By Sunil Kumar A challenge that writers face is the limitations of their own senses in examining their own biases. Our perceptions and experiences are shaped by our upbringing, education, and social conditioning, and it is easy to fall into the trap of assuming that our perceptions are objective and universal. To overcome these limitations,
Read MoreBy Sunil Kumar(Originally answered on Quora) Giving an answer to your question would be reaching far back into hoary antiquity, when the concept of modern nation-states was not there, and the world was in a fluid civilizational construct. For example, the history of what is now China would be limited to a very small
Read MoreBy Sunil Kumar “Revenge is not always better, but neither is forgiveness, learn to know them both son, so there is no problem”” – Draupadi in the Mahabharata, quoting Prahlada The epics are the creative fount of the Indian mindscape, a fact that is so obvious that repeating it sounds cliched. Scholars throughout the world
Read MoreBy Sunil Kumar “Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter” – Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe Johar, Namaskar- We have heard these words on the national forum from our first tribal president, who now resides in Rashtrapati Bhavan which merely a century ago was the Viceroy’s
Read MoreBy Sunil Kumar My review: A slim, curated volume of maxims gleaned from different parvas of the Mahabharata, the book is another glimpse into the vast canvas of what is arguably ancient India’s greatest epic. Indeed it would not be hyperbole to repeat what is mentioned within the epic itself- loosely translated as ‘What is
Read MoreBy Sunil Kumar My review of the book ‘Veer Savarkar- The Man Who Could Have Prevented Partition’ by Uday Mahurkar and Chirayu Pandit. अथ चेतत्त्वमिमं धर्म्यं संग्रामं न करिष्यसि | तत: स्वधर्मं कीर्तिं च हित्वा पापमवाप्स्यसि || 33|| – Bhagavad Gita-2.33 If, however, you refuse to fight this righteous war, abandoning your social duty and
Read MoreBy Sunil Kumar ‘Do your duty and shape your destiny. That is the secret of life. You hold the reins of destiny in your own hands’– Lord Krishna to the Pandavas. There is nothing that exemplifies the genius of ancient India more than the epics. They are the bedrock of Sanatana Culture and the Indosphere. The
Read MoreBy Sunil Kumar I would once again like to express my gratitude to the Indic Book Club and the Indic Book Academy for another fabulous book. Finally finished reading ‘Venkatesa Suprabhatam’ by Shri Venkatesh Parthasarathy. At first glance, one would be tempted to dismiss the idea of a book based solely on a devotional prayer.
Read MoreBy Sunil Kumar Vrikodara means a person who has a voracious or ravenous appetite. It is also used to indicate wolf-bellied, imagine a person with a hungry wolf in his stomach. It is a compound Sanskrit word, consisting of the terms vrka and udara, literally a person who has a generous gluttonous fire in his
Read MoreBy Sunil Kumar Sherlock Holmes was a favourite in childhood, and I used to read the Conan Doyle books many times. Well- a favourite incident/deduction. Very distraught after the death of Sherlock Holmes in ‘The Final Problem’ at Reichenbach falls, I was thrilled when Watson meets him again in ‘The Adventure of the Empty House’.
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