THE INDIAN COMMENTATOR

A woman named Veronika decides to end her life. She carries out her decision. Veronika didn’t die. Her life changes forever. Paulo Coelho’s inspiration has provided the world several mind-opening and uniquely appealing books, like The Alchemist and The Fifth Mountain . [I only included the names of two that touched my life; there are many more that readers like me might have felt close to their heart]. Someone saved Veronika and took her to a psychiatric institution named Villete. At the institution, Veronika realizes the difference between madness and normality. In Villete, many men and women get treatment for their psychological problems. The institution itself stands as a sign of the unquestionable status of normality. Normal is acceptable. Any aberration from normality is pitted against the harsh criteria of judgment that pronounces people mad. Image Courtesy: Google Mari, an inmate realizes at the end that “life inside is exactly the same as life outside.” Ano...

Note: If your mental capacity is underdeveloped for intellectual activity, this article may seem a bit long-winded. Thanks for stopping by anyway. Observing is good. It’s not necessary to say that one is observing or that one has been benefited from observation. Simply observe your world within and without. You will take away bountiful treasures. A book, recently, caught my eye. It was titled How To Think Like Albert Einstein . It is apparently, a highly controversial topic to imitate a genius, of whatever area of expertise one might be. Nevertheless, it was a book on success and was very strategic in its presentation. It may not be an exaggeration that if a reader stumbles upon the book he or she is tend to take it word for word as the true essence of the great Albert Einstein. However, arguments exist that reject such an overwhelming influence. Imitation may hinder an individual's progress to evolve into a being of higher consciousness, because in imitating a...

Who is Ram? The young prince who ruled Ayodhya and conquered Lanka? The warrior who defeated Raavan, the ruler of Lanka and saved his wife from danger? The legend of Rama is as old as the Indian civilization itself. Evidences are scarce to prove the earthly existence of this legendary king. However, the Hindus believe that Ram is one of the avatars of Lord Vishnu, the Hindu god of sustenance. Some scholars believe that Ram was a historical figure and not just a mythological character. Ram also appears as the label figure on some of the right wing political parties. His fame and influence is present still, even in the modern Indian society. A temple dedicated for Lord Ram in Ayodhya is a constantly burning issue in the Indian political scene. In one of my previous bog posts, I reviewed a book on Ram, also known as Rama, an additional vowel sound, courtesy of the Sanskrit word that is his name. Ramayana: The Game Of Life - Book 2 (Shattered Dreams) was written by Shubha V...

Harper Lee. Image Courtesy: Biography.com In 1960, a thirty-four year old woman got a chance to publish her second novel. She was still in very much good relationship with her hope to be a published author. Oh yes, she had another volume, her first work, sitting in a closet in her house. Someone had suggested her after reading that first piece of her creative journey that she must pen down another story, perhaps she should even trace the back-story of the original that she had just submitted. Harper Lee, the young woman in her early thirties, decided should certainly take a chance with her creative powers. She did. She wrote a new book with the same characters in her first book, with just one crucial difference. In this book, she told the story of her protagonist when she was a young girl of twelve. The novel was To Kill a Mockingbird. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, just a year after the first edition published.        Image Courtesy: Google Anoth...

In 1997, a Taliban commander by the name Abdul Wahed proclaimed that the enormous Buddha statues of Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan would be demolished. This was even before he could call his mission of entering the valley a reality. However, the terrorist organization finally enacted their ominous promise. In 2001, dynamites and anti-aircraft missiles fired their might towards the silent statues, the witnesses of many centuries of human activity and culture, and demolished them. Today, after fourteen years, even this act of extreme intolerance has become history. It seems very much politically correct to call it a history, right? Fourteen years later, the free world has something to ponder over about those acts that I just addressed extreme intolerance. Were those acts of demolition actually the results of intolerance? Back in 2001, the Taliban leader, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar released his edict against all un-Islamic idols and imag...