Girish's Blog

The outlines of the Mahabharta and the life trajectories of the major characters are well known to every Indian, whether or not they have read the epic. We've been exposed to it since our childhoods and B.R.Chopra's fantastic TV series influenced the entire nation - cities and towns across the nations would virtually go into what we now call lockdown when the series aired on Sunday mornings on Doordarshan, the national  (and only!) broadcaster. Many of us read the many Amar Chitra Katha comic books  which embedded the visual characterization of many of the characters in our mind. We all know of the good cousins - the Pandavas, their ongoing struggle from birth with their 100 Kaurava cousins who were jealous of them. We feel sorrow for the accident of birth of Karna which led him to the side of the Kauravas, the might of Bhima, the archery of Arjuna, the self-respect of Draupadi, the Empress of India and the divine presence of Krishna, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, throughout...

In a letter that he wrote in 1789, Ben Franklin, one of the leaders of the American Revolution, wrote: Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. In spite of this, tax avoidance, tax deferral and tax evasion are common occurrences in today's world. However, there is no avoidance, deferral of evasion of death. Given this, how should we think about death and prepare? In his famous commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005, Steve Jobs, the founder of innovative companies Apple and Pixar said: When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whene...