- Birbal helps an astrologer who was summoned to the court of Emperor Akbar to predict the time of his death. The astrologer is afraid and does not know what to say. He seeks help from Birbal. - Birbal tells the astrologer to say that he will die three days before the Emperor. This allows the astrologer to escape without directly predicting the Emperor's death. - The story explains how Birbal's clever response saved the astrologer's life using his wits.

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ISSUE 59
MAY 31, 2020
How did Birbal
help the astrologer?
T H E R E I S A S C I E N C E
B E H I N D S W I N G B O W L I N G
W H AT I S
S E T I ?
Doaliensexist?

2. 2
Once, somebody informed Emperor Akbar that
a certain astrologer in the city was bragging
about his accurate predictions everywhere.
Akbar summoned the astrologer to his court
and thought of testing the accuracy of his
predictions. When the astrologer presented
himself in the durbar, he said,“I have heard that
you predict very accurately.”The astrologer was
filled with great fear and awe as he was
standing in front of the mightiest of the kings.
Not even a single word could come out of his
mouth and he kept standing with folded hands.
Akbar asked,“O’learned astrologer, you shall be
handsomely rewarded if you are able to answer
just a simple question of mine. Tell me, when
will you die?”
The astrologer was shaking with fear and did
not know what to say. He thought for a
moment and then said that he will have to
consult his charts to predict correctly. The
Emperor gave him one hour’s time to do so.
Instead of consulting his charts, the astrologer
went running to Birbal for help and described
the whole thing. Birbal thought of a brilliant
answer and told the astrologer what to say in
front of the Emperor.
The astrologer returned to the court and told
the king, “I will die three days before you,
Jahanpanah!” Akbar could make out that the
astrologer was bluffing, but did not want to
take a chance. Like every other human being,
he did not want to know the time of his death,
so he let him go.Thus the astrologer was able to
save his life with the help of clever Birbal. That
day onwards, he never bragged about
anything.
FOLKTALE
Akbar Birbal:
Birbal Helps
an Astrologer

3. How Many of each Alien can You see?
Stories in Rhyme What If
When I see the new moon lightly
Through cloud ripples slip,
Then I'm sure that shining brightly
It's a fairy ship!
What if in it we were sailing
Far and far away,
With a wake of silver trailing,
Till the golden day?
Why, we'd fly back home together
Safely from the sky,
For the moon's a fairy feather
When the sun is high!

4. to form Edison-Swan united, which
CASA & ASA
Discoveries and Inventions
How will
we discover
extra terrestrial
life?
Project SETI (search for extraterrestrial
intelligence) began actively in 1960
when an American astronomer Frank
Drake started searching for radio sig-
nals from two stars near Earth.
SETI is based at the University of Cali-
fornia and the purpose of this project is
to use radio telescopes from around
the world to scan the sky to look for
special patterns in radio waves that
could have been sent by some alien
civilization in space.
There is a huge radio telescope
installed at Arecibo, Puerto Rico that
catches all the radio signals floating
around in space. This telescope has a
huge bowl-shaped dish which is almost
1000 feet in diameter and takes pride in
being the world’s largest stationary
radio telescope.
The researchers analyze thousands of
radio signals intercepted through this
telescope daily. Currently, astronomers
are building an Allen Array Telescope
which would be able to check more
stars and the planets orbiting around
them with higher precision.
Since 1998, astronomers in Harvard
University have been keenly looking to
intercept pulse optical signals. The
Planetary Society (Headquarters in Pas-
adena, California) also surveys the sky
for optical extraterrestrial signals using
a large telescope.
Certain spacecrafts like Pioneer 10 and
11, Voyager 1 and 2 carry a record with
information about Earth and the
achievements of the human civiliza-
tion.
This has been done keeping in mind
that if the aliens do happen to come
across these spacecrafts, they are able
to access detailed and more important-
ly, accurate information about our
planet easily.

5. Tickle
your
funny
bone
Q: How do you get a
baby alien to sleep?
A: You rocket
Q: What did the astronaut cook in the pan?
A: Unidentified frying objects
Q:What do you get when you cross an alien
with something white and fluffy?
A: A martian-mellow
spot ten differences

6. einstien iyengar
The Science of Swing Bowling
comic story
5
With the Indian Premier League around the corner, the school had organized
an interschool premier league, an IPL of their own.
"I don’t understand how
the ball swung. It was
quite unreal. Either he is a
really good bowler or the
ball is magical."
Nitin was bowled out by Rubin’s first ball and the ground went mute.

7. 6
Eeshan noticed Rubin’s bowling technique with Nitin and Martin at
other matches. Rubin used to keep running his hand over his hair
before bowling every ball to the batsman. During the match he
also noticed Rubin scuff the seam of the cricket ball.
“Nitin, Murthy Sir had applied aerodynamics in class to explain swing bowling.
You know, the seam of a cricket ball divides it into two sides, the smooth side
and the rough side."
Rubbing lubricants
like gel on one side
makes it smooth.
Scuffing the ball
makes it rougher.
This is called ball
tampering.

8. A swing is only generated if there is a pressure difference between the two
sides of the ball which comes with a minimum speed known as the critical
speed. A new ball can be tampered with so that the difference is prominent.
Is that why
Rubin wears so
much hair gel?
Possibly!
7

9. They immediately went to Mr. Murthy and then the match referee and told
them what was going on. After the neutral referee observed closely what
was happening, he declared Rubin's school disqualified.
At the celebratory dinner, Eeshan and
his friends were sitting with the coach.Good catch Eeshan, even
though you are not in
the team you played
your part well.
“He had to, Sir.
Eeshan is our
12th man."

10. There are more than 1 trillion planets in the Milky Way galaxy. Nobody knows if some of them
underwent a climatic and geographical change like Earth and developed conditions favourable
for the sustenance of life.There are many instances in history which bring up questions about life
outside Earth.
Ancient architectural wonders like the Stonehenge in England and Egypt’s pyramid of Giza raise
questions.Howwerethepeoplethen,abletomakesuchmassiveandmagnificentstructureswith-
out any advanced construction tools and knowledge of architectural engineering?
The Polynesian island of Easter Island is famous for its 887 giant human figures also known as
‘Maoi.’How could the early human beings have built such astonishing structures without any sup-
port from someone far intelligent and technologically superior?
In many ancient Indian epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, there is a mention of mythical
flying objects called vimanas.Were the writers referring to alien spacecrafts?
It is said that Akhenaten, the 10th Pharaoh of Egypt, had an unusually elongated skull, unlike
human beings, as shown in paintings and carvings in ancient pyramids. Was he from some other
world?
According to an ancient legend, King Solomon of Israel had a unique flying vehicle, in which he
travelled across the world.
Pondering
Corner
Do Aliens Exist?

11. Complete the Story...
with Hamlet the Hamster
To know or not to know,
that is the question!
Well, wouldn’t you prefer to know?
fun facts
Facts About Earth
Earth gets its name from the 8th century Anglo
Saxon word“erda”meaning soil.
Planet Earth is not totally round. It is flattened
at the North and South poles.
The temperature at the centre of the Earth- the
Earth’s core- is hotter than the temperature of
the surface of the sun, at 7500 K.
Earth was initially just composed of hydrogen
and helium. Particles from broken stars fell on
the Earth and made life on Earth possible.
40,000 dust particles from stars land on Earth
every year. We are made of stars!
On the planet Jupiter, lived an alien
named Tilly, with mother and father. The
planet was dotted with little families that
had lived on Jupiter for generations.
There was a flash of light one day and
dust began to fly. A large metal object
appeared and Tilly let out a scream!

12. Which Planet Will the Alien
Land On?
10

13. Jesh Krishna Murthy
Aryaa Naik Dalmiya
Contributing Writers
Lavanya Khare
Assistant and Copy Editor
Layout and Design
Artists
Kaniz Fatima Khan
Deepti Raavi
Raunaq Amarnani
Archana Rajagopal
Priyanka Garegat
Ekta Bhatnagar
Rituparna Chatterjee
Content
Amol Padwal
Shailendra Havane
Sujith VS
Rohini Dusane
Bhavini Damani
Sitanshu Bhartiya
Atul Wankhade
Archana Rajagopal
Bharat Pillai
Tushar Rokade
Walmik Pawar
Kalpana Siromani
Dnyanesh Thombre
Prashant Kini
Shekhar Ramaiah
Digital
Marketing
Distribution
Creator
Editor
The Team

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