Random Thoughts

My curiosity about Indian mythology was kick started after I read the book Myth = Mithya by Devdutt Patnaik last year. This book provides an easy to understand contemporary style understanding of the Indian mythology.  While I was reading Myth = Mithya , some of my friends were reading a fiction on Lord Shiva, the Hindu God of destruction, written by Amish, an alumnus of IIM Calcutta. Well, I resisted the temptation to read this book because I was fully immersed in the rational arguments that Devdutt Patnaik had given in his book and did not want to pollute my rationality with fiction. However, I decided to read the book after my old roommate from MIT, Shashi , recommended it. With so many of my classmates having the book, it was not that difficult to get hold of a copy. I started reading the first book of the three books Shiva Trilogy, The Immortals of Mehula. Well, having read the book I must say that it is a gripping story and Amish churns out a whole new pers...

I have been a great fan of Devdutt Pattnaik  ever since I read his first article on Hanuman in the Economic Times . Now the chief beliefs officer of the Future Group, Mr. Pattnaik gives a very easy to understand correlation between mythology and management. I got an opportunity to read his book Myth = Mithya , a book that gives an excellent insight on Hindu mythology and its relevance in the modern world. In fact many of the chapters are eye openers for two main reasons. Firstly, for me and for most Indians, mythology is what was shown in the TV serials such as Mahabharat  on DD1 and DD2. Secondly, most of the Indian scriptures are in Sanskrit and most of the Gen X and beyond are not at all comfortable with it. It is just like any other foreign language!! Thanks to people like Devdutt Pattnaik, who have chosen to write in English, that today we can relish some of fruits of the old wisdom. 

Last week I visited Lord Venkateshwara Temple at Tirumala. It was a good trip and by the grace of the Lord,we had a very quick darshan. It just took us one and a half hours for the darshan. I was impressed by the overall management and cleanliness of the temple, given the fact that thousands of devotees throng to the temple every day to seek the blessings of the Lord. At the temple thousands of devotees contribute to the 'Hundi'. The legend goes that Lord Venkateshwara borrowed a huge amount of money from Kuber to finance his wedding to Princess Padmawati. It is said that the amount was so large that the Lord is supposedly still paying off the debt and the interest on the loan. The contributions to the 'Hundi' are supposed to go towards paying off the debt and people contribute to the Lord by offering whatever they can. It is said that the contributions go towards the payment of the Lord’s debt . Interestingly, I think that such legends have shaped the lending and borro...