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Ateet Shah's avatar

This is fantastic stuff, Sandeep! Absolutely loving it! Language is primordial and a lot more than a means to perform utilitarian communication. Often the nature of words and grammar encapsulates the philosophy of a people too.

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Sandeep Kumar Sood's avatar

Thank you, Ateet. Yes, I agree, the oral medium feels so central to how the Vedas need to be understood. Part of the reason I'm starting to learn Sanskrit :)

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Dinesh Arora's avatar

Recently, I started memorizing some shloks from Gita. On reading it one doesn't get the sense of alliterations, rhymes, poetry, but saying it out loud you can memorize easily and marvel at deep thoughts said with such brevity. The shlok is just a quick reminder to the vast subject that you can bring into focus as needed. E.g. "Nasato vidyate bhavo nabhavo vidyate sata:" Bhagvad Gita 2.16. Just a combination of words Na, Sat, bhavo, vidyate. I will take a couple of pages to describe what it means and what I learned for this shlok from the masters who explained it in the oral tradition.

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Sandeep Kumar Sood's avatar

I just started taking a Sanskrit course as well. I'm not sure how far I'll take this, but at the minimum, I want to enjoy the classic pieces the way you describe.

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Ashwin's avatar

Fibonacci poetry. Fascinating. Tell me your were at least a little tempted to describe it as the original, oral blockchain ;)

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Sandeep Kumar Sood's avatar

haha, definitely. Though there is another parallel to blockchain in ancient India that I want to write about at some point. Not sure there is much that can be added to this brilliant piece though: https://nakamotoinstitute.org/the-playdough-protocols/

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Rahul Sarathy's avatar

Really impressed with the illustrations. Did you make them yourself?

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Sandeep Kumar Sood's avatar

No, a super talented designer is helping me out - with both the logo/brand and the email illustrations. it takes a few revisions each time, but the designer takes the time to read the pieces and truly understand them before starting work, which is immeasurably helpful!

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