Thinking Pvt Ltd.

I am sometimes shocked ( and almost always very disturbed)  by the completely bigoted views expressed by some fellow Indian friends. How can education not teach us to open ourselves and become more tolerant. Why is the human brain unable to question seemingly the most illogical of things ? I think its well known that good intentions of educational systems can be easily subverted by teachings/workings of the social system. However what seems to strike me even harder is the ability of an otherwise rational brain to unquestioningly stick to the extreme,bigoted viewpoint in the face of a highly rational and practical argument. Does this mean that these people have limited mental faculties and they can be only rational upto a certain point and not beyond that ? It scares me to think of approaching such a cliff.

Change in Men

"Men do not change, they unmask themselves,"
- Anonymous swiss writer.

Maybe this is an extreme simplification but some changes do look like unmasking. Also the context in which I read this is when someone is talking about knowing more (bad things) about a friend (Dick Cheney in this case) of his.

Well put

Kuj Seher de loke zalim san
Kuj mainon jeen da shauk vi si

Nadeem Aslam in "Maps for Lost Lovers"

Swaminathan Aiyar

I didnt know this fact about Anklesaria being his wife's maiden name .... I think it is amusing. I was a regular reader of his ToI column in India. Also the fact that he is Mani Shankar Aiyar's brother.

http://www.swaminomics.org/

Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar is a noted Indian economist and journalist. An alumnus of The Doon School and St Stephen's College, he is currently consulting editor of The Economic Times, India's leading financial daily that is part of Bennett, Coleman & Co, the same company that owns The Times Of India. Swaminathan Aiyar also writes a popular column titled, "Swaminomics" in the Times of India where he discusses economic issues pertaining to India and the world. Mr Aiyar is also a consultant with the World Bank and has published several papers with Bank officials. He was also, for many years, the India correspondent of The Economist.

Anklesaria is Mr Aiyar's second wife's maiden name and he claims to have taken on this name to exhibit some sort of equality where men will take on their wives names if wives take on their husbands. His wife, Shahnaz, is a Parsi.

Mr Aiyar hails from Tamil Nadu and is a Brahmin Iyer. However he is an Atheist by faith. Mr Aiyar's elder brother, Mani Shankar Aiyar is a politician and serves as Minister for Panchayati Raj in the Indian government. Mr Aiyar has 3 children, Pallavi, Shekhar and Rustom.

[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swaminathan_Aiyar ]

Anorexia of the Soul

This is a very apt description of my state of mind right now. (I read this in this weeks NYT - the article about the stresses of the demands of the new economy on adolescent girls).
I am very drained out at the end of Friday, having put in close to 70 hours of work in the last 5 days. I am so drained that I am unable do anything to boost my spirits or feed my soul. Feeding the soul somehow is a continuous task. 2 days off on the weekend (where you still have a corner of your brain nagging you like a watchdog timer), is not enough to even start appetizers.  How do I balance life ? Bring in less variables in any one given aspect of life so that all the equations are of manageable sizes ?