Suresh Chandrasekaran's Blog, page 4

Need to spend

There are times when a philosopher can surprise you by the very fact that he makes sense to you readily. I mean, you tend to think of philosophers as chaps whose advice takes a couple of interpreters to understand; not commonsense that readily penetrates your brain. (AND, yes, as readily departs the brain too, going by how uncommon 'commonsense' is in the daily actions of the 'common man'!) Yet,

Know the unstable

I have always wondered about poetry. I mean, when your English teacher tells you what the poet meant in his poetry, will the poet recognise his own thought process? Or does he, like the rest of us, wonder at the various ways in which your communication can be misunderstood by the listener? Does he, wonderstruck, rejoice in all that wisdom that he has, without knowing, put into his poetry? In

Foundations of success

You tend to find that philosophers talk of things that seem too airy-fairy. I mean, like, here we are trying to make a living on earth, trying to get your family and friends to not scoff at you and...well, you know, ordinary mundane things like that. AND you go to a philosopher for advice and he ends up scoffing at what you want and preaches to you about what you SHOULD want. But, then, there ARE

Renounce to get?

There are these times when philosophers seem to take an almost sadistic pleasure in saying oxymoronic things. Not moronic things which merely do not make sense but oxymoronic things which ask you to see sense in self-contradictory statements. You know, things like 'organised chaos' which allow them to give you superior smiles when you screw up your face in puzzlement as you try to figure out how

Envy and Progress

There are things that philosophers will never agree on with their arguments splitting hairs that you cannot even see. Largely, though, these things are issues that the mango person hardly ever bothers his head about. You know, like whether plants have a soul or whether there is  multiverse and things like that. Comes to the things that we guys are interested in, they seem to show a

Loveless Virtue?

It is not at all easy to be virtuous. Especially if you want to please all these various philosophers. Your case would be much like the father, son and donkey. If the father rides the donkey, people would scoff at him for letting the young chap suffer the walking; if the son rides the donkey, others would deride the son for not respecting the age of the father; if both ride the donkey, up will

Parental duty?

Some advice can get dated. As in, what was wisdom at some point in history may sound like rank folly at others. It is tough, however, to  write finis to the advice because...well, because, things CAN make a comeback. To be sure, bell-bottoms in trousers have never made a comeback...and a good thing too...but you never know. What will be the fate of THIS piece of advice by Tiru remains to be

Barren Land?

There is this tendency among philosophers to assume that the very land that you were born in reacts to what you do with your life. About how it rejoices in your fame and feels humiliated when you fail. Whether it is metaphorical or whether they really think that this is how your land/country is affected by you...Tiru is no exception to this rule. Here he goesVasaiyilaa vanpayan kundrum isaiyilaa

Good judgment

The toughest call for a leader is judging people. If you do not want to die of stress, you need to know who to give a job to AND not worry yourself into an early grave about whether it will be messed up after you hand over the responsibility. You cannot do it all yourself either; not unless your leadership role is merely honorary. To trust people's sense of responsibility, to trust people's

Companion effects

It is not like you believe - that your beliefs are all your own. I mean, like, who really has the time to learn everything about everything. So, most of what you think you know are things that you have picked up from what those about you state that they know. AND...well, it is not as though THEY have the time to learn everything about everything. And so...Tiru has this to say about