On Social Constraints and the Great Longing: An Essay on the Human Condition

by Avijit Pathak

Universities divide, separate and fragment. Life, however, incorporates everything poetry and politics, religiosity and economics, reason and intuition. Here is a book that is in tune with the flow of life not the way universities construct discrete departments and branches of knowledge. It moves with sociology, political philosophy, literature and spirituality and undertakes a journey that takes you beyond the narrow boundaries of an academic discipline. Neither fatalistic pessimism, nor shallow optimism, instead, it whispers into the ears of the reader - Understand the reality of constraints, yet, dare to celebrate your eternal longing. No matter whether you are a Gandhian or a Marxist, an Ambedkarite or a fan of Tagore, a young student or an old professor - you cant afford to miss the book -its argumentation, its intuitive flash, its refreshingly different mode of communicating the tales of life.

140 pages, Hardcover

Published March 1, 2014

Reviews

[Mohit Dhanjani · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful essay by Prof. Pathak.

This essay merges all the sociology and philosophy (without the academic jargon) in one smooth narrative which ultimately will encourage you to reflect upon or apply it in your life.

The essay goes deeper though. It tries to push you to contemplate on spiritual aspects of life that you might reject easily because they seem to not make sense.