Ranjeet Chowdhury
The more I learn, the more I realize how much I do not know..
Addiction of Comics & My Love for Books
Like most children of our generation, I too was fond of reading comics. In those days, comics were among the very few sources of entertainment available to children - second to television, of course, which wasn’t so common in middle class families back then. When we...
Superstitions : Why Do They Persist?
Yesterday, there was a total lunar eclipse, popularly known as the 'blood moon. Though eclipses are now well understood by science as natural celestial phenomena resulting from the alignment of the Sun, Moon, and Earth, yet these events have long been shrouded in myth...
Everything is an illusion – सब माया है
Everything is an illusion" (सब माया है). We all must have heard this phrase umpteen times from the people with religious bent of mind and, of course, from our spiritual leaders. We often nod in agreement too without having believed a word of it. How could this...
Being an Emotional Fool
A few months back a case of misappropriation of funds by an employee of our organization came to light. Keeping in view the gravity of the offence, the disciplinary authority decided to terminate the services of the delinquent official, who had already confessed to...
Life is a Succession of Lessons & there is No Substitute for Paying Attention
Life has its own ways of teaching us. It constantly tries to make us more understanding and wise through such small incidents – we just need to pay attention to them.
Aversion to Admiration – My Affinity with Bangla Cinema
It all started with 2019 Bangla movie “Robibaar’ (On a Sunday) starring Jaya Ahsan, whose serene beautiful face looked so ‘familiar’ to me that I just couldn’t resist watching the movie. Robibaar was undoubtedly a wonderful movie and so was Jaya’s performance. She was just amazing and no wonder that the movie had got her the Best Lead Actress Award in Foreign Language Film category at Madrid International Film Festival, 2020.
Panchayat – The First Web-series I watched
Web-series have gained rapid popularity over the past few years especially with today’s generation due to their convenience, cost-effectiveness and above all their ‘uncensored contents’ and this is precisely why I never inclined to watch one. In case of ‘पंचायत’ however, my colleague was right. It was really very light-hearted and enjoyable series to watch..
Déjà vu – The Mystical Experience of My Life
… déjà vu is caused by some sort of disparity in the mind that causes it to take the ‘present’ for the ‘past’; while few others relate the phenomenon to the past life experience. Whatever may be the truth, the bottom line is – while the natural human tendency is to reason out everything, there are things which are beyond human perception and sometimes better be kept secret.
Cheers..
Here I must clarify that I do not have the slightest intention to promote drinking; though, I do believe that taking it in a limited quantity, following the 3Ds of Drinking, i.e., Duration, Dilution & Diet, will never really harm anybody in any manner unless and until one makes it a habit. Wish you all a very happy New Year. Cheers..
Vegetarianism – My Views
I don’t remember whether I had succeeded in my efforts to avoid consuming meat that day, chances of which were really very distant; but, it was for the first time that I realized that it takes a life of a living being to satiate our taste buds with non-veg food; and that was something I perceived as ‘not being human’.
Two of my all time favourite stories-II
In the story, the fest organized by the King is a metaphor for this world, which offers all the delicacies of life for us to enjoy. However, these objects of enjoyment act as distracters and keep our attention diverted from our real purpose in life (ultimate goal being to seek God and become a liberated soul).
Two of my all time favourite stories-I
The poor Brahmin in the story, despite facing such hardships in life, was such a kind hearted person that he, even in his sufferings, thought about the people who are less fortunate than him. Instead of complaining, he was rather grateful that he had two eyes to see the roughness of the surface and able to walk carefully.
Woman of Easy Virtue
Does the fact that the victim was a bar-dancer or, for that matter, a woman of immoral character, as alleged in the 1997 gang-rape case, in any manner, gives right to the accused to rape her? Then, why did I feel relieved?
Vipassana – As I experienced it (Part-IV)
Concluding my instant write up, I would only say that to know the ‘unknown’ you have to start with what is ‘known’ – what you are familiar with and that “watching is the key”. You have the ‘body’ and you have the ‘breath’ – watch them; just watching would lead you to every secret this Universe holds including the ultimate truth – “you are not in this world, the world is in you”.
Ananya
“Even chance meetings are the result of karma… Things in life are fated by our previous lives. That even in the smallest events there’s no such thing as coincidence”.
Vipassana – As I experienced it (Part-III)
The effort we make to meditate is only a very tiny step forward towards opening of a whole world of infinite possibilities and the physical well-being we experience during the process is the smallest reward we could have out of this small effort on our part. What is the larger objective then?
Putting things in a different manner
So, sometimes just putting things in a little different manner really works wonders. In the instant case, I got the desired answer by putting up the question in a slightly different manner without having to feel embarrassed (now, one can well imagine the impression I would have given to my friend had I actually asked a direct question in the situation).
Vipassana – As I experienced it (Part-II)
As I said I did not find the experience at Igatpuri anywhere near ‘enriching’ however, the same did provide me with a lot to ponder about which led me to further clarity in my spiritual quest. The first thing I became aware of was that ‘you are not your mind’. I don’t...
Vipassana – As I experienced it (Part-I)
It was in the summers of 2016 when I took up the ten-day Vipassana meditation course along with my elder cousin and my aunt at Dhammagiri in Igatpuri (Maharashtra), where courses in Vipassana Meditation, as taught by SN Goenka in the tradition of his Burmese mentor...
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Addiction of Comics & My Love for Books
Like most children of our generation, I too was fond of reading comics. In those days, comics were among the very few sources of entertainment available to children - second to television, of course, which wasn’t so common in middle class families back then. When we...