment (in a way, because I think grandiose structures are something all civilizations build and I see nothing wrong in it at a particular level), the truth is even more disheartening. You see, Oxford was actually founded in 1096 and Cambridge, in 1209.
So, what was happening when Shah Jahan was busy building the Taj? Glad you asked. In Europe, Sir Isaac Newton published his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687 based off partly on René Descartes’ Principia Philosophiae, published in 1644, 4 years before the Taj Mahal was opened for public viewing in 1648.
That’s how much catching up we have to do with the West. And it can only be done by pursuing the scientific and historical truth, not by hiding, obscuring, denying, and deleting history and science.
![Mr Baba: 'Would you like to take off the backpack now that you've been downstairs for like 30 minutes?'
Ms Kym-Kym: 'I like it like this. You should try it. It's very comfortable.'
Mr Baba: [Pulling on his backpack] 'Hmmm, you're right. That's rather snug.'
Ms Kym-Kym: 'Twinning! Yay!'
#LuckiestManAlive #BearFamily](https://scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/416920031_3373151642830342_6696851954454537274_n.webp?stp=dst-jpg&_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=18de74&_nc_ohc=ZMLmjPdSAEUAX8nnJex&_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=00_AfB0olvUVmnenPKd2wCllMDehg5gzDgAbc4BDsGLqIm6pA&oe=65BA4561)
![Kym: 'Mr Baba, can I tell you something wierd? You can actually get tired from doing nothing!!'
Me: 'It is called boredom.'
Kym: 'Noooo. I mean, like physically tired.'
Me: 'One can get tired and sleepy due to boredom. I remember reading about it somewhere. Let's find out.'
[Some Googling later]
Me: 'It says here that "A new paper published in the journal Nature Communications finds that a part of the brain that is associated with motivation and pleasure - the nucleus accumbens - also can produce sleep. The new findings may explain why we have the tendency to fall asleep in the absence of motivating stimuli, i.e., when bored." Isnt it interesting?'
Kym: 'I already knew that. Why do you need to research things we already know?'
Me: [Finding a subject worth talking about now]: ' Ah well, that's what we'll talk of tomorrow on your morning run. It's very interesting the way science is done and our understanding of the universe is expanded.'
Kym: 'Can we talk of unicorns instead?'
Me: 'Sure. How do you know they exist? That's an interesting question too that you can use the scientific method to answer.'
Kym: 'Do they have to exist for us to talk about them? We can just pretend they do for an hour and have fun.'
Me: [Laughing] 'Yes, sure. We can do that too.'
#BabaBabyConversations #BearFamily #KymAndI](https://scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/416410840_383105434396466_2267910263456009774_n.webp?stp=dst-jpg&_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=18de74&_nc_ohc=LIozs445JFcAX_48wGC&_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=00_AfDQ2qbb0yO_wUmLj_L0ZxF61eDdwlIN-vyrd8GZe_pBMQ&oe=65BAFA57)
