by Naresh Jotwani

A young physicist on vacation, trekking through a dense jungle, had to spend a night at a hamlet with a tribe of friendly jungle-dwellers. In the morning, fully rested, he saw tribal elders praying in front a few small piles of dust of different colours. The dust was yellow in one pile, orange in another, red in yet another … and so on. The coloured piles were neatly arranged in a geometric pattern.