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Showing posts from March, 2007

Ākāśāt Patitaṃ: Many Forms, One Reality

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Adi Shankara: The image that's stayed with me forever Sanskrit and shlokas have always fascinated me. The sheer vastness of Sanskrit literature is humbling. There are enough verses, texts, commentaries and traditions to occupy many lifetimes, and still leave one feeling that one has barely scratched the surface. But I didn't think much about any of this when I was growing up. I would recite shlokas in the morning and evening without fail. They were simply part of life. The words were there, the rituals were there, the temples were there—but much of it happened in the background. I was busy with academics. There was no time for Sanskrit or Vedanta. At least, that is what I used to tell myself. Of course, time was never really the problem. I could spend five days watching a Test match from morning to evening and somehow consider that perfectly legitimate use of my time! The truth was simpler: Sanskrit and Vedanta had not yet become priorities. Gr...

Bye Bye India!

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Right now, the most common topic of discussion for an average Indian would be the performance of the Indian cricket team at the Carribean world cup. An endless list of adjectives will easily ooze out on the slightest provocation. A country of close to a billion cannot find the right combination of eleven to succeed in the most passionate sport in the country. Truly disgusting! Where are we getting it wrong? Is the selection committee not able to find the right eleven to represent the country? We do not care about how we fare in the other sports, but when it comes to cricket, the common man is ready with his views. India has been knocked out of the first round, thanks to the ignonimy of losing to the minnows of world cricket Bangladesh, and to Sri Lanka, who have improved leaps and bounds in the last few years. The lack of pride was so evident in the way the Indians played on the field. There was no sense of passion or commitment to enforce their way to winning positions. One felt that ...

Emotion(less)!

Last week, we had a discussion about the different facets of emotion in human beings. The movie field is a fascinating field just because it is such an important source of entertainment for the common man. Of course, it has its share of controversies and other big issues, but over a period of time, it has emerged as an important industry in terms of revenue. Movie business is really big money. Getting back on track about emotions and movies, where is the relation? We have our special actors and actresses who gladden our hearts during those two hours, and we are taken to an ethereal world, where imagination takes over everything in an atmosphere filled with pure gloss. This is when we felt how difficult it is for newcomers to cope up with this profession. Any actor has to display various emotions in those two hours, which actually would have taken months of filming involving different artists, and at the end of the day, he has to come out unscathed from the reel life experience. That is...