Archive for 2008
Shabhari’s Point of View
Published in Corporate Dossier, Economic Times on 2 May 2008 as 'Work it Out' In the forest, Ram met an old lady called Shabari who invited him to a meal in her house and offered him her meager fare: berries she had collected in the forest. Lakshman who followed his brother was horrified to see [...]
The point of it all
Published in Corporate Dossier, Economic Times, 18 April 2008 The Olympic motto ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius,’ is Latin for ‘Swifter, Higher, Stronger’. The roots of this ideal of continuous relentless improvement lies in the ancient Greek world, where the Olympic Games were a sacred ritual. Through participation, and especially through winning, the athlete reached the ‘zone’ [...]
Maui
Published in First City, New Delhi, April 2008 The people of the Polynesian islands believe that once the sky-father Rangi and the earth-mother Papa were locked so tightly in loving embrace that the children they produced were smothered between them. So the children decided to separate the parents – the trees pushed the sky-father up [...]
Hi, I’m Ram
Published in Deccan Herald, Bangalore, 20 April 2008 What is the purpose of life? What happens after death? Ask these questions to a young person and he is as clueless as an old person. When it comes to such profound questions the youth today are no different from their ancestors. Yes, they have cell phones, [...]
Everybody loves Hanuman
Hanuman, the servant-hero of the Ramayana
Descent Of Inanna
Published in First City, New Delhi, March 2008 Five thousand years ago, the kingdoms of Sumeria and Akkad flourished in the land once called Mesopotamia, the land between the two rivers, and now called Iraq. Inanna was the Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare. The Akkadians called her Ishtar. According to one story, [...]
Galloping to Heaven
Published in First City, New Delhi, Feb 2008 Muhammad was a simple trader who hailed from the city of Mecca in Arabia in the 7th century AD. He was renowned for his honesty, fairness and piety. When he was around forty, his life changed completely. During one of his many retreats to desert caves, where [...]
The Silent One
Originally published in Corporate Dossier, Economic Times, 28 March 2008 Jain mythology refers to Shalakapurushas or worthy beings who regularly appear on earth to inspire and direct man to live a noble and fruitful life. There are 3 types of Shalakapurushas. The first type is the Vasudeva – a warrior who, advised by a wiser [...]
Waiting to Exile
First Published in Corporate Dossier, Economic Times, March 21, 2008 In the Ramayan, Ram is asked to string a bow – a feat that will win him the hand of Sita in marriage. Ram, however, bends the bow with such force that it breaks. Since no one until then had even been able to pick [...]
Talking Matters
Corporate Dossier, Economic Times, 25 Feb 2008 It is said that when Vyas narrated the epic Mahabharata, the elephant-headed Ganesha served as his scribe and using his tusk as his pen wrote the epic on palm leave manuscripts. But who read this book? Mahabharata typically comes to us, not in the form of a book, [...]
The laws of the jungle
Corporate Dossier, Economic Times, 18 Feb 2008 One day, states the Bhagavat Puran, the earth-goddess took the form of a cow and went to Vishnu with tears in her eyes complaining how the kings of the earth were exploiting her. Her udders were sore, squeezed by human greed. Vishnu promised to set things right and so [...]
The Pregnant King
My only fiction…that has become a best seller over time…spreading virally without publicity…restored my faith in India’s youth with the kind of responses I got
Total Confucion
Corporate Dossier, Economic Times, 8 Feb 2008 All cultural behavior is rooted in the subjective truth that the culture subscribes to. For example, the infamous Indian headshake has its roots in Indian philosophy where truth is contextual: depending on the situation, the answer to a given question can be either ‘yes’ nor ‘no’. Likewise, the Chinese [...]
What an Idea! Sirji
Part of this article was published in Consumer Edge, Times of India, 2 Feb 2008 Usually advertising tends to steer clear from controversial social realities like caste and religion. So it is refreshing to see an television ad that addresses it head-on: the now famous ‘What an idea, Sirji!’ ad of Idea cellular. It draws [...]
Many Avatars
Corporate Dossier, Economic Times, 25 Jan 2008 Vishnu is amongst the most popular manifestations of God in the Hindu pantheon. But curiously, there are very few Vishnu temples across India, the most popular, where he holds his four symbols, the conch-shell, the lotus, the mace and the disc, is that of Tirupati Balaji in Andhra [...]