Essays

When I was in Class XII, we had a temporary science teacher. His name was Mr. Ramesh. He taught us for a couple of months before he obtained a place in the University to pursue higher studies. We found out that he was leaving us just one day before the day he was supposed to leave. He did not tell us. Another teacher did. As we liked Mr. Ramesh very much. we got together and planned a farewell party for him. The girls agreed to make some titbits and the boys agreed to prepare the drinks. It was to be a small party as we did not had enough time to plan a bigger one. The next day, we sat through two study periods in the morning before Mr. Ramesh entered the class for our science lesson. We had our food and drinks discreetly covered at one corner of the more...

We all dream. In fact, we all enjoy dreaming, whether it be day-dreaming or dreaming at night- But the pleasures of building castles in the air are untold and Infinite. Many a times a few people sit and casually discuss about the current political and socio-economic situation and give their own solutions about the problems facing the country. I often wonder what kind of a country do we dream of all of us being inhabitants or citizens of our country naturally dream of what kind of a country we desire. We even dream of building the kind of country we want India is a large country with an amazing wealth of diversity. With the onset of the new millennium, historians, sociologists and other experts predict that only three Asian countries seem to be the ones who can or have the potential of taking Asia to great heights i.e., India, China more...

I dislike getting up early in the morning to go to school. It is not that I dislike school. I dislike having to drag myself out of bed when it is still dark outside and when my eyes refuse to open, especially after having only a few hours sleep because of watching television tilt late the previous night. If only school would start a bit late, then everything will be fine. Then I would not have to get up so early, I would not have to wait for my turn to use the bathroom and best of all, I would not have to Jerk myself up from my warm comfortable bed.  However, the moment I hit the crisp morning air on my way to school, my whole outlook changes. Ah, the cool air is invigorating. Life is wonderful. School is wonderful with all my friends and surroundings.   It is always more...

Unity in diversity has become a catch phrase for civilized people who celebrate differences and want to end civil disruption, communal violence, religious conflicts and international tensions. The principle of unity in diversity has its origins in the concept of inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference. Although the Vedas enjoin; everything is non- different from the God who is the Supreme Soul, this creates logical enigmas. For instance, if everything is one, why do not I eat my kith and kin? Further, how can Brahman be complete since it also presupposes negation of everything material? The idea of simultaneous oneness and difference may pose problems for rationalists, but it is easily resolved when one accepts an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent god. In other words, essential truth contain paradoxes, and we cannot know everything by reason and deduction. For instance, our body functions as a holistic unit, but we constantly make distinctions more...

A community ought to have spirituality as its 1 innermost soul. Many a times one is left guessing as to why religions cause fights? As we all know that religion can never cause any fight because it is intended to purify our consciousness. Religion means sacrifice and control and is a way of life. Quarrels, on the other hand, are the result of expensive indulgence in material benefits and polluting consciousness. In fact, fights start because of communalism, and sadly we blame them on religion. The community which does not teach its followers to adopt spirituality and practise self-awareness can never help them to be successful in life. The escalation of unethical values today is due to a disintegrated personality, which in turn is an outcome of communalism. Communities, these days, blindly pursue rituals. Unfortunately, communities merely stress on the performance of rituals while ethical and human value are totally more...

Perpetual flow of people from villages to cities creates many socio-economic problems. The density of population of cities rises and civic amenities fall short of needs. Law and order situation deteriorates. Prices of essential commodities rise. Housing situation become acute and rents soar. New entrants start living on pavements and thatched huts. That way slum come up, at times, adjacent to or right in the middle of posh colonies. Migrations of the poor to cities create slums. Cultivable land in villages is limited. And it is not enough to support the landless labourers in the village. Instead of starving in villages, they along with their women folk move on to cities in search of employment. While men work as unskilled works, their women get work in households. Work found, they build jhuggies that later become a cluster of huts. Landless labourers are also attracted to cities as these have many more...

We live in an age where long-haired smiley sorts run crash courses to turn living into an art form and "laughter clubs" thrive because of the lack of anything funny to really laugh about, or laugh at ourselves. So there is nothing at all awry about a nationalized bank's recent directive which tells its employees to smile at work. But can an artificial smile do the job? Air hostesses are also asked to wear a smile all the while. While this may sound dangerously similar to Nazi Germany's "strength through joy" campaign—or for that matter, the management etiquette of a particular Indian airline-cum-television company—bank employees, notorious for their castor oil-faced dealings with customers, could do with a conscious effort to genuinely smile. A smile on the face gets a response. The other person warms up too. The miner-dwarves in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves seemed a happy more...

Recently, I visited a museum in the company of friends. It is housed in a tall impressive stone building surrounded by beautiful lawns along a tree-lined road. There are life-size statues of Lord Buddha near the gate. We entered. The entry is free. The museum presented a variety of scenes and sights. It is divided into different sections on different floors. In one there are masterpieces of art and craft. In another there are paintings, sculptures, and numerous specimens of pottery and emboiding. In the third we saw earthenware, vessels tools and toys of prehistoric period. Most of them were from Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro sites. In another section there is an art gallery containing beautiful pictures and portraits, depicting scenes of Mughal life. In the next section, we were surprised to see the ornaments worn by the women during different periods of ancient Indian history, coins of various dynasties and more...

The lot of the Indian farmer is hard indeed. He has to toil in his fields the whole day, and yet he is able to manage only the bare necessities of life. He lives a life of poverty, by and large in unhygienic surroundings. The house he lives in is a hut or a house with a thatched roof—which may leak in the rainy season. The village may be without a drain—water stands still and there may be mosquitoes. There may or may not be water and electricity. The members of his family and cattle live under the same roof. Usually, the living standard is low. The day of the farmer, unlike city-dwellers, begins with the crowing of the cock. The first thing he does is to feed his cattle, to milch his cows and buffaloes and take a glass of tea which his wife prepares for him over firewood. more...

Perhaps no other feature in the human body plays as important a social role as hair. Long regarded as the highlight of a woman's beauty, many references are made in ancient literature to the long flowing tresses of a beautiful maiden. In Indian thought, the mustache too has played a critical role in defining the virility of a male. With such a social outlook on hair, it is but natural that the barber plays an important role in the social systems of the people. In early ties, villages were small and barbers who visited houses regularly to cut hair or shave soon become a privy to the family situation and secrets. The barber, being a regular visitor watched children grow and blossom into youth. As a natural response he began to match-make. The importance given to a barber is perhaps a response to his old role in fixing weddings. In more...