Suresh Chandrasekaran's Blog, page 6

Oratorial abilities?

This human interest in speechifying has always mystified me. The one thing that puts me readily to sleep is to have someone climb up on a stage and start off with, 'Ladies and Gentlemen...' OR 'Respected/Honorable so-and-so...' or some such variant that indicates that he is teeing off to unleash a flood of words on you. And yet, there are oodles of consultants and clubs and whatnot that have made

The great and the not so great

I do not remember ever wanting to be great, really. From what I have seen, being great has always been an invitation for people to pull you down. The moment someone calls you great, a million people whip out their microscopes to find out every single flaw that they possibly can find in order to denigrate you. But then even those million guys apparently WANT to be great and try to pull you down

A time to decide

Management is full of jargon that peps up knowledge that seems to be commonly known through the ages. There are times that this reductionist view of management education seems to me to be a vilification of a degree which has endowed people with enormous earning power. At other times, though, it seems to be absolutely true. (Which, I suppose, IS necessary for ANY criticism - that small kernel of

Better than an ascetic?

You generally expect an ascetic to be placed above everyone else whenever a philosopher does the rankings. The idea, perhaps, finds widespread acceptance as well because you see the poor chap doing without so much in life that you feel that it is only right that he gets something out of it. Such, generally, has been the way ascetics have been ranked in most cases.Tiru, though, seems to swim

True duty?

This duty thing is very vexing. I mean, if there is any saying that is much over-used (AND most popular) from the Bhagavad Gita it is...YES! THAT is it! 'Karmanye vadhikaraste ma phaleshu kadachana.' OR, in English, 'Do your duty, look not to the fruits thereof' or some such. See, it is not enough that this duty thing involves DOING, instead of lolling around, but you are also supposed not to

The sure path to Heaven?

This thing about a Heaven after death is, I suppose, something that people may have their doubts about. I mean, yeah, it's nice to believe that there IS a Heaven where all is bliss and that you could earn a place there by what you do down here. But...you see, the issue IS about what you have to do down here. Like not being greedy, not lusting yada yada. It's almost like you got to live a Hell on

Win by patience?

I wish that someone would pick a quality that I possess and tout it as the true path to success. Why should it not only be a character attribute that I do not possess but also be one that is the exact opposite of the way I am? ALWAYS? I mean, really, if there was someone assembling humans up there, there should be some quality checks to reject faulty pieces, no?Now this patience thing. I mean,

Helped by god?

It is a nice sentiment to be told that when 'you want something, the entire Universe conspires in helping you achieve it.' Though, yes, it is a bit concerning to see that it will only be 'helping' you. I mean, it is not like you can just want something and roll over to the other side and continue sleeping with the expectation that you'll have what you want when you wake up. If you will only be '

Respectable poverty?

There are those times when you feel that the past was a different universe compared to the present. I mean, we all prate (I suppose this is one of those 'Look, there goes Suresh making us run to a dictionary' words. OR, in short, Tharoorism) of unchanging values in a changing world and all that but really? Let us see how many people you can find who will consider ANY type of poverty 'respectable'

Self Control

One of the things that most philosophers go gaga about is this weird beast called self-control. AND the way they go on and on about this would make you feel that you have been given a self ONLY in order for it to be controlled.Possibly true that. I mean, unless there is a huge design flaw (which is also likely), this thing of making all delicious things unhealthy and all healthy things yucky IS,