I would like to write about my spiritual journey – such as it is – that I am engaged in right now. I have decided to shift from Buddhist to Hindu spiritual practices. The reasons for my doing so are as under: The first reason is that I was finding the Buddhist methods difficult because […]
Author Archives: nikhilmg
About the Farmer’s Protest in India
A cousin of mine asked my opinion on the farmers’ protest in India that is going on right now. She also sent me a link to a YouTube video which I went through just recently. But of the top of my head, I can make the following points. To start here is the link to […]
About Free Speech and the Right to Offend
This is a comment on the two articles on free speech and the right to offend in the Times of India on 19 February 2021. Link to the two articles is below: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/complete-transcript-of-face-off-on-the-right-to-offend/articleshow/81095345.cms?utm_source=whatsapp&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=TOIMobile I am reminded of two cultural concepts – one Japanese and one American – which can help understand the opposing points of […]
About the Longer Telegram
One of my uncles recently told me to read up the Longer Telegram and do a blog article on the subject. As to what is the Long Telegram, it was an 8000 word telegram sent (in 1946) by a US diplomat posted in the USSR and it gave the intellectual framework that formed the US […]
My Reading Habits
I am 56 years old as of Sunday and have only the fact that I like reading books to point to as being an achievement of mine. So I thought that I should write about why and how I read. Perhaps it will be of use to some youngster who is making his (or her) […]
The Arabian Nights and Romantic Movies
I am reading The Arabian Nights after having bought the book more than 10 years ago. And it is a completely different point of view to the modern view of equality of the sexes and in particular, the stories that we see in romantic movies – both Bollywood and Hollywood. I will not address the […]
India’s Test Series win in Australia
This has nothing to do with the main topics I write about in this blog but I can’t resist writing about our test series victory in Australia. The reasons why this victory is special are threefold: firstly, it was an overseas win; next it was against a full-strength Australian team which is one of the […]
The Self Immolation of Thich Quang Duc
I had written an article last in April last year on why there is suffering in this world. Here is a link to that article Responding to that my niece sent me a WA message. Here is the message and my response to it My Niece: I would argue that suffering is a human construct. […]
Our Duty in Life
It is not my job to tell you what your duty in life is. As Emerson says in his essay on Self Reliance there are always people who think they know what your duty is better than you know it yourself. I do not wish to add myself to that number. I am assuming you […]
Why I believe in Traditional Religion
When I was young I did not believe in traditional religions or God. I was a fan of Bertrand Russell and thought myself to be an agnostic. That is, I was of the view that the existence of God cannot be proved one way or the other and it was best to keep an open […]