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Warrier's Friends' Collage, July, 2026

Warrier's Friends' Collage, July 2026 Good Morning Random Reading : Loneliness & Solitude A rainy Sunday morning in Mumbai cannot be conducive for writing about current affairs, philosophy or pure gossips. Neither for reading a book one loves. But the day doesn't dawn with a menu card, to chose from. Every next minute unfolds with its own agenda. This morning, I was reading some pages from "The Outsider" by Albert Camus (1913-1960). They related to a prisoner waiting execution being counselled by a messenger of God. We may not be able to fathom the thoughts of other individuals who are alone or love solitude. Remembered M T Vasudevan Nair's "Aalkoottathil Thaniye" (Alone in the crowd). Each one of us is alone at some stage in life. Not necessarily by choice. We, in many situations get a choice, though. Alexander Pope's classic work is titled "Ode on Solitude", a poem he wrote around the age of 12. It beautifully celebrates the...

World Outside : Italy

World Outside : Italy RITA, Milan - Via Angelo Fumagalli 1, Zone 6 - Restaurant Reviews & Phone Number - Tripadvisor https://share.google/CUuFkCbQv8PDGvMlv Good Morning Sometimes, we read a wrong article. Like entering a wrong shop. This article about "Rita, Milan", I stumbled upon like that. First I thought Rita and Milan are young and eligible friends or characters in a story. You don't need an AI-supported App to allow your thoughts to wander. After Narada (read gossips if you are uncomfortable with Mythology), thought travels fastest. The other day, one of my readers said, "Nothing else, Warrier can move on to Spirituality and Mythology for a diversion." He's right. But by daily exercise like this will scare away the "Nothing else" situation for some more time. After reading half the article only I got some idea about the subject. Frankly, I'm not familiar with the vocabulary here. But, after reading the full article, I find it inte...

Vishwaroopadarshanam

Vishwaroopadarshanam Bhagavad Gita, Chapter XI is titled "Vishwaroopadarshanam" (The Vision of the Universal Form). Arjuna was given 'Divya Chakshu' (Divine Eyes) and allowed to have a glance of Krishna's Vishwaroopam. Earlier, Krishna as a child had allowed a glimpse of his Universal Form by wide opening his mouth, to mother Yashoda when many alleged that he ate soil and she made him open his mouth to verify. God-realization through Practice of Renunciation The pocket edition of Bhagavad Gita brought out by Gita Press (Gorakhpur) has a 19 page writeup with this caption. The seven types of renunciation, possible even for the householder, listed therein are worth a look : 1 Total renunciation of prohibited acts. 2 Renunciation of acts performed for the satisfaction of worldly desires. 3 Total renunciation of worldly thirst. 4 Renunciation of the habit of extracting service from others with a selfish motive. 5 Total renunciation of influence and desire for fruit ...

Smile alone

Good Morning Smile alone During 1960's, I used to stay alone in a single-room in a fairly large hostel-type accomodation behind Thiruvananthapuram Secretariat. There were some 20 single rooms and around 60 double rooms in "Cooperative Home" Room No 3, Cooperative Home https://share.google/OaofAzl4P6lCPoh9M 20 to 30 residents were Reader's Digest subscribers. Some of them read the Digest cover to cover and the content became topic of discussion in post-dinner group meetings which sometimes crossed over to 00 00 hours. In some rooms there were accumulations of copies of RD safe in their wrappers. Some read only the jokes and "Life's Like That", smiled alone and kept the magazine on the table to show that they were "subscribers" Today, cover price of RD is Rs125/- When I started reading Digest, single copy price was less than Two Rupees. I may live for few more years to see the price going up to Two hundred Rupees. Nice Day M G Warrier

"Ón The Shortness Of Life" By Seneca

Good Morning Book on my table : "On The Shortness Of Life" By Seneca Last week while reading Seneca's book "Letters from a Stoic", I found a mention about this book in the introduction, with equal emphasis. Curious, I tried to know more and I was surprised to find that the book that has survived hundreds of years and covering a subject like "shortness of life" has only 56 pages and is priced just hundred rupees. Ordered a copy. Amazon description about the book reads : "De Brevitate Vitae (English: On the Shortness of Life) is a moral essay written by Seneca the Younger, a Roman Stoic philosopher, sometime around the year 49 AD, to Paulinus. Seneca's biting words still pack a powerful punch two thousand years later. According to the essay, nature gives people enough time to do what is really important and the individual must allot it properly. In general, time is best used by living in the present moment in pursuit of the intentional, purpos...

Managing stress

Managing stress The article "Stress Spaces You Out" (ET- Speaking Tree :Narayani Ganesh) concludes with this para : "Regular lifestyle practices that pre-empt any kind of stress include pranayam, meditation, chanting, walking and prayer. Self-affirmation can help auto-banish anxiety and stress." Pranayama is scientific/yogic management of breathing and is composed of 'breathing in', 'retaining breath' and 'breathing out'. There are different types of pranayama and to practice any of them, guidance of a teacher is necessary. Just as stress is the result of multiple physical and psychological reasons, managing stress also requires proper diagnosis of stress-triggers and following lifestyle changes, medication where necessary and exercise as advised by professionals in the respective areas. M G Warrier

Stoicism : A brief introduction

Stoicism : A brief introduction Prayer https://youtu.be/YrO8qs5lOrA?si=mPCJRDp35mSjebDv There was a reference to Stoicism today in ET Speaking Tree(June 27, 2026) Stoicism My quick search to know more about Stoicism took me to a book "Letters from a Stoic" by Seneca : https://amzn.in/d/01Ul2uj3 Amazon description : What is the importance of friendship? How do we deal with challenges in life? And how do we look death in the eye and be not afraid? Letters from a Stoic is a compilation of carefully chosen letters that Seneca penned to Lucilius, letters which are personal essays that answer the questions stated above and many, many more. Translated from Latin into English by Richard M. Gummere, these are letters on a wide variety of topics, such as on having quiet conversations, on suicide, on the dynamic of a master-slave relationship, on grief, on god, and even on welcoming death. So, here is a book to give you a peek into a rich and complicated mind, a book that hol...