The context to this is my father’s dreamer disposition and the concomitant wheels under his feet. I had attended 10 different schools by the time I finished my schooling. There was no certainty as to where we would end up in the coming year. Childhood is the age for resilience and optimism. We took it in our stride and looked upon each translocation as a new adventure. However, the constant movement entailed the cost of not being able to form and sustain meaningful relationships with other people around us. As a compensation mechanism, we grew even closer to each other, to the extent that other relationships became extraneous in the scheme of things.

I acquired my taste for literature from my father (not surprising, considering that both my parents were lecturers in English), as well as raconteurship and vitriolic sarcasm. From my mother, I inherited the multiple gifts of chatacter study, caricature, irreverence and repartee. My brother inherited my mother’s habit of judging and labelling people. My sister, at that time, hated controversy, so she was always the moderator in every discussion. Needless to say, I was always the Devil’s Advocate.

In such circumstances, one had to use words based on their specificity, and marshal one’s facts to construct an irrefutable arguement, at the risk of handing an inch of advantage to the adversary (I use the term advisedly, as causes were espoused with great passion). 

The only equivalent to this domestic arrangement is movingly depicted in the circumstances of the Deb’s household in the fictionalised biography of Eugene Debs, arguably the most inspiring trade union leader of all time, by Irving Stone titled “Enemy In The House”. A must read, in case you have not.

My language felicity is directly correlatable to those endless discussions, stretching into the wee hours of the morning.

It cannot be pure happenstance that 3 siblings with disparate dispositions, unique experiences and variegated life circumstances have reached a point of convergence on most of the significant issues in life.

Was acquiring linguistic abilities the ground-work for domains requiring more rigid discipline, structure and application?

In case you have liked this post, then also visit http://www.amitabhdhillon.com. He’s the youngest of the three of us,  and, by far, the most accomplished blogger. I would especially recommend his latest post titled Good Wood.

The supplementary piece was that of “Sangat” . The concept was that of  a communion of minds. Initiated by the first Guru, Nanak, at Kartarpur, the idea was that of a download of wisdom or “seekh” (learning, hence etymology, Sikh) in order to help his “shishyas” (disciples) attain salvation (“raaj mein jog” or detached involvement). This Socratic discussion culminated with the langar. With the demise of the tenth Guru, Gobind, the broader community became the repository of wisdom, taking on the role of mentor. The injunction was to seek like-minded people and commune with them on metaphysical issues. With inreasing levels of self-awareness, and translation of precepts into action, one would migrate to more evolved groups. It is rather like the video games of today wherein the level of difficulty escalates with increases in user scores.

I am pained to see that in my native village, like elsewhere, wherever sizeable Sikh populations exist, there are separate gurudwaras (places of worship) for Jats, Khatris, Ramgarhias, Mazhabis etc. This, of course. apart from the various sub-sects of the Sikh faith, namely, Namdhari, Udasi, Mina, Dhirmalia, Gulab Raja, Ram Raiya etc. 

Costernation is too mild an expression to describe my response to the edict by managers of our temporal affairs that Sikhs living in sub-zero climes must consume langar seated on the floor. Have a heart, and spare a thought for their heinies! To my mind, any common platform serves equally well.

As to this business of “hukamnamas” (edicts) and “tankhah” (symbolic punishment for violating an edict), I am pretty sure that it did not emanate from the Gurus. They were much too enlightened for all this. To understand the dynamics of the dyadic relationship between organised religion and organs of the state, I can only refer you to Shaw’s (my favourite author of all time) “Joan of Arc”.

If  it all had to come to this, were the sacrifices of so many, in the face of  such overwhelming odds, in vain? I would like to believe otherwise, evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. However, my distaste for anyone who gets between a person and his/her God, posing as a broker or arbitrator, has kept me away from Gurudwaras for the best part of a decade now, my personal addiction to hymns set in “pakka ragas” (classical meter) notwithstanding.

As for my personal experience with pangat, it has been a mixed bag. No one from any strata of society enters my home without being provided a seat. Whatever be the nature of the relationship between us outside, inside the house, he/she is my guest.The refreshments on offer are the same,  irrespective of the individual, and the utensils used are the same in all cases. I prefer to celebrate festivals with the employees of the Housing Society that I stay in, rather than with my peers (does belonging to similar socio-economic backgrounds really make them my peers?). Over the years, well wishers have been advising me to change my style as familiarity often breeds contempt. I have definitely encountered some bad apples. A knee-jerk reaction would be to stop eating apples. I have gone to the other extreme by increasing my intake of apples, so that the bitter after-taste of a bad one is quickly washed away by the aroma, succulence and sweetness of a fresh one.    

As for the relevance of sangat in today’s times, I can speak authoritatively based on first hand experience. Having been through extensive psycho-therapeutic interventions, I did not receive an iota of benefit compared to what I gained by pruning the list of people that I wanted in my life out of my current contacts, and reaching out to like-minded people, primarily via this blog . In Physics parlance, I have eliminated all the drag forces in my life and exponentially enhanced propulsion forces. In a sense, the concept of community learning through self-help groups, widely deployed as a therapeutic tool in developed economies, can be said to have originated from the Sikh faith. 

Personal aside: Uday, hope this piece measures up !

As the Guru wrote: “Chche ghar, chche gur, chche updes;  Gur gur eko, ves anek; Baba jai ghar karte ka keerat hoye, so ghar raakh vadeiyaae toe: Visuye chasiya ghariya pehra, thiti vaari maah hoa; Sooraj eko, rut anek, Nanak karte ke kete ves.” Loosely transliterated: “In different households, holy men of disparate faiths are dispensing the word of  God based on the tenets of their religion. God is the same in all cases, though his form might vary. So, praise the household in which God is invoked, in whatever manner. As seconds turn into minutes, succeeded respectively by hours and periods of the day, so do they, in turn, transition successively into days,  months and years. The centre of the universe,  the Sun, which is unitary in nature, creates the phenomenon whereby different seasons result. Similarly, the one True God has many manifestations.”

Accordingly, in the construction of the Harmandir Sahib, care was taken to provide four entrances, signifying that people of all faiths (there were four principal faiths in India at that point of time) were equally welcome. 

Apart from the inter-faith issues, in the immortal words of Kabir (whose work is included in the Granth Sahib): “Awwal allah, noor upaiya, kudrat ke sabh bande; Ek noor te sabh jag upjeya, kaun bhale ko mande; Maati ek, anek bhaant kar saaji saajanhare; Na kachch poch maati ke bhaande, na kachch poch ghumare.” Loosely transliterated: “God, the supreme being, as a part of his divine providence,  decreed that all men are created equal, all of them children of Nature. From the same enlightenment is the whole world created, so who is to say as to who is good or bad. It is like the potter who fashions the common clay into different shapes. Who can find fault with either a particular clay utensil or the the workmanship of the potter?”

This acceptance, in toto, of any person, with all his foibles, as a human being  worthy of respect, was a conception revolutionary for its times.

Are these tenets the balm for the troubled times that we live in? I wonder.

I hpld no brief for a particular religion,  nor against one. The basic precepts are the same across all faiths, even though the form and customs might vary. I have always believed that the best place to discover God is within other people, rather than in houses of worship. The Creator’s flame burns within all of us, as we are created in His likeness. When the circle of life and death has run its course, the soul, the immortal piece of us, transcends the human form and merges with the cosmos.

I do not quite understand the brouhaha accompanying inter-faith marriages. “What will happen to the religious choice of the resultant offspring? Who will make that choice, and how?” seems to be the common refrain. Where is the problem with imparting core humanitarian values to the children, and guiding them towards spirituality? They can make their own informed choices regarding the form and customs that they choose to follow based on either pragmatic or rational appeal grounds over a period of time.

The fundamental truth of this precept has always resonated within me. But of all the “vikaars” (defects/flaws) listed in the scriptures  (note that these are not labelled as sins), namely Kaam (Lust), Krodh (Anger), Lobh(Greed/Covetousness), Moh (Emotional Attachment) and Ahankaar(Pride),  it is the last one that poses the biggest challenge. I am sure that the chronology in their listing is not incidental , but rather,  represents  an ascendancy in terms of the level of difficulty encounterd in ridding oneself of it.

The prime-most example of this precept in action was the insistence of all the Gurus that they neither be deified nor worshipped. Instead, they chose to be called Guru (Teacher). Hence, the nomenclature Sikh for the community, a derivative of Sikhya (Disciple). The concept was that of a dispenser of wisdom and spirituality, providing a  road-map for a lifetime of righteous living, thereby guiding one towards salvation.      

A case in point is the Tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, who, to my mind, was the most accomplished of them all (although Nanak was, without doubt, the better poet and the most spiritual). Anyone who has read even excerpts fom his Chandi Di Vaar and Dasam Granth would be awe-struck by the depth and breadth of his knowledge spanning diverse religions that resulted in the evocative imagery that he wove and invoked. This, apart from his felicity in multiple languages. I am not even going into his visionary astuteness in transformational social re-engineering in response to the emerging politico- religious climes. Yet, look at the humility of the man. He insisted that none of his works be incorporated in the Granth Sahib, the repository of the basic tenets of Sikhism and the collective wisdom of the preceding Gurus. That’s a tough act to top! Need I say more?

Now for my personal experiences in this regard.  I was never attached to the material world, except as a means to an end.  So, the question of Lobh never arose.  I worked the Kaamagni out of my system (barring my mind) by the time I turned 40. Detached involvement or Moh was the next to follow. It was difficult, considering that I have a very young daughter, who I am responsible for bringing into this world. Life circumstances took matters out of my hands in this regard. Even if they change back to the earlier equilibrium over a period of time, I can no longer be the person that I was in the relationship.

 Krodh was the one that I had the hardest time mastering. My fits of rage were a sight to behold. Sheer, black anger, emanating from wellpsprings within me that I had no knowledge of or control over. Typically, my tone would grow deathly grave, my pitch would be even, my use of language mild. But it was always there in the eyes, that hint of madness, which seemed to suggest that, “This man is now wound up to breaking point. Cross him at this moment at your own peril, for,  if he snaps now, mindless  destruction will be the resultant, without the least regard for the consequences.” I spent a lot of time in therapy trying to get a handle on this. The wisest psychotherapist that I encountered helped me to come to the realisation that I let hurts and griefs and anger build up on a day-to-day basis till I reach my threshold.  At that time, I react disproportionately (using a sledge-hammer where a chisel would suffice, was his analogy of choice),  releasing all the negative emotions within me.

That realisation was only part of the solution. Some other issue seemed to be suppurating under the surface. With the help of my last therapist, and largely based on my own insights, I finally accepted that I suffer from extreme self-hate and self-loathing. The reason for that is the vision that I had for my life in the wider scheme of things when I was half my current age. With all the gifts that had been bestowed upon me, I should easily have been able to translate my thoughts into concrete actions. Instead, I lived a life full of excesses until I had successfully managed to marginalise myself in all spheres of life.

This calendar year has been an eye-opener for me in this regard.  I started out by reengaging with life. In no time at all (though a 24 by 7 effort went into it), I had managed to rehabilitate myself socially as not only respectable, but also a respected pillar of society. That led to networking and professional opportunities galore, that I am encashing currently. The financial picture looking rosy, now I am endeavouring to put the pieces back together in my personal life.  

The one piece, which I have to struggle with now, is Ahankar. Even in my lowest phases, I have been guilty of intellectualy patronising others. At times, I despair that I will  carry this vikaar with me to my death-bed. At other times, a voice within me whispers optimistically that the resolution to this too is within reach. Let’s see how it finally pans out.

One final note on this. It is said that the path of excess leads to the palace of Wisdom. My life bears that out (or so I would like to believe). However,  it is too encompassing a generalisation. I see people around me every day, who have not moved an iota towards spiritualism and self-actualisation in the decade plus that I have known them. If possible, they have moved further away.

The summation of all this is the  quotation, “Bhaee prapat manukh dehuriya, Gobind milan ki eh teri bariya”. 
Loose transliteration: “In this birth, you have been gifted with the human form; It is the opportune time to encash the opportunity and achieve salvation through a union with God.”
In terms of contextualisation, the Sikh faith, monotheist in nature, borrows from the polytheist Hindu faith insofar as the belief in the transmigration of souls is concerned. The belief is that a soul acquires human shape and form only once in 84,00,000 incarnations (hence the expression, “chaurasi lakh joon”). In that incarnation, it has the unique and distinctive ability to think and reason, and thereby, commune with God by discarding its bestial manifestations. Otherwise, it has to go through the entire cycle again to get another opportunity (hence, the “bariya” or turn, etymology “vaari”).

As far as I am personally concerned, I would rather end this cycle here and move on to newer things. The unfulfilled promise of thrilling new adventures bekons………

The prime-most exemplification of bravado in our ethos is in Piloo’s Mirza: “Meri Bakki ton daran farishtey, Tein Jatt ton darey khuda….” Loosely transliterated: ” The mare (named Bakki) that I ride is feared by the angels, and as for myself, God himself fears me.” It is the ultimate statement in terms of vaingloriousness (hubris?).

The second strain resonates in the contemporary Rabbi Shergill rendition: “Sun totiye ni man motiye, mainun vaaj naan pichchon maar, ni main chaleya aapne hi wattan, ni main chaleya aapni thaan; Mera aalhna baaleya baireeyan, ni mainun ditta des nikaal; Bin daana paani jee lavan, bin ankh main jee na sakan….”   Loosely transliterated: “My sweetheart parrot mate, do not ask me to retrace my steps once I have made up my mind. I am only going back to my provenance, from whence I sprang. I was ousted and exiled by foes who set afire my nesting place. I can survive without any material sustenance, but I cannot live without vindificating my personal honour.”

The third strain of reckless daring is reflected in the anecdoctal episode regarding Tota (Parrot) Singh and Bota (Camel) Singh. The saying goes:   “Hath vich sota, vich sadak khadota; Anna laaye gadde nun, paisa laaye khota; Aakhein bhabo Khano nun, yaun aakhe singh bota.” The historical setting is the period of turmoil in Punjab subsequent to the murder of the last/Tenth Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, and prior to the ascendancy of the Guru’s annointed military marshal, Banda Bahadur. Since the murder of the Guru’s two youngest sons, who were bricked up alive in Sirhind in a bid to make them recant their faith, there was a vitriolic outpouring in the Sikh masses against the Mughal regime of the times. The notorious brigand duo mentioned above would loot Mughal caravans in retaliation. The taunt, loosely transliterated was: “With a lusty stick in hand, I stand in the middle of the road; Levying a wayfarer tax of one anna (4 paisa) per cartload, and one paisa per donkey-load; Go and tell sister-in-law Khanon (the wife of the ruling hakim/governor of Sirhind) that thus spake Bota Singh.” The allusion, none too subtle, was to her wearing the pants in the family.

The  seminal masterpiece, as usual,  comes from the Guru: “Soora so pehchaniye jo larre deen ke het, Purja purja katt mare, Kabhun naan chhaade khet.” Loosely transliterated: ” The mark of a person’s valour is in his willingness to stand up for the downtrodden. It is in his steely resolve to be torn asunder limb by limb for a worthwhile cause rather than quit the battlefield.”

Now for my experiences with this. Since childhood, I have been prone to taking up cudgels on behalf of the under-dog. Several pitched battles have ensued, and I have achieved my share of victories. But sometimes, I have won the battles, only to end up losing the war. All this has come at a tremendous cost to me in terms of mental distress, financial losses, professional setbacks, social censure and deterioration in personal relationships. All that not withstanding, I would not change even a whit of it if I could, and would have happily continued to try and tilt at the windmills of the gods.

However, age has lent some insight in this regard. It is not for nothing that the Tenth Guru, Gobind, is famous for his sayings, “Chiriyon se mein baaj ladaoon, Tabhi Gobind singh naam kahaoon” and “Sava lakh se ek ladaoon, Tabhi Gobind singh naam kahaoon.” Transliterated: ” Let the name of Gobind reverbrate when he teaches the sparrow to hunt the hawk” and “Let Gobind’s name resonate when he pits a solitary soldier against a multitude.”

I have learnt my lesson. As the saying goes,”Feed a man fish, and you feed him for a day; Teach a man how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.’ There is a limit to my time and stamina. How many fronts can I open up and hope to sustain? But if I can organise deprived/marginalised groups, motivate them to fight their own battles, and impart to them the knowledge and skills for doing so, then the multiplier effect of my efforts goes up exponentially. The final solution IS self-help groups. But to lend credence and authenticity to my intervention, I must be willing to share the risk with them. They need to feel assured that in the event of any criticality, they can count upon me to roll up my sleeves,  get my hands dirty, and lead from the front.

Some of you may be familiar with the terminology of the Johari Window. Contrary to the seeming etymology, it does not allude to a diamond merchant operating in Surat! It refers to a behavioural testing instrument developed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham (hence the name). It operates in the context of a professional work environment. The basic premise therein is that there are “appropriate”  levels of self disclosure and feedback to others that govern optimal work relations.

The other point of view was expressed by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru in his oft quoted epistle to his daughter from Naini Jail, entitled “Work In The Sun And The Light.”  His advice to a teenaged daughter was to do everything in the public gaze. The purpose seems to be four-fold. Firstly, if everything is done under public scrutiny, you largely escape calumny. Secondly, to offer yourself upto public opinion, you must be able to ensure that your conduct is beyond reproach. Thirdly,  it imparts to others the confidence to be able to give you straight-forward feedback without mincing words. Lastly, based on honest feedback from others, you have the opportunity for course correction and improvement, wherever you deem fit.

I used to espouse the former in my career as a corporate trainer. The more that I experience and experiment with life, trying out established management precepts in the global life sphere, the more I am convinced that the latter point of view achieves a better functionality, both on the professional and personal front. What I cannot say to a person’s face, why should I say it behind his back? Moreover, unless I am culpable for any felony, what do I have to hide? Furthermore, it preempts an exalted sense of self. In the final analysis, the passage of a person through this world is hardly an earth shaking event. ” The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, await alike the inevitable hour; The paths of glory lead but to the grave.” To put it in the Indian context,”Tumhare mahal chaubaare, dhare reh jaayenge saare; Akad kis baat ki pyaare, yeh sar phir bhi jhukana hai…”

A case in point is the changes that I have been able to effect in the blog, including the initial post, primarily in terms of structure, and  somewhat in terms of style, based on a  honest critique by readers. Would that have been possible without an “inappropriate” level of self-disclosure from my side?    

Having made my case (hopefully!), I can only say that the training products that I executed most brilliantly were the ones that I identified with intellectally and emotionally. In other words, concepts that I could validate through my personal life experiences.

Therefore, in my blog, I am only focusing on concepts that I have personally found to be fundamentally sound in my life. If that seems to be over/overt content personalisation, then so be it. A blog is not about theoretical treatises. It is about distilling the best of yourself and expressing it with crystalline clarity in the hope of engaging with people of similar sensibilities (in the real world, the window of opportunity for this seems to be shrinking, hence, the recourse to virtuality).

All that I have mentioned above comes with a caveat. What I divulge about myself is a matter of personal choice. At the same time, I cannot deny other people the right to their personal space. In other words, when there are overlap zones between my life  and that of another person,  I should not impinge upon the privacy of the other party.

In terms of appropriateness, all that I can suggest is that the thumb-rule seems to be issues that are of any import to the recepient(s). I shall endeavour to bear that in mind in my subsequent posts.

The reasons are multifarious, and I propose to apportion the blog along each of the principal ones, namely:

I) VIGNETTES OF A LIFE                    

Each life, thought and emotion has an evolutionary contextualisation. My daughter has just turned 3 on the 1st of this month. I am 42 and keep indifferent health, at best. What if I am not around when she grows up? In that eventuality, what when she asks, “What sort of man was my father?” Each person will have his/her take on that, rather like the apocryphal tale of the blind men and the elephant. Only I can answer that question with any degree of certainty as I am the only person (my personal demons apart!) who dwells in the skin that houses my body. So, here goes.

II) THE SIKH WAY OF LIFE  

All of us 3 siblings have inter-faith marriages. I have never been a votary of organised religion, in fact, have always had a marked aversion to it. However, a particular way of life was enshrined in us in our growing years. I hope that it would not be shrouded in the mists of time as far as our coming generations are concerned. ”The old order changeth, yielding place to the new, lest one good custom corrupt the world.” Why then does the name Camelot still evoke nostalgia? We are not going anywhere until we understand where we have come from. Hence, this section of the blog. Khushwant Singh, in his seminal “The History of the Sikhs”, bemoaned the imminent demise of Sikhism. I could not disagree with him more. Ceremonies, forms and customs in a religion vary as a function of the times. A worthwhile precept in any religion will not only stand the test of time,  but also retain its transformational potency, both at the individual and societal level. A case in point is “Dasvandh.” On the face of it, it is a simple injunction to donate one tenth of your earnings to charity. After a lifetime of ruminating about this, my take on this is slightly different. The only real capital that I have created in this world is my knowledge, skill sets and wisdom (however little it may be!). The only capital that I have been granted is time. To my mind, the injunction is to expend at least 1/10th of each of the capitals at my disposal in selfless activities, exercising humility and compassion at all times. In my experience, it is the caveat in which the catch lies. It is not only the Devil who lies in the details!     

III) LIFE SKILLS

In the movie, ”The Last Samurai”, Tom Cruise’s character says, “A man tries to create his own destiny, till his true destiny is revealed to him.” That resonated within me. I have spent the last few days contemplating what my true destiny is and how it will be revealed to me. However, I am too much of a rationalist to completely buy into such a fatalistic philosophy. I tried to reconcile the two contradictory streams of thought. I have always believed that each person has a certain uniqueness about him/her, things that he/she does better than a vast majority of people around him/her. That constitutes one’s tool-kit in life. Using what is at your disposal, you can construct a mansion, a temple, an orphanage or a school. In the process of the choice that you make, and its implementation, your true destiny will automatically manifest itself. What, then,  comprises my tool-kit? A sponge like mind that grasps concepts quickly. A felicity in 3 languages, namely English, Punjabi and Hindi. The ability to transform concepts into actionable mechanics. The ability to scale up or tone down my level of communication based on the bandwith of the recepient (no use employing a bucket to fill a cup, and vice versa). The burning desire to share, and thus better the lot of people around me. What then has impeded me thus far? “Tu kahe to unwaan(title) badal dun lekin, Umr darkaar (required) hai afsaana (tale) badalne ke liye.” Loosely transliterated: “A skunk by any other name would smell just as rank! The story of my life has already unfolded. I would have to relive it to materially change its tone and substance.” That fatalistic assumption has guided my steps till date. In all my years submitting to organisational psychometry, interpreters were always puzzled by my abysmally low scores in terms of achievement motivation. Today, I realise that these tests are not normally designed to cater to people with off-beat orientations in life. For me, the corporate world was always, and only, a source of sustenance and a provider of diverse learning experiences. I never set my own compass and clock in the course of the entire engagement. For the uninitiated (with the jargon, that is), my compass refers to the direction that I would set for my rudder in voyaging around the sea of life. My clock refers to how I would structure my time to achieve my desired goals in the set direction.  Externalities always set my clock and compass. Everytime I reset them, they would be knocked off kilter by personal compulsions and old habit patterns. Thankfully, I am free of all externalities today. This medium affords me the opportunity and flexibility to set my own compass and clock. Hence, this section of the blog that distils all my understanding of life. 

IV) WELLNESS

I am neither a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst or a psychotherapist (how we all love fancy titles these days!). Neither am a dietician or a yoga/meditation/calisthenics expert. So, then, why this section of the blog? We are defined not by what we are not, but by that which we are. I am a Bi-Polar, Type I, with a comorbidity issue. For the unitiated, that means that I am prone to extreme and prolonged mood swings, ranging from suicidal depression at one end of the spectrum to maniac highs (marked by bursts of hyperactivity, euphoria and an exalted sense of self), culminating in psychotic episodes  (when I start receiving “visions” that will transform the world). These swings are caused by fluctuations in the serotonin level in the blood that leads to changes in the synaptic nodes of the brain, causing altered perceptions of reality. Why it happens is still a mystery to modern science. In cases like mine (comorbidity), this process is excaberated by substance abuse (alcohol and nicotine are my poisons of choice). After years of experimenting with different generations of drugs, I have come to the conclusion that the efficacy of modern allopathic medication is vastly overrated in all spheres of life today, including mental health. The results of my experiments with alternative remedies would be posted here. I hope that they would come in handy for other bi-polars and their care providers.

In summation, this blog, in toto, represents my attempt at assimilating all the disparate experiences that have contributed to the personality that I own today, in the hope of coalescing them and achieving a meaningful gestalt.

I am honest to a fault. My written communication has always been plagued by verbosity, circumlocution and uncalled for verbal pyrotechnics. I have exercised great self-discipline today in trying to keep this post simple yet meaningful (can you imagine what it would have read like otherwise!). Wowever, beyond a point, specificity cannot be sacrificed at the altar of simplicity. I keenly and sincerely await your constructive  feedback to make this blog more readable. 

The blog is deliberately segmented so that no special interest group has to go through all posts to find what is relevant for it. Each post of the blog bears the category impranteur alongwith the theme of the post. Broadly, to my mind, 4 special interest groups would evolve over a period of time (wishful thinking on my part!):

1) Those interested in quasi-autobiographical material,

2) Those who seek a shared community/cultural identity bonding,

3) Those who look for purely intellectual stimulation, and

4) Those who seek shared experiences on “abnormal” personality.

Especially due to the high degree of content personalisation in most posts (including interpretational liberties) , it is not necessary that these groups, or individuals therein, are mutually exclusive.

That is the reason why, contrary to most suggestions elsewise, I have decided to stick to one composite blog rather than create a plethora of them.

I hope that you derive as much pleasure from reading this blog as I did in creating it. 

I know that you will not have much fun (levity was never my strongest suit!}. But in case you find it, or any section therein, worthwhile, please forward the link to like minded people.

That is the only pathway for me to move from an arithmetic progression to a geometric progression.

Keep your chin up and the smile on your face. Remember, you always have the option to check out if the going gets too heavy!