A Ban Doesn’t Always Work

A lot is being said about the controversy over Kamal Haasan’s film Vishwaroopam and its ban in Tamil Nadu. Interestingly, there was another movie a few months ago, that labeled all Hindu customs and symbols as hoaxes and all spiritual leaders as frauds. There were many Hindu organizations who were ready to protest, but my advice to them was not to give undue publicity and promote the movie by protesting against it. And that’s what happened - it ran for a few weeks and people forgot about it....

Social Media for Social Transformation

Media has always been a significant pillar of society. Media doesn’t just report happenings, they build public opinion. This puts the media in a powerful position in a democracy and wherever there is power there is a chance of misuse of that power. In some countries, powerful media houses are said to have influenced election results by portraying people and events a certain way. In India too, some time back a connection between prominent people in the media and some politicians came to light. The...

The 13th Doctorate

  Man without education, Education without skills, Skills without character, Character without action, Action without direction, are signs of failed nation. -- while being conferred an honorary Doctorate from Gujarat Technological University, Ahmedabad on January 19, 2013

A Tune of Harmony

There has been a huge uproar about the speech by Akbaruddin Owaisi. The hatred-filled content by itself is shocking enough but what is alarming is the applause that he got from his audience. This shows the danger of isolation of a community in our ever-expanding society. These misinformed and misguided mindsets are there because they remain in their own community. When they live in isolation, they promote only one mindset and there is no open mindedness. They may not have friends from other communities...

A New Beginning

It may appear that we are a part of this world, but actually, this world is a part of us. We carry our world within our mind and our mind cannot be at peace when the world around us is in turmoil. When mid-life crisis begins prematurely in teenage years; society is rattled with violence and drug abuse; humanism appears to be utopia; joy, love and compassion remain only in books and on celluloid; corruption and crime appear to be accepted as a way of life, then these are signals for us to rise to...