Inner Metamorphosis

There are times when I read an interesting perspective, only to discover that I, too, had been tantalizingly close in my unpublished draft (there are many). Why didn’t I publish them then? Whatever little I had written was written overcoming time-scarcity, laziness, lethargy and sense of futility in one magical moment when ego momentarily triumphed humility.  What else explains a writer’s foolish endeavor to add more to the tomes of printed material accumulated since writing was invented! There were times when I had voluntarily silenced myself to escape the scathing disapproval I had come to expect from others.  When I later chanced upon a work that reinforced what I had always felt (but didn’t articulate), I couldn’t help feeling stupid to have not pursued that line of thought to the end. During one of my maths class back in school, I effortlessly waded through the complexities of the problem only to reach a dead-end and gave it up thinking I got it wrong somewhere....

A culture that deifies nation as Mother Goddess If one were to follow news of Sabarimala and Shani Shingnapur, he might be forgiven for presuming that Hinduism alone needs to be singled out for apparent misogynistic traditions while other religions have long transformed into egalitarian societies.  Here, we will take up the common charges levelled against Hinduism and scrutinize them. The greatest pitfall of Indian feminism is that most of their rallying points are Western imports lazily adapted to Indian scenario without sufficient homework. Let us begin with the most common feminist harping point - that men are afraid of women’s sexual agency and hence curtail it through patriarchal discipline - in Indian context. Behold the pancha-kanyas, whom ladies are urged to invoke at dawn: Ahalya Draupadi Kunti Tara Mandodari tatha Panchakanya smaranityam mahapataka nashaka (Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara and Mandodari: constantly remembering these virgins...

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you .” – Maya Angelou. In the age of social-media fueled narcissistic fetishism, the very suggestion of writing about one’s problems invariably invites scorn if not disinterest. However, research indicates that there’s more to this than meets the eye. The Grieving Angel The crucial role of writing in helping alleviate trauma wasn’t so apparent to me until I read “ Eaten by the Japanese ” (review here ; briefly a story about a British Indian soldier captured by Japanese as PoW during World War II). Richard Crasta’s essay makes a very insightful observation about his father’s book which, according to him, was probably an effort to “ exorcize his ghosts by consigning them to paper ” (what a vibrant phrase!). Likewise, the after-taste of Richard Crasta’s “ The Killing of an Author ” (review here ; the story of the struggle of an uncompromising, independent writer) lingered in my mind long after I had finished...

Meeting friends after long is always a pleasure, but this time it left me with mixed emotions. A realization dawned – somewhere down the line I missed the bus. Even with the rose-tinted glasses I occasionally sport, the chances of revival appear bleak. 20s is when possibility overshadows actuality; 30s signals the end of this honeymoon (or delusion?). It’s common for many in their 20s to think that they can successfully pursue many streams of work simultaneously. But this is fool’s errand. To attain even a decent depth in any discipline demands large amounts of time and dedication. For every turn we take in the road of life, the opportunity to traverse several other roads is precluded forever. To take up the path we desire, we must renounce several others permanently. The hardest part of this learning process is that life seldom affords man an unlimited choice. The endeavor to taste food in all the leading restaurants of your city can be realized effortlessly, but many li...

To sum up the story so far: Rohan Murthy, son of ‘Infosys’ Narayan Murthy, spearheading Murty Classical Library, an initiative to translate 500 volumes of traditional Indian literature into English, has refused to consider removal of Sheldon Pollock as the mentor and chief editor of the project. Rohan Murthy with Sheldon Pollock "It is quite rich to sit in the peanut gallery, pass comments and throw empty shells at those who are actually rolling their sleeves up and working on the ground," said Rohan of those 132 academicians and intellectuals petitioning them to reconsider their decision.  Many Hindus do not grasp the enormity of what’s at stake here and join the chorus to brand any indigenous attempt to question West’s stranglehold on Hindu academics as Hindu chauvinism (or is it Hindu nationalism of late?). Intellectual Colonialism One of Rajiv Malhotra ’s important points again comes to fore: other religions are “defined” by their practition...

Author Stephen King, the master of the macabre, to demonstrate his ease with variety wrote “ Different Seasons ” – a collection of four novellas, probably in an effort to avoid being pigeonholed into his forte of horror genre.  Yet, when a young film-director Frank Darabont approached him for rights to adapt one of its novellas “ Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption ” into a movie, he didn’t think much of it. The rest, as they say, is history; with some alterations the movie “ The   Shawshank Redemption ” turned out to be the best-ranked movies in IMDb, surpassing even the cult-film “ The Godfather ”. Plot A banker Andy Dufresne is sentenced to life at Shawshank State prison for murder of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence. At prison, he befriends Ellis Boyd “Red”, the prison entrepreneur, and turns out to be the most unconventional prisoner. Meanwhile, the ruthless prison warden is eager to exploit Andy’s financial skills for his selfish e...

The idea that government must be involved in family planning presupposes the inherent utility in having lesser population, which would presumptively put our resources to lesser strain. It is argued that since our resources are limited, the people would receive a better share of them, if lesser number were to compete for them.  Family planning has no cultural ethos in India as newly wedded couples are typically blessed to have as many children as possible by elders. Somehow, modern thinking (western to be accurate) has led us to this ‘realisation’ that more means trouble. This informs our basic understanding of the concept of family planning and remains so entrenched and few if ever have tried to question it. The utopian scenario that family planning aims for is a working couple with abundant resources having to spend them all on their one child as against a relatively poorer family struggling to meet ends with many children. This contrast in prospects bet...