11 Jan, 2008, 0548 hrs IST,TNN When a family business breaks down, one is reminded of an old Indian tradition: never read the Mahabharata inside the house, always the Ramayan. For the Mahabharata is the tale of a household divided while the latter is the story of a household united. The Ramayan speaks of three [...]
18 Jan, 2008, 0608 hrs IST Two childhood friends, one the son of a warrior, the other the son of a priest, promised to share all they possessed even in adulthood. Fortune, however, favoured only the warrior’s son. In desperation , with hesitation, the priest’s son, reduced to abject poverty, decided to approach his rich [...]
First City, Delhi, Mythos, September 2007 July this year saw the thirteenth day of the month falling on a Friday. Deemed unlucky, people avoided all kinds of purchase and transactions on this day. Friday the 13 is considered so unlucky that there is even a word ‘Paraskevidekatriaphobia’ to describe fear of Friday 13. It has [...]
First City, New Delhi, Mythos, Nov 2007 Just after midnight on August 31, 1997, in Paris, a car carrying Diana, Princess of Wales, went out of control in a Paris tunnel and crashed. She died in a hospital soonafter. The world reacted. In his emotionally charged eulogy, Diana’s brother, the 9th Earl Spencer referred to [...]
21 Dec, 2007, 0444 hrs IST,TNN Most people in the corporate world have been educated in the modern scientific education system. They have gone through school where they learnt language, mathematics, science , history and geography. Then they went through college specialising either in science or arts or commerce . And yet, despite a relatively [...]
First City, Mythos, October 2007 As one reads the Upanishads, ancient Hindu scriptures dated to 500 BC, one realizes they are constantly referring to two truths: a truth which changes and a truth which does not change. The existence of the one points to the existence of the other. In change we seek permanence. In [...]
7 Dec, 2007, 0408 hrs IST,TNN Marriage is the most important rite of passage in a family, second only to the funerary rituals because it brings with it the hope of children, the next generation, of continuity and renewal. Organisations are no different from families – people are constantly leaving – either at the end [...]
First City, Mythos, Jan 2008 Nobody knew of Beowolf until Hollywood turned his tale into a film. Composed previous to the Norman invasion of England around the fifth century, the tale comes from lands now known as Denmark and Sweden, once the land of the dreaded and barbaric Vikings. The story begins in the grand [...]