Finding Nemo

Mahabharata has many stories and many heroes. Some of the stories have been narrated to us from ages and are imbibed into our beliefs. However, there are a few stories that have lost the attention even though they have carried enormous amount of knowledge and meaning for all of us. One such story is of the greatest warrior Karna. Karna’s archery skills were as illustrious as his teacher Parashurama and other students of his teacher – Bhishma and Dronacharya. Having learnt the art of war from Parashurama himself, he was second to none. His skills were noted even by Bhishma and Sri Krishna. He was acknowledged as undefeatable and surpassed Arjuna on many counts except one – Sri Krishna’s closeness. Along with being a great warrior he was a great man of principles too. Devotion and principles were just as great assets to himself as his weapons. It was his devotion to his friendship that made him stand in the court of Hastinapur when Draupadi was disrobed. An act, that Karna regretted th...

I was listening to the radio this morning and was stuck with a nice quote – “I hate you since I do not know you.” Quite true, isn’t it? In the last few weeks, I read Rajiv Malhotra’s “Being Different” and listened to my all-time favorite Dr Devdutt Pattnaik. While their story telling is a little different, the central idea remains the same – “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” and the measure of ugliness or beautifulness actually represents the mental state of the observer not the subject itself. Love, Hope, Fear, Hate are all the different attributes of human emotions that come into play when different people come in contact. Different mixes of these emotions help one formulate their stand during the interaction. This is the same concept as commonly referred to as “Stereotyping” or “Forming Opinions”. The interesting point however is which emotion is stronger? Like it or not the first default reaction of a human towards anything is of Fear. The fear of the unknown ...

On the occassion of Mother's Day, I would like to share a few lines that I read long ago. These words are powerful and meaningful. so HANDLE WITH CARE माओं को  मखमल पे रखो  झूला दो  फूलों पे  वे हैं आज  मगर होंगी कल ना  सोचो तब  क्या क्या  खो जाएगा  जीवन से ? सोचो ना ! फिर सोचो 

Once Dronacharya sent Yudhisthira and Duryodhana to go in the city of Hastinapura and bring to him the most corrupt of all citizens. Yudhisthira returned empty handed, while Duryodhana returned with so many prisoners that it needed him almost an army to control. Dronacharya was the teacher of both the Pandavas and the Kauravas. He had a difficult job! He had two competing factions of students – Pandavas, who were trying to gain their excellence and kingdom that they lost upon the demise of Pandu; and Kauravas, who were hell bent on roving themselves worthy of the throne that their father Dhritrashtra sat upon since Pandu’s demise. Dronacharya’s task was to impart the education impartially and then choose the better successor for the throne of Hastinapur. So who should he choose – Yudhishthra, who found to corruptipn or Duryodhana, who basically ransacked the entire kingdom for the corrupt people? The question is much deeper than the visible statements. Yudhishthira fo...