Suresh Chandrasekaran's Blog, page 60

On Editing

(Khoty Mathur was saying that I ought to write a piece on editing to communicate how important it can be for an author - on the strength of my having 'edited' Sirens Spell Danger. Do not know how well this piece serves that purpose)



I have felt like saying, "That looks like no tree I have ever seen" when I looked on a painting. I have had the wisdom keep my mouth shut because I have realized

Bertrand Russell and idleness

Anyone who knows anything about me knows how averse I am to the very idea of working. Needless to say, a person like Bertrand Russell endears himself to me by saying, "I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has

Bertrand Russell and Happiness

Everyone knows the importance of happiness, and quests for it. Bertrand Russell, though, goes a step further. He says, "The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good." Considering the absolute importance of happiness, why then is it so difficult to achieve it?



One of the main problems

Bertrand Russell and Politics

"It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this", says Bertrand Russell and that is the basis on which small groups of people end up leading large populations on the path to disaster or mayhem. "Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so" is an apt explanation for how suicide bombers blow themselves and

Bertrand Russell and dogma

Of all the philosophers I have read, I love Bertrand Russell the most. Of course the first reason is his sense of humor. To give but one example, when nuns told him, "You forget the Almighty God" in reply to his question about why they bathed in bathrobes when there was no-one there to see them, he says, "They obviously think of God as an Omnipotent Peeping Tom, who can see through walls but is

Keynes - Interesting?

The idea of an economist being interesting - other than to other economists - must be fairly difficult to swallow. The common perception would be of a man, who feels bound to say "On the one hand...On the other hand.." making you feel rather grateful that he is not a Ravan endowed with twenty hands. John Maynard Keynes, though, was rather an exception to this rule. To cite but one instance,

The entertaining Einstein

I love Einstein. For a genius, he was a pretty down-to-earth chap. He endeared himself to me with his explanation of Relativity - "When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity." Not only was his explanation simple, it was very kind as well. After all, remembering that people like me exist, he could

Goldilocks and the three bears

There is a lot of fun in messing up with existing stories. To be sure, though, I am not too sure that I can do it here on my blog.



"Time to book a place in the cemetery and the old fool still plays around with fairy tales." I can almost hear you say that. So, what do you do when you have an urge that you cannot scratch? Find a place where you can.



Thankfully for me, my good friend 'The

Me? Lazy?

I am a much misunderstood man. Oh! I know! I know! Everyone is so busy running around to find someone to understand them that they cannot spare the time to understand me, but that still does not explain why they should misunderstand me instead of merely ignoring me. If they do have to waste time in misunderstanding me, why should they pick on what they call my laziness - merely because I do not

Positively Rich?

Clad in a colorful wrapper, that luscious bit of chewy bubblegum beckoned me with a siren call. Alas, it was not charm that would draw it to me but only filthy lucre - a princely sum of 25 paise, which I did not have. What it would be to be rich and be able to buy bubblegum whenever you felt like chewing on one?



That about summed up my idea of being rich while at school. To be able to