By Dr. R. Balasubramaniam There was a time, not too long ago, when I woke up in the morning and decided for myself what kind of day it was going to be. These days, I wake up and my phone decides for me. It tells me my sleep score was 62 percent, which is apparently…
Dasara’s most beloved feature, the illumination, is going overboard and it comes with its own dark side. Every year, thousands of decorative lights are strung across Mysuru by hammering hooks and nails into roadside trees. When the festival ends, the lights come down but the nails don’t. Worse, more nails are added with every passing…
By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist Ask any Indian schoolchild who invented zero and the answer will usually be: India did. This is one of the most common beliefs taught in schools and repeated in public discussions. The pride behind this idea is understandable. Zero is one of the greatest ideas in…
By Dr. R. Balasubramaniam There is a particular kind of faith that gets instilled in Indian school children somewhere between learning the national anthem and being taught not to talk to strangers. It comes wearing white and black stripes and goes by the rather grand name of the pedestrian crossing. Our teachers stood us in…
After the devastating flash floods struck Nepal, many were surprised, even offended, when the Himalayan nation politely declined offers of international rescue assistance. For many, it appeared arrogant, but it wasn’t. It was a wise decision born of experience. Nepal’s decision was shaped by the lessons of the 2015 earthquake. The tragedy triggered an extraordinary…
By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist The Rig Veda praises the gods. The priest composes beautiful hymns, asks for cattle, sons, victory, rain. The relationship is simple: human below, god above, prayer going upward. The Atharva Veda works differently. The priest does not pray. He acts. The Rig Vedic world is fundamentally…
By Dr. R. Balasubramaniam There was a time or so our grandmothers insisted, when a neighbour dropped in with a plate of payasam simply because it was Tuesday and the mood had struck her. No festival demanded it, no impending favour justified it and certainly no reciprocal plate of anything was expected in return. I…
Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist In Vedic times, graha meant malevolent spirits who hurt mothers and babies. It had nothing to do with planets. The 3,000-year-old Vedic Jyotisha had nothing to do with predicting the future. It was a practical science of time-keeping — fixing solstices, calibrating the lunar calendar, scheduling sacrifices….
By Dr. R. Balasubramaniam There was a time, not very long ago, when a walk was simply a walk. You stepped out into the evening air because your legs asked for it or because the mind needed a little unburdening or because the mango tree at the end of the road was worth another look…
By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik – Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist The term Chandala, referring to the “lowest of the low” in Brahmin lore, appears a few times in the Vedic literature itself. It is essentially absent from the Rigveda Samhita and emerges only in the later strata of the corpus — the later Samhitas, Brahmanas and…
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