The non-graduated savants

Few days back, I along with my father and uncle ventured to a cafe near our home. Despite the scorching summer, we ordered three coffees. As I sipped the coffee, a drop of the coffee spilled in my t-shirt. To my misfortune, it was a pure white shirt which I admire much as it is a perfect outfit during the summer. That stain on my shirt drew my attention and I was poignantly staring at it. My father gently stared at me and asked me to rub it off with some water. My mind was glued with that strain and all my father's words went on to the deaf ears. He fetched some amount of water and applied it on my shirt to dilute the stain. To our agony the stain has burgeoned rather than mitigating. Despite all our fervent efforts, the coffee stain embraced tenaciously and it was reluctant to leave my shirt.

The Coffee master witnessed all the chaos and gave me a scarce amount of milk in the saucer. All the three of us were baffled on seeing it. He told me to apply the milk on the spot. I was further perplexed. He persuaded me to apply. Paying heed to his concern, I obliged to his words. As I started applying the milk, the stain diluted a bit. The coffee master told me that, when you wash your dress, the stain would wane and disappear. He further added that all these experiments were successful throughout his experience. All of us were astonished by the acumen of the master.  

As we started sipping the coffee, my uncle narrated an incident. During his journey to his hometown, his car wheel had dented after it ran through a lethal pit. My uncle and my brother tried to replace the defunct tyre with a spare tyre. They successfully removed three nuts and were crusading to unscrew the fourth nut. The L-shaped spanner could not hold the head of the nut firmly. To their fortune, an old man in a typical village outfit with a dense beard approached that way. He watched all these things meticulously and asked my brother to put some sand over the bolt head and then to try. After trying based on his suggestions they came out with flying colours. The sand has provided the necessary contact and grip to loosen the nut.

All these types of things can't be learnt by bookish knowledge or through rigorous research which includes citing a plethora of journals to vindicate the findings. It could come only through experience. The words of our grannies and elders though some may sound frivolous, most of them are profound and have validation. The epiphany of these people amazes me and our country is a home to myriads of such people. All their activities involve Science, but they are seldom aware of it. In the contemporary era, while some inventions get a patent which is patronized in the global podium, this kind of traditional sagacity rarely gets recognized. On the next day, after washing my shirt and drying it, the coffee stain bid adieu to my shirt and it disappeared.