Failure To Win

  Are beliefs not often the children of ignorance and fantasy? Consider the heavenly view of the world that young souls entertain at the height of their innocence, when their youth has been surrounded by love and filled with happiness. Hear their laughter. Dreams expand in a vacuity of knowledge like a laughing gas and induce the blindest, the purest joy.  Ignorance is bliss, as they say, because it spares us the mental restraints associated with knowledge (which reveals the limits of reality and hence the impossibility of our fantasies). It is the ultimate playground where the mind can build castles in the air, create a wonderland, and live delightedly in this kingdom of reverie. It paves the way for the reign of error, as it leaves us to believe whatever we like. Everything that is desirable is realizable, if not real, until we find evidence to the contrary. Santa Claus eventually dies of our old age – when we are no longer so young, so green, that we are easily fooled by a ...

  Do you know that two people from India were very popular in Russia. One was #Jawaharelal and the other was #Rajkapoor. Raj Kapoor was famous because he was also a terrible #leftist just like #Nehru. You may have often seen that Rajkapoor's movies and songs have become very famous in Russia. But the reason for that was not to make a timeless film of #Raj_Kapoor, but it was the ecosystem of which he was a part of. Raj Kapoor was the biggest agent in India in Russia which was trying to end the "half glass water" theory that spread all over the world. Half glass theory was what today called "free sex". That means, make the woman so characterless that she stays here and there and she doesn't feel anything wrong with it, this is modernism. Russia was doing the same thing everywhere from America to India. The world is misunderstanding that America won the Cold War but the reality is that Russia lost some territory but Russia made the entire culture of America lef...

  Ian Lancaster Fleming (1908-1964), the author of the James Bond 007 novels, was the grandson of a Scottish banker and the son of a Conservative MP (Member of Parliament). His father died in the first world war. In his will, he bequeathed his property to his widow on condition she never remarries.  Ian's youth was inauspicious. He was expelled from Eton following a sexual liaison with a girl. He left Sandhurst without obtaining an officer's rank, having been caught violating the curfew. He continued his education in Kitzbuhel, Austria, in Munich and in Geneva where he studied languages. But the chain of disappointments continued apace. He failed in a Foreign Service exam and had to join Reuters as a journalist. There he successfully covered a spy trial in Russia (1929-32). He then joined a British investment bank as a stockbroker and moved to live in a converted temple in Belgravia, a fashionable district of London, where he entertained the members of the Le Cercle Gastronomi...

  Those who pride themselves on their honesty should also concern themselves with this principle: The effectiveness of honesty depends on a person's willingness to face the truth, which may conflict with this person's desires and provoke denial. In such a case, how can one promote this willingness, despite this conflict? The answer to this question could prove useful to anyone who seeks to be effectively honest with people in denial. Ultimately, it could benefit these people, whose denial is contrary to their best interest. I go on the assumption that truth, or the conformity of thought to reality, is the sine qua non of vital efficacy. Health, pleasure, successful careers, and harmonious relationships require that we know the needs and capabilities of our nature, and the workings of the world. The absence of this knowledge leads to accidents, illness, suffering, failure, and death. Therefore, the first object of our desires should be truth, or the knowledge of ourselves and th...

  Hip-Hop has historically existed as a male-dominated industry. Being a reflection of urban life and struggle, past Hip-Hop artists have been forced to maintain a certain level of masculinity in order to be accepted by their urban communities. Old school rappers who talked about love were often viewed as soft or corny. Because of this perception, the existence of love in Hip-Hop is a fairly new concept.  As the movement has gained support and recognition throughout the world, love has become an increasingly common theme in Hip-Hop music and poetry. However, the taboo still exists. Even today, Hip-Hop artists and poets present their love stories in a manner that allows them to maintain socially acceptable identities. Hip-Hop stories about love must still meet the masculine ideology in which the movement is rooted in order to be perceived as real and true. The purpose of this study is to analyze Hip-Hop love narratives and how artists present these love stories in order to co...

  We all enjoy decorating our homes as beautifully as possible, especially when it comes to statues or small sculptures that depict various symbols. Powerfully attracted by the complex history of Buddhist idols, a lot of people have discovered an entire array of objects presented online, included in the gold collection. For them, these religious murtis (idols) are just what they needed for beautification and adoration at the same time.  Each idol is unique but any of the <a href="http://www.india1imports.com/">Hindu God idols</a> that you choose represent ideal objects for adoration, worship and they can adorn any temple (also known as mandir). The 24k gold plating is definitely a plus, especially since such religious statues are given at special occasions. Some are offered at weddings, traditional festivals like Diwali (festival of lights), as a new-house present or even for welcoming a baby into life. The incredible thing about these objects is that they can fit...

  Having said this, even this sort of happiness is a product of positive thinking and positive action, with good fortune lending a helping hand. In short, it is a product of will in relatively favorable circumstances. But isn't it peculiar to imply that happiness can be of one sort or another?  Are there not simply happiness and unhappiness?  I think not. The sort of happiness that the sage talks about is compatible with misfortune. It is preeminently a doing from within – while without, the only prerequisite for it is that the sage be alive and capable of thought. It is a feeling of serenity, of being at peace with his situation and his conscience, as a well-adjusted and fully committed servant of life, of humanity, of God as he sees them. However conscious he is of the subjectiveness – i.e., the individual limitations and hence the imperfection – of his view, he does live by it with utmost faithfulness, if also with a willingness to reevaluate it critically when he catc...

                        When I was a nineteen-year-old high school student and budding poet – two years after my diving accident – many factors adversely affected my creativity. My trips in a special bus to school and back home, my courses, and my assignments, though I was spared a lot of writing and was mostly tested orally, all this was time-consuming. More often than not, my obligation to study took priority over my desire to compose poetry. To tell the truth, I had plenty of free time. That I spent much of it uncreatively showed evidence of frivolousness, laziness, and cowardliness. I usually preferred to take my mind off things, or to daydream, rather than to express myself through poems. The satisfaction I could derive from achieving this expression seldom induced me to try. The deterring elements were the difficulty of trying and the uncertainty surrounding the outcome of my efforts. A poem – assuming one is concerned ab...

  A centuries-old mystery has crossed my path again ... I mentioned in a recent article that there was a dispute in many academic quarters regarding the actual Viking deity being honored by the name, 'Friday.' The cold, hard fact is that unless someone unearths a runic stone that confirms the issue --- and that's not likely --- only a preponderance of circumstantial evidence is going to carry the day in any such debate. So, while others while away their time contemplating world peace, I've returned to the search for Friday's inspiration. If you'll recall, four of the seven days of the week are named after Norse gods: - Tuesday is for Tyr, the god of truth and war, - Wednesday is for Odin, the Allfather of Viking gods, - Thursday is for Thor, the god of thunder, - Friday, however is cloaked in ambiguity. I'd always heard the day's name-origin came from Frigg, Odin's elder wife --- he had more than one --- and this is supported by the most scholarly of...