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Astrology: Believe it or not?

A Sitaram

Astrology: Believe it or not? 

by 

S Balachandra Rao 

Navakarnataka 2000, 
pp.156, Price: Rs. 65/-

Thanks to the ill-conceived move by the UGC (around May 2001) to introduce astrology courses in Indian universities, this wonderful little book has been rescued from the obscurity that it might have otherwise lapsed into. If only it had received more prominence earlier, Balachandra Rao’s book would have done more to debunk and expose the pseudo-science of astrology than all the myriad protest letters from scientists and academics in universities and institutes across the country. Indeed, the reviewer suffers a deep sense of mortification that he voiced his protest only after the introduction of ‘vedic astrology’ by the UGC as a legitimate subject was more or less a fait accompli, although various newspapers were warning us that the move was imminent. On the other hand, Balachandra Rao’s book was published in the year 2000, which surely means that it was completed long before that. Why does one call astrology a pseudo-science? Well, this question is comprehensively answered by Balachandra Rao. Can it be considered as any kind of rational knowledge? No! Once again, Rao explains why not. What one really learns from this book is that astrology consists of a set of arbitrary rules made up aeons ago. These rules, which have no rational or even empirical basis to back them up, purport to predict how a person’s life evolves based on planetary positions at the time of his or her birth. All disciplines should be based on rational thought and astrology is as far removed from rational thought as one can get! Thus, it has absolutely no place in our university education, either in a science department or in a humanities department. If the UGC wants our students to learn something about our heritage, let them introduce courses on various aspects of Indian culture. (It is perhaps important to remind oneself here that ‘Indian’ is not the same as ‘Hindu’.)

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Address for Correspondence
A Sitaram
Indian Statistical Institute, 
Bangalore Centre, 
R V College Post, 
Bangalore 560 059, India.

The Lady or the Tiger: A Review

S P Suresh

Inspector Craig has again been called in on a life-saving mission. One of the top-security banks in Monte Carlo (for security reasons the name of the bank is withheld!), has just lost the combination of their biggest safe. (An overzealous clerk has safely deposited the only card containing the combination in the safe and locked it up!) The safe contains some state documents which must be produced within three months, and blowing the safe open is out of the question.

...

If you find this puzzle intriguing enough, then you’re sure to enjoy Craig’s adventures at the asylum of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether, where anybody, doctor or patient, can be either sane or insane, effectively sane people always tell the truth and insane people always lie and Craig’s mission is to find out if there is an insane doctor in the asylum! Things really get out of hand in Transylvania where each inhabitant is either a human or a vampire, and either totally sane or totally insane!

All in all, the book offers you guaranteed fun from cover to cover. One piece of advice though: Take the book slowly! More than an hour at a stretch will leave you dazed!

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The Lady or the Tiger and Other Logic Puzzles 

by

Raymond Smullyan 

Oxford University Press 
1987, pp.226.

Address for Correspondence
S P Suresh, 
Junior Research Fellow, 
The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, 
CIT Campus, Taramani, Chennai 600 113. 
Email: spsuresh@imsc.ernet.in 

Indian Academy of Sciences
C.V.Raman Avenue, Post Box No. 8005,
Sadashivanagar Post, Bangalore 560 080