Theels are the unique feature of The ArmChair Journal. Here, matters of political philosophy that are embedded in an engagement with reality are published.
1. In the ingenious Malayalam movie, Kilukam, there is a dialogue that Mohanlal delivers, which is way too delicious. “Aval paranju…goodbye ennu paranju. Valare aduthupoyavarkum bandhathinte aazham nokaade evidevechum eppozhum kaikondu ingane oru goshti kanichu yaatra chodikanula oru vaakaanalo, goodbye…” Translation (the best I could do, but it is so pure in Malayalam): “She told…
Cervantes said, “While we are asleep, we are all equal”. He may be right. But I genuinely have something else in mind. I say, “Nothing says we are all equal than while we are shitting”. In this whole hullabaloo of the world trying to say we are all the same, that we have the same…
There is nothing as powerful or as alluring as the Forbidden Fruit. That Adam and Eve can have everything, everything from the blue waters, enormous mountains, and peace and harmony between man and beast. They can have everything but the one fruit. It was near, and yet so far. It was like the carrot that…
I became a parent at the end of 2008, so it has been a little more than a decade on this roller-coaster as they say. Parenting in this new millennium is certainly not what it looked like before this. There were no mobile phones in our homes and relationships, there was no online existence sometimes…
(This is article is the first in a 3 part series on ‘Nourishers in Our Lives – What They Leave Us With & What We Give Back?’ The remaining two would be published in the coming days) Nourishing It was in a cab ride involving two newbie teachers that this conversation on nourishing came up. As…
For many of us, religion is a free goodie bag that you get from the supermarket. You can live without it. You necessarily didn’t pay for it. But because you are born, society wants to give you a welcome gift, a complimentary voucher of religion. We take it under the guise of free merchandise. But…
There is a special place in hell for greed. In Dante’s Inferno, he talks about the so-called vice inhabiting the fourth circle of hell. Sinners who are gluttons, lustful, and spendthrifts end up here. In other words, all of us. Your mother always told you that you could have everything. She used to drill that…
All of us in this world like to enjoy. We also strive hard to achieve the bare necessities as it is a necessary and essential condition to live. We also work to get a comfortable and socio-luxurious life. But how do we achieve a society where this is possible. How difficult and complex is it? …
My relationship with God is gloriously fluid and unstructured. To me, God is sometimes a woman, sometimes a man, many times it’s just light or water or trees – you name it. Lately, I’ve felt God in my new washing machine. Sometimes I’m scared of Her, sometimes She’s my best friend – most times though,…
Very serious thoughts about human nature and diversity emerged in my mind after the recent protests by the JNU students. The subsequent – and completely unrelated – questions raised by the news media on the significance and utility of the education being imparted at JNU was intriguing. I wondered what it was that made a…
Needless to introduce either JNU, or the recent protests by students that have been happening about fee hike. There will not be much dispute if one says India is an opportunity-scarce society. Meaning, there is a substantial amount of its population living in poverty, it observes exponentially rising inequality, and there are social barriers like…
In the current age of International Relations and the global world order, the idea of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) exists only in name. At the very outset, I would be mocked for even daring to imagine a NAMic world. With the resurgence of three superpowers in the international scenario- US, Russia and China, and followed by…
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