Inner Metamorphosis

"Virtuous motives, trammelled by inertia and timidity are no match for armed and resolute wickedness."- Winston Churchill. Among the reports that are even critical of Manmohan Singh, there is always a mention of his personal integrity and honesty. The picture presented is that of an honest man thrown into an impossibly corrupted environment. Let me present the following scenarios… #1 :A bank is being looted by some robbers. The security person is fully equipped with a gun and has the potential to avert the situation. But far from attempting to avert it, he looks the other way when the robbery takes place. Did he personally indulge in robbing? No. Is the person of good character otherwise? Possibly, yes. But would you call him a person of integrity? I doubt. #2: You ask help from two of your friends. One person openly states his inability to help and moves out. The other person talks politely and lets you feel important while promising help. You take certai...

Indian market is yet to fully appreciate web marketing – one would gather this going by the static nature of most websites. My focus in this piece would be to understand how websites and online efforts can pay off handsomely with little investment. Introduction The costs involved in out-of-home marketing in India is quite staggering – enough to keep any budding company at bay. While this could be the right medium for large businesses, it simply doesn’t work out for small and medium enterprises. Most of these are startups that operate on a niche business or are able to achieve economies of scale due to certain market situations. They benefit usually by exploiting the gap which is left open by large enterprises. Their continuation then depends on how long they are able to maintain the profitability that ensures their survival without scaring or luring larger enterprises. Thus, the customers pertaining to such businesses are a smaller segment that lay scattered acros...

The recent news on hearing of Maria Susairaj and parallel announcement of Director Ramgopal Verma that he’s coming up with a movie titled “Not a love story” based on this incident is good news for RGV fans like me. In crux, Maria, a kannada actress along with her fiancé Emile Jerome (a former navy officer) is accused of murdering TV executive Neeraj Grover in a flat, made love in the very flat after the murder, chopped off body of Grover in parts and disposed it to a nearby jungle and finally burnt them. RGV tweets “My interest in a film inspired frm susairaj case is to understand hw 2 seemingly ordinary everyday ppl can commit sch a hair rising crime”. Indeed, something that the world in general and India in particular must be ready to very interested to know. Crime is not new to the annals of human history. History is replete with instances of brutal violence and cruelty. And for those of us who would live to believe that we are moving away from quiescent past to cha...

[ A fictional account of thoughts of a person who rose from humble origins to become Prime Minister of India, a person second perhaps only to Nehru in political astuteness and vision. "The Insider" -- a semi-autobiographical account of PV Narasimha Rao ends at the point where he, an outsider in reality, finally becomes the insider..Just thought of typing some thoughts with lots of idealism ingrained in the character which many may refute. Its a work of fiction nonetheless and my way of paying tribute to the great leader] Destiny is often met in the very path we take to avoid it. And fate intervenes precisely when you’ve finally figured out what you want to do for the rest of life. Not that it was new to me. My journey – from humble origins from a Princely State in pre-independent India to a close ally of the supreme head of Independent India – had prepared me to face the vicissitudes of life. A journey involving tenacious opposition to every step I t...

[Random thoughts on what I feel must be guideposts for writers (mainly bloggers) who write on social broad ranged topics usually excluding personal lives unless it adds to the narrative. Its pathetically long, but I needed the space to elaborate.] “A writer is an engineer of soul” – Joseph Stalin No good style or bad – it’s my style There are many guide styles available throughout the web which emphasize on a particular style of writing. Among the ones are Chetan Bhagat/ Thomas Friedman kinds who over-simplify and have a curious use of metaphors. On the other side of spectrum are writers who write as though they would like the readers to break their heads to understand them and take creative pride in the fact that few usually do that. Either way, to each his own! But what I would like to say is that while one must always be open to improvise his writing, one never needs to copy others blatantly. Obviously each writer has their own role model and is creatively inspired by a...

We live in an age of analysis! In an age where we are choked with news but starved of history! Where people know more & more regarding the less & less, thereby lacking a perspective which integrates wholly all these experience into a coherent belief system! Of such a busy lifestyle arise loneliness, emptiness and purposelessness. Information that never translates into knowledge! Knowledge that can help us run machines, but fails to quench our thirst of understanding ourselves better. Intelligence that assists us in manipulating others but fails to guide us to a better living! Science helps us understand nature in retail but when is totally clueless on understanding it in wholesale. While a scientist can explain why a certain phenomenon occurs, without coordinating it to our experiences we would not find it useful in our daily life. Such isolated bits and pieces of information leads to more confusion than understanding. Indeed, so much is the sheer emptiness th...

It may appear almost inexplicable to many people with scientific bent of mind that religion with all its absurdities; incredibilities survives even in this age of analysis. How did it withstand the steady and determined onslaught of rationalism and reason? Religion is the last thing that intellect begins to understand. To understand this we must also seek assistance from history. The period - The Age of Reason (18th century) when religion was receding from the political domain to a mere moral domain. When Bible became just another piece of literature, miracles ignored, faith dethorned by intelligence and the concept of genesis laughable. The philosophers of the age, chief among whom were Francis Bacon, Pascal, Galileo, Descartes, Leibniz, Locke, Voltaire and many others elevated reason to be superior to than faith and were against the Church's blinding influence which inhibited men from better mode of living. The Church whose functioning was above all, was put ...