Swami Achari

In almost every religion that ever existed or still in existence, the topic of Life After Death or the journey one makes to the other kingdom is full of fantasies. One reason for the same, according to my learnings, is because we fail to understand the metaphorical language that the messenger of God uses. Our failure in understanding fans the fantasies. From the fantasy's perspective, the idea of one soul getting enrolled in the kingdom of God> the soul is directed to heaven or hell as per the deeds on Earth may by now seem to be believable but it is all imaginary. Man-made. So I will not indulge in that. Rather, I would tell you a bit about my life after the passing of my beloved Appa. I was around the age of 10 when I lost him. He was a diabetic and a foodie, a deadly combination. It was January and cold in Delhi. He went there on an official tour by train and returned in a coffin. The last time I and Appa spoke was 2days before he took his last breath in my

We have been taught from the very beginning that democracy in India has four pillars viz the Legislature, Executive, Judiciary and the Media. These four have a huge responsibility on their shoulders. My question is, are they doing justice with their job? The people of India have a choice of electing their political representatives. I agree, at least for judiciary we need educated people and so people cannot decide on who should be the next judge. Having said that, the fourth pillar is also somewhere losing its mind. Instead of being the information carriers, the media houses have now become the house of influencers. If people were given a choice to elect for media too, the situation would have been a bit different. Only the firm-minded would be allowed to report. Then I think the Godi and Non-Godi media show would have been managed differently. This situation is worsening with each passing day as there exist fewer genuine media persons and more the blackmailers. Believe

During Lockdown, I came across many realizations, be it related to my social being, material and even spiritual. I started thinking in dimensions I never thought of before. Thoughts on the time and condition humanity are living presently in. I started to think of the Yugas. As I know of four Yugas: Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga, and Kali Yuga. It is commonly said that we are presently living in Kali Yuga. After this, the Yuga cycle will restart from Satya Yuga. I read and thought of Satya Yuga and I came across a dimension which is pure. It is free from emotions or mental conditions of greed, anger, hatred, conspiracies, and any other possible impure condition that mankind be in. I also realized that we tend to expect extra help from others and not extend help to someone who is in much worse condition then we are. Then for a moment, gathered my thoughts and realized that isn't this lockdown is sort of the same condition? Is this lockdown a blessing in dis

Disclaimer: If you haven't read, Chennai Waves: Part One, I would request you to please read it. Day 1 was one of its kind experience. In the coming days, I had no idea what a ride my first visit to Chennai was going to be.  We went to water parks, watched Tamil movies in theatres with my father, frequented our visits to the beach, munched on authentic South-Indian food in Appa's favourite food joints and around the corner shops, attempted to speak and write in Tamil and what not? I was so fascinated by the rich culture, I wanted to take a deep dive that very moment in it. When we returned Indore after the trip, I felt like my soul remained in Chennai and only body returned. I started mixing Tamil, Hindi and English (It is a general issue that I face till date whenever I visit Chennai and any other city in the later weeks) Till date, my family is working on my Tamil language skills. I learn and forget after a while as I have no one around to speak in the langu

In this narrative, the writer wishes to take readers bit back in time. It was the time when connectivity was a serious issue. This was not the age of internet connectivity. Instead, placing a call to a distant relative was a humongous task. Let’s begin.. I come from an era where while growing up, we have seen landline telephones . It was the time when phones were new thing in the market and was out of reach of the masses. It was more of a status quotient then being just a service. In short, it was sign of a wealthy family. Recalling some of the instances when the first ever landline was allocated to us at our familial house in Chennai, my dad once accidentally mentioned to me how naughty he was. The story goes like: My Grandfather had applied for a landline telephone connection. He received the connection line and the tabletop set in a month’s time. At that time, he also received a small booklet with yellow pages and text in black colour. It had a lot of

This is a real timeline of events that took place in the life of the writer. The writer wishes to take readers back in time and tell the story of his first visit to Chennai. He chose to write on Chennai specifically because the writer’s father comes from here. Let’s begin. Chennai, the city, for years, I knew only as ‘my father came from’. I was born and brought up in Indore and so I shared least interaction with my Chennai based family following the great language barrier. As a child, I always wanted to visit Chennai. Like most of us, sitting at the beach, watching the waves and munching some x,y,z thing attracted me a lot. It was in the year 2001 when we visited Chennai for the first time. It was an altogether a new experience. As yet, I only spoke with my family members over phone calls and never saw them in person or image. It was the time when we had to book a trunk call, wait for the telephone exchange to connect the lines, wait for the exchange people to cal