Pujit Aggarwal

    As a student, I often came across ads that marketed speed reading. Quite a few institutions offered short courses in this highly touted skill. They would support their claims and underpin the advantages by adducing the names of eminent celebrities who could speedread dozens of books in a couple of weeks.    If you can read more books within the time at your disposal, you can garner more information and knowledge to upgrade your status as a student, a professional, or a paladin. The premise underlying the proposition, though untenable under clinical scrutiny, seems to be quite specious.         Some of the front-bench classmates bragged about the number of books they had been speedreading over the weekends. There was no way of verifying what books those were or how much the speed-readers retained of what they claimed to have read.    I was a backbencher beset with all sorts of self-doubt. I was a reader, as and when I chose ...

    Philosophers are often misunderstood on account of their individualism, eccentricity, or studied divergence of views. When Alexander the Great traveled to meet the philosopher Diogenes and offered to grant any request he made, Diogenes snapped nonchalantly: “Stand out of my light!”     The King was neither amused nor miffed by the gaucherie. He knew the stature of the threadbare Diogenes who preferred to live in a tub rather than a palace. Alexander is reported to have said to some of his courtiers later, “… had I not been Alexander, I would have loved to be Diogenes.”      Friedrich Nietzsche is one of the most misunderstood philosophers of the nineteenth century. He has been held responsible for the death of God. He has been charged with racism and antisemitism. He is believed to have sown the seeds of fascism and the final solution in the last book published after his death.     His notion of the ubermensch is cons...

      I scanned through the internet to ascertain whether there were any helplines or experts who could guide me as to how one can mitigate boredom. Not that I myself have any personal problem with this malaise. I have been fortunate enough to ward off boredom and its sibling sleeplessness most of the time. What baffles me is the frequent coverage and confession of boredom in the media including Sunday supplements of newspapers.      Boredom is rife in all walks of life, except in religion and voluntary adherence of rites it entails. A built-in component of confession, expiation, and hope infuses the prayers with a sincerity of interest that does not always inhere in social and personal transactions. An orison for boons of health and wealth presupposes utmost authenticity.      I have often found myself stifling a yawn or two against the unctuous patter of formal introductions. Come to think of it, are the perpetrators of such patter the...