A Mother’s Blessing, a Narrow Escape, and Darwin’s Day – My Salutation to Smt. Gauramma Devendrappa Gurugunti, on her passing.

Early morning on 10 February, 2026 – around 7 AM – I received a call from Sangamnath, my close friend for nearly fifty years, followed by a brief call from Dr Sumana, the wife of our dearest friend Dr Umeshchandra, that her mother in law - mother of our close friend Dr Umeshchandra Gurugunti, is an extended family to our family, Smt. Gouramma Devendrappa Guruganti, passed away peacefully in her sleep, aged nearly 90, at their residence in Kalaburagi at around 4.30 AM.

While paying my profound respect and homage to the noble departed soul - after returning back to Mumbai after travelling two days (10th and 11th Feb) and seeking her blessings and joining our friend Dr Umesh and family in the last rites to the holy departed soul of Smt Gauramma, at Kalaburagi - I feel blessed to write this tribute to share our experience of the divine blessings that we received from Smt Gauramma - mother to us all - in her passing, which saved us during our journey.

That shocking telephonic news of the passing of Dr Umesh’s mother made me momentarily indecisive in my thoughts as to how my wife and I can reach Kalaburagi in time to seek her last blessings and pay our last respect. Fortunately, Sangamnath planned the schedule and had decided that our two families should travel together from Pune to Kalaburagi. I had to reach Pune from Mumbai as early as we could for the onward journey from Pune. Sangamnath was in Mahabaleshwar, and he had to reach Pune, which he hoped he would by 10AM.

Fortunately, I could manage a taxi to travel to Pune, and both my wife and I boarded the taxi with absolutely no preparation whatsoever, to travel to Pune with the aim to reach at the earliest. We left Mumbai at 7.15 AM, hoping to reach Pune as early as possible, knowing well what the peak time traffic jam and travel will be in Pune. We managed to reach Sangamnath’s house only by 10.55 AM, due to heavy traffic congestion in Pune city. And our two families together departed for Kalaburagi in Sangamnath’s car at 11.05 AM. What divine intervention unfolded on that journey from Pune to Kalaburagi is something I feel I must share, to express that not everything that happens can be explained in scientific terms, perhaps each time, every time.

When we left Pune at 11:10 AM on 10 February, Google Map showed an arrival time at Kalaburagi as 7:30 PM. The distance was over 410 kilometres and we were also to pass through Pune city and its traffic congestion. The cremation, we were informed by Arun Shetkar, our friend, who was managing the arrangements, had to take place before sunset — before 6 PM — as per the guidance of the priests.

The arithmetic was unforgiving. Nearly two hours were spent negotiating Pune’s traffic for barely 60 kilometres. At 1.10 PM, we still had about 350 kilometres to cover in less than five hours. It appeared impossible.

Yet Sangamnath, who once headed the Tata Motors plant at Pimpri from where the very Tata Hexa we were travelling in had rolled out, believed in his machine. More importantly, we believed in our purpose — to see our mother-like Gouramma one last time and seek her blessings before her final journey. Both our wives, despite health constraints mandating them to take breakfast, resolved that we must make every effort to reach Kalaburagi in time to seek the blessings and last Darshan of Umesh’s mother.

Arun kept cautioning us to drive safely. He even offered to arrange a video darshan if we could not make it in time — which, rationally speaking, seemed the only likely option possible. But something remarkable happened. As we advanced on the highway, the expected time of arrival that Google started showing kept shrinking, gradually. Sangamnath had thrown caution to the winds while he drew the Tata Hexa at speed, we would never ever imagine. What seemed impossible began to appear faintly possible with the man and machine collaborating to make this possible. Sangamnath had only one instruction for me: “Tell Arun to wait for us till the last second before sunset.” The distance kept shrinking and so did the expected time to reach the spot of funeral, before the sun set.

Then came the moment that would have changed everything for something terrible, but due to divine intervention - Smt Guaramma’s blessings – it did not.

Just about 15 kilometres short of Kalaburagi and the site of funeral, at nearly 90 kmph speed at which Sangamnath was driving the car, the rear wheel briefly slipped off the tarred edge of the single road on the sharp turning, onto loose, slippery ground near a trench nearly four metres deep on both sides of the road. For a fraction of a second, disaster seemed certain and inevitable. A fall into the trench or a collision with an oncoming vehicle on that narrow two-way road would have been catastrophic.

What followed was extraordinary presence of mind, perhaps Gauramma’s blessed mind at that moment. With remarkable control, Sangamnath steered and braked in a way that the vehicle spun almost 360 degrees and came to rest — without toppling, without collision, without a scratch, and with no vehicle approaching from the opposite side at that exact moment.

We were inches away from a certain tragedy, an accident, which was averted, with not just the man machine collaboration but definitely with divine intent, the blessings of our motherlike figure, Gauramma. We were safe!

In that instant, my so-called rational thinking dissolved. As a science communicator with four plus decades of experience, I have always stood firmly by reason, probability, and evidence. I do not consider myself a spiritual person in the conventional sense. And yet, sitting there in that halted car, heart pounding, one thought overwhelmed us all: We have been spared, by divine intervention.

Spared so that we may reach in time to seek Mother Gauramma’s blessings, one last time

Spared so that we may see our departed mother like figures face.

We saw our mother Gouramma one last time. We bowed. We sought her blessings and finally all of us together completed the final rites of her cremation just in time, before the scheduled sun set.

Was it Sangamnath’s skill that helped us reach safely and in time? Certainly. Was it mechanical reliability? Undoubtedly. Was it coincidence? Perhaps.

In that spinning moment of split-second accident which had positioned us between trench and survival, notwithstanding my four decades of professional experience as a science communicator, I could not help but feel that perhaps God does play dice – and that day, the throw was mercifully blessed by Guaramma.

In the deepest chamber of my heart, which I now believe, I feel it was something beyond all the skills and expertise of Sangmanth’s driving skill or the robustness of the Tata Hexa we were travelling in, it was purely the grace of our motherlike figure, Gauramma and her divine blessings which saved us all from a certain accident and a disastrous consequence which would have followed that helped us to navigate such long distance, without any break to reach the site safe and sound to seek her blessings, one last time.

After paying our last respect we stayed back in Arun’s place and left Kalaburagi to travel back to our respective destinies after reminiscing the motherly love and affection of Gauramma in Dr Umesh’s house with all the family members, her three children, Dr Umesh and his two elder sisters, her daughter and son in law, her grandchildren, her great grandchild.

Sangamnath and I left Kalaburagi next day morning – 11 February – and travelled back to Pune and reached Pune safely at 6.40 PM. After a brief wash and change at his home and hurried dinner, which Mrs Rajalaxmi, Digge had prepared for us, my wife and I took a taxi back home to Mumbai and reached our place at midnight.

This morning 12 February, as I recollected all those events which had passed my mind the previous days, and was thinking what written homage I must pay to the noble departed soul of our mother-like figure, Gauramma, thoughts that came my mind have led to this write up.

As has always been a habit for me to express my thoughts in writing, I also realised that today, 12 February, is the birth anniversary of Charles Darwin — the great naturalist who transformed our understanding of life through the power of natural selection. A thinker who replaced supernatural explanations with scientific reasoning.

To honour the passing of Smt Gauramma Devendrappa Gurugunti, I have also written a blog post of tribute to Darwin on his birth anniversary, reflecting on his legacy, whose link is given below. This post is dedicated to the noble departed Nobel soul of Gouramma.

https://khened.blogspot.com/2026/02/remembering-charles-darwin-on-his-217th.html

For even as Darwin taught us the laws of nature, life occasionally humbles us with experiences that remind us how little we truly comprehend about timing, chance, survival, and grace.

If science teaches us probability, life teaches us gratitude.

Perhaps one need not abandon reason to acknowledge wonder.

Perhaps faith and science are not adversaries but different languages through which we attempt to interpret the same vast mystery.

On Darwin’s birth anniversary, I bow to science.

And in the memory of Gouramma — who loved us all like her own children — we bow to her grace and blessings.

Om Shanti.

 

Remembering Charles Darwin, on His 217th Birth Anniversary - 12 February 2026

 

Remembering Charles Darwin, on His 217th Birth Anniversary - As a Tribute to Smt. Gauramma Devendrappa Gurugunti - a motherly figure, who passed away on 10 February, 2026

On February 12, 1809, in the town of Shrewsbury, England, a child was born who would eventually challenge the very foundations of how we perceive life on Earth. Today, as we celebrate the birth anniversary of Charles Robert Darwin, we reflect on a man whose life was a testament to curiosity, resilience, and the courage to be wrong.

Darwin’s path to becoming a legendary naturalist, which we know today, was anything but a straight line. Born into a wealthy and intellectual family—his father, Robert Darwin, was a successful physician, and his grandfather was the famed Erasmus Darwin, was one of the leading intellectuals of eighteenth-century England, a man with a remarkable array of interests and pursuit, a respected physician, a well-known poet, philosopher, botanist, and naturalist -  young Charles was therefore, under immense pressure to follow the family tradition. However, that was not to be.

At 16, Charles Darwin went to Edinburgh University to study medicine. However, the lectures did not appeal to him, and he found the subject dull and, more importantly, Charles Darwin could not bear the sight of blood or the “brutality of surgery” in the pre-anaesthesia era. His father soon realised that medicine was not cut out for his son and therefore he was shifted from medicine and admitted to Christ’s College, Cambridge, to study theology. Although Darwin did not find theology and prospectus to becoming a clergyman appealing, yet the ambience of Cambridge appealed to him. Cambridge exposed him to a network of scientists, including Professor John Stevens Henslow, a botanist who saw in Darwin a "naturalist in the making." This was the Turing point in his career.

 The defining moment of Darwin's life occurred on December 27, 1831. It is a date I hold dear for personal reasons—it is my wife’s birthday—and it serves as a reminder of how one day can signal the start of an epoch-making journey. Darwin joined the HMS Beagle as a self-funded naturalist. For five long years, under the command of Captain Robert Fitzroy, the Beagle surveyed the coasts of South America. While the crew mapped the shores, Darwin mapped the history of life. He went beyond his calling and duty, assigned to him. He didn't just collect finches; he documented what would later turn out to be an important piece of evidence of evolution. 

Darwin found fossils of extinct giant armadillos (Glyptodon) that looked remarkably like smaller, living versions. He saw how species on the Galápagos Islands differed slightly from island to island, yet shared a common "ancestral" look. This was the birth of Natural Selection, which was later to become a monumental publication that would eternally etch the name of. Harley Darwin in the annals of scientific history, his publication of his findings, “On the Origin of Species, by Means of Natural Selection”.

It took Darwin over 20 years to publish his findings. It must be seen here that the times in which he was living was not conducive to his understanding of the origin of species which in a way went against the clergies, and the powerful Church. Fearing the social and religious backlash, he meticulously gathered evidence until 1859, when he finally released On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.

The book's premise was revolutionary yet simple: individuals with traits better suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. Over generations, these traits accumulate, leading to the formation of new species. Today even as we remember Darwin for his monumental publication on the origin of species, we must also remember that he too could go, wrong like any one of us, the humans, who are known to err - to err is human.

As much as we revere Darwin, he was—like all of us—fallible and could commit mistakes. He not only committed a mistake; he blundered in his understanding of traits of inheritance. This statement of Darwins blunder is best highlighted in Mario Livio’s book, Brilliant Blunders. This is very important for us, Indians, more so as we inch towards exam times and the fear of failures and going wrong has most unfortunately, resulted in precious loss of lives of young lives due to societal pressure to always succeed and not fail. 

Darwin’s greatest struggle was explaining how traits were passed from parent to offspring. He relied on his flawed understanding of how inheritance happened which he called "Blended Inheritance."  Darwin assumed that the "essence" of two parents mixed like liquids (e.g., a tall parent and a short parent produce a medium-height child). Inheritance was not as easy as Darwin thought it to be. If inheritance worked like mixing paint, any new, trait would be diluted and disappear into the population within a few generations. Natural selection would have no "permanent" material to work with.

Unbeknownst to Darwin, a contemporary named Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian monk, who born in to penury, was solving this exact problem in his monastery garden. Mendel’s experiments with pea plants proved that inheritance is particulate. Traits do not blend; they are passed as discrete "units" (genes). A trait can be hidden in one generation and reappear in the next, perfectly preserved. This was the missing piece of Darwin's puzzle. Darwin had Mendel’s work sent to him, but Mendel’s works remained in his library, the pages reportedly unread.

Darwin’s life teaches us that science is not a collection of absolute truths, but a process of constant refinement. Even his "blunder" regarding inheritance doesn't diminish his greatness; it underscores the reality that progress requires us to build upon the works—and the mistakes—of those who came before - standing on the shoulders of the giants, as the great Newton put it. 

Today, as my wife and I are back in Mumbai, late last night, after attending to the funeral of Gauramma, Devendrappa, Guragunti, who passed away peacefully in her sleep, aged nearly 90 on 10 February, the divinely mother of my dearest friend Dr Umeshchandra, I am reminded that life and death are a part and parcel of the biological law, and we are all part of this "endless forms most beautiful," as Darwin so eloquently put it. 

This piece of tribute to Darwin is therefore my reverence to the passing of the noble soul, Gauramma Guragunti, who was not just the mother of my friend Dr. Umesh, and two of her other siblings and mother-in-law to her sibling’s better half’s and so also brand mother and great grandmother to many of her children’s children, she was also mother to many of us, Umesh’s friends. More importantly to me, Gauramma reminded me of my mother, who unfortunately had passed away when I was just 10 months old, and made me experience what mothers love is all about ever since I first met her in 1977 and ever thereafter, until my last meeting just a month ago, 8 January 2026 when she was frail, yet I could see the same love and affection. When my wife sought her blessings, she blessed her and, as always, reminded her to take good care of me, her dear Shivu, for all times. May you rest in eternal peace, my dear mother, and may you continue to bless us all. 

Om Shanti.

To you, Charles Darwin, thank you for teaching us how to look at the world with wonder and yet reminding us of the mistakes which we are bound to make in our lives, that we must not be afraid of, and to take life and death as part and parcel of the dice that “God plays”.

While commemorating the anniversary of Darwin's publication, I had penned a blog where I chronicle the history, in brief, of the historic occasion of commemoration of the 165th anniversary of Darwin's monumental publication.

https://khened.blogspot.com/2024/11/165th-anniversary-of-charles-darwins.html

Image courtesy: Wikipedia.

 

 

Indo – US Trade Deal: Data, Narrative, and Public Discourse

India’s public discourse today is marked by a degree of political and social polarisation unprecedented in recent decades. In such a charged environment, every announcement made by an interested party—particularly when supported by selective data or anecdotal references—demands careful scrutiny. Yet increasingly, information is received not with curiosity or scepticism, but through rigid filters of ideological alignment.

What is most troubling in this moment is not disagreement itself, which is intrinsic to democracy, but the manner in which data and statistics are deployed. Instruments once meant to illuminate complex realities are now routinely used to reinforce pre-existing beliefs. Data, which should function like streetlights—casting light to dispel darkness—has instead become a convenient pole on which narratives are propped up.

This tendency is evidenced in recent developments: the Indo-US Trade deal and the social media post by US President, Donald Trump, referring to the trade deal; the release of the Economic Survey, Union Budget; and the sharply polarised responses to these events. Each episode has generated competing interpretations, often based on selective reading rather than comprehensive understanding.

Trump’s post on his Truth Social platform offers a clear illustration. Within hours of his limited public statement on the Indo – US trade deal and also the Tweet by PM Modi, acknowledging the Indo-US trade deal, opposing camps in India quickly constructed definitive conclusions. Critics of Prime Minister Modi portrayed the Indo-US Trade deal development as a diplomatic capitulation, while supporters claimed it reflected quiet strategic success, arguing that India’s steadfast position had compelled concessions from the United States. The same fragment of information produced contradictory narratives, each presented with absolute certainty.

A similar fate awaited the Union Budget and the Economic Survey, which preceded it. Intended as a diagnostic document outlining the economy’s performance, structural challenges, and medium-term prospects, the Economic Survey was swiftly mined for convenient excerpts. Optimistic growth projections were highlighted by some as conclusive evidence of economic strength; cautionary observations on employment, consumption, and inequality were emphasised by others as proof of systemic failure. In the process, the Survey’s own caveats, assumptions, and analytical limitations were largely ignored.

The Union Budget too was subjected to the same treatment. Within hours of its presentation, it was declared either visionary or disappointing, inclusive or exclusionary. Selective data and numbers—tax provisions, capital expenditure outlays, welfare allocations, fiscal deficit targets—were lifted from their broader context and pressed into the service of rival political narratives. Once again, the same data points were used to arrive at entirely opposite conclusions.

What stands out is that each side claims fidelity to “facts” and “data”. Yet the outcomes could not be more divergent.

This is hardly a new phenomenon. Indian civilisation itself offers a cautionary tale in the Mahabharata. Yudhisthira, known for his unwavering commitment to truth, announces the death of Ashvatthama, adding quietly the word “kunjarah” (the elephant). Dronacharya, hearing only what aligns with his fear, lays down his arms and is killed. The statement was technically true, yet truth itself was distorted through selective emphasis and omission. The episode reminds us that truth can be undermined not only by falsehood, but by partial disclosure.

One illustrative example - during the cold war times - is frequently used to demonstrate how narratives were constructed by the two warring sides, United States and the Soviet Union. In an imaginary international sporting contest, the US announces that it won Gold, pushing the USSR to last place, while the Soviet Union declares that it won silver, relegating US to second-last position. Both claims are technically correct, yet profoundly misleading. What is left unstated was that there were only two teams in the contest.

Such narrative constructions remain deeply embedded in current times in public discourse. Whether it is a Trump post, Economic Survey, or the Union Budget, selective emphasis is used to manufacture certainty and moral clarity where none truly exists. Social media platforms, designed to reward immediacy and emotional engagement, amplify this tendency, encouraging citizens to retreat into ideological echo chambers.

As someone long engaged in science communication, I find this trend deeply concerning. Science instils a fundamental discipline: anecdotal data does not constitute evidence; isolated observations do not establish causation; and interpretation without context is inherently incomplete. Science and rationality warrant that data must be interrogated, its assumptions examined, and its limitations acknowledged before conclusions are drawn.

Public discourse today increasingly departs from these principles. Data is often treated as a verdict rather than a signal, as proof rather than a prompt for further inquiry. Economic indicators are presented as definitive judgments instead of partial snapshots. Nuance is dismissed as equivocation, and uncertainty is portrayed as weakness.

Economic Surveys are diagnostic tools, not report cards. Budgets represent complex trade-offs shaped by fiscal constraints, global conditions, and competing social priorities. Trade negotiations unfold over time and rarely conform to the dramatic narratives of instant victory or defeat that dominate social media. Yet these realities are flattened in the rush to claim validation or assign blame.

The deeper danger lies not in disagreement but in the erosion of public reason. When citizens consume news primarily to confirm their beliefs rather than to challenge them, democratic debate is impoverished. When data is used selectively to legitimise predetermined conclusions, trust in institutions and expertise gradually weakens.

Scientific temper, enshrined in the Constitution of India, must extend well beyond laboratories and classrooms. It must equally apply to how we read economic surveys, interpret budgets, and respond to political claims. Scientific temper requires skepticism without cynicism, openness without gullibility, and a willingness to hold competing possibilities in mind.

Data must serve as a streetlight, illuminating complexity rather than obscuring it. When it is reduced to a pole supporting narratives we already believe, it ceases to serve the public interest.

Democracies rarely erode through sudden collapse. More often, they weaken gradually, as truth becomes fragmented and citizens retreat into separate interpretive worlds, each convinced of its own completeness.

In such times, the most responsible civic act may be the simplest: to pause, read carefully, ask what is missing, and think rationally—before choosing what, and whom, to believe.