chaotic order

The best way to study something is to look at its extreme manifestations, isolating it from what is considered normal flow and then subjecting it to intense scrutiny. All sciences, in a way, develop in this manner. Experiments are conducted in well defined boundaries or frames of reference, and results derived are generalized to suit hypotheses and propositions. And nothing bends itself to this kind of study more than that of human behavior and nature of the mind. Almost our entire knowledge and experience in Psychology and psychiatry are derived from human beings who have displayed extremities of behavior. Almost everything that sciences have known about Human mind comes from observing compulsive abnormalities than normal ones. The writings of Freud, Jung, Adler - fathers of this kind of study- abound in case studies of individuals who came to them with distinctively extreme behavior. It may be sexual, neurotic, schizophrenic, stress or all the rest of it. It based on such individua

The 1960's - Vidal-Buckley debates, a sign of times to come (To all my readers : This is a long essay, and I primarily meant to write it for my own understanding and use. It took about two hours to write this piece, and when I finished, I felt there may be few readers who would be interested in what I have to say. Hence the posting. The Vidal-Buckley debate is now captured in a wonderful documentary titled "Best of enemies", which incidentally is available on Netflix. For those us, who have time, interest and desire, it is definitely worth a watch. America doesn't produce people like Vidal or Buckley anymore. They were quintessential Americans: Free, opinionated, liberal and deeply wanted an America free of dogmatic encrustations. With Presidential elections round the corner, the Vidal-Buckley debates still resonates with intellectual vigor and enthusiasm for a better future, which sadly seem missing or lacking in what we see today) Charles Dickens begins his ep

The Devil's advocate As long as there is need for an Omnipotent Human God, there has to be his antithesis - the need for a Devil. This is not merely a logical or epistemological necessity but a commonsense proposition as well. However, this has been a long standing problem with Monotheistic religions. In all three of them: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, The devil figures as symbol of “evil”, a representation of all that is malevolent and pernicious in Human life, responsible for acts that entices Man to stray from his path, motivating perpetual strife, violence and restlessness; creating discontent, encouraging avarice, promoting vanity and sexual depravity - in all, he is the sole reason why Man still remains in his fallen state keeping this struggle of-“God overcoming the Devil”- fantasy alive and vibrant. Fortunately for polytheistic religions, they never got themselves into this tight knot. Their world view not only allowed for multiple Gods and demons, but their origins

Playboy - a possible resurrection In early nineties, a friend of mine from high school days visited me at Chennai. He was in the US for higher studies, and was travelling to India on a short break. Apart from a brand new Panasonic Walkman, he also happened to bring along with him a few old copies of Playboy, hidden deep under layers of clothing in his suitcase, covered in brown paper (making it look almost like a packet of hardcore narcotics).He was very proud that he had made it passed Customs in both countries. We waited for everyone to go to bed before his slipped the packet into my hands. Guilt ridden, in mellowed lighting, cuddled on the floor, I opened that packet with trepidation and trembling hands. The excitement in my eyes, I am sure, would have been palpable for anyone to see. Holding the famed Playboy in my hands was almost a dream come true. At near about twenty years of age; testosterone rapidly coursing through one’s veins, this magazine represented the consummation

The mismeasuring of Man – Thoughts on NY Prison team’s great run in debating. By this time, it is common news that one of the finest debating teams in this country (Harvard Univ) lost to a bunch of inmates from the New York correctional facility, on a topic that is not merely controversial in present circumstances, but highly relevant and topical as well. Do we continue providing free education to illegal immigrants to the detriment of quality in public schools? The team from NY East side prison, students of highly esteemed Bard University, who have been running this Prison initiative for several years now with great success, argued in the affirmative. A position they were hardly be expected to take; but they did, and defended it with brilliant arguments presented with aplomb and conviction. This team is not a rookie any more. They have been tearing down opponents in last two years, notably their stunning defeat of teams from West point and University of Vernon in quick succession

Iris Murdoch - an enigma, brilliant writer and existential thinker. There are few authors in the twentieth century who could write with the precision of a Trollope, intensity of Dostoevsky, flair and peerless prose of Dickens, eye for detail as Proust, philosophic temper of a Camus and with an authoritative feminine voice of Austen - as Dame Jean Iris Murdoch (1919-1999), the grand lady of Literary fiction. She along with Virginia Woolf and Margaret Atwood have remained on the top of my list of great female writers. I have read and reread all their books many times over; and like scripture, each time I read they bring forth a fresh interpretation, a delectable new angle to writing and a deep ever renewing undercurrent of social, moral and individual issues that any story about human predicament and its paradoxes should sustain and project. This essay and review is about the Iris Murdoch and her extraordinary literary and personal life. Iris, an Irish by birth, grew up during a ti

Musings on a Saturday morning: Many months ago I read an essay, a pretty lengthy one at that, which described rather emotionally the last day of ten different individuals before 9/11. How they got up in the morning, carried their daily chores, whom they spoke to and in some cases what they spoke about, the reminiscences of friends, relatives and family members who were perhaps the last ones they interacted with - so on and so forth. The tenor of that article, it seemed to me was to find some kind of meaning or premonition or cause during that penultimate day that could justify their brutal and calamitous death that followed. While it was a very well written piece of essay, but as I was reading it, I remember being stuck by a sudden strange uneasiness over the thought process behind it. It stuck me with full force that the author was attempting to rationalize and find some meaning or cause that could possibly explain what happened on 9/11. It is always a mystery to me that the Human