Resurgence

Last Sunday Last Sunday, I woke up by the continuous ringing of the doorbell. I cursed the person at the door as I scuttled to find my T-shirt. I was within my rights to curse the person at the door anyways: after all that was Sunday morning, the only morning when I can catch up with my dreams. As I opened the door, I could barely keep my eyes open. I was expecting Rai ji, the caretaker of the building I live in, at the door since he has this nagging habit of pressing on the doorbell continuously but instead found out two Muslim youths there. How do I know of their identity? Simple: They were wearing their traditional headgear and the area I live in is dominated by the Muslim community. It is not hard to make that connection anyways. They had come to collect a donation for the orphanage they run. I asked them to wait and brought them some money. While preparing a receipt for the donation, they enquired about my name. When I told them so, I registered some surprise in their eyes be...

Age of Reason I watched a beautiful documentary series over the weekend: The story of India. It traces the journey India has taken from ancient times. And though it misses some of the important facets of Indian history (well, the makers cannot be blamed: you cannot cover everything in 6 hours), it presents a very true and beautiful picture of India. In a way Michael Wood, Writer and Presenter of the series, completes a spiritual journey in the course of which he brings out the real essence of India. I would like to comment on the entire series but at present I am intrigued by one term he used throughout his journey – ‘the age of reason’. He talks about various chapters of Indian history, each of which is marked by conscious efforts to bring in peace and rule of reason: be it the times of Buddha or that of Ashoka; whether it was Gupta’s reign which brought Golden Age to India or Islamic influence which created an altogether different cross-culture; there were always people who propagate...