It's a funny thing about punishing crime and/or mistakes. Invariably, the one on the receiving end of the crime wants revenge. (AND if anyone is mealymouthed enough to say 'Oooh! THAT's bad. You ought not to seek revenge' it normally is someone who has not been a victim of a crime OR a victim of THAT crime) What of mistakes, then? Well, if you have had to suffer consequences arising out of that ..read more

When it comes to destiny, people have all sorts of beliefs. Some believe that there is no such thing and everything that comes to you comes because of your own efforts. Others believe that you get only what you are destined to get and, thus, there is no point in your exerting yourself. Most of us, though, tend to shelve our belief in destiny for the once-in-a-lifetime type of things - a great ..read more

It is funny how money always insinuates itself into any facet of life. Think of it as sordid, think of it as a useful tool, think of it as the holy grail of life...it doesn't matter. No matter what you think of it, no matter how you decide to lead your life, you will find yourself running into the need of dealing with money...or, perhaps, the absence of it.So, when Tiru talks of leadership (yeah ..read more

Whatever it is that you want out of life, the philosophers will tie it right back to your character. Irritating though it is to discover that they have no convenient instruction manual that helps you achieve success, say, in six easy steps, it is difficult to fault them for it. I mean, even if you DID have those six easy steps to success, it IS your character that will help you DO what is needed ..read more

The problem with all advisers is that they very seldom tell me what I want to hear. Why is it that, whenever it comes to the sort of person I want to be in Society, it always gets bundled in with the qualities that I do not possess? And, what is more, these advisers very seldom offer me work-arounds. All that they can say is 'Tch, Tch! If you do not have them, why do you even dream of succeeding ..read more

One sort of assumes that philosophers tend to be down on the wealthy. You know 'Easier for the camel to go through the eye of the needle than for the wealthy to enter Heaven' and all that. It is, therefore, surprising that ANY philosopher can be in favor of wealth, more especially from India where anything to do with the world at large is supposed to be considered illusory. (AND, yes, I have ..read more

This thing about timing is something every philosopher goes gaga about. Call it timing, call it luck, it seems all the same. The guy who loses out calls it bad luck that his timing was off. (You know, the product was ahead of its time and all that.) The guy who wind lauds his own ability to time his actions. Luck? There's no such thing like luck in the lexicon of he who succeeds! Even Billy the ..read more

You know, it's a rather tempting thing for people to think that a leader is someone who can do no wrong. Leaders, too, would love to consider someone - a friend, a follower or a trusted adviser - who can be trusted to always be right in what they say. It is such a stress to always to assessing issues, weighing one person's opinion versus another's and so on. Much easier to be able to vest the ..read more

It's a rather archaic thing to be speaking of listening these days, I know. I mean, we are all engaged in shouting as loud as we can, expecting to go viral, that we hardly have time to listen to anyone. I mean, it's hard enough to hear yourself think above the din of your own shouting so where's the scope to listen to anyone else? So, yes, this is one of those pieces where we can all go, "So ..read more

Life is a strange thing. I mean, in one sense, if you are not dead, then you are living. But a philosopher would make the distinction between your merely existing and truly living. In a sense, they have a point. If you merely satisfy the biological definition of life but make no more impact on the world than a stone or any such object; if your contribution to the rest of the world is based on ..read more