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Religion beyond Philosophy

Religion has many dimensions 1. It is an organized body of knowledge that men and women may seek to address their questions on what is the meaning and purpose of life.It is philosophy. It may be in accessible to many because of the abstract topics discussed and the arcane vocabulary.This form of religion is purely personal and intellectual. 2. It is about a set of prescribed rituals which individuals and communities follow. Rituals perform an important function of structuring life , so that we have some thing to follow whatever is the occasion. Whether it is birth or death or marriage, we do not need to design a new way of coping with it, there is a ritual in place which every one knows. For most mundane events, rituals assign a sophistication and profound meanings. 3. Religion is an organization of people , some times loosely structured, some times extremely bureaucratic and command and control driven. It is the organizational identity that make us see always
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What is the mystery of Patanjali?

Recently I attended a marketing conference. Most of the 'who is who' of marketing academics in India were there, and every meeting formal or informal finally lead to Patanjali. There were many scholastic opinions shared. Some emphasized the celebrity endorsement effect of Baba Ramdev, the most visible, iconic brand ambassador. Some argued that the emerging trend of patriotic fervor, some touched upon the emerging Hindu nationalism and Patanjali riding on the same trend that brought BJP to power . Some pointed out the health and fitness concern and back to nature and natural being good and related the same to a global trend. The political academic saw a hidden agenda and concerted right wing attempt and Government support and subsidy behind the success of Patanjali. There were those who eloquently spoke on their go-to -market strategy and umbrella branding. May be they are all right, but beyond all these , Patnajali is providing a compelling value-for-money proposi
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It is a major problem for the nation if the minority feels insecure. It is still a bigger problem if the majority feel intimidated and ignored. The biggest problem however is that we identify more with a religion than about the nation. Any incident we come to know , we understand through the lens of the religion, any victim in any violence , any injustice real or perceived is put into slots based on whether the name is identified as belonging to my community. The solution is not appeasement of minority or imposing the majority sentiment, but to create a super ordinate national identity.
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90 percent vegetarian

A few years back, I went on a road trip with a colleague of mine on the east cost of US. We being in this noble profession could not afford the restaurants and hence thought of relying on the ubiquitous and benevolent Uncle Mac-the patron saint of broke tourists any where in the world. My friend being a vegetarian had a problem to contend with. He does not like burgers , will not take fried chicken. We tried the super market, but the frozen delicacies need a micro wave oven and our rooms did not always have one. So he subsisted on fruits though he had a value based objection to GM foods. After a day of bananas, apples and pomegranates, I took to him a packet of bread and marmalade. He was quite hungry, still he carefully read the contents listed on the pack. Being in US, most packets list a lot of ingredients.Turning to me with a frustrated look, he said, the bread is omega enriched which most likely must have come from fish and marmalade contain gelatin which is of animal origin
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Why should a handset company force unwanted apps on its users?

I have had my share of experience with premium smart phones.Finally I came across a Micromax model which promised me everything . A 5.5 inch HD display, an octa-core processor,  lot of RAM, a big battery that last for a day, two SIM slots,  a good camera, lot of memory, finger print scanner, metal unibody, everything a premium brand provides is there in the package. All these features for 12,500 rupees which is almost one third of what Samsung would ask for equivalent specification. It is more than six months, I am quite happy with the performance and durability. Despite dropping it  an average of 2 times a day, some times sitting on it and sleeping over it, the screen has not cracked, nor are there many scratches. Heating is less, It is quite fast and is able to take any thing that I throw at it. The battery lasts for a 8-10 hours with two SIMs, 4G and Wifi on. I realize the VFM proposition. With the money they charge I can afford to buy three in an year and not have any anxieties of
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Why should Keralites organize protest demonstration on political violence in Egypt?

Many of you will not believe me; but it is true. There was a massive protest demonstration in Kerala against suppression of democratic rights in ; wait make a guess. Egypt it is. The country torn in internecine war between different versions and ideologies on how to govern people. All the intellectuals of Kerala from left, right and some activist Sanyasins , a retired Supreme Court Judge, all participated and lambasted the guilty. Some how it is implied that the imperialist west is at fault. Political intrigue, conspiracy, and activism : these are the favorite pastime of people in Kerala and we are selectively concerned about injustice depending on who perpetrates it and who is the victim . You do not find protest marches against Chinese oppression of Tibetans, you do not find any intellectuals raising their voice against sentencing a Saudi Arabian blogger to 600 lashes, but Snowden will find sympathizers and candle light vigils. More than 50 percent of the population in many nati
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The challenge of being a case teacher in business school.

Teaching a case study nowadays do not provide adequate return on investment. For a new field case (one that is on real companies written based on field research) , it takes 10 to 12 hours of preparation and a few hours on learning about industry context. A lot of physical and cognitive effort is needed to extract and organise the analysis, and a lot of emotional labour is involved in remaining calm and not getting upset and frustrated.  After every thing, look at the exprience . There are students who have not read the case, so they sit wondering what is happening. There are the smart alecks who ask profound metaphysical questions like see an example "In business why should margins be proportionate to price";  There are those who are desperate for class participation who want to have airtime at any cost and contribute a point which might have been relevant 45 minutes back. There are those who have an existential dilemma about a typographical error in the case and refuse to pr
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Whither goes India?

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