Jottings of Idle Hours
Dark tourism, dark side of tourism, and the age of selfie tourism What would it be like to visit a museum that displays Nazi era lampshades made of human skin? How does it feel to swim in a lake created as a result of nuclear tests by the Soviets in Kazakhstan? Will your body and …
Continue reading watchings of idle hours #8 : shades of tourism
Tourism in Bhutan, a freak accident, and the flower pots in our balcony Bhutan seems to have woken up to the reality of over-tourism without suffering the wisdom of hindsight. Its policy of charging $250 per day for foreign tourists (excluding Indian, Bangladeshi and Maldivian nationals) is a big put off for the budget adventurers. …
Continue reading watchings of idle hours #7 : in convalescence
The specialty about ‘Essays on Hinduism’ by Karan Singh is that it has a balanced approach unlike the plethora of books available on Hinduism that either exaggerate or dismiss Hinduism comparing it to one of the pagan polytheistic religions of prehistoric era without understanding the underlying philosophical foundations of Hinduism as propounded in our Upanishads. My review of the book is published in the Jun 2019 issue of Bengaluru Review. Read on to find out more.
“The author presents the soul of Hinduism, as opposed to its body which are the various rituals associated with the religion, and are the focus point of many western and Indian intellectuals,” writes Durga Prasad Dash.
I read this book – Essays on Hinduism – over a couple of days in a hospital waiting room. Once I started the book or every time I restarted the book, I got lost in no time and forgot about the surroundings, till someone came and tapped my shoulders.
This book is written by Karan Singh, an Ex-Cabinet Minister in the Congress Government. So the book is not coming from a member of the saffron brigade. Nor is it written by one of those so called foreign scholars. Hence, we may expect a fair degree of neutrality along with the right amount of compassion, unlike the contents in the plethora of books on…
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(Three years back I had written this article which was later included in my book 'Jottings of Idle hours'. At the time when I wrote the article, speculations were going on regarding a female version of 007. I am tempted to share the article here again since the speculations are going to be a reality …
During High School days, I was an active member of the National Cadet Corps (Army Wing). When volunteers were asked for to attend the annual NCC camp of 1982 to be held at the HAL town of Sunabeda near Koraput, I was one of the first batch of students to register. Early one morning I …
Amarnath Yatra : down memory lane (Part-1) This year, the form has become formless. But the priest insists we bow. After a glimpse of the void we retrace our path back to the tenth ox. The story of the tenth ox is like this. Some Japanese Buddhist traditions use a series of ten pictures …
Continued from Part-1 The feeling of non dual consciousnessbecomes a reality as twenty of us huddle together inside a small tent.Some have taken off to their abode of blisswith a fleet of noisy engines waking up every one but themselves - a journey of awakening. Apart from paying to the Pithoo, the other expenses we …
As I read about the hype created by self styled seculars and unapologetic Islamic leaders about the massive security arrangements done for this year's Amarnath Yatra I am reminded of my own undertaken twenty years back. I was able to undertake this trip thanks to my posting in an Indian Air Force base in Jammu …
I am back with the series after a long gap. All the posts of the series can be accessed under the tag #watchingsofidlehours Beautiful Minds vs Toned up Bodies I watched the movie - A Beautiful Mind - on Amazon Prime when 'Student of the Year - 2' had just been released. Student of the …
Continue reading watchings of idle hours #6 : recipes for a good life
I do not find any difference between Baba Ramdev's comments on Indian Economics and Amartya Sens's comments on Indian Culture. Both are experts in a particular field. I don't know where do such people get the confident feelings that being an expert in one field automatically qualifies them to be masters of all fields of …
