MIND AND SOUL

Silver Lining When a person’s actions are based on the quantity of pleasure and pain surrounding it, he becomes “utilitarian”. Thinking about “greatest good for greatest number” becomes the ideal thing to do. Then there are those who think about themselves, self-centric, and the universe revolves around them. Generally they are pleased by the materialistic pleasures and hence can be an example of consumerist or materialistic mindset. There are others who believe in destiny and have a positive vibe about things, no matter how bad the weather gets, they are the optimist and diametrically opposite stands pessimist. There are sophists, realists, hedonists, pluralist and plenty of other heavy words to describe the behavior of a person. Philosophers/ phycologists tend to categorize people over certain key traits and then behave accordingly. There is no right or wrong in it. It’s just the way a person thinks or behaves in a given condition. But is that all? No. There certainly ...

Broken compass Earth is the only planet supporting life. There is no ambiguity in this statement. There is another truth, human being is the only species with the highest level of intellectual and emotional quotient. So, what do we do with that? We create fault lines and widen it. The only thing differentiating men with animals is “humanity”. Do we actually know its meaning or is it just a shield to be used as time demands? Humanity is quoting Gandhi, Mandela or Teresa? Humanity is the award given every year to certain accomplished and outstanding activities done in sphere of humanism? Humanity is represented by those handful of “incarnated” souls having halo around them? Humanity is the philanthropist charity done by the golden piles of money? Humanity is a duty or a right? There can never be a single point of convergence as far as the definition and understanding of humanity is concerned. Every day, every moment we define who we are. It’s the action of ours and not the...

Race that never happened After the defeat, the hare thought about this impossible and couldn’t come at terms with the fact that he was defeated by a turtle. It wasn’t the stutter of the turtle that cost him his pride, rather his own sense of entitlement. Why do we keep these two words, “slow” and “steady” together? What positivity does “slow” brings to the table? Isn’t it eulogizing this behavioral attitude which is at the other end of the table as far as present epoch is concerned? That hare can’t even think of sleeping during a race if he was living in the reality. Are we trying to discourage our toddlers, year after year, to give up speed and rather be slow? When we talk about this combination, the lazy bones pick up the slow part and ignore the steady part. Can’t we focus on “Swift” and “Steady”? The present reality is all about speed with accuracy, persistence and generating enough credibility. Where does this fairy tale fit in? When you teach a story, you create a ...

LIFE AS IT IS Way behind the herd of some, way ahead of the rest. Blurring the line between pessimism and realism as well as realism and optimism. Having the faith and questioning the existence. Fetters and freedom. All exists simultaneously. Running miles to cover a step or being at inertia to cover miles, all at once. Loving the mere existence and hating everything about it, all at the same moment. What is it? It’s the paradoxical conveniences and consequences of every moment we blink, every breath we take, every time heart beats and every morning you wake up alive. What happened? Life happened. Feel good about it or question why the hell it happened? For that we should know what’s the alternative? Should we believe in the existence of heaven and hell? If yes, how do we know where were we? Life exists in between the pleasantries of hell and heaven. It’s such a comparative study. I will be grateful to the Almighty if I have been promoted from hell to earth or else deeply re...

FREE LUNCH Why do we work? There might be different reasons depending upon varying circumstances but primarily it’s because of the necessity to fulfill our never-ending needs. What if we get our needs fulfilled without working? Hindu mythology has a concept of “kaamdhenu”, a cow who fulfills all desires of her owner. May be that’s the concept fantasized by many. Imagine an island where nobody works and everybody is paid well just to live there. Sounds Utopian but there is an issue. This island will not grow, will not evolve and will never achieve any height. There is not even a single example where success came without hard work. Then why do people get mesmerized by freebies and why is this freebie politics so popular in India? Population of a nation can be its strength or weakness. It depends upon how the nation channelizes its energy in the form of demographic dividend. The nation is built by its people, the intentions and motivations of its dwellers, the dream to achieve a...

Google is a giant as far as search engines are concerned. We rely heavily upon it for our day to day activities. The first thing over google when searched for “journalism” will be – “ the activity or profession of writing for newspapers, magazines, or news websites or preparing news to be broadcast. ”. Journalism can be classified in many categories. But in none of the categories you will find an ideology attached to it or a bias objectification of events. Rather that leads to a mental corruption when journalism starts acting like a daily soup, trying to get TRPs high rather reflecting the truth in its purest form possible. The death of Gauri Lankesh shook the entire nation as it was unfortunate and as the subsequent reports showed it followed the same pattern like some of the earlier high profile reporters’. Her ideological dissent and a strong voice against the Government is believed to be the cause, which is still foggy. But what emerged to be clear is the ideological divide in ...