My Perspective

The "happy birthday" song that we sing on someone's birthday is quite prosaic, dull, and repetitive to say the least. Maybe it it so because it addresses the lowest common denominator i.e. children who are yet to learn a language fully. If so then it is not for the adults to also sing the same song. Here is a meaningful birthday song in Sanskrit with its meaning. Song in Sanskrit: अयि प्रिय सखे जन्मदिनमिदम् । प्रार्थयामहे भव शतायुषी ॥ १ ॥ पुण्य कर्मणा कीर्तिमार्जय । जीवनम् तव भवतु सार्थकम् ॥  २  ॥ Transliteration of the poem: ayi priya sakhē janmadinamidaṃ । prārthayāmahē bhava śatāyuṣī ॥ 1 ॥ puṇya karmaṇā kīrtimarjaya । jīvanaṃ tava bhavatu sārthakam ॥ 2 ॥ Translation in English: Oh dear friend, today is your birthday; We all pray for your long life. By noble deeds may you attain fame; May your life be meaningful. Credits : [x] Original Birthday Song in Sanskrit by Swami Tejomayanandaji Link -  https://www.chinmayajyoti.org/documents/birthdaysong.pdf  

I was nominated for 'Open Research Award' 2024 from Newcastle University for my leading contribution in making 15+ software and 4+ datasets from Auditory Cognition Group as open source. The Open Research Awards recognises colleagues and students who have used open practices to make research more accessible, transparent or reproducible, and demonstrate an understanding of the aims of open research. Reference: [1] Open Research Award Winners -  https://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/academics-and-researchers/research/open-research/awards/

I developed a hang man style game as a web app. The challenge is to identify the tree by clues in the form of pictures of its bark, bud and leaf. Upon each unsuccessful guess of a letter, a new clue is revealed as pictures with the final clue being the Latin name. When the player correctly identifies the tree, they will see the time taken by them. One can learn more about natural history. This is supported on both desktop and handheld devices.  Try the Tree-ID game here - https://tree-id.glitch.me/

My latest paper in the Neuroimage: clinical journal assessed the impairments in neural entrainment to speech envelope in early stage psychosis. Impairments in language processing in Schizophrenia are a central aspect of the disorder but the underlying pathophysiology mechanisms are unclear. We tested the hypothesis that neural oscillations are impaired during speech tracking in early-stage Schizophrenia and in participants at clinical high-risk for psychosis (CHR-P). Magnetoencephalography (MEG) was used in combination with source reconstructed time-series to examine delta and theta-band entrainment during continuous speech. Participants were presented with a 5-minute audio recording during which they either attended to the story or word level. Theta-band entrainment in left Heschl’s gyrus, averaged across groups, was significantly lower in the STORY compared to WORD condition, and averaged over conditions, significantly lower in CHR-Ps, but intact in early schizophrenia patients, comp...

D V Gundappa (or DVG as he is fondly known as) was an Indian writer, poet and philosopher in Kannada-language. He is one of the stalwarts of modern Kannada literature. He wrote "Mankuthimmana Kagga" which literally means Rigmaroles for the common man. On the occasion of Kannada Rajyotsava, I'm launching my gamification of the entire 945 Kagga poem collection. The goal is to make Kaggas accessible to the newer generations who are addicted to their smart phones. Game Design: I show the Kagga in Kannada text and its meaning in English (for maximal reach). Next I present the Kagga by jumbling up its 4 lines transliterated in English. The player is expected to put these 4 out of sequence lines into the correct order. The clue is its English meaning. The metrics are the number of tries and time taken to get it right. Is the game interesting enough to you for spending 2 mins daily to learn the Kagga? #KaggaGame I learnt the meaning of Kagga no. 1 in 37 sec at https://kagga-game....

 As a part of Centre for Neurotechnology (CfN) team, on 21st and 22nd Sep 2024 at Advanced Research Centre, Glasgow University, I interacted with the general public of all ages at Explorathon 2024 event to demonstrate ElectroEncepahloGraphy (EEG which records electrical activity of the brain) and to celebrate 100 years of EEG. The audience got to wear portable dry electrode EEG headsets and were able to see neurofeedback in action.

I developed a web game on vibhakthi pratyayas (noun declensions) in Sanskrit language. Here, I gamified Sanskrit based rules of grammar for declining nouns as a sorting puzzle of the Shabd table.  This game entitled 'Shabd' has all three genders, all types of word ending, both for nouns and pronouns. I have included 40 Shabd tables in all. Check your memory on राम shabd below. I learnt the #declension of Masculine word ending in 'a': "Rama" Sanskrit for "God" in 71 sec at https://shabd.glitch.me