Suresh Chandrasekaran's Blog

I have had reason to say this about philosophers, especially philosopher-poets. They have this tendency to exaggerate the specific virtue or vice that they are talking of at the moment. Maybe it is something that is more true of this portion of the world. Like, you know, 'mother of all battles'. So, yeah, at any point in time, whatever we are talking of is the 'greatest virtue' or the 'worst evil

If there is a thing that almost all philosophers agree upon, it is the importance of controlling your tongue. Not surprising, really, since philosophers deal mainly in words that they should be very wary of how you speak words and the impact of ill-chosen words.Tiru is no different. Especially when he says this...Ondraanun theechchol porutpayan undaayin nandraaga dhaagi vidum - TirukkuralIf but

You can never take anything for granted, especially with philosophers. I mean, there are these things that are almost holy cows. Things like love; like friendship. And, yet, you will find that philosophers will find a way to apply filters on them, like on everything else.Like Tiru does here...Paruguvaar polinum panbilaar kenmai perugalir kundral inidhu - TirukkuralEnjoyable though the company may

I have always been handicapped by the absence of an ability that people seem to take for granted. Like, if I am told 'Drop in any time', I take that as an invitation; people seem to understand it as a meaningless courtesy. I take words literally for what they mean. People seem to read in different meanings into the same words depending on when it is said; who is saying it; what their tone of

There ARE these times when you really find that Eureka moment where you feel convinced that you can say, 'We did this way back in history'! This IS one of them where something modern has been said way back in history by one of our philosophers. Though, fact be told, in areas like management, nobody really finds out some truly innovative concept. They only find an innovative label. AND, alas, I

Yeah, yeah, you are right. I AM going to start off by saying how philosophers talk of things that, on the face of it, seem insane. I mean, if you come across someone laughing, when something very distressing has happened to him, your first instinct is to say, "There, there, get a hold of yourself" and wave in a paramedic with a sedative injection, if not a straitjacket.Too late for Tiru who is

Sometimes, very rarely, philosophers do manage to make things easy. Or, at least, things sound easy. Surprisingly easy, because in the normal course, the advice they offer is the sort that is nice to spread around but not really worth applying in your own life. Because, to try doing so will involve the sort of effort that you are incapable of putting forth. If you could, you'd hardly be still

And there is this story about how the King asked for a way to achieve something impossible and the Philosopher gave him a magic potion to do it...which would work only if the King did not think of mangoes (slot in anything in the place of mangoes as you please) for the next three days. AND, as you may have guessed, the King, who had never in his life bothered to think of mangoes before, could not

Sometimes, the advice of philosophers seems to be counter-intuitive. Like, your common sense says one thing and the philosopher says the diametric opposite of that. And also claims that the guidance of your common sense will lead to disaster. It is times like this that you feel that they inhabit a different universe where, probably, even the laws of physics do not align with what you know of the

Philosophers just cannot bear to see you happy. Or so it appears, going by the fact that anything that makes you happy is prominent on their list of things that you should never do. It is like they exist only to rain  copiously on your parade. And, yet, the problem is that once they say something, the dratted advice sticks like a burr in your brain and does not allow you to go about your