Tides of Thoughts

 Who is Viradha? When I ask this question, I often get "We don't know".  So, who is Viradha?  Sorry, I am asking the same question again. Here is the answer.  Viradha was a demon mentioned in Ramayana, Aranyakanda Sarga 2,3 & 4. As per Valmiki Ramayana, Viradha used to live in Dandhakaranya. When Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita were roaming in Dandhakaranya during their exile, they were attacked by Viradha.  Initially, he picks up Sita and she trembles like a leaf in a violent wind. Looking at this, Rama and Lakshmana attack Viradha with bows and arrows.  But Viradha has a boon. He cannot be wounded with any weapon in the world. This is the actual reason for his attacks on every random person and animal.  Given this boon, Viradha was not wounded by Rama and Lakshmana's attack.  Further, he was so powerful that he took Rama and Lakshmana as hostages in both hands and started running into the dense forests. Looking at this, Rama and Lakshmana severed ...

  Corporate Chanakya on Leadership by Radhakrishnan Pillai My rating: 4 of 5 stars The author tried to connect Kautilya's Arthashastra with modern management scenarios. This is an interesting book that can be helpful for people who are starting their leadership positions immediately after college. For experienced people working in corporations, some points sound theoretical & bland. Overall book is interesting as it tries to connect old theories and practices with modern management. View all my reviews

Shared Roots: Tales from the Indosphere by Ratul Chakraborty My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is an interesting mix of fiction and travelogue. While the fiction part takes us to Cambodia and India in the medieval periods, the travelogue takes us to the ruins of Angkor Wat and Siem Reap. The collective efforts of Srivalli Rekha , Kavita Krishna Meegama , Srinidhi Balasubramanian , Swetha Prakash , Vaishali S, Sunil Kumar, and Pranshu B. Saxena give us an enchanting reading experience of the rich shared heritage of India and Cambodia. View all my reviews

  Darwin in the Boardroom - Doesn't it sound interesting? I started writing about how corporate and business organisations are similar to natural processes and phenomena sometime in 2020. I shared 2-3 of them as blog posts also. As the number of analogies between nature and corporates grew to more than 5, some of my friends suggested making it a small book since the analogies are relevant to the growing corporate world in the country. With their encouragement, I made 10 analogies and compiled them as a book bridging the concepts and traversing through the vast nature and corporate world. It became a small book of 23-24 pages when converted into a .epub file. (I would rather call it a handout). It even went through two edits and I even wrote a foreword too, but it never took off. Why? I tried getting some interactions about this to understand whether people are interested in reading the concept or not. Then I realised that I have been working on a very niche aspect of merging scient...

Forests and Faeries by Srivalli Rekha My rating: 5 of 5 stars It is a nice collection of stories for mid-graders interested in thrillers. The stories bring back memories of the folklore we heard as kids. The choice of words by Srivalli makes the reading more interesting. When I read this for my niece who is in her third grade, she was fascinated with the characters and their narrations. View all my reviews

We all know about the famous incident of the liberation of Ahalya from the curse of Gautama by Rama in Ramayana. Right? When I asked what Sage Gautama's curse was to Ahalya in Valmiki Ramayana, I was not surprised by the answers.  It went with the popular belief that Sage Gautama cursed his wife Ahalya to become a rock. Most of us might know the background of the curse, but let me refresh the memory once before dwelling on whether the curse of becoming a rock is a myth or true as per Valmiki Ramayana. Sage Gautama was a great sage who did a lot of penance and was full of knowledge and wisdom. Ahalya was the wife of Sage Gautama. Ahalya was referred to as "Ayonijasambhava" in Valmiki Ramayana meaning that she was not born out of a mother's womb. It was mentioned that Brahma created Ahalya with all his artistic creativity making her the most beautiful woman. Having said that, Indra had a lust for Ahalya. One day, Sage Gautama went to bathe at a nearby creek. When Gauta...

అల్ప మనుజుడు వాడినేది అడిగేది నవమి నాటి నష్ట జాతకుడు వాడినేది కోరేది... కోరికల చెరలోనున్న కైకేయి మాటలకు కానలకు పోయినవాడినేది అడిగేది...  తరుణి అని ఘోర తాటకిని చంప వెనుకంజ వేసినవాడినేది కోరేది... ||వాడినేది అడిగేది|| విశృంఖల వాలికి వరములిచ్చి వరియించినవాడినేది అడిగేది.  తాగుబోతు మాటలకు తనను నమ్మిన ఆలినీ విడిచినవాడినేది కోరేది...||వాడినేది అడిగేది|| వర గర్వమున విర్రవీగిన రావణుడికి మోక్షమిచ్చినవాడినేది అడిగేది... జానకిని రక్షింప జూసిన జటాయువుని రక్షించలేనివాడినేది కోరేది... ||వాడినేది అడిగేది|| దీనిని "నిందాస్తుతి" అంటారు. ఇదేమి కొత్త ప్రక్రియ కాదు. రామదాసు కీర్తనల్లో "ఇక్ష్వాకుకుల తిలకా..." అనే పాట, సిరివెన్నెల సీతారామశాస్త్రి గారు రాసిన "ఆది భిక్షువు వాడినేది అడిగేది..." పాట ఇదే కోవలోకి వస్తాయి.  వాళ్లంతా మహానుభావులు. వాళ్లంత పరిజ్ఞానం లేకపోయినా నాకు తెలిసిన రామాయణంలోని కొన్ని ఘటనల ఆధారంగా రాసింది ఈ నిందాస్తుతి.  ఈ నిందా స్తుతి ఒక విచిత్రమైన ప్రక్రియ. పైకి నిందిస్తున్నట్టు ఉన్నా, నిందించే సమయంలో కూడా దైవ నామ స్మరణ చేసుకోవడం దీని లక్షణం. ఇక్కడ దేవుడ్ని నింది...

Read Time: 5 mins 16 secs Inheritance tax - A tax name new to many Indians has taken a front seat as it was mentioned by the opposition party alliance during their election campaigning for general elections. It garnered attention as some people viewed it as a revenue source for the government and others looked at it as an additional tax burden for common citizens. So, let's look at what is it? Are there any countries implementing it? what are the benefits and drawbacks they are facing? and what it means to India?  Globally, 27 countries are implementing inheritance tax and the tax rates vary between 0-80%, the highest being in Belgium.  Continent-wise break up of countries having inheritance tax is as below Now coming to the definition, the definition of inheritance tax varies slightly based on the country we are referring to, but if we have to generalize, inheritance tax is a tax levied on a person when they inherit properties and assets in a territory governed by a country ...

Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence by Anna Lembke My rating: 3 of 5 stars The book gives some insights into the modern ways of being addicted to several thoughts, substances, and things. But it is just a study of a few subjects from the US and generalising it based on the author's observations. However, it is a good read to get introduced to some interesting scientific terms related to psychology. View all my reviews

   SABARI is one of the popular characters from the epic Ramayana. But have you ever considered whether the character of Sabari was mentioned in Valmiki Ramayana or not?  Here is an interesting Twitter post with the same question.  Out of 83 votes polled, 72.3% (60 out of 83) voted YES and 27.7% (23 out of 83) voted NO.  This question got very less traction. So, posting again. I request to those who come across this post to RT for maximum reach.🙏 Was Sabari mentioned in Valmiki Ramayana or not? — The Phoenix🐦 (@3011_ajit) January 3, 2024 Now, we will see whether there is a mention of Sabari in Valmiki Ramayana or not. Balakanda Sarga-1 of Ramayana starts with Sage Narada narrating the characteristics of Lord Rama to Valmiki and in the process of explaining the characteristics, Sage Narada mentions all the important events in Lord Rama's life.  One such event was the killing of Kabanda,  मार्गमाणो वने सीतां राक्षसं सन्ददर्श ह । कबन्धन्नाम रूपेण व...