Suresh Chandrasekaran's Blog, page 7

The greatest joy

The one thing people think they are sure about is regarding what makes them happy. Philosophers, though, seem to be of the opinion that they are wrong about that. I mean, there is even that proverb saying something on the lines of 'When the gods are angry with you, they grant you whatever you desire' or some such. Which goes to show that those gods certainly think that the easiest way to heap

True delights?

The problem with 'True' as an adjective or adverb is that the moment you see it you know that someone is going to rain on your parade. I mean, here you are relaxing with your single malt (OR beer or tequila or whatever, just so I don't get into an idiotic argument about the relative merits of various liquors...OR about the virtues of being teetotal) and your music of choice, murmuring to yourself

Incomparable Fame

There is this thing about fame. Everyone wants it but even the famous know not if it is lasting. Especially true these days when a viral video or message can yield fame that lasts only as long as it is not displaced by the next one. Ephemeral is a word that would be in over-use these days, when it comes to fame of this sort, if only people believed that words more than two syllables long really

Virtue sans compassion?

There is a reason why philosophers are discarded in favor of meme-creators. More so in these days, really. I mean, it is a digital age and we prefer to have a 'Push this button, this happens' sort of solution. And philosophers...well, philosophers are the original wafflers who will tell you to acquire a bunch of character attributes without even indicating where on Amazon or Flipkart you can

Raining Help?

There is this peculiarity about yesteryear philosophers that runs totally counter to modern culture. Whatever they suggest seems to be an indictment of current practices so much so that you could almost accuse them of being trolls. Except that it is tough to categorize them as such without also explaining how they could have had the prescience to KNOW modern practices.Tiru, all said and done, IS

Troll Strength

There is a quote that I vaguely remember from the mists of my past. 'Never argue with fools; they drag you down to their level and beat you by experience." After all they have spent all their lives at their level whereas you are a total amateur there. (It is quite a different affair that ANYONE who has fought an inconclusive or losing argument tends to feel that HE has been dragged 'down'!)Tiru

Vile pride

Philosophers somehow tend to be down on pride. They seldom count it a virtue and tend to look down on pride as an undesirable characteristic. Ordinary chappies like you and me find it difficult to see how one cannot be proud of one's own achievements, say, or some such. It does not help that, mostly, people seem to think that there is no difference between pride and arrogance. You can keep

Penance?

There is a lot of problem translating some words from Indian languages to English. More often than not, it is because the word encapsulates a nuanced meaning for which there is no direct equivalent word and, thus, you need a phrase to get across the meaning. (AND before you start the war of which language is superior, I hasten to add that such an issue can arise the other way round as well.) I

The right experts?

The funny thing about advice is that you really respect only that advice which vibes with what you yourself want to do especially when the results of following the advice are either long term or indeterminate. You know, like you have the choice of becoming either an engineer or a doctor...choosing one negates the possibility of the other and you can never be certain that choosing the other would

Charity

Charity, for most of us, begins AND ends at home. Which is a pity, really, because the world is increasingly becoming a place where wealth concentrates and disparity widens between the haves and the have-nots. Wealth redistribution by diktat generally tends to have more negative consequences than positive - after all, if I cannot hold on to my wealth for myself and my progeny, I might as well not