“You must take this, I insist,” said our kind hosts and handed a bag to Mamatha, my wife, as we were leaving their home in...
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My Blog
26th October 2023
A Cosmic wedding.
In my lifetime, I have borne witness to over a hundred weddings, yet the one I had the privilege of attending last week in the...
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11th August 2023
Our ancient scientists.
Last week I saw the movie, #Oppenheimer. Though the movie is intense and illustrious, Gita’s inappropriate placement in the movie notwithstanding(I keep #BhagavatGita always in...
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3rd August 2023
Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2022 HEARTEN Awards
The Hearten Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Uplifting & Inspiring Non-Fiction and Memoir. The Hearten Book Awards...
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2nd August 2023
My affair with America
As a youth, I was fascinated with anything American, from Hollywood to Mad Magazines, McDonald’s to Walmart, and Time Square to Las Vegas. I was...
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17th July 2023
You are a writer too.
Mr. Rao, what made you write your first book?” the young man asked me at a gathering where I was the chief guest giving...
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31st December 2022
Maid in the lower world.
The grilled shrimps were exquisite, and I got up to get another serving at a 5 Star hotel in Bangalore last month. In walked four...
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30th December 2022
Spiti, Himalayas
See God in Her Wonders One thing that melts your physical self-image and ego to a tiny nothingness at once is the sight of natural...
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2nd December 2022
Women were the unsung entrepreneurs behind successful businesspeople
In the patriarchal era of the 20th century, business historians ignored women and their contributions to the commercial successes of their entrepreneur husbands or fathers,...
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16th November 2022
Three timeless lessons for start-ups
Intellectual capital No books or information were available on the Agarbathy industry that required perfumery knowledge. Most Agarbathies manufacturers counted only on forest produce and...
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5th November 2022
My three pills for failure.
The first batch of 60 Kgs of our Tetramisole Hcl, came out of my new Company Arvee in November 1988. With that, India had produced...
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4th November 2022
My rendevouz with Everest
Certain experiences and sights stay with a person all his life and one such moment that about tops my list is my experience of seeing...
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24th October 2022
Hindu Festivals and what they mean to me
New clothes, plenty of goodies to eat, and most importantly, no school. As a boy growing up in a traditional Hindu Family, the very mention...
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1st October 2022
Hilsa by Helicopter
The exchanges between the pilot and the control center added to the exciting experience. From my seat, I had an incredible view of the Himalayan...
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18th June 2022
The day I became a father
“Amma, Anna,” Mamatha’s screams continued, now occurring every other minute, and the decibel of her screams increased as well. Finally, unable to bear it, my...
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7th June 2022
A friend in need even when he was dead in deed.
My father-in-law died exactly a month ago. He was eighty-five when he died. My earliest memory of my father-in-law is the first dinner I had...
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28th April 2022
Mental Myopia
Mental myopia. Once upon a time, there was an eagle in one of the grand old villages of India. It was the only eagle in...
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5th April 2022
Three wise men
The universe has a way of staging events in your life, often composed and timed within a short period to teach you meanings. Call the...
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21st March 2022
Dare, but do be aware.
I loved adventures, even slightly dangerous ones. As a teenager, I tried to pinch a hippopotamus, climbing and leaning over the fence at Mysore Zoo,...
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7th February 2022
Tennis, it is.
Back hand, Ace, Love, drop, winner, unforced error, rally….With such words built into it, is it any wonder writers fall in love with this sport?...
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4th January 2022
For my man cave, I crave
“Uncle, I know that you have been meditating for more than two decades and often speak about non-duality. But you have a private bar at...
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11th December 2021
Kudremukh – Splendour of the Sahyadri
Mohan, I know you hate trekking with a group, but I want you to come to Kudremukh with me along with another thirty of us...
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2nd November 2021
The Best View Comes After the Hardest Trek
They say, “The Best View Comes After the Hardest Climb, and It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” So take a high-altitude trek at...
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21st October 2021
Hampi: The land of ruined temples
Hampi is the Pride of my home state Karnataka and a world heritage site. Hampi was so prosperous under the Vijaynagar empire that Italian and...
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8th October 2021
Helping our helpers.
Unless there is an important story worth the coverage, domestic workers are seldom discussed in our country. Yet, it is estimated that there are over...
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24th September 2021
Tiger Balm
I had a rare aura and God-given gift that made wild Tigers go into hiding the moment they came within a mile's radius. I was...
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14th September 2021
Jordan, Where three religions meet
Jerash is a city in Jordan. It is one of the most complete examples of a Roman provincial town to be seen anywhere. To me,...
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30th August 2021
Glorious Gomukh
Hindus consider the river Ganges as a sin-cleanser and the Himalayas as the abode of our mighty Gods. Hindus also believe that a dip in...
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10th August 2021
What adventure means to me.
Nowadays, I ask myself time and again what new Adventure I can take on, which new hobby or vocation I can try. But, of course,...
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6th August 2021
Advice to my younger self
I open the car door and see handsome, thirty-year-old me sobbing on the driver’s seat with his hands on the steering wheel. My Younger self...
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3rd August 2021
The fabric of birth and death.
I was contemplating the birth of my first child just as I was made to reflect the death of a person who gave me his...
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26th July 2021
Addicted to the Himalayas
Our trek started at 7:00 in the morning. Anil brought along a local, Gautam, an expert on flowers who claimed to know more than a...
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8th July 2021
33 shades of green: Journey of my marriage
Lessons from my 33 years of married life.
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7th February 2021
A tribute to women
“You don’t respect Amma as much as you ought to, Appa” my 20-year-old daughter told me several years ago. Thinking about how I treated my...
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19th December 2020
Change your Outlook.
“Please do attend my daughter’s wedding,” said the nearly six feet, fair and gentlemanly Ramakrishna formally, in his soft voice. He got up from the...
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14th October 2020
Children as educators
“Appa, you have to watch this movie. It is on Netflix. I will WhatsApp details” my daughter told me last week. Since her suggestions have...
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20th July 2020
Religion vs Spirituality.
“I read your introduction in your website Mohan Sir, where you claim to be an SBNR person, a spiritual but not a religious person. What...
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18th June 2020
Life Lessons from my Eyeless Angel
“I want to tell you something before we meet up”, I said to the mother of the prospective groom for my daughter. The groom had...
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24th April 2020
Big Moments When I Was Little
As I scroll to my next page on my Kindle trying to digest the daunting details of Dostoyevsky’s short story “the dream of a ridiculous...
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30th March 2020
Namaste Corona
At a time when a new pandemic is threatening our lives, an important question faces humankind. “What is God doing about Corona Virus?” My spiritual...
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15th March 2020
Corona, divided we stand
While we are told to get out and help victims of earthquakes and fires, we are now being told to stay away from victims carrying...
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7th February 2020
NOT O.K.BOOMER!!
The best way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it once.
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18th January 2020
Vintage 1958.
“We do not ‘come into’ into this world. we come out of it; as the ocean ‘waves,’ the universe ‘peoples’,” said Alan Watts. I was...
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19th December 2019
A prayer punished
I am afraid of praying. I am scared because I fear that God might respond in a manner that is totally against my wish. This...
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5th December 2019
Race for a race, a blond Vyasa Muni?
“Is anyone here aware that Hitler sent an emissary to Tibet in search of pure Aryan blood?” I asked my fellow group members. It was...
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9th November 2019
My spirit was my only catalyst
I watched the bartender wiping the wine glass, rubbing away the tiniest of grease marks and carefully investigating it again against the light before placing...
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22nd October 2019
Role Reversal, Kismet’s way
“What is the difference between A.C. current and D.C. current?” asked the external examiner from Mangalore University at a Viva Voce exam of my Mechanical...
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3rd October 2019
Medication over Meditation
It is rather sad that Society has always viewed mental illness as a sign of weakness. Often even the family members of the person with...
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