One day, the Chinese monk Fazang (Fa-tsang) was delivering a talk on the Avatamsaka Sutra (lit. The Flower Ornament Sutra) in the court of Empress Wu (624 – 705 CE). He explained a universe[...]
“Is there a shortcut to happiness?” Narayani Ganesh asked me last week, when I was speaking at the Bangalore Lit Fest.“Oh,” I said, “you mean a jugaad for happiness?” She and the audience chuckled[...]
Have you noticed that we are forever searching for a place in our hearts, in others’ hearts and lives, a place that gives us happiness? We want to matter, we want to belong to[...]
There was this person in Canada – and I am telling you his real-life story, which I witnessed over a period of time. When I first met him in India, he was a devout[...]
I remember as a child two books I enjoyed reading were Hitopdesha and Panchtantra, the Indian versions of Aesop’s Fables if you will, written some 2000 years ago. I was looking for a particular[...]
Mark Twain once said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” Though, it’s debatable whether he actually said something like[...]