‘Your eyes show the strength of your soul.’ – The Alchemist It’s hard to take sides on lines that are pregnant with such profundity. Should you be a spiritualist, you think you know exactly what these words mean. Should you be an intellectual, regardless of your religious/spiritual leanings, you know there is some sense to it all, even if not quite apparent. Should you be a rationalist of the die-hard kind, you would still find it hard to deny such a thing outright: Adjust your vision, Read More »

The political drama following the presentation of the Railways Budget by Dr Dinesh Trivedi was nothing short of bizarre – I was looking forward to some show of gumption by the political leaders who stood by him. The Railway Budget was progressive, and promising, the proof being that the Railway Unions have threatened to oppose any rollbacks by the government. Coming on the heels of a sensible though sensational budget, the Union Budget shattered all hopes of a display of similar courage by – Read More »

I can feel it. I am sure so do you. From one Indian to another, there’s something in the air, if we can only name it. It’s an old feeling of imminent change, with a rather musty ring to it but now, it’s nothing if not palpable. I can’t help being buoyed by more than 50 per cent polling in assembly elections that Uttar Pradesh is a witness to. The current flavor is political, and it can’t be ignored. Any politician worth his mettle should not find it hard to read into a sudden, certain Read More »

Isn’t the world a mesh of relationships? Relationships with people, those with our possessions, time and space, are what defines our identity here. But hardly any of us get by without feeling the need to scratch the surface in a quest to find and understand what this world really means to us. Ultimately, this bears out to understanding the relationship with our own self. This quest thrusts forward in times of struggle, bubbles under in times of quiet reflection, and is a very important part of Read More »

Hinduism, on its own, has no origin but has unfolded and developed through stages and is based largely on the Vedic scriptures. To reiterate, the Vedas, which are the primary scriptures this ‘-ism’ is based on, derive from the Sanskrit root ‘Vid’ meaning knowledge. There are four Vedas: Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sam Veda and Atharva veda. Simply put, these books of knowledge later inspired many commentaries and analyses, all of which may be found in various combinations in the Upanishads, ve Read More »