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Showing posts from January, 2023

The Year of the Rabbit — And a Different Pace

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The White Rabbit — always in a hurry  Beginning 22nd January, the Chinese zodiac marks 2023 as the Year of the Rabbit — more specifically, the Year of the Water Rabbit. The rabbit is considered the luckiest among the twelve animals and is associated with gentleness, thoughtfulness, and a tendency to act with care. The Year of the Rabbit is said to bring a more peaceful and patient energy. The element of water adds another dimension — encouraging reflection, inner wisdom, and trust in one’s instincts. Together, the Water Rabbit suggests a year that favours relationships, diplomacy, and the building of bridges, both personal and professional. Those born in Rabbit years — 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, and 2023 — are believed to be particularly aligned with these qualities, and may find the year especially favourable. With this sense of gentle optimism, I am reminded of another rabbit — from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland . The White Rabbit, who appears re...
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A Journey of Grit and Grace: The Story of a Karmayogi Scientist

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Some lives do not merely succeed — they quietly redefine what is possible . This is the story of one such individual, a scientist whose journey reflects not only intellectual brilliance but also a deep sense of purpose and commitment. He went on to become one of India’s most eminent scientists, holding leadership positions in the country’s foremost scientific and research institutions. He served as Director General of CSIR, chaired several high-powered national committees, and was closely associated with India’s innovation movement, including his role as Chairman of the National Innovation Foundation. His work earned him global recognition. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), one of the highest honours in science, and has also been elected to prestigious academies across the world. Over the years, he has received numerous awards, including the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan. More than forty universities have honoured him with honorary doctorates. Yet, what makes h...
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Words That Carry a World Within Them

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Kintsukuroi: broken pottery repaired with gold, made more beautiful by its fractures I had received a New Year greeting with the word Vorfreude . This German word is unique and has no exact English equivalent. It comes from the words vor ("before") and Freude ("joy") and means something along the lines of "joyful anticipation." Germans mostly associate Vorfreude with the feeling of anticipation before Christmas and New Year. Every language has its own flavour, shaped by the culture of its people. As a result, there are terms or expressions that are unique to it and do not easily lend themselves to equivalent English translations. Sometimes, when one wants to express an emotion at a deeper level, certain languages already have a ready word for it, a word that may be rooted in the ethos and culture of that society. In this sense, the Japanese come to mind, especially with the importance they give to striking a balance within themselves and with Nature ...
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Weekend Musings: What One Life Taught Me About Peace

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  Remembering Albert Schweitzer For reasons I cannot fully explain, Albert Schweitzer came back to me recently. My first encounter with him was in childhood, when I was barely ten or twelve. I remember a book — blue in colour — far beyond my reading ability at that age. I remember his photograph inside. I remember that it spoke of peace and of service to humanity. I understood neither in any meaningful way, yet something stayed. Perhaps children recognise sincerity before they understand ideas. Life moved on. Over five decades, his name would surface now and then — in passing references, in conversations, in lists of Nobel Peace Prize winners — but I never found the time, or perhaps the inner readiness, to go deeper. And yet, the impression never faded. Today, that unfinished encounter seems to ask for closure. Albert Schweitzer was many things: theologian, philosopher, musician, doctor. But what sets him apart is not achievement; it is choice. At a time when intellectual recognit...
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Weekend Musings: The Female Gaze

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The Enigmatic Look Women Give One Another I have often wondered what women think when they look at one another. It is usually a silent assessment—nothing said aloud—only a quick scanning with the eyes, absorbing little details. That look is intriguing, and I have never quite understood what goes on in their minds in those brief moments. The other day, at the all-ladies branch of my bank, a woman was standing in front of me—businesslike, with two thick pay-in slip books, sorting out some issue with her account. At the next counter, another woman kept watching her intently. I assumed she was connected to the matter, but the nature of her gaze was different. It even made the customer conscious; she suddenly behaved more “official,” as if putting on an armour. The atmosphere felt slightly uncomfortable. And then, almost casually, the woman at the counter remarked on the customer’s earrings—fish-shaped, unique, and beautiful. That broke the tension immediately. But it left me even more puzz...
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Weekend Musings: The Leap of the Frog — A Moment in Haiku

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 An old silent pond— a frog jumps into the pond, splash! Silence again. This weekend’s Musings arose from an invitation to reflect on these lines by Matsuo Bashō. What began as an invitation soon turned into a gentle challenge, as it became clear that the poem invites many ways of seeing. It can even invite silence, as we honour the stillness of the pond. The image is simple, almost bare. A still pond. A sudden leap. A brief splash. And then silence again. Nothing is explained, nothing is concluded. What is offered is a moment, complete in itself. Yet, being a Musing, I must still arrive at my own reading. In these lines, Bashō draws us into a world where there is no past or future — both constructs of the mind, or the ego. He lives entirely moment to moment, in full awareness of it. The past becomes nothing more than memory, a storehouse of conditioning, biases, and habits. The future is merely the drama projected from that past. In such a state of awareness, action is no longer ...
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Weekend Story: When Meaning Outweighs Medals

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Yusra and Sarah Mardini — swimmers, sisters, survivors From the Aegean Night to the Olympic Light There are stories that win medals, and there are stories that win something far rarer — our quiet admiration for what human beings can rise to when life strips them to the barest essentials. The story of Yusra and Sarah Mardini — two young sisters from Syria — belongs to the second kind. Long before the world knew their names, they were just teenagers in Damascus, daughters, students, swimmers. Then the war came, as wars always do — without warning, without reason, without mercy. When they fled their shattered city in 2015, they carried almost nothing except a skill they had learned in childhood: the ability to stay afloat. They were not fleeing a camp. They were fleeing a collapsing homeland. The sisters first escaped from Damascus to Lebanon, and from there made their way to Turkey — the staging point for many refugees trying to reach Europe. From Turkey, they boarded an overcrowded rubb...
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Weekend Musings: The Harmony of Body, Mind, and Air

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She fell twice, the third time made history. A move so dangerous even the World's trapeze artists rarely attempt it: Anna Gosudareva. The more I saw this video, with the caption above, the more I felt that there is something much more to it than a successful attempt after two failed ones. The young acrobat, Anna Gosudareva, has achieved something extraordinary and rarely performed — a quadruple somersault on a Russian bar. The video actually led me to read more, and the more I learned, the more I realised how exceptional this feat is — a genuine peak of human capability, combining strength, timing, mind control, trust, and fearlessness. A Russian bar is a long, slightly flexible pole held on the shoulders of two base performers. The flyer stands on this bar and uses it like a launchpad. When Anna attempts her somersaults, three bodies — hers and the two bases — must move with perfect synchrony. A tiny mistiming of a fraction of a second can send her off-axis. Even a slight tremor ...
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