tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27407771212611844252023-05-26T19:40:25.847+05:30A dose of entertainment, a lot of humor, a bit of philosophy.C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.comBlogger770125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-91545367999883856192023-05-22T18:46:00.000+05:302023-05-22T18:46:05.392+05:30

You know how it goes. You have never heard of a thing and are quite blissful not knowing about it. Someone mentions it once in your vicinity and, suddenly, it seems as though the world is obsessed with it going by how often you hear of that dratted thing over the next few days.This is exactly how it went with me and intermittent fasting. Over the past few days I could hardly spend a minute

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-50277642116754896422023-05-15T10:17:00.000+05:302023-05-15T10:17:48.744+05:30

You think you have been granted some rare esoteric and cutting edge knowledge and then discover that it has been common know-how for hundreds of years. It is especially painful, when you have just boasted about how modern your ideas are, to find out that they are about as traditional as it can get.Take this idea of delegation, for example. There you go, studying in top management institutions and

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-18933444125469620152023-05-08T12:14:00.005+05:302023-05-08T12:16:58.449+05:30

"Roses stink!" said my friend.There was a gasp of surprise from the assembled lot of friends at this blasphemy. Me, I nodded knowingly.You see, you get this advice in life about taking time to smell the roses. You understand, you pine for the time to be able to smell the roses, but with your nose so firmly to the grindstone that it cannot even smell shit. On those brief times when you can

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-75166592239188869592023-05-01T11:39:00.000+05:302023-05-01T11:39:00.570+05:30

Ever since the advent of social media, especially everyone's favorite alma mater - WhatsApp university, I have been forced to wonder about the nature of reality. This has built into a near obsession after the recent spate of improvements, if one may call them that, in Artificial Intelligence.One does understand that, with the growing paucity of the natural version, there is a felt need for

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-74994133957683990592023-04-24T11:51:00.000+05:302023-04-24T11:51:08.297+05:30

It is sort of normal for me to see people exalting Tamil in Tamil movie posters but that exaltation very seldom carries over to actually excerpting anything from Tamil literature in the posters. So, it was a bit of a surprise to see an excerpt...but, yeah, if there would at all be an excerpt it would be from good old Tiru's work.Uyirrpa ularallar mandra seyirppavar semmai sidhaikkalaa Thaar -

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-54461054859974466502023-04-17T09:23:00.002+05:302023-04-18T07:25:50.369+05:30

Ilar Palar aagiya kaaranam norpaar silar palar nolaadhavar - TirukkuralMany are poor and few rich because the few do austerities and the many do not - Loose TranslationIt's a ticklish thing when it comes to translating words in Tamil (or Sanskrit, as I have had reason to bemoan when I wrote 'Maya-Is it all Illusion') into English. This word - austerities - for example. Or, even, these words 'poor

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-83652100044181325172023-04-11T09:37:00.006+05:302023-04-11T15:30:12.231+05:30

When anyone talks of ancient wisdom, you automatically assume that the chap is going to spout off about how 'Love conquers all' and how money is the root cause of all evil and so on. The said man could well be on a lecture tour, being paid a hefty sum of money so that he can tell you about how money is the enemy of happiness, but still...It's a pleasant surprise, therefore, to see Tiru actually

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-27878537519028813882023-04-03T09:46:00.000+05:302023-04-03T09:46:19.328+05:30

There is this scene in one of the Matrix movies where a character bites into a hamburger and says something like "I know this is not real. But who cares? It tastes damned good." Just the way I would feel, I suppose, and I think most of the world would feel like that.I mean, come on, what you experience of the world is mostly through your five senses. It is all fine to be telling me that machines

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-78526831551762847692023-03-27T11:46:00.002+05:302023-03-27T11:47:49.182+05:30

There was this sudden flurry of people putting up poetry (mostly what poets would dismissively call 'rhymes') and essays and whatnot, leading me to wonder about whether there was a new virus infecting people with the urge to write. Reading the fine print, I realized that there was this experimental bot sort of thing called ChatGPT which was actually doing all this writing with my FB friends

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-33646152319314612672023-03-20T18:22:00.001+05:302023-03-20T18:25:22.436+05:30

My earliest memories of this juice-squeezing were of home made lemon juice. Back then (oh, yeah, were you not expecting this phrase to pop up sooner or later?), almost all the cool drinks available to us were either home made or the fresh made ones (though of questionable hygiene) by the pushcart vendors. And sugar being a relatively expensive commodity back then, juices were a treat.The only fly

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-20201934031869217602023-03-13T20:31:00.005+05:302023-03-27T17:47:01.853+05:30

"Remember you wrote something about the various uses of 'My'? You know - My hand, My house, My city, yada yada?"..."Why are you looking like a moronic sheep? You do not remember?"Uh! I mean, yeah, OF COURSE I remember. I wasn't trying to imitate a moronic sheep, I was just wonder-struck that someone even knew that I had written something like that, leave alone remembering the contents himself!"

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-18601232453255633182023-03-06T19:26:00.002+05:302023-03-06T19:27:30.834+05:30

I recently came across someone using what amounts to an archaeological artifact. What, for want of a better word, is called a dumb phone. Surprised as I was to see a phone that can only be used for raising or receiving calls and messages, I could not help a twinge of nostalgia.I, too, belonged to the recalcitrant few who refused to switch to the smarter versions of the phone. Yes, yes, it WAS

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-73240803876531872812023-02-27T11:05:00.000+05:302023-02-27T11:05:21.923+05:30

The strange thing about Success is that it has many fathers. In more than one way. Yup, once you succeed there will be a lot of people who will claim their contribution to your success. Even if their contribution was only one of deducing that you would become great from the way in which you sucked on your all-day sucker as a babe in the cradle. But that is not all.There are so many

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-2839880939334698082023-02-20T10:37:00.000+05:302023-02-20T10:37:24.010+05:30

That must be about the most cliched of cliches in the world, this statement that 'Love is Life'. I mean, literature is rife with romances where people feel unable to live if they lose their love, so one does get a surfeit of this idea in books.But is that what Tiru means when he says this?Anbin vazhiyadhu uyirnilai; Aqdhilaarkku enbuthol portha udambu - TirukkuralThe soul exists because of love;

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-56833398299540036662023-02-13T10:54:00.000+05:302023-02-13T10:54:30.387+05:30

You get advised to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The presumption is, I suppose, that the way you behave with others is the way they shall behave with you. It very seldom works that way because, if you are polite, generous and kind to others, they take it as their due; very very seldom do they think that any reciprocating is warranted.Yet, there IS a thing where you can expect

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-32115231950571859042023-02-06T09:29:00.000+05:302023-02-06T09:29:39.437+05:30

The easiest thing in the world is to identify unworthy people, isn't it? If someone holds opinions different from yours, he is obviously unworthy. On THAT, most people have no difference of opinion - that he who is not with me in my beliefs, is unworthy of respect. That, though, was apparently not always held as self-evident truth.Tiru has other ideas about that as may be expected.Nayanilan

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-20786198635270950022023-01-30T09:37:00.000+05:302023-01-30T09:37:57.147+05:30

There are rules, there are laws and then there are these unwritten mores of conduct. You sort of expect that the laws and rules exist to ensure that everyone behaves in a manner that is considered acceptable behavior by Society but that is not exactly the case.Sometimes law-makers set ideals for society to live by, even if what is considered acceptable behavior by Society is different. Take for

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-12701188342030081112023-01-23T08:08:00.000+05:302023-01-23T08:08:53.920+05:30

Virtue always seems to exist in only the most difficult things to do. Anything easy to do is very seldom accepted as virtuous much like anything good to eat is automatically classified unhealthy. It automatically raises the question whether it is difficult because it is virtuous or is it considered virtuous only because it is difficult.Akazhvaarai thaangum nilam pola thannai igazhvaarai

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-13336210627052607952023-01-16T09:40:00.000+05:302023-01-16T09:40:38.351+05:30

The quest for wealth is never-ending for us humans but, you know, we depend of others to tell us what IS wealth. I mean, there would have been a time when a soldier thought that 'salt' was wealth considering that he was paid in it. Can you think of anyone hoarding salt and gloating over how much salt he has, these days? So, yeah, once others tell us what counts as wealth, we'll rush after it.Well

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-22936197757444626782023-01-09T09:25:00.000+05:302023-01-09T09:25:31.651+05:30

You know, these philosophers must be nuts. I mean, all of us understand that what we call joy is the satisfaction of our desires. But what these chaps say is that the absence of desire is the primary prerequisite for joy. What rubbish.Well, Tiru belongs in the same bandwagon. Here he goesInbam idaiyaraa theendum avaavennum thunbatthul thunbam kedin - Tirukkural.You will perpetually be joyous if

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-29992096128717428582022-12-31T15:13:00.000+05:302022-12-31T15:13:31.078+05:30

There was this interesting thing that I read in the science fiction novels by Larry Niven. He writes of a galaxy of multiple species, including humans, interacting with each other. One of those species finds English funny - specifically the word 'My' - for a reason that seemed rather interesting to me.The strange thing about English, in the view of that species, was the use of the word 'My'. And,

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-12463684532836532032022-12-26T15:47:00.000+05:302022-12-26T15:47:02.674+05:30

Here we are, fighting like crabs to be considered above the next guy - whether by climbing up or by pulling the other guy down (easier to do the latter, no?) - and here is this chap who talks in terms of aiming to be above the gods. (Yeah, yeah, the demi-gods of Hinduism, not Yahweh or such). Talk about overweening ambition!Yes, it is our man Tiru and here is what he has to sayYaan Yenadhu ennum

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-7729140574811594952022-12-19T11:30:00.000+05:302022-12-19T11:30:40.057+05:30

We hunt for happiness all over the world when the wise say that it lies within you. Maybe it does but what is also true is that we carry a lot of things that can effectively poison whatever happiness we do find within ourselves...thereby proving that we are our own worst enemies.And Tiru says that the worst of the enemies we carry within ourselves is anger.Nagaiyum Uvagaiyum kollum sinatthin

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-67072512495579141442022-12-12T10:47:00.001+05:302022-12-13T15:42:53.393+05:30

Having been practically brought up on the philosophy that 'It is more important to be seen to be busy than to be busy' and having been told that you 'don't sell the steak, you sell the sizzle', it is sort of odd to be told that what is important IS the steak...or to actually BE busy...after all!But, then, Tiru did belong to a different millenium, so it is natural that he held such old-fashioned

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2740777121261184425.post-76524311161875894752022-12-05T11:26:00.000+05:302022-12-05T11:26:42.823+05:30

Talk to anyone who is spiritual and he'll preach the virtue of being free from desires. The strange thing, though, is that there IS a type of person who has stopped chasing his desires...and he is considered far from virtuous.In fact, our man Tiru goes so far as to say that such a man has stopped trying to be virtuous as much as he has stopped chasing his desires.Aran Aakkam vendaathaan Enpaan

C Sureshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07447144019185253116noreply@blogger.com0