Irony
Life is full of ironies. Charlie Chaplin would stumble and fall on screen and the audience would roar with laughter. He once entered a ‘Charlie Chaplin walk’ contest and came in 20th. Al Capone’s older brother was a federal prohibition agent. The tree that the Beatles planted in LA died from a beetles infestation. How […]
Eudaimonia
Eudaimonia is a greek word with a meaning which is so profound that Philosophers struggle to define it. Aristotle tried to describe it as the “highest good for human beings” and identified it with living well and faring well with being happy. Plato describes the word Eudaimonia to mean “The good composed of all goods; […]
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is probably the most common practice that the whole world seems to be indulging in. You check out Amazon and will be overwhelmed by the number of books which promise to take you on this journey. There are meditation apps with millions of users. Everyone who practices it, swears by it. Has this movement […]
Feather
It is the feathers that let the birds take flight and play in the sky. They seek food and water as they fly from place to place. The feathers provide the warmth in cold climes as the birds sing in abandon. The feathers make up the plumage that beckon their mates. The feathers embrace the […]
Keepsake
We go on a vacation and run from one landmark to another, so that we can pose for a photograph to preserve the memories forever. We share it on social media and get likes, which makes us feel good. Yikes! Is that what a vacation is all about? Last year, my wife and I were […]
Renaissance
Europe saw the renaissance, a transitional movement between the medieval and modern times from the 14th to the 17th century. This period saw vigorous artistic and intellectual activity. It was almost like a revival or rebirth of mankind and immense strides were made in all directions. It was my 56th birthday yesterday. My brother-in-law posed […]
Lacuna
I was reading a book last night. I finished the book but there were four more pages that were blank. I turned those pages but they were empty. I stared at the last bare page for a long time. It was uninhabited by words or meaning. The aimlessness of the page took me to the […]
Emollient
We can buy so many emollients which soothe the skin. The ingredients range from Glycerol, Hyaluronic acid to Coconut oil and Argan oil. They come in all sorts of packages and everyone has their own favorite emollient. The skin suffers if an emollient is not applied and can even crack. It is a multi-billion dollar […]
Vulnerability
You are unhappy, but you are expected to laugh. You are scared, but you are expected to not act scared. You are angry but supposed to act calm. There are aggressive, unreasonable people out there whose behavior is tolerated by the rest of us because we are expected to act reasonably. We have armor that […]
Languor
There was a time when I was enthused by Politics. I was naive enough to think that being involved in politics was a noble, selfless expression of love for the people and the society we live in and a chance to uplift us all. There is an indefinable languor that has consumed me in this […]