Inner Metamorphosis

Most of us talk about corruption in India and most of us are apt to pinpoint corrupt politicians as the root cause of all problems in India . Little realised in the fact, the these politicians rise to ranks from the masses and if corruption is common in politician, its because its common in men. I once asked a close Marvadi friend, if he keeps black money. He replied yes, upon which I asked him being so educated why you should continue to involve in such practises. He said blankly, “ We are not interested in indulging in such practises. But are you aware that at every point we are forced to cough up our hard-earned money to so many officials without any official purpose? If I don’t have this kind of money, I can’t have even a decent life. But atleast I have decided in personal front, that the moment I needn’t cough up money unnecessarily, I shall give up this practise ”. In the struggle for Indian freedom, Gandhiji was correct to dismiss the ideology of revolutionaries who...

One thing that is common for all recent emotional developments – I wanna a quick-fix. Most of our present culture in a way encourages instant satisfaction through whichever means possible. This is a disturbing trend. There are no shortcuts, no free-lunches. But we have conveniently forgotten this under the mask of various clichés.  A case in point is the way most of the self-help books ( i.e. motivational, personality growth based) are written. Almost all of which I’ve seen in recent times are based on personality ethic- superficial changes in external personality . The rise of this concept can be seen with the success of Dale Carnegie’s “ How to Win Friends and Influence People ”. The book was a huge success & this captivated the imagination of many other writers who wished to earn quick buck by writing some out-of-context quotes to derive most funny conclusions. Most of these writers write some personal examples which (supposedly) motivate all to achieve suc...

These are heydays of reality shows. Every channel worth its salt has come up with innovative (uff…sorry most are copied from West) formats. All compete to grab eyeballs & in the name of increasing TRPs most resort to ridiculous stuff. Lets see, why these have become so popular replacing the saas-bahu serials which were in vogue before. I see this as a satiation of common-man to become the centre of attraction. If idealism of saas-bahu type which was removed from reality appealed back then, now the “reality” of normal, ordinary people craving for popularity has become more appealing. So far, only few elite had access to adulation of masses. It is time for the commoner to occupy the centre-stage & enjoy the newfound celebrity status. Hence, this is infact democratization of popularity and masses are subtly made to believe their potential-popularity which forms the lure of these shows. However, I feel that this is not a step in right direction. A casual glance at the...

I fancy myself to have understood philosopher Frederich Nietzsche to some measure, yet when I just came across this quote it hit me like thunderbolt “Every profound thinker is more afraid of being understood than of being misunderstood. The latter may hurt his vanity, but the former his heart, his sympathy, which always says: "Alas, why do you want to have as hard a time as I did?” Nietzsche has this habit of using extremely complicated sentences which can be interpreted in multiple ways, all of which appear to be equally correct. However this sounded like a warning to me, that by the sheer virtue of being capable of understanding him, I was myself a recipient of his sympathy. Maybe he means that only a person who has personally undergone severe trials & tribulations could be intense enough to understand him. Whatever that means, I had always felt that I’m somehow distinctly different from others not as a superiority/inferiority complex but as a person who do...