oppn parties Have You Heard About Caronaa And Covviyd-19

News Snippets

  • R Praggananda wins Tashkent meet, become number 1 chess player in India with FIDE rating of 2799
  • Supreme Court says its 'grounds of arrest' order was prospective and cannot be applied restrospectively as it was alarmed by a Karnataka HC order that released a murder accused who was arrested two years ago as the police did not provide him a copy of 'grounds of arrest' in writing
  • Russia assured India that it will get the remaining two squadrons of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems by 2027
  • Kolkata Police launches a new service to report e-fraud. People losing more than Rs 10L in any e-fraud can call 1930 for automatic registration of FIR against such crime
  • US embassy in India asks vias-seekers to provide information about all their social media handles for the last 5 years, and asks the access to these handles be made 'public'. Warns that omitting any information might result in "visa denial and ineligibility for future visas"
  • India refuses to sign the SCO joint statement as it fails to address its concern over terrorism by completely omitting any reference to the Pahalgam attack
  • Mamata Banerjee claims that in a dangerous and alarming move, the Election Commission is targeting Bengal with its voter-list revision norms that need people to provide birth certificates to become voters
  • The information from the black box of crashed AI Dreamliner has been recovered and downloaded and the reasons for the crash may be known in 10 days
  • Road transport minister Nitin Gadkari urges industry to ferry goods with trucks using green fuel
  • Listed, private, non-financial companies reported a sales growth of 7.2% in 2024-25, much better than the worrisome 4.7% reported in 2023-24, showing that demand increased substantially
  • Stock markets in bull grip on Thursday: sensex soars 1000 points to 83755 and Nifty 304 points to 25549 as markets continue to celebrate easing of tensions in the Middle-East
  • Asian Squash Doubles Championships: India win all three titles - men's, women's and mixed in a superb show
  • ICC introduces two new rules in Tests: Stop clocks to calculate perfect time for over rates and letting the fielding team decide which batter will keep strike if a deliberate 'short' run is attempted
  • CBSE boards for Class X will be held twice a year from 2026
  • Reliance and Adani enter into a partneship for fuel distribution. Adani will sell Reliance petroleum products at its outlets and Reliance will sell Adani CNG from its outlets
India rejects arbitration panel for indus River treaty, says it is illegal and has no jurisdiction to rule on India's action
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Have You Heard About Caronaa And Covviyd-19

By Anukriti Roy
First publised on 2021-06-01 04:57:01

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Anukriti is a student who dabbles in writing when she finds time.

Numerology, like many other things which lead to superstition and unscientific thinking, has many followers worldwide. In India, even celebrities change their names overnight to add a's or e's in the spelling of their names. It is believed that the numerical value of your name, if matching the numeric value of your date of birth, brings you luck and smoothens your journey in life by removing all hurdles that come your way. Well, it will suffice to say that people believe in worse things.

But a numerologist, although not a famous one, has now said that if coronavirus and Covid-19 were spelt as Caronaa and Covviyd-19, and the new spelling is used in all documents and banners (see the lead picture), the virus would vanish from the world. S. V. Annandd Rao (note that he has added n's and d's to the conventional spelling of his surname), a stenographer with the judicial department in Ananthpuram who claims to be a numerologist, has put up banners (which have made their way in social media) suggesting this change which he says is as per divine power calculated by numerological principles. Perhaps, scientists the world over should now consult numerologists before naming any new virus, disease or cyclone to keep them in check.

The Bard had famously asked what's in a name. But obviously, numerologists think there is much. To them, an Ayushman is doomed to failure while the same person will be a roaring success as Ayushmann. Hence, it is no surprise that with the amount of unverified reports, suggestions and medical advice doing the round in the pandemic, a numerologist has suggested changing the spelling to 'kill' the virus. The pandemic has created experts and pundits everywhere. Hence, why blame a simple numerologist for spreading unscientific thinking when influential people are suggesting holding yagnas on the roads or drinking gau mutra (cow's urine) to either 'kill' the virus or to prevent it from infecting you?