Holy Book

My cousin lives in the IIT Madras campus. Her husband is a professor of Mechanical Engineering. He is very serious in his pursuit of research and is frequently absconding from home when he could be found working in his lab. When I asked him how many papers he typically publishes in a year, his answer was evocative of the publish or perish mentality in higher education

More papers than the IIT average!!

My cousin's son is in 3rd grade and he studies in Kendriya Vidyalaya, IIT Madras. For the record, I was a student of that Kendriya Vidyalaya for two years in the mid 70s.

As part of an effort to raise awareness of prevalent cultural diversity in India the teachers talked about the various religions and their holy books. To make this point the teachers asked various students what book they followed in their own house. Each student came up with a list of the usual suspect such as Gita, Koran, and Bible.

When it my cousin's son turn, he asked the teacher what constitutes a holy book and how would one identify it at home. The teacher vaguely said that it would be the book that is most commonly read by his father or mother and then repeated the question. My nephew's answer was

Principles of Thermodynamics!!