Wu Wei — The act of non-doing — Lao Tzu was once sharing his insights on elevating one’s energies. As the discussion reached the crescendo, Lao fell asleep. He started snorting in front of his disciples and a sizeable gathering that included royalty. The talk ended abruptly. He would often build up the suspense — as if he…

We all have stories, the art is to find the expression — I had had a good linguistic sense since my early childhood. During graduate studies, I was preparing for management entrance. In one of the group discussion mock sessions, I carefully constructed my two-sentence argument in English and silently practised it ad infinitum. I turned a deaf ear to the animated…

Death is the only ending we know — J.k is the only true iconoclast I know of. He was discovered at the age of 10 by the Theosophical Society on the banks of the Adyar river in Madras. He was protected and groomed to become “the world teacher”. In 1929 he disbanded the Order of the Star, an…

Success In Online Writing Follows A ‘Level Two’ Chaotic System — My father used to chide me for my poor vocabulary. I never believed that I can ever have a good command of English language. I had been a topper in Hindi, my native language, but English always had me on the fence. I managed to scrape through. I always had…

The halo around “duty” is a misleading pointer — There is a sacred thread around “duty” — a soldier in the line of duty saves many lives; a dutiful teacher builds the nation’s future; a dutiful employee serves to create something valuable for the corporation. The saga of a dutiful parent She’s my classmate, and her brother was my playmate. Their father was a friend…

And it is working — I saw the latest book, “MODI@20: Dreams Meet Delivery”, in the chamber of a very senior bank leader. He hasn’t read the book but kept it for visitors to notice and acknowledge his pro-government outlook. This needless obsequity on the part of a public sector bank employee piqued my curiosity…

The good and the evil are super subjective matters — A bishop and a sinner from the same town reached the gates of hell together. The thief had expected to end up in hell, but he was overawed by seeing the reverent bishop there. He asked the gatekeeper to check again; “there must be an error of commission,” he added…

We are travelling down a rabbit hole — The defamation trial’s live telecast created a viewership record. People spend 84 million hours peeking into the lives of two extraneous human beings. If you add up the time that is spent discussing it, you can’t help but wonder about the secret desires buried in the deep recesses of our…

The onus of change is upon us — The first miracle Jesus performed was to turn water into wine at the wedding at Cana. The Gospel of John attributes this as the first demonstration by Jesus of his divinity. As unscientific as it is, Christian theologians have justified it as God’s work, hence no reasoning is needed. The…