Conquering the World

 This idea has remained about the land conquests. But conquering the minds is what India has done well, through its many gurus and thought leaders, for centuries. Somehow, Indian educational institutes did not keep pace.. maybe due to government's diffidence.

Seems to be changing. Saw an IIT Madras at Zanzibar post on Linkedin today. This could have happened many years ago. But better late than never. I never understood why, with so much academic talent, our Profs. only went to universities in the US or UK, not expanded our own institutes abroad. 

Happy it's beginning to happen. Hope the world benefits, too..

Light and Shadow

The lives of most of us are comprised of the light and the dark. The dark can be accepted for what it is, and some of it can be dispelled by lightening up. But the contrast is actually something we need to understand and appreciate. If it was all goody-goody, maybe we wouldn't understand its value. Heaven must be boring, and Human Life must be the more interesting! Unless you knew about Hell, I mean.

The mind can probably be trained to do good things, like accept some things, and to face other events with fortitude- to light a light, in other words, to take things positively, as much as possible. Here's to lighting up, and lightening up. 

Every Once in a While...

Every once in a while, I hear a song which I cannot get out of my mind for days. It has happened recently with the following songs, which I heard after a fairly long gap, but they stayed in my mind.

Tum apna ranj-o-gham, apni pareshani mujhe de do.Sung by Jagjit Kaur, the wife of music director Khayyam. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8Yr1OOeOT8

Man gaaye woh taraana jise sunke chale aana..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-_S4GBf-Go sung sweetly by Suman Kalayanpur for a forgotten movie called Chalaak. Music by Ganesh.

Pyar hua hai jabse mujhko nahin chain aata. Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar from the film Abhilasha. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToO-PkucJac

Kabhi tanhaiyon mein yun hamari yaad aayegi, andhere chha rahe honge, ke bijli kaundh jaayegi. Sung by Mubarak Begum, music by Snehal Bhatkar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gi8ggmtACg

Gore gore o baanke chhore. Lata and Amirbai Karnataki in a song tuned by C. Ramchandra. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuCtgwQ0_Ks

Hai apna dil to awara na jaane kis pe aayega..Hemant Kumar sings for Dev Anand in Solva Saal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K8TH8LBs-w&spfreload=5