Positive Overtones

A 2014 Sunday Times best-seller, Sapiens tells the story of evolution in a brand new way. Adapted into a story cum report format, Harari presents his version of the history of humankind using results of scientific research and speculative theories. He thus divides the whole of human evolution into three main revolutions: The Cognitive Revolution, the Agricultural Revolution and the Scientific Revolution. At the time of the Homo Sapiens there lived five other human species: the Neanderthals, the Homo Erectus , the Homo ergaster , the Homo denisova and Homo rudolfensis . We, Homo Sapiens , lived together in Africa while the other species were scattered across the world. Our failure in the first attempt to invade Europe ignited the Cognitive Revolution. It leads us to become thinking people who could organize ourselves into large groups. Thus, we could form small societies that were united by belief and culture. Once we had accomplished organization, we were able to overthro...

Descartes belonged to the era of Modern Western Philosophy. Therefore, it was quite expected that he would retaliate to the pressuring Medieval philosophers and Ancient philosophers in the Western World. The Ancient and Medieval eras took sense knowledge as their source to develop their philosophy of knowledge. Descartes, the father of rationalism, rejected this method and developed his philosophy using the concept of ideas. He started by saying that we need to doubt everything. This is because the knowledge of the external world comes from our senses which can at times deceive us. Thus, knowledge from our senses need not necessarily be true. But, if we doubt our sense knowledge than where is the base of our knowledge? “Cogito ergo sum” [I think therefore I exist] is Descartes’ answer. When we doubt the existence of the outside world, our doubting is thinking, which in itself cannot be doubted. Thus, we can be certain of one thing: our thinking proves our existence. This is a s...

The sixth novel published by the Indian author Chetan Bhagat is titled ‘Half Girlfriend’ . It describes the romance between a Bihari ‘village prince’ named Madhav and the elite Delhi-based girl Riya. The story is divided into three acts and is viewed through the eyes of Madhav, who narrates it to the author while in Patna. The first act of the book gives the reader a view as to what happened when Madhav met Riya in college. Madhav gets admission in the high-class St. Stephen’s in Delhi through a sports quota. He is impressed with as she undergoes her trials and at that very moment falls in love with her. As they both get seats into the illustrious college, Madhav strikes a friendship with Riya and the two get on very well as basketball friends. However, Madhav wants more. He wants her to be his girlfriend. To compensate for it, Riya agrees to be his half-girlfriend. When Madhav finally tries to get physical with Riya, she breaks off the friendship and in the following month...

Beethoven’s 5 th Symphony As performed by Marcin Patrazalek Beethoven’s 5 th Symphony when played on the guitar may not actually feel as magical as the original but it is definitely enthralling. The version I have critiqued is a version presented by Marcin Patrazalek in a unique style called the fingerpicking style. Finger style or fingerpicking style is a technique in which the guitarist plays a rhythm along with a lead at the same time using all the five fingers of the dominant hand (right hand for right handed guitarists). The guitarist in this version fuses in a dual harmony of fingerpicking and string slapping. While listening, I paid attention to the feelings that the original composer (Beethoven) wanted to emote. The intro comes in with a bang and would definitely leave the audience ecstatic. It is followed by a quick succession of notes which is quite evident in most of Beethoven’s pieces like the Für Elise and Eine kleine Nachtmusik. It seems at first hearing...

Freedom from Violence: PEACE Shalom-God’s own peace God, humans and the striving for peace :   God is peace itself. The violence around us is a reminder for us that we are still sinners and that we need to seek God. A search for peace without a search for God is a fruitless search. Only God can grant us peace. All those who yearn for peace in the world are silently and maybe even unknowingly yearning for God himself. Jesus was the Messiah destined to be the “Prince of Peace”. By saving us from sin itself, he basically brought peace to us humans. But we humans have the option to accept God’s offer for reconciliation or to reject it. Once we accept it, we need to share this peace to others by spreading the Gospel message of peace. However the striving for peace needs to be sought after by all humans irrespective of whether one is Christian or not. The first step to universal peace is to understand the fact that all of us humans need to work for peace in the world. Peace n...

blink by Malcolm Gladwell (Book Review) Malcolm Gladwell is a former business and science reporter at the Washington Post and is now a staff reporter for the New Yorker . In his book blink he wishes to unravel the mysteries of the “unconscious instinct” and how it can be controlled. The book consists of six chapters and is filled with various real-life incidents that better help him to explain his theory of the “unconscious instinct”. The unconscious mind is constantly analyzing and critiquing every single bit of information it receives. This is called “thin-slicing”. Our unconscious mind is so swift at doing this that we do not even realize how fast the whole process has taken. We rate people on how we experience them rather than how much we know of them. That is why a courteous person is likely to get into trouble than an impolite one. This is how the unconscious mind works. It examines every detail in a split second and then makes its judgement. The unconscious mind is l...

Returning Back to the Beginning  We on our part need to be collaborators with the Church. We can do so firstly by promoting equal rights for all and secondly, by standing up against male dominance and degradation of women. Though there are many cultures that promote male dominance over women, it is our mission to preach by the lives we live that a woman has an equal standing in society as compared to man. Their presence in the Church and in the world is needed no matter what way of life they have chosen. However, a caveat, while we work towards all this, let us remember that our mission to make the world understand the true worth of men and women: that they were both made in the image and likeness of God and that they are both equal in the eyes of God. In the creation story, woman is made as an equal of man – since they are both “created in the image and likeness of God.” But, from the time of the Fall, the approach towards women had changed. In the Jewish tradition women...