Rodevra Republic

Long before artificial intelligence, Čapek questioned what happens when efficiency becomes civilization’s highest value The Real Fear Was Never the Robots When this quote, which appeared in the paper yesterday, was forwarded by a friend, I was struck by the simple truth embedded in it. Deceptively simple, it appeared as part of the newspaper’s Contrapunto feature, a musical term borrowed here to suggest a counterpoint. “There came into the world an unlimited abundance of everything people need. But people need everything except unlimited abundance.” — Karel Čapek Several thoughts came to mind. Was Čapek speaking merely about the dangers of excess, or about something deeper — the gradual devaluation of the human being itself? I found myself returning repeatedly to the phrase “material abundance, spiritual poverty,” though even that did not seem to fully capture what the quote contained. There was a depth beneath its simplicity that compelled me to know more about the man behind it...

At weddings, the bride and groom may be at the centre, but human behaviour steals the show Having attended a wedding yesterday, I couldn’t help reflecting on how predictable, and yet strangely fascinating, these occasions are from beginning to end. The proceedings usually begin with a muhurat, solemnly printed on the invitation card in bold letters, as though everyone intends to honour it with military precision. Yet, when the auspicious time actually arrives, barely half the “close family and friends” are present. This, of course, is mostly a big-city phenomenon. In smaller towns and interiors, the actual wedding ceremony still remains the central event. People arrive just in time for the exchange of garlands, bless the couple, may not even have the meal, and disappear with remarkable efficiency, sometimes within fifteen minutes. Weddings are among the few occasions where one meets long-lost relatives and old friends. Sadly, funerals are the other. Time reveals itself most dramati...

Which of the great conductors did not need a baton? The question itself feels almost contradictory. The baton, after all, has long been the visible emblem of the conductor — that slender white wand through which orchestras are guided, shaped, restrained, and released. From Toscanini to Karajan, from Bernstein to Zubin Mehta, the baton became almost an extension of authority itself. And yet, while watching the Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa, one gradually forgot the baton altogether. There it was — absent. No baton. Only hands shaping silence, emotion, and sound No sharp strokes cutting through the air, no rigid command. Instead, there were only hands moving with extraordinary grace, fingers shaping phrases almost as though they were touching something fragile and invisible. His body bent gently into the music, eyes often closed, as though he were listening from somewhere inside the composition itself. While listening to his favourite, Bach’s Air on the G String  (featured here) ...

At $1,790 for this Balenciaga bag, what are we meant to admire here — craftsmanship, provocation, or exclusivity itself? When my daughter visited us recently, we found ourselves discussing a high fashion brand, Balenciaga, known for distressed shoes selling for enormous sums and handbags resembling trash bags presented as high art. The initial reaction was shock, but beneath the shock was something more unsettling. What exactly was one expected to admire here? As we spoke further, it became clear that there was a much larger phenomenon unfolding in contemporary luxury fashion: the deliberate blurring of the line between sophistication, absurdity, provocation, and cultural commentary. What began as a discussion about fashion slowly opened into a larger question about modern culture itself. The rationale behind such brands operates on several levels, and not all of them are about clothing in the ordinary sense. One part of it is status signalling. Luxury goods have always functioned part...

Perhaps the missing circle was never outside the others, but quietly at the center all along The more I have looked at this diagram, the more I see that there is something fundamentally missing in it. That said, for decades in our professional lives we believed in it, as it brought clarity to an often chaotic life by encouraging us to distinguish between what we can control, what we may influence, what we must adapt to, and what ultimately lies beyond our reach. There was practical wisdom in this framework. It prevented wasted energy. It encouraged maturity. It taught realism. Yet today, as the intensity of working years has receded, I find myself free to look at these circles differently. The question that arose is: Is human life fully explained by control, influence, adaptation, and concern? Or is there another dimension, subtler and deeper, that these circles do not fully account for? What the framework primarily addresses is the mechanics of engagement with life. It helps us unde...

There comes a time when the briefcase can be set down—and need never be carried again I happened to pull out an old, time-worn copy of Power  by Michael Korda that had been lying quietly on the shelf for decades. Its pages had yellowed, turned brittle at the edges, as though time itself had handled it often. Leafing through it again, I was reminded of how lightly, almost playfully, it spoke of something so serious—power—and how, at the time I first read it, I had taken it largely as satire. Perhaps I was not wrong. One passage returned with particular clarity. It spoke of the briefcase—not merely as an object, but as a symbol. In those days, one often saw managers moving purposefully through corridors, carrying heavy briefcases filled with reports, contracts, documents, and files. There was a certain reassurance in that weight, as though authority could be substantiated by paper. The briefcase, in a curious way, seemed more important than the person carrying it. It contained explan...

 After my recent piece, The Quiet Expansion Within , a reader shared with me an experience from his visit to Fremantle Prison in Western Australia. I am grateful to Sandeep Ghosh, for allowing me to recount it here. What he described was not a reflection, but a life lived—one that seemed to echo the same quiet movement from confinement to an inner world. Raj, your recent piece brought back a vivid memory of my visit to Fremantle Prison, a heritage site near Perth in Western Australia. The prison is now maintained as a museum, with a guided tour that lasts nearly two hours, intended to introduce visitors to prison life in the early 1900s. Fremantle prison The cell The experience begins dramatically. After presenting tickets, visitors are led into a large corridor lined with prison cells. Once everyone enters, the doors shut with a loud bang, and a jailor appears with a thunderous command: “PRISONERS! STAND IN A LINE ALONG THE HALLWAY.” It creates an immediate sinking feeli...

Where the world narrows, something within begins to open Can you visualize a man whose circumstances are bleak—marked by loss, disgrace, and confinement—yet whose instinct is not withdrawal or complaint, but to turn outward? A man who, even while imprisoned, tries to create a certain moral warmth around him. This is Dr. Primrose in The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith . In one of the prison scenes, surrounded by fellow inmates, he reflects on how he chooses to respond: “I endeavoured to comfort them, and spoke of the advantages of patience and resignation; and though I could not avoid feeling for my own situation, I resolved to make others happy.” He does not deny suffering. But he quietly suggests that even in reduced circumstances, one can arrange one’s inner life with a certain grace. It is not heroic in the usual sense. It is something quieter—and perhaps more difficult. To place this in context, we must go back to an earlier moment in the story, before misfortune arr...

  High above the city, where a simple thought begins to take shape. When my friend on the 56th floor called, at first I thought he was inviting me over for a drink, as he usually does. But when I answered, he said solemnly, “Come if you are free. No agenda.” Which, in his case, usually meant there was one. We sat on the balcony. Tea arrived, as it always did, without being asked for. After some routine talk, he came to the point. “I have been hearing this term—family constitution—these days. I have been mulling over it, and I think it makes sense.” I had a feeling he had already made up his mind and was merely airing his ‘loud thinking’, seeking confirmation more than discussion. He knew I was a writer of sorts, as I used to send him my articles. He claimed he read them; I strongly suspect he didn’t. But the point is, he knew he had in me a patient listener, and someone who could help give shape to his thoughts. He is the patriarch of a large and well-known family, with its members...

Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, Kyoto — where towering stillness above rests on years of unseen growth below There are some images that do more than capture a place—they draw you into a certain stillness. This photograph of the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest in Kyoto is one such image. Tall bamboo rises and converges in an almost cathedral-like formation. There is a sense of vibrant life in these trees, yet what one feels is a deep calm, as if the grove holds its own quiet rhythm and invites you to slow down and notice it. Incredible as the setting is, what is perhaps more revealing lies beneath—an extensive rhizome network below these trees. Unlike what we may instinctively imagine, this is not a collection of individual trees standing apart. Beneath the ground runs a connected, spreading system—an underground stem network from which roots descend and shoots rise. What appears above the surface as many separate forms is, in fact, sustained by a shared foundation. In the early years, the plant i...