chaotic order

The Menacing “ME” – A short essay The need to constantly assert oneself in every situation is the heaviest burden that we carry around most of the time. It becomes almost unbearable. From the time we wake up, every act needs a persona to enact it - as a Son, A Father, A professional, a friend, a citizen; the list is endless. It is almost as if we are ashamed of ourselves being utterly naked, and the compulsive need to become socially acceptable has become almost a neurotic obsession.  No wonder, we keep often keep slipping into a somnambulistic state of depression and constantly attempting to pull ourselves up, by tugging at our shoes laces. It is a self-defeating act. No matter how hard we try and how competent we are in “acting up”, there are those deep evanescent moments in time, when the dress slips and we are forced to look at ourselves as we are.  To most of us, this can be an unnerving experience; because all that we have “stood” for, or tried so assiduously nurture and pre

Judicial Pardon - A perspective in the light of Sanjay dutt’s pending imprisonment I have been watching with avid interest the proceedings of the impending imprisonment of Sanjay Dutt, for his alleged involvement in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. While it is true, that Mr. Dutt is sentenced to five years minimum sentencing by the Supreme court, one needs to examine the nature of Jurisprudence and its role in regulating human behavior; as against, a mere factual interpretation and rendering of law . Whether pardon in this case should be granted or not, is something that I am not competent to assert, but as a student of History and the evolution of Human society, I do believe that no system of justice is static and inviolable. Laws are meant to evolve and adapt itself to changing times, and its principal task to keep the wheels of society well-oiled and moving within the embankments of civilized behavior. Laws are not meant only to punish, but also to reform, correct and integrate

The perils of democracy - The origins of Conflict in Srilanka - a perspective and a background “ What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?”     -- -Mahatma Gandhi   Any kind of civil war has its roots in the way communities have lived and worked together within a given geographical area, and is often the result of a long history of slow rot, discontent and dissent accumulating over a period of time.   The origins of the Sinhalese – Tamil conflict is interesting principally in this context because for centuries, both these communities have lived, worked, produced great works of art and literature, shared common religious dogmas and myths; despite having the same ethnic differences, that are being bandied about so much over the last three decades. So my question is: what has changed in this century that resulted in this brutal civil

Chinua Achebe - The true Voice of Africa - A humble tribute to this extraordinary author; and an understanding of the times he epitomized and immortalized in his works . I have been reading Chinua Achebe’s works over the last two months and it is with great sadness that I noted that this vibrant old man of eighty two years is no more. I am not sure how many of us even noticed the mention of his death in the media. Or even if we had, how many of us understood that in his passing away, we have a lost a voice that has helped in bringing our attention to the plight and devastation of Africa caused by Colonialism. I have written this tribute to a writer whose work reminds us that literature is always born out of a deep sense of passion and connect with the world and its surroundings, should always be as a conduit for the flow of life, with all its joys and calamities…….. Great Works of Literary fiction are often born out of the crucible of   a society that is in the process of ch

An essay on divisive Faith -   A Background for the layman The virulent hatred that splits the Islamic community into Shia’s and Sunni’s is something that questions that edifice of Institutionalized religions. I have been doing some reading and research into the origins and structure of mass belief’s and faith; and I was taken aback to find that the fault line that exists between the two major sects of Islam ,is so completely based upon choices that have nothing to do with Islam or its fundamental tenets. The entire course of Islamic history would have been different if Prophet Mohammed had had a Male child. Despite the fact that the he married ten times during his lifetime, not one of his myriad wives could give him a male progeny. His first wife, Khadija, gave birth to two sons in quick succession, only to lose them in their infancy. It was almost as life had destined that Mohammed (the quintessential Arab) would not have a son to carry his spiritual destiny forward, and r

I have always wondered why religion has been so divisive and self defeating in its purpose. Is it because we have hypnotized ourselves into believing in a divinity that really does not exist, or is it possible, that religion essentially is so private, yet so universal, that it cannot be institutionalized ? . I am more inclined to believe in the latter. Every spiritual journey begins as a cataclysmic movement in the psyche of an individual, that bursts through the ramparts of thought encrusted cerebrum; and then by strange vicissitudes of propaganda and belief become the lingua franca of a community : codified and framed. What then essentially is a metamorphoses of awareness called "enlightenment", becomes in society, a peripheral cosmetic makeover clothed in the garb of ethics , customs and morals, that reeks of artificiality and staticity. The point is : What is true and real for a Jesus, a Mohammad, a Adi Sankara , a Buddha or a you and me can never be communicated , no

The experience of "Who we are" - A few thoughts One of the things that has always fascinated me over the years is this habitual and compulsive need of Man to confirm to patterns of thinking that we have acquired over a period time -  either through the rigor of chronological education, or from acquired social indoctrination : resulting in a tacit conspiracy ( a mighty taboo) to ignore who, or what,we really are. Though every once in a while, we tend to question the Universe and Man's place in it, the mysterious center of experience which we call "I myself", the problems of life and love, pain and death, and the whole question of whether existence has any meaning in any sense of the word : - we are immediately pulled back into the humdrum of  daily mechanical life, and those brief moments of clarity fade away without any great impact on us. Sometimes however, a personal catastrophe; or a near brush with death, can jolt us to a newer dimension of life. The en