• Understanding Raga: the Soul of Indian Classical Music

    Raga is the oldest and most durable of Indian melodic edifices. We hear about it all the time, whenever the conversation turns to the Indian classical music. What does it mean, though? The word raga is derived from the word ranja, which means that which delights or enchants the mind. It also means a spectrum…

  • Chasing the Monsoon While Reading a Book

    “The first sounds I ever heard were those of falling rain.“ Thus begins Alexander Frater’s famous book Chasing the Monsoon. As the subtitle goes, it’s a modern pilgrimage through India, from the southern shores of Kerala to the majestic mountains in Meghalaya. Frater’s journey — that of chasing the monsoon — took place back in…

  • What is Music?

    What is music? If you had asked late philosopher Roger Scruton, he would have said, “Music is something that is in this world, but not of this world.” It’s not particularly helpful but a good point to start, nevertheless. It tells us about the transcedental nature of music. You must have noticed how easy it…

  • How Building a Connection with Nature Changes You

    What does it mean to feel a connection with nature? It means gaining an insight into the most important network there ever has been and ever will be. It means being aware of our relationship with this network. It means expecting a fascinating and enriching experience each time we step outside. And it means embarking…

  • A Philosophical Meditation for Those Who Don’t Make A LOT OF MONEY

    Somewhere deep inside, we already know this. That buying expensive things is not going to make us truly happy. Why, then, are we so powerfully drawn to them? Why do we keep hoping against the hope? A philosophical meditation would be helpful to clarify these concerns. It is easy to laugh at ancient people who…

  • Some Hinglish Gyaan by Khushwant Singh

    Hinglish involves a hybrid mixing of Hindi and English within conversations, individual sentences and even words. This unique synthesis has taken not just years or decades, but centuries of effort, including 200 years of colonisation. Now the result is here. So many Indians who are aglicised wogs switch from Hindi to English, interspersing each with…

  • Pride and Prejudice: Education on Love

    Jane Austen is admired for portraying a world of elegant houses, dances, servants and fashionable young men driving barouches. But her own vision of her task was radically different. She was an ambitious — and stern — moralist. She was acutely conscious of human failings and she had a deep desire to make people nicer:…

  • How Do Prayers Work?

    How do prayers work? How can they? It hurts the logical mind to even consider such a possibility, that is, of a psychological state manifesting into reality. Yet, this is exactly what Neville Goddard tried to do in his book Prayer: The Art of Believing. Let’s understand his arguments. For a long time human beings…