news papers can be a great source of really weired trivia, and if u read them long and hard enough they might be your fountainhead of wisdom (which you will callously disregard by the time you have your next meal).one of the most interesting columns to appear in indian newsreel is the daily spiritual discourse that appear on the bottom left of the editorial page of economic times:cosmic uplink. due to my limited knowledge of economics or may be because the poor man's science is so god damn boring, it is the only thing that i read in the entire paper.The cool thing about the piece is that it is most of the time not exhorting you about do's and dont's in life to attain a spiritually heightened sense of being which i'm sure can be attained equally by gulping kingfisher(or royal challenge since vijay mallya need as much free publicity he can get considering the fate that has befallen on his ipl team).what it does is give you insights about humanities actions and patterns and illuminate the fallibility of our race, at the same time -and without being to didactic-provide you with enough fodder for you to make your own judgement.mukul sharma-puzzle guru,a pseudo expert of all thing scientific(it means he was actually paying attention in all the classe of his engineering degree when people of his batch were out scoring chicks , dope or hooch), an inveterate believer of god and vithal nandakarni are regular rabble rousers of the piece.
one of the most interesting and original thought i came across in the column is a discussion on the book : predicting irrationality[sic].leaving aside the central theme of the book, i was fascinated by the observation that all our dreams and aspirations are inspired or atleast tempered by people around us. we have choosen a certain career path because we have seen somebody doing it and that evoked a certain kind of awe or desire in us. this principle can also be applied to all our pathos and sorrow: we are miserable because people around us have things which we dont have .think about it and you will be amazed by the simplicity and brilliance of this observation.
so all you out there who want something to chew over which doesnot involve words or numbers in a grid, do read it. it might not change your life but will atleast make you ponder, at least till the next meal.
