One of the most well-known Arabian Nights tales is Aladdin and the Magic Lamp. The tale has all the elements of a perfect fantasy story: an orphan boy who falls in love with the Sultan’s daughter, a genie in a magical lamp, and an evil sorcerer planning to destroy him.

What if I told you that this thrilling story was not present in the original Arabian Nights?

It was added later by a Frenchman in the 18th century.

You maybe asking, isn’t this a tale from the Middle East? What is a Frenchman doing here?

Hollywood has presented it as…

Losing weight is a challenge. Our bodies appear to conspire against us when we are trying to lose weight. But you know it is achievable and rewarding, as you can see the difference it makes to your life.

You feel lighter, your health and confidence improve.

But what happens when life throws you an extra challenge where you cannot use the same tools as millions of others? I faced the same after two major surgeries.

The generic weight loss advice “eat less and move more” did not work. Well, it would not work as after both the surgeries they required…

If you are a Medium member reading this, I am sure your home page has at least one story titled “Here’s How much I made last month/week/year.”

They tempt you to click on the story. Eventually you do. And before you know it, you’re being recommended more and more of these stories.

I’m still relatively new to Medium, having joined in late November 2020. However, I became addicted to these articles within the first few weeks.
The algorithms showed me more stories like this as I read more. …

“Paper is more patient than man.” — Anne Frank

Is it possible to imagine a world without books?

I’m afraid I can’t. I’m sure you share my sentiments.

Books changed the way knowledge spread and helped us evolve as humans. Knowledge destroys ignorance, and without easy access to information, the world would be a different place today.

But books were a costly affair. That changed with the invention of paper. Paper made it easy to spread knowledge. Recording information was hard until papermaking became global.

Once upon a time, the method of making paper was kept a closely guarded secret…

Joy and I met in my the freshmen year of college. He was skinny and lacked energy, but he was a driven individual.

We became good friends.

He invited me to dinner at his house one day. I met his mother and noticed that, unlike Joy and his father, she was overweight. This sparked my curiosity as to why family members have different body compositions.

After a decade had passed since we graduated from college, I came across Joy’s Facebook profile. He was completely unrecognizable. The skinny, tired boy had gained weight. …

“Here we go again, another story about how to get curated” you might be saying.

You’ve already seen tens of thousands of them.

Trust me, I am not here to tell you what you already know.

“Write a catchy headline,” “Use Grammarly to copy edit,” “Edit multiple times” “Write daily”, you have heard those a million times.

I’m not an authority on Medium writing, and I’ve only been writing here for four months. But twice I’ve had a 100% curation rate.

I wrote four stories in January, all of which were curated. But I thought it was a onetime incident…

Two of my favorite series, Netflix’s Marco Polo and HBO’s Rome, were both canceled far too soon. At the start of Marco Polo’s second season, a vivid scene depicts Ghenghis Khan (pronounced Chinggis Khaan) teaching his grandsons Kublai and Kaidu a military lesson.

The Mongols had besieged a fortified city. We see Genghis, in battle armor, carrying a cute tiny swallow.

“Nested birds and well-fed dogs always return to their master”, said the great conqueror. He then ties the bird to a ball of wool, lights it, and asks Kaidu to release it.

The hapless bird lets out a shriek…

Is it true that the gladiators were vegetarians? On the internet, in history, and in diet forums, this has been a hot topic of discussion. The Game Changers (2018) documentary went even further, claiming that the gladiators were vegan.

I was taken aback by their claims, so I wanted to investigate further and check their authenticity.

The “story” aspect of “history” can often take precedence over reality. But this isn’t just a historical issue; we also need to look at the science behind the assertions.

Although scholars have differing opinions on the matter, it is clear that data from the…