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Three Wise Men and the Unrelenting Power of Communication

A few weeks ago I was at a restaurant with my parents. Like every other modern family, we buried our faces in our smartphones after the waiter was done taking our order. Having read that constant phone face-burial can cause neck problems, I habitually raised my head to stretch my neck, before going back into aforementioned phone face-burial. But before that, I glanced at three men sitting at the table next to ours. At the first sight, it was any three middle-aged friends reuniting over beer and chicken. It was then that I noticed something strange about them. They were not using words, instead their hands and faces to talk to each other. Noticing the number of empty beer mugs on their table, I figured this could be a novel drinking game they were playing - no words, only dumb charades. But the sight intrigued me so much I could not take my eyes away from them. Thanks to the humdrum service of the restaurant, I still had about half an hour before my food could take my eyes and ears
Recent posts

Own Your Vice, and then Overcome It!

It is a little too early in the year to talk about Christmas, but for this topic I believe I can take the liberty to at least quote a line, albeit prematurely. One of my favourite stories while growing up was Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’. For those of you who do not know the story, it is about a greedy hardhearted miser Ebenezer Scrooge who has an eerie yet impactful experience on Christmas Eve. He wakes up to meet three ghosts, and each of these meetings leads him to becoming a changed man. I will not delve deep into the story, but one of the lines from the story that made an ever-lasting impact on me was said by the first ghost who visits Scrooge: "I wear the chain I forged in life," the Ghost says. "I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it." Habits are a chain we forge in life - a chain that can pull us down, or lift us up. It is very important to know that we ourselves are

Regrets

     It is in human nature to regret, or should I say, contemplate alternative outcomes of a past event or decision and feel bad about the actual outcome. Normally I would elaborate with examples of what kind of regrets we usually have, but I daresay all of us are familiar with them already. What's the bet, while reading this you are probably thinking about that one big regret you have in your life. We all do. That is in our very nature.      Is there a way that we do not end up with any regrets at all in life? Yes, there is. Did I get to this part too soon? I think so. Before I have any regrets for writing the shortest article on my profile, I will take you around the excruciating realm of regret - it will probably make you value that way all the more.       First of all, what does "having no regrets" mean? Does it mean that you do everything so perfectly and take every decision so correctly that there is never an undesirable outcome, or that you do not hurt a singl

The Krishna Way of Life

     Over the last 24 hours there has been an endless din all over the city. Hooligans clad in t-shirts branded with faces of well-fed politicians are zooming all around town on their Yamahas and Pulsars, hooting at women and blowing small trumpets as they go. They call themselves 'Govindas'. Today is possibly the only day besides Ganpati visarjan that offices all over the city specially allow their employees to leave early. The otherwise ordinary town-squares of Mumbai are decorated with huge banners, laden with loud speakers and bustling with people today, "celebrating" the birth of one of the most revered deities by Hindus the world over - Lord Krishna. I am not going to assert his existence with this piece, nor am I going to doubt it, but if you come to think about it, there is a great deal associated with this dark-skinned God than meets the eye.            Over 5000 years ago,  on the  ashtami , eighth day of the waning moon in the lunar month of Hrishikes

Past Is Prologue

    Nikhil stared across the bar at the vacant brick wall, twirling the ring in his hand. The music reached his ears in a muffled tone, as his brain was as clouded as his eyes. Around the pub he could see people frolicking around with friends and family, couples going all out on each other, suddenly realizing their love for their partner more and more as the alcohol went further inside them. He looked away. Every girl in that pub reminded him of Nisha. “I think we should start seeing different people,” she had said. “But we are already engaged!” he had protested, hoping that she was joking. She always made such jokes about breaking up. “Don’t make it harder than it is,” she had said in a clichéd manner, as if she was the victim there. She sounded serious.      She had then stormed out of the diner, leaving him perplexed and alone with her engagement ring, the half-eaten dessert and the long dinner bill. He had wondered what would have been the reason for her to brea

Ram vs Ravana - Position vs Possession

     With all his able sons and brethren dead, but for one ‘traitor’ who had sided with his enemy, the King of the golden city-island of Lanka entered the battlefield. He was going to finish off the lanky man who was responsible for ushering this calamity on his peaceful kingdom. Ravana led a demotivated army of rakshasas who had seen what had become of the more able warriors who had dared to challenge the divinity of Ram – the prince of Ayodhya. The sound of demure war drums reminded them of the clockwork-like deaths of Akshaya who was killed by Hanuman, Indrajit who was sliced by Lakshman and Kumbhakarna who was slaughtered by Ram himself on the very day he awoke from his long slumber.      Despite being begged by many including his own wife Mandodari to let go of Ram’s wife – Sita, Ravana was adamant to kill Ram. What had hurt him was not the mutilated body of his sister Shurpanakha, not the impending defeat but the blow that Ram had delivered to his ego through Sita. As he char

Could Yudhishthira Have Survived in the World of Today?

     It was the 15 th day of the Great War of India – the Mahabharata. The teacher of the Kuru princes - Dronacharya had laid waste to the Pandava army. The only way to eliminate him was to use his love for his son – Ashwatthama against him. The Pandavas brought forth an elephant named Ashwatthama and the mighty Bhima – the second eldest of the five Pandavas - killed him. News spread throughout the battlefield that Ashwatthama was dead. Bhima proclaimed this loudly, but Drona did not believe this, because even if it was Bhima, it was impossible to kill Ashwatthama – the chiranjeevi (the one who would live forever).                     In this tumultuous time, there was only one whose words could be trusted - the most honest of all men, the eldest of the Pandavas, the offspring of Dharma (righteousness) himself – Yudhishthira. Yudhishthira was so truthful and pious that it is said that his chariot would always be about two feet above the ground when he rode