Sentry Tower

"But how to get past the guards? The Palace Guard is composed of the toughest, the most skilled and the most intelligent soldiers in the Kingdom!", asked Tu-Jahn of the Old Man. The Old Man smiled and it seemed that the mischievous face of a boy shone through the mask of wrinkles and lines that made up his face. "An intelligent enemy is dangerous, but also easy to fool. Because he is intelligent and aware of it, he will trust to the level of his logic oblivious to the fact that other men might think as he." The smile faded away to be replaced by a piercing gaze that made him look like an old vulture, poised far above the plains: hunting for a suitably juicy carcass to feed on. "I do not believe you comprehend my boy." said the Old Man in a soft, almost gentle voice. Tu-Jahn, Second Talon of the Silver Claw, Bladehand of the Stone Mountain shivered under that coldly hungry gaze. He searched frantically in his mind for something that would make him und...

Is patriotism overrated? What is patriotism anyway? An irrational love for ones country irrespective of regional, ethnic, religious or cultural differences. Why is patriotism? It is obvious. To build a 'nation' one must have people who relate to one another so that they can see beyond the short boundaries of personal/familial interest and look towards the interest of the group as a whole. Ideally, the relation can be ideological in nature. However, historical evidence and the knowledge of human nature leads to the conclusion that as humans are irrational beings, thus they can be governed by principles of irrationality. This is done using the concept of patriotism. Patriotism (or nationalism, or social-nationalism or national socialism or nazism... see where I'm going with this?) is but a name for the Universal Method. Now the Universal Method goes by many names and flavours that differ subtly from one another in their means of execution or agenda, but essentially they ...

In the grip of road rage, I have often thought of violent solutions to my problems. Just today I was thinking how much traffic would be improved if there were no pedestrians crossing the road. Even in places with Foot Over Bridges (FOB) people tend to cross the road; often a high-speed high-traffic speedway; right in the shadow of an FOB. How simple it would be, I mused, to simply pass a mandate that absolved the driver if he/she ran over a pedestrian jay-walking within 250 meters of a FOB. It would rapidly solve all problems and the road would become smooth and hassle free. Now I've wondered at how many people would actually run over the pedestrians crossing. I don't think anyone would be able to resist the reflex braking when they see someone running right in front of them. I have often witnessed car pile-ups due to one driver braking to avoid hitting (even a) dog. But that was beside the point. The chief flaw in this system is that it loses sight of the objective of a FO...

A gray-walled room with a window. That's how he remembers it. It looks the same now: a large window in a small room. It makes the room look even smaller. The window-sill is thick with dust. Beams of sunlight stream in singly, their path illuminated by many-sided dust particles spinning. Or seeming to spin. Is the room this dusty everywhere? He wonders to himself, trying not to breathe it in. The sunbeams merely illuminate what's already there. Slowly, as his eyes adjust, more details of the room start revealing themselves. The room is bare. Devoid of anything except walls and tiny patches of plaster embedded in the cobwebs at corners. The effect is almost artistic. He wonders if rooms could feel. If they could, what would this room be feeling. Do they remember the people who lived in them? It's almost impossible to believe that people would have lived here once. The walls would have been new and shining with paint and resonant with echoes of laughter or tears or screams....

The contents of this post are based on no specific research whatsoever and contain interpretations according to my limited knowledge on the subject only. Please feel free to add/correct any factual errors or omissions. The Dragon and the Phoenix have always been two of the most ubiquitous symbols in mythology. Especially the Dragon. Every culture major culture, from Scandinavia to China contain some reference of this mythical beast. And all of them share some common characteristics while allowing for other differences in detail, symbolism, origin-myths etc that can be attributed to cultural differences. The common characteristics are: Serpentine nature: i.e scaliness. Dragons are never represented as mammals Ability to breathe fire Immortality with a variation being immortal, but can be killed Immense wisdom Then there are variations of course. Some dragons are portrayed as serpentine viz. the Chinese, while others tend to be like giant lizards. However, these common points d...

I am going to branch out and digress a lot. So bear with me non-existent readers. Why do we live? What is success? Is it having loads of money? Is it having loads of beautiful women love you? Is it fame? Or maybe making love to loads of beautiful women ON a bed of cash AND getting watched by the entire world? I don't think many will agree to any of the above as a definition of 'success' (although the last one comes pretty close!). I have a theory.  SUCCESS IS FINDING YOUR PLACE IN LIFE. Easy as it was to say that, it raises a whole host of questions by itself. What is your place in life? Now, I'm a layman. So I'll discuss this in layman's terms, for other laypeople (have to be gender-unbiased these days). Life is defined by three core, dominant qualities: aptitude, attitude and environment. The first cannot be changed, the second is prone to regular change and the third is somewhere in between those two. Let's break them up. Aptitude is what defines...

You should only fear one thing and one person. Yourself. Because only you can destroy yourself. And by destroy or damage, I mean in the mind. All real damage is in the mind. This is because damage is not a cause. It is an effect. Even in the case of physical damage, sure the pain is 'real' and tangible. But it heals. Or not. But the actual damage is done mentally. Take cancer or a broken leg. In both the cases, it is the mind which leads. We often come across phrases like "...struggled bravely against cancer before he succumbed..." etc. If the mind gives up, the body cannot endure. The mind has to continue to fight, even in the case of this most grossly debilitating disease. Now onto a broken leg. It is a minor ailment seen from a larger perspective. But try telling that to the person whose leg is broken. To him, it may appear to be unending misery. A complete upheaval or his routine and destruction of his personal freedom. For a seemingly endless period. The mind l...