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Showing posts from May, 2011

Is envy good?

The words "envy","jealousy" often have a negative connotation. It is called the green eyed monster as people believe that it can ruin friendships, relationships and marriages.It can create enemies out of friends. And more often than not, a person jealous of you; resents you silently, tries to find illogical flaws in everything you say or do, and will never let go of any opportunity to put you down. I used to believe that envy is something to be stayed away from as it destroys you in the end. But in a book that I recently read, there was a statement that said,"If we envy someone for all the right reasons, we're half way to wisdom." This forced me to rethink my stand on envy. If you think deeper, you don't envy a person on the face of it, you envy certain traits and behaviors that a person possesses. And more often than not, the reason for your envy is that you don't have those traits or behaviors but would like to have them. Admiration is a posi

Is honesty really the best policy?

Our Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, or Bapu, as he is fondly called, created a revolution in many minds with his principles of honesty and non violence, so much so that, even today, the POTUS, Barack Obama and many other influential and key people talk about Gandhian ideals and principles. Since childhood, we have been taught that we must always be truthful and forthcoming irrespective of the consequences and have been told stories where the truth is always rewarded. But sadly that's not the way things work in real life. I was reading Shantaram, wherein, he tells a man- who, even after very bad multiple injuries, was miraculously alive- that he didn't stand much of a chance. The color faded off that man's face almost immediately and he passes away shortly. Reflecting on it later, he said, "Of the hundred things that I wish I'd never said or done in my wicked life, that quirk of honesty is right up there, near the top of the list." Hope was the only thing