Description Details
What is Philosophy? Is it the exclusive domain of those who dream in abstract? Or is it the manifestation of the struggle of those who practice in material? Does it originate in the minds of professors like a Ganges flowing out from the hair-locks of "Lord" Shiva? Or is it rustic and puerile, evolving into maturity through the experiences of common men. I started writing philosophy without actually knowing that I was writing one. To start with, it was an outlet to project my frustration in the form of writings. Pretty often, it carried abuses hurled at none in particular, but at the system through its agents. But I don’t know when those ramblings started getting matured into Philosophy and all puerility and abuses purified themselves on the way – a Ganges doesn’t become pure by its origin but by the treatment people give to it on its way. In my book “Writings @ Ankur Mutreja”, I included a section on my personal philosophy and thought nobody would be interested in reading it. But, fortunately, I have found some kind-hearted people, who have given me their valuable feedback. I am reproducing my philosophy below by selecting those top...

Description Details
INTRODUCTION THIS IS AN INVITATION TO UNDERSTANDING. THIS IS AN INVITATION TO YOU. NOT YOU AS THE READER OF THESE WORDS ONLY, BUT TO THE (GENERIC YOU) ALL AND EVERY YOU. Millions are ready today to understand who they are and how they operate as a HUMAN BEING. There are a number of steps necessary in the learning process. 1.The individual must be ready (desire) to learn. 2.The individual must be able (potential) to learn. 3.The individual must practice (motivation) that which is being learned. 4.The individual must be (acceptance) the learned. ...

Description Details
If passing through youth was like crossing the mirage of life for Chandra and Nithya, it proved to be chasing the mirage of love for Sathya and Prema though for plain Vasavi, Chandra's pitiable sibling, it was the end of the road. As life brings Chandra, who suffers from an inferiority complex for his perceived ugliness, and Nithya, who was bogged down being jilted by Vasu, together, they script their fate of fulfillment. And as poetic justice would have it, Sathya, who caused Prema's heart burn, himself was led down the garden path by Kala, doing a "Sathya on Sathya". Just not that, life has in store just deserts for Vasu owing to Nithya's retribution as he tries to stalk her. Besides, after many a fictional twist and turn, the way the story ends, challenges the perception that fact is stranger than fiction. ...

Excerpt Details
As if all this was not enough for his tender psyche to cope up with, he had to contend with the sternness of the paternal strictness. Thus, it was only time before the seeds of alienation towards his father were sown in his impressionable mind. But the support he got from his sister and the solace he felt in his mother’s lap helped soothe his ruffled feelings a little. In time, he reached the threshold of youth, but couldn’t cross the despair of adolescence. Oblivious of the possibilities of life, man goes through his journey of disarray, in the itinerary of the past, chasing the mirages of malady even amidst the sands of hope. And that despairs him forever. Into his puberty, as his biology induced in him sexual curiosity, owing to his ungainliness, his youthful urge for reciprocity remained unfulfilled. Being naïve to the feminine nuances, his eyes couldn’t comprehend the emanations of their indifference. When in dismay, as he turned to the mirror for a clue, the reflections of his self-doubts stared him in his face. Yet, goaded by desire, he ogled women but to no avail. And as he went back to the mirror to reassess h...

Table of Contents Details
Shackles on Psyche End of the Tether Burden of Freedom Onto the Turf Respite by Death Lessons of Life Naivety of Love Dilemma of Disclosure Perils of Youth Absurd Proposal Crossing the Mirage Setting the Pace Oasis of Bliss Busy bees in Honeycomb Twist in the Tale Love in the Bind Turn for the Worse Shadows to the Fore Spurring to Err Tempting the Fate Stooping to Conquer Fouling the Soul Poetic Justice Agony of Penitence Embrace of Love Life of a Kind Just deserts?...

Description Details
The text translated is in the courtesy of Institute for the Translation of Korean Classics and their Korean translation version of the original Chinese text written by Yi I. The translation may differ from the original Chinese text as the English translation referred to the institute’s Korean translation....

Excerpt Details
Men born into this world cannot become truly humane without learning. So called learning is not something estranged or distinct. Only, it is just for a father to be benevolent, a son faithful, the ruled loyal, with propriety between spouses, love between brothers, trust between friends and respect for the elders. In daily lives, all work should be treated with its own worth and a man must not mind with the mysterious to obtain the eccentric. However, a man who is not learnt has a heart that is stagnant because his perspective is limited. He must read, and then after considering the truth in those lines and enlightening the path of learning, it is possible to realise that taking the path is virtuous and accomplishing it brings justice to actions. Men nowadays do not know that learning exists in their daily lives and believe that it is intangibly high and far, difficult to grasp. Likewise, learning is left to the great men and is given up by the common people. How pitiful this is! When I was at the south of Haesan 해산 海山, one or two students came and asked of learning. Although I was embarrassed to be worthy of a teacher,...

Table of Contents Details
Acknowledgement Preface Introduction·서·序 Chapter 1 On establishing the spirit of learning·입지·立志 Chapter 2 On changing old habits·혁구습·革舊習 Chapter 3 On conducting oneself·지신·持身 Chapter 4 On reading·독서·讀書 Chapter 5 On how to treat parents·사친·事親 Chapter 6 On the rites of funerals·상제·喪祭 Chapter 7 On the rites of ancestral rituals·제례·祭禮 Chapter 8 On how to reside in one’ s own house·거가·居家 Chapter 9 On how to treat others·접인·接人 Chapter 10 On the conduct of life·처세·處世 ...

Description Details
The Little Prince is a poetic tale, with watercolour illustrations by the author, in which a pilot stranded in the desert meets a young prince fallen to Earth from a tiny asteroid. The story is philosophical and includes social criticism, remarking on the strangeness of the adult world. It was written during a period when Saint-Exupéry fled to North America subsequent to the Fall of France during the Second World War, witnessed first hand by the author and captured in his memoir Flight to Arras.[11] The adult fable, according to one review, is actually "...an allegory of Saint-Exupéry's own life—his search for childhood certainties and interior peace, his mysticism, his belief in human courage and brotherhood.... but also an allusion to the tortured nature of their relationship."...

Description Details
This story whirls around plot that opens up when two ex-classmates happen to meet inadvertently, one on his official duty, while the other on past-time, enjoying holiday touring alone. Their next meeting, brings a female classfellow of theirs at the hill-station to make them enjoy one another’s company. This re-union continues to grow further during the years that follow. The author portrays just an account of certain events taking shape in the social sectors of these persons, making, breaking or remaking a marriage based on the choice of the persons involved into matrimony. ...

Excerpt Details
Hemant's intention in going to the H.P.T.D.C. hotel was, at the moment, influenced by the desire to meet Mr. Manmeet Malhotra, the manager. He also wanted thereby to express his gratitude to Mr. Malhotra who had arranged accommodation for him last night. Hemant was already under obligation of Mr Malhotra for his kind and affectionate treatment of Hemant when three years ago Hemant happened to meet him at the H.P.T.D.C. hotel at Manali where Manmeet Malhotra was working as an Astt Manager, those days. They were seeing each other after almost a decade since their graduation as students of S.R.C.C., Delhi. …………………….. "Well, how is `Bhabhiji`?" Hemant asked. For a few moments Manmeet held up his tongue tightly and only stared at Hemant with a smile on his face. Hemant thought that he had made a mistake. Perhaps, Triplem is still a bachelor like him. "But when I met him in Manali, he had told me that he had got married only three months before.” But Manmeet was quick enough to read the signs of perplexity in his friend's face and lost no time in explaining his position. ……………. He was not interested in knowing more about Ma...

Description Details
Dancing Bare is the amusing and unconventional memoir of an impossibly innocent young man who swaps the suffocating confines of middle-class New Zealand for love and liberation in nineteen-sixties London and Europe. Revelling in the freedom conferred by anonymity, Rigby becomes an actor, stripper, rent boy, lover, teacher and dedicated traveller through Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, where travellers were uncommon and countries still retained many of the differences that made travel so interesting. Rigby meets with a wide variety of people, life styles and customs, eventually settling in Paris where the state did not consider his sexuality to be a criminal offence. A moving, light-hearted and entertaining story of hope and love, sex and sexuality, theatrical showmanship and artless innocence, laced with a little philosophical speculation as he wanders the world in pursuit of true love. ...

Excerpt Details
Conceit, ignorance and optimism are the main ingredients of youth. Without a fair dollop of all three I'd never have dared turn up in the largest city on earth, the centre of the English-speaking theatrical world, expecting to land a job as an actor. I was nervous, of course, but that added spice. An existence devoid of unease would be pretty dull. Even hunger triggers exhilaration. Ignorance – some would say stupidity – sometimes propelled me into situations that later, in the light of calm reason, brought blushes and self-recrimination at my crassness. I can only blame the opiate of anonymity. Failure I can cope with – but not if there’s a witness! No one I cared about was around to witness any rebuff, so I dared. London commerce had shaken off the vicissitudes of war with a vengeance. Shops overflowing with goodies, food plentiful and varied, restaurants of every persuasion opening their doors to an increasingly adventurous public; theatres full, film studios on a roll, television had taken off, and best of all, war had exposed religious dogma to rational scrutiny. A god that allowed such a bloodbath was not a god to be f...

Table of Contents Details
Chapter 1.......... In the Beginning Chapter 2..........When the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear Chapter 3...........Escape Chapter 4..........Shelter, Fashion, Food Chapter 5..........When Ignorance is Bliss Chapter 6..........Jewels Chapter 7..........Performance Chapter 8..........Farce Chapter 9..........Work & play Chapter 10..........Dance and sex and… Chapter 11..........Interviews and work Chapter 12..........Saturday to Tuesday Chapter 13..........Tuesday to Friday night Chapter 14..........Assistant Stage Manager Chapter 15..........Cruising Chapter 16..........Riviera Chapter 17..........Playing in the Parks Chapter 18..........On Tour Chapter 19..........Touring On Chapter 20..........A Winter Tale Chapter 21..........Orgy Chapter 22..........Time Out Chapter 23..........Friendship Chapter 24..........Rootless Chapter 25..........Muddling on Chapter 26..........The Grand Tour Chapter 27..........Even Grander Touring Chapter 28...........Edinburgh Chapter 29..........Of lust and learning Chapter 30.......... Shop assistant and Teacher Chapter 31..........Eureka! Chapter 32.............

Description Details
This article seeks to illuminate a commandeering of a design philosophy to serve capitalist property development. It is proposed to contrast various world renowned projects to their Constructivist forerunners highlighting the abandonment of the movement's social ideals for stylistic icon creation. Turning a social philosophy into a capitalist marketing strategy. I believe that little or no attention is being paid to the hallow misappropriation of revolutionary ideas by leading architects....

Excerpt Details
About a year ago, the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) in Chicago selected the Interlace, a luxury housing development in Singapore designed by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), as the inaugural winner of its Urban Habitat Award. The development was cited by the jury for breaking down the preconception of stand-alone icons, for creating a ‘topographical phenomenon’ and was hailed for creatively realizing the model of a ‘tower as a park.’ The Interlace is undoubtedly an impressive structure, however this accomplishment clearly owes much to Constructivist architects whose work was achieved nearly a century earlier and was imbued with social and political philosophy which stands in sharp relief against the vapid commercialist structures aping the design vocabulary of Constructivist architecture....

Description Details
This moderately sized novel opens before the reader, with an episode that took place when, after having driven over a hundred kilometers relating to the pleasure trip from Delhi to Kosani,a tourist resort situated in the Kumayun Hills a range of the Himalayas in the North of India, being undertaken by a group of very intimate three unwed oldies, all retired college teachers, when one of them is accosted by the owner of the roadside `Dhaba` (an indigenous restaurant) where they had halted for refreshment. It triggers one of them to recall his boyhood days. Again, at their destination, the other one is accosted by an ex-girlfriend of his, in the distant past. The `trio` who are given to such type of tours, happen to meet two other ladies, while staying in a very beautiful zone of Goa. Here, each of these women have had been connected with either of the two other Professors, who hasn’t yet met any such female pupil of his, during the various other tours, undertaken by them the `trio` till then. These chance meetings brings forth during the next few years, a bond of a purpose for a meaningful solidarity, eventually turning int...

Excerpt Details
Three chronic bachelors, on their way to Kosani (Kumayun Hills), have just completed their breakfast at a roadside modern `Dhaba` and the cashier for this solid group of three looks towards his companions, as if to seek their consent to signal the `boy` to bring the bill. So, in a broader sense, we used to be treating each other as `neighbour`, during those days. He is younger to me by a couple of years, but his physique and mannerism suggested his equaling me in age. Of course, he always remained conscious of my superiority, because at that point of time, I already had schooling for seven years, whereas he was thoroughly illiterate. …………………. Kundan happened to be the only `writer` available, had a brisk business almost for a fortnight. "I think that it was here that I actually began to earn for months at a run. One day, my earnings went to as high as Five Rupees and 14 Annas, I decided to place it before my mother, instead of handing it over to my father, as usual. …………. "Well, Khanna Ji, how long you had to work with this medico, before resuming your interrupted schooling?" This question was asked by Mr Nepali. "Of...

Description Details
‘Time To Think’ is a collection of eight short tales about how to cope with such things as unwelcome evangelists, visitors, praise, sexual attention, living in a nursing home, relations, genetic modification and sexual urges....

Excerpt Details
Spreading the Word Sebastian gazed unseeing from the verandah into the sun filled garden. As usual a zillion thoughts jostled aside all attempts to attain a state of Zen-like relaxation. With an impatient sigh he sat up, dusted a few crumbs from the divan, rearranged the pillows then lay back with his hands at his side. Yogic breathing—that would do the trick. He managed to hold his mind still for at least three seconds before a large spider constructing an intricate web among the rafters caught his attention. He was already on his feet to get a broom when he remembered, and slumped back. ‘Your tendons will never repair if you're always on the go,’ the slim young doctor had snapped only an hour before. ‘Why can’t you just lie back and relax?’ ‘Because it’s not my nature,’ Sebastian had answered with a fetching sigh. ‘Perhaps if you were to massage me...?’ ‘And risk Reginald’s wrath? Not bloody likely.’ ‘Wouldn’t it be worth a broken arm?’ Sebastian grinned. ‘Not even you are worth that, Sebastian. Shut up and let the sounds of nature lull you to somnolence.’ But Sebastian couldn’t. Time plodded. He began to fidget. Struggled to...

Table of Contents Details
•‘Spreading the Word’ • ‘Time to Think’ • ‘Free Will’ •‘A Misunderstanding’ •‘Useless Things’ • ‘I Arrived a Week Early’ • ‘Poisoned Chalice’ •‘Mens Sana in Corpore Sano’ ...

Description Details
‘Jarek’ takes a tongue in cheek swipe at the extreme elements of 'women’s liberation', while offering a serious alternative to the way we currently teach our children. ...

Excerpt Details
Chapter 1. Zeno Skinny-dipping with Raylene’s friends was not Zeno’s idea of a fun night out. He’d only agreed because he wanted to seem tough, and hoped if he felt her up in the water and fucked her afterwards her mates would stop spreading rumours he was queer. The cars screeched to a halt at the boat ramp. Everyone piled out and headed for the small beach until Bob’s girlfriend reckoned there’d be eels and leeches in the river, so she refused to go down. Then the others also chickened out, saying it was too dark, probably dangerous and a stupid idea. ‘Fuck you lot are wimps’, Raylene yelled, grabbing Zeno’s hand and dragging him down to the strip of sand. A half-moon provided enough light to see, and it was hot and humid so Zeno kicked off his sandals, dropped his shorts, jocks and shirt on a rock and ran into the water, calling to Raylene to follow. The river was wide and deep at that point with little current, so he swam upstream a few metres then drifted back expecting to meet her in the water, but the beach was empty. She’d wimped out like the others; all talk and no action. Not too many brains either. He waded out ...

Table of Contents Details
Chapter 1 Zeno Chapter 2 Stephen Chapter 3 Jarek Chapter 4 Bindi, Irma, Belle & Ari Chapter 5 Adele is Taught a Lesson Chapter 6 Marriage Chapter 7 Bindi & Adele Chapter 8 Preparations Chapter 9 Cador Chapter 10 What to Wear? Chapter 11 Eros Chapter 13 Acceptance Chapter 14 Secrets Chapter 15 National Park Chapter 16 Waterfall Chapter 17 Secret Places - Secret Thoughts Chapter 18 Philosophy and Farewells Chapter 19 Feral Chapter 20 Crime and Punishment Chapter 21 Another successful Week Chapter 22 A Proposal Chapter 23 Partners Chapter 24 Chloe Chapter 25 Refuge Chapter 26 Sebastian Chapter 27 Developments Chapter 28 Plans Chapter 29 Abduction Chapter 30 Resolution...

Description Details
Description Two bank employees, one married male and the other unmarried female happened to mark affinity for self in the other. This unmarried person was the boss of the other one. In view of the mutual affinity, this boss visited the other’s residence for delivering in person the `invite` on the occasion of her marriage with an NRI doctor. In a couple of years, the marriage of both these persons reached the stage of irretrievable breakdown, as both were feeling suffocated with the behaviour and attitude of their spouses. By the by, they happen to divulge to each other the emotional injuries suffered at the hands of their respective callous spouses. However, they happen to be neighbours by virtue of the flat allotted to them by their bank under the self-financing scheme for its employees envisaged to reach them a surprise bonanza in a unique `no profit, no lost` basis. The events at the inlaws family in the case of both of thembrought them physically closer, with the blessings of their parents. Thus, they happen to be `a circumstantially evolved couple`. ...

Excerpt Details
Excerpts: “It appears to me that almost every religion tends to circumscribe the reasoning potentials of its followers. The self-styled custodian of the religious beliefs would not take it upon himself as a duty to seek the explanations of the `deviating folk`, unless an explosive situation emerges,” Nidhi expresses her opinion in the presence of the lone listener … She says, “Even at this moment, some kuchcha structure is visible. A notice board is also clearly visible from here. I think, let’s move towards that hut, to check, if that hermit is still using that hutment even after a period of fifty five years has gone by.” He looks undecided, but his wife almost drags him towards that sign-board. It reads the same contents. The door seems to have been bolted from inside. They move away awfully, lest they disturb the hermit’s peace. …. Nidhi often happens to recall her days when she had once heard from Anirudh that Smriti’s father is a doctor in a government dispensary and has been living an ostentatious type of life. It had resulted in his daughter always complaining of the total absence of modern amenities for leading `a...