Random Musings

Taking a clue from advanced Math, to make life simpler, let's define "M" as all those mutants with the following distinguishing trait:  an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party (source: Meaning of "maverick" from Merriam Websters)   So what's new you would say? After all human history has witnessed many such individuals. Napoleon, M.K.Gandhi, Adolf Hitler, M.L.King, Nelson Mandela - to name a few. A few of these mutants have always been around in this world. But 2016 has seen the rise of two powerful M  who threaten to shape our world in unimaginable ways. And yes no prizes for guessing the two in question - Trump and Modi. Now before your attention starts waning and you think...so what's new...these two are famed  M, hang on.....this blog is not about them. Rather it is about YOU dear reader. What rubbish you might say?? Hold on....yes it is about you and me, the average joes.  For this is my thesis - the rise of two...

The Polestar Note: This is the first chapter of a novel I am trying to write. It is a work of fiction and imagination . It is not meant to be scientific or accurate. While it may draw from my own life, it is not autobiographical! Chapter 1::A new beginning Jan 5 th , 2030. Mumbai, India. The city of Mumbai looked like a bright shining constellation as Jai looked out from the windows of his plane. His plane journey from Philadelphia had taken him more than 8 hours and after a hard-day’s work, Jai was looking forward to crash in his bed in his sea-facing apartment in Worli. Feeling thirsty, he muttered, “water” to his personal digital assistant and immediately a bottle of water sprung out from the refrigerator beneath his couch. As he reflected back on his day, he noted with satisfaction that he had finally managed to close out the last leg of the project he was engaged in with an Australian firm. The Aussies were always tough to negotiate with. But after multiple video-ch...

India. What does this word mean to you? In these times of social media, it is increasingly becoming clear that the circumstances we are passing through as a nation, are bringing out different versions of this out into the open. As an Indian who grew up in the 80s, my first impression of India was that of an old glorious civilization that had post centuries of foreign rule become poor and decadent. First it was the Muslims who invaded India and then it was the British. And while the British were truly oppressive and never integrated with India (unlike some of the Muslim rulers), finally they left and the modern Indian state came into existence.  This state though was nowhere close to the ancient splendor of "Bharat". It was inefficient, poor and grossly unjust and unfair. And under the great concepts of "unity in diversity" et.al. lay an ugly underbelly - the horrors of partition and a wide Hindu - Muslim divide. This divide erupted from time to time in riots i...

Bullies! They are everywhere. And come in all sizes, color, shapes and gender. Sometimes they take the form of a parent, a teacher, a boss or co-worker, a relative (mother-in-laws seem to top the list here) a friend or most tragically - even a spouse or a lover.  While every bully is unique and has his/her own reason for being a bully, one thing is clear - they cause tremendous heart-ache and stress. And based on how you are as an individual, dealing with these bullies might be easy to stressful to outright damaging for you.  I, as a kid was fairly gentle and usually happy minding my own business. However it soon became pretty apparent to me that whether at home or school, there would be people who would want me to do things the way THEY wanted them to be. And sometimes it was baffling because the people bullying me would be people very near and dear to me.  As I grew older and developed my own personality, the bullies still remained a grey area. I could never reall...

For some time now, I have been thinking of sharing some of the insights I have gained through 16 years of my spiritual seeking with a wider audience in a manner which might be easy to relate to.  There are many giants who walked on this earth before us and about whom there is a large enough literature to be able to learn about them. These are those I would refer to as "Masters" in this series. And the biggest of them in my mind, the man who lived a huge, titanic life was Gautam Buddha (as we call him in India or Shakyamuni Buddha as he is referred to in historical accounts). One of his teachings which I find the most enlightening is the concept of "dependent origination" . Wikipedia defines it as: Pratītyasamutpāda  ( Sanskrit :  प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद ), commonly translated as  dependent origination  or  dependent arising , states that all  dharmas  ("things") arise in dependence upon other  dharmas : "if this exists, that ...

Are Hindus violent people?  As someone who grew up in India in the 80s and 90s, this question seems so laughable. For most of us used to be frustrated and angry with the average "docile" Hindu.  Are there any facts to support this belief? Ok, depending on how credible you find Wikipedia, here goes: "Historical records of religious violence are extensive for medieval India, in the form of corpus written by numerous Muslim historians.  Will Durant  states that Hindus were historically persecuted during  Islamic  rule of the  Indian subcontinent . [19]  The total number of deaths of this period, are usually attributed to the figure by Prof.  K.S. Lal , who estimated that between the years 1000 AD and 1500 AD the population of Hindus decreased by 80 million. [20] [21] [22] Religious violence in medieval India began in centuries before the start of Delhi Sultanate, with the raids by Turko-Mongol, Persian and Afghan armies....

Lately there have been a number of debates about why if Germany can be a Christian state, India cannot be a Hindu state. Such conversations have especially become more relevant ever since BJP - the so called "Hindu Nationalist Party" - came to power with a stunning majority last year. Recent events like the unpardonable killing of a Muslim in the state of UP by a mob of Hindus suspecting that he had killed a cow calf has added to the confusion and division I am seeing especially in the educated upper middle class of India. And the basic ideologies that are clashing are very simple. Supporters of Hindutva believe that it is high time to liberate India from the clutches of the pseudo-secularists (i.e. Congress) while many educated Indians believe in the concept of 'Hindu-Muslim-Sikh-Issai - hum sab hain bhai bhai' (i.e. the brother-hood of all religions).  And this debate is played across news channels, news papers and social media every day! While I myself have ...