Articles tagged with “Butterflies from My Mind”

1. Two Rupees

   I was driving through the grey haze conjured up by soft rain and bleak sky when my gaze chanced upon a human form crouched in the mud by the road. I looked into my rear-view mirror and discovered that it was a hapless man struggling to rise and stumbling and falling, to rise and fall again, perhaps defeated by the slushy mud, or by fatigue, or by cold. Thrice I saw him struggle to stand and thrice fall, drenched in the rain. The pantomime being enacted had all the makings of a Chaplinesque comedy on screen, except that this was not reel life but real life: so comedy turned to tragedy.

2. Same Action: Four Castes

   This blog was originally penned on 24 October 2008. It is one among many dozen blogs that have not been previously released publicly on the Web. I will be gradually refreshing and releasing all those unpublished blogs on this website. They are generally short and tightly focused pieces of writing, readable in a few minutes. Where possible, I have retained the original contextual immediacy and topical relevance. I have used the IAST transliteration scheme for the Sanskrit terms; consult the link for the correct pronunciation. The upshot of this blog is that caste is spiritual in nature, and that all individuals may exhibit all four castes at different times—according to attitude to action—regardless of birth or occupation.

3. Zero, One, Two, Many

   As has been observed above [1], in the context of computer programming, there are only three numbers worth being concerned about: zero, one, and many. And if you are into the arcana of “regular expressions” and “pattern matching”—which is, incidentally, something done implicitly every time you do a Google search, or look for a book at an online bookstore—that is very sage advice. But how serviceable is this dictum in everyday life?

4. Asking Questions in English

   This blog is devoted to the art of asking questions in English. This seemingly undemanding task often trips up the aspiring learner of English, especially one who is studying it as a second or third language.

5. A Peacock in Mid Flight

   This morning, I saw a peacock in mid-flight. It was a wondrous and unforgettable sight, the more so because unexpected. I was walking as usual in the neighbourhood, which is known to be home to a large number of peacocks. As I turned to my right, I saw what I thought was an unusually long bird in flight. Only as it approached me did I realize that it was a peacock in mid-flight.