Arbit Scratchpad

The self needs to be conquered first in order to conquer anything else. This has been the recurrent theme from ancient times, which is reiterated in all modern management books too. However too much focus on the self can be devastating as also the cause of anxiety, depression and much else. There comes a time when a particular idea or attitude becomes so inherent in a person that he is unable to see things in any other way. The manner in which a person interacts with people around him is also a direct consequence of the passive or dynamic nature of that person. Trust becomes an inevitable part of any interaction. Trust is largely a result of the perception that the subjects in question, develop among themselves. There may be an air of mistrust when interacting with some people, that I have observed sometimes even after repeated conversations. May be an attitudinal issue or a general feeling of mistrust or plain boredom or tiredness with either of the persons. Also aloofness can b...

Shamit's Quote for the day: If you are always frequency hopping how can you expect to be friends with anyone having the same wavelength ? [ Only books probably come close ... ;-) ]

Reading 'The Argumentative Indian'; here Amartya Sen talks about the scepticism and dialogic traditions of Indians from ancient times, including the inherent rational inqiry in the Vedas about god, the ideals in Gita as also the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata by giving anecdotes and instances from these parables that highlight this questioning attitude. Opposing views in these epics are not totally banished, and as he says 'an argument that refuses to die out definitely remains alive, only to come back into life'. In the essay that I am presently reading he has refuted the isolationist and narrow-minded approach that the so-called Hindutva movement (namely BJP, RSS etc) wants to portray. Also discussed are the selective history propagated by changing the school syllabi to demonify the Moghuls and the tendency of the fundamentalist forces to mix up the Vedic and Indus valley civilizations as one, including creating fraudulent scholarly works to prove the same. He states ...

Like clogged pipes, sometimes the mind gets clogged, unable to do anything productive outside the banal sphere of what is termed 'work'. Whether that very work is responsible for this or the pursuit of too many other interests, I do not know. Not being capable of concentrating and focussing on what you would like to do can be irritating. For example it has been some time since I have written something interesting; apart from blog posts that you get to read or some other junk or some very formal article that I was forced to write due to prior obligations. How will I justify that? Probably I need to keep a little book that some people suggest for writers as if as a surrogate for the biological memory - which can be used to jot down ideas as and when they come to mind. Ideas do come and go; but to expand it into a story or sustaining the idea to a larger form of a book requires tremendous patience and dedicating ample amounts of time. With a life which demands priority in other ar...

Sometimes movies on television can be a valuable means of generating thoughts; though most often it acts as a medium of unidirectional communication stifling the thought process in its wake. Was watching a bengali movie on ETV Bangla called 'Chayasurya' literally translating to 'shadowed-sun'. The story is of a bohemian girl who grows up in a well to do household in Calcutta where she has a sister who is her exact opposite. She is of a dark complexion, naughty and always with a 'dont care' attitude. Also she repeatedly seems to fail in examinations, becoming a cause of great ire for her parents and relatives because of her ways - playing around cricket with the boys on the street and giving studies a damn. As she grows up and becomes notorious for her ways, with unkempt hair and an indifferent attitude; the story portrays the difference in how the family treats her as against her docile and good-mannerdly sister; however the movie doesnt fall into the trap of ov...

You are what you think. That is so true. How much of what you are, should be externally demonstrated ? What about hidden feelings or latent talents ? I get the point that the world understands what is demonstrated, but that can seem so irritating sometimes; as if I am playing to a crowd and all the world's a stage ! What about changing attitudes - it gets affected by this 'visible is right' - a faulty system of judgement, as this can make someone pretend or act out, even though he/she may not be what he is projecting, or doesn't like what he is supposed to be; but needs to fit into the circumstances. Its a clear tradeoff between choice and circumstances along with societal demands that decides what one does or achieves, atleast in most 'normal' cases. But true achievers are not a subset of the 'normal' or is there an overlap ? There is no straight-jacketing achievers, however the trend is interlinked with 'wealth' someone possesses. I am not sayi...