On Reduction

Historian and columnist Ramchandra Guha did an hour-long talk on how nationalism is a nineteenth-century European phenomenon, and how Indian nationalism was founded on the exact opposite principles.

Religion and Science

In my last post about being God-fearing, I referred to a branch thought. That was about the conflict between religion and science. There are many who believe that religion and science are interconnected, and that they’re both trying to say the same thing, but in different tongues. One day, I sat down to think, how far is it true?

God-fearing and God-loving

In my English class in high school, my teacher, while teaching us a lesson—a story by our beloved R.K. Narayan—talked about the qualities that our society considered good. One of those qualities that he mentioned was fear of God. As in, ‘A God-fearing man’.

I’ve been a non-religious person at least over the last decade of my life. I go to temples and churches and all; I don’t have a problem with God. I simply don’t believe in the popular interpretation of God. And I most certainly have no fear of Him (or Her). And my grandmother thinks that makes me bad. Well, Grandma, I disagree.

On being a man in a patriarchal world

I recently read a news report on how the fans of one of South India’s leading actors stooped down and trolled the editor-in-chief of a very popular news outlet in South India, who made a remark on the actor. Tonight, I read an article by Sowmya Rajendran, about what a woman goes through in our society, since the time she hits puberty.

Chaos within fort walls

Upraised guards.
Unsheathed swords.
Upright batons.
Unconquerable corps.

Yet, there’s terror; chaos.
Yet, everything is an attack surface, everyone is an attacker.
Yet, somehow, everyone is a victim.
Yet, everyone cries.

Cries.
Cries for peace.
Cries for quiet.
Cries for order.

Cries.
Cries from everywhere.
Cries and chaos, and,
Cries are all that’s there.

Nudging Towards Mass Dissatisfaction

Journalists, they say, have a very important role to play in a democracy. The press is the fourth pillar of democracy (the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary being the other three). In a way, it is also the journalists that keep crime in check. It is them who ensure corporations don’t become too greedy—greedy enough to step on the shoes of the masses. It is them who ensure that the politicians do their job. It is them who ensure the citizens live a good life. At least that’s what all this is supposed to be.

Keep the change

Every Facebook frequenter (at least in India) comes across this post every now and then, which bashes our government for being hostile to the farmers. It goes something like this:

At the vegetable market in the morning:

‘How much is that cabbage?’
‘Twenty rupees a kilo.’
‘That’s too expensive; how about I give you fifteen?’

What ticks storytellers

Just like I’ve mentioned in my upcoming book, the time we became a storyteller was probably when we narrated something that happened to us, to our mother. The moment we became fiction storytellers was when we lied for the first time in our lives. So, basically, we’re all storytellers.

Being a writer is something very closely related to storytelling. Except that story-telling is about speech and hearing, whereas writing uses a whole different kind of input—visual. When you want to tap into that part of the recipient’s brain, you use a different technique. Some of us also would like visual feedback for what we write.

The Real Sufferers

After a disturbing number of incidents of vehicles set ablaze and tourists beaten up, one really wonders how we call ourselves a civilised society. As one of my friends rightly mentioned, ‘No wonder the British were able to “Divide and Rule” us! #Cauvery’ The sad part about it is, we are so short-sighted that we just do things because we feel like, whether or not it is going to have an effect on anything.

On vegetarianism

This is the edited post. Upon retrospect (and after a few cold stares), I felt that the original post may have come across as too strong, seeming a bit too aggressive, bordering on angry. That was not the purpose of the post. Passion, perhaps, has its side-effects, but anger is never the way to get across a point.