India's politics and economy (2020) 1.    India's economy is likely to face more problems than health          consequences of corona virus. 2    India's  GDP is estimated to go down into negative territory,         (about -5%) for the  financial year 2020-2021. The year 2021-            2022 is not likely to  bring significant imrovement. 3.   The central government has not heeded to the advice of the       economists to provide a much greater fiscal stimulus, even at        the risk of higher deficit, in order to stimulate demand and         thereby recover economy. 4.   Poverty and urban educated youth unemployment have        increas...

REGRETS AND RESENTMENTS OF THE PAST      "My father always praised my brother and criticized me for my shortcomings." "My mom always showed more affection to my brother but reprimanded me on a daily basis." Be that men or women, many of us are bothered by such resentments even after many years of growing up. Tapes of such factual or imaginary parental mistreatments play in our mind repeatedly as if they are on 'auto rewind and play'. Slowly many of us begin to incorporate these thoughts in our self-image, such as, "I am a failure in life', 'Nobody likes me'.      Like a monkey jumping from one tree to another, Mind often ruminates over one regret after another. We have very limited control on most aspects of life. One important thing we have a relatively good control on is 'self-talk', the talk we engage in silently with ourselves. We may not be able to erase old mental tapes which make us feel inferior but we can deliberately record...

DYNAMIC  LIVING      When we put the first piece of chocolate or any sweet in our mouth and chew it slowly it tastes wonderful. As we consume more pieces the pleasure gradually decreases and eventually more eating leads to displeasure. After a good interval of time eating the same sweet again becomes enjoyable. Pleasure of sex also has similar characteristics.      Happiness does not reside in some object, person or place which upon obtaining or reaching we become blissful.  Happiness is also not a treasure lying inside us we can capture thru meditation or a certain spiritual exercise and attain a state of 'Nirvana'. In my opinion, happiness is an emotional experience produced when one is engaged with the external world in balanced harmony. Happiness is not like a specific objective to be pursued directly.  It is a by-product of one's well-tuned interactions with what is out there.      Sometimes eating makes us happy, sometime...

ISM      Ism is an ideology held with such fervor by its believers that it leads them to forcefully oppose any system which differs from their own. History is replete with such ideologies and they are prevalent even today. The genocide of Jews that took place in Europe during the middle of twentieth century under Hitler's Nazism (belief in Aryan Supremacy) still makes our heart tremble with disbelief. Under Stalin's communist rule in Soviet Union, millions of innocent people lost their lives. During the campaign of collective farming enforced in 1950s under Mao's communism, hundreds of thousands of people died of starvation or systematic killing in China.      We have witnessed the collapse of communist economic system near the end of twentieth century. We have also seen deep recession that occurred in U.S.A. in 2008, when capitalist market system was allowed to run without any checks.      No one holds monopoly on truth. Mahatma Gandhi's lif...

     I am starting this blog to share my reflections on various aspects of life including history, religion, science, health, politics and literature. Please know that I am not expert on any subject. I am not going to reveal any startling new discoveries. Let me say that  I am indebted and grateful to many great thinkers and writers from whose life and writings I have learned a lot and developed my views.      I invite you to dialogue with me thru this blog. I hope you will join with me on this exciting journey! Here is my first post:                                       SILENT SKY                              At the time of a famine in Somalia, a few years ago, one father started walking with his eight children toward a city where there was a relief camp providing food and medical ca...