Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
New avatar for old crusades
For the Muslim world secularism, rationality, liberalism and democracy are just new avatars of their old Christian foes…
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Articles
The Intoxicated Elephant
Mada, very specifically, referred to the dark fluid that oozes out of the temple of a male elephant in mushth. This fluid came to embody the spirit of extreme intoxication seen in musht elephants who are highly aggressive and unstoppable…
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Articles
What’s your Sanskaar?
Sanskaar refers to upbringing in India. It is the Key Performance Indicator of parenting to most Indians. It is an indicator of family values. It shows how civilized and cultured we are…
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Articles
Ramayana when it Rains
In Kerala, the traditional month of Karkidakam that falls in July-August is associated with heavy rains. It used to once be a time of scarcity, wetness and disease. There was no work in the fields and staying at home doing nothing meant boredom and quarrels for no reason. To cope with this, people began reading…
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Karta versus Yajaman
The two words are often used interchangeably but they mean very different things. They represent two levels of leadership…
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Articles
Differential Values
Everyone assumes they have values. Problem is that their values are different from other people’s values…
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Articles
Customer is not the Only God
The attribution of ‘devata-hood’ to every thing and everyone was an attempt to draw attention to the uniqueness of all things. Nothing was without value…
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Articles
Meaning of Bhagavan
The word bhagavan is traced to the word bhaga, which means share. Bhaga also means womb, or material delight, or even fate…
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Articles
Dark Clouds Looming
The darkness was associated with the forest and fairness with the rain, darkness with wilderness and fairness with civilization. One was not better than the other. Both were needed for the circle of life…
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Articles
Elusive Ownership
When something belongs to me, I have the freedom to order it around. I also want to protect and nourish it…
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Articles
The Meaninglessness of Rituals
Rituals have no intrinsic meaning. But that does not mean they are not valuable…
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Articles
Whose Mission is it Anyway?
Every corporation is encouraged to have a mission statement. It is the common goal we are told that everyone has to align to…
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Articles
The Architecture of Fear
A knowledge of fear is critical in management if one accepts that humans are animals with imagination, who cannot be domesticated using reason…
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Articles
Masculine and Feminine Leaders
The male brain and the female brain are really not structurally different but one is drenched in testosterone and the other is drenched in oestrogen and so there are bound to be differences in how men and women react to crises. Upbringing and education contributes to differences…
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Articles
A Job for Disabled Gods
Why do we reject people with disabilities? Why do we want to isolate them? Why do we not want them to be seen in our midst?…
