by Ashok Saraf, Tapasya Kollimarla, Keshav Vaze, Jayram Daya, Naresh Jotwani
Distress can be of different kinds. It may arise due to material needs not being fulfilled, or from situations beyond one’s control, such as acts of nature. Distress may be due to a man-made situation, like a conflict or an accident. Or it may arise from emotional stress, such as fear of failure, loss of a near one, illness, heart-break or a negative emotion.
Continue reading Help someone in distress … But HOW?by Jayram Daya, R. Srinivasan and Naresh Jotwani
Several centuries after the decline of the Romans, the major European naval powers had laid the groundwork for a culture of colonization and exploitation. By that time, the Anglo-Saxons had established themselves in England. Their belief in ‘God, Gold, and Glory’ spurred British colonization in the New World, altering history forever. The other European naval powers who likewise set out to colonize and exploit were Spain, Portugal, France and the Dutch.
Continue reading WEST OR EAST?by Jayram Daya, R. Srinivasan and Naresh Jotwani
The choice of where one would live, work and settle down is never a simple or an easy one. Many people spend their entire lives in their hometown, never having to make that choice. Many others have that decision forced upon them by economic or other compulsions.
Nevertheless, the factors that might typically affect such a choice can be explored in an objective manner. At least that is what we have attempted here!
Continue reading Village, Small Town or City?by Jayram Daya, R. Srinivasan and Naresh Jotwani
In a few previous posts, we have discussed harmony of mind, body and spirit (here), harmony with nature (here) and — somewhat indirectly — harmony in a society (here). On the last point, harmony in a society, clearly the legal system also plays a big role. The ideal, of course, would be that the legal system adds to societal harmony. But can this ideal ever be attained, given human nature and the working of a modern society?
The legal system is a practical, administrative necessity in a modern society. Without a proper legal system, a modern economy cannot function. Harmony figures nowhere in the stated goals of an economist or a business titan; and only a very simple-minded person would assert that the legal system adds to societal harmony.
Thus we have a seemingly unavoidable tradeoff here between two goals — economic performance and societal harmony — both of which are desirable for a society. Three views are presented here to get you thinking!
by Jayram Daya, R. Srinivasan and Naresh Jotwani
Cooperation and competition both play a role in our collective life — sometimes more of this, sometimes more of that. However, a self-styled ‘capitalist’ sees red at the mere mention of cooperation, whereas a self-styled ‘communist’ argues for forcefully imposing cooperation on the whole society.
Suppose we put all such western ideologies to one side and ask: What does our lived, empirical reality say?
Continue reading COOPERATION, COMPETITION – OR BOTH?by Naresh Jotwani
We often hear the phrase survival of the fittest, when it is used with reference to evolving natural eco-systems. However, for two reasons, this usage can mislead. One reason is that survival may be wrongly taken to mean the survival of an individual, whereas its correct meaning is the survival of a species. The second reason is that the central, crucial criterion of fitness is left unspecified in that phrase.
Continue reading NATURE DEMANDS HARMONYby Jayram Daya, Guest author
Preface: Here our good friend Jayram Daya shares with us the story of a deeply personal journey of recovering his health. On this journey, he discovered the huge importance of attaining full harmony of mind, body and spirit. Further along the same journey, he discovered the unity of all existence.
It is truly a remarkable story! Pain is turned to gain!
Continue reading HARMONY OF MIND, BODY, SPIRITLast week a discussion took place within our WhatsApp group on the subject of wellbeing, quite broadly defined. Members shared their views, based on their own knowledge and experience. Overall, the members’ views, when arranged together, took the form of a panel discussion. Needless to say, in a discussion among friends, nobody had a personal axe to grind. Views were shared in the hope that a thoughtful reader may find something useful in them.
It is in that spirit that are we presenting the views here.
Continue reading WELLNESS, PREVENTION OR CURE?by Naresh Jotwani
A recent post on this blog, Time as a Resource, showed that time is a crucial resource in business management. Like any other valuable resource, time must be utilized in an optimal manner. As a short and sweet summary of that post, we repeat here the line from Peter Drucker with which that post started:
Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.
However, as we shall now show, there is much, much more to time than what we encounter in our busy worldly lives. When we logically explore various aspects of the lived human experience of time, we are led to conclusions which have a huge impact on the values by which we order and live our lives.
Continue reading RIGHT ON TIMEToday we present contributions from three of our members, Suman Rao, R. Srinivasan and Naresh Jotwani. The common aim of these pieces is to bring out the fascinating relationship between the truths we seek within, and the lives we live in the world outside. We believe that sincere, first person accounts of good friends are at least as valuable as scriptures.
Continue reading MEMBER STORIES
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