Articles by: Pratap Antony

Celebrating and supporting Earth Day

Celebrating and supporting Earth Day

 Today April 22 2023, is the 53rd ‘Earth Day’, which was first held on April 22, 1970. Earth Day is celebrated to demonstrate support to environmental protection. LIVING IN HARMONY & MINDFULNESS May we be receptive to the wisdom of nature and the knowledge that if her laws are obeyed, our lands and people will flourish May we bring back[Read More…]

by 22/04/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Photo by gideon_wright

Altruism exists in nature, Reciprocal altruism in humans

      For some obscure and hard-to-understand reason, man feels superior to everything else on Earth. The irony of it all is that we humans forget that we have evolved from nature. Nature is the source of all our food, air and water; we are thus dependent on nature for our survival. We are co-dependent on everything around us! We[Read More…]

by 23/03/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Front Row Seat In The Theater Of The Absurd

Front Row Seat In The Theater Of The Absurd

Sometimes, okay, not sometimes, a lot of the time, we feel we’re in the front row seat at an irrational, incongruous, illogical tragicomedy which rivals tabloid televisions’ moronic, futile and pointless reality shows, like the discussions on news channels. This reality show that we have a front row seat at is about life in our world today, it is called[Read More…]

by 06/03/2023 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
We’ve got to stop damaging our home, our planet earth

We’ve got to stop damaging our home, our planet earth

Wherever we live in this world, whatever business we are in, our first priority is to take care of our life-giving ecosystem and the biodiversity that sustains us. Nothing else on earth matters as much as taking care of our planet. We have been and are still causing, through our actions, acid rain, smog in our cities, environmental pollution and[Read More…]

by 28/02/2023 Comments are Disabled World
Resisting the forces of fear

Resisting the forces of fear

Turn, turn any corner Hear, you must hear what the people say You know that somethin’ is goin’ on around here It surely, surely, surely won’t stand the light of day… no Speak out, you got to speak out against the madness You got to speak your mind, if you dare It’s been a long time comin’ It’s going to[Read More…]

by 27/12/2022 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Pluralism and acceptance – The senselessness of separation

Pluralism and acceptance – The senselessness of separation

       “You don’t need religion to have morals. If you can’t determine right from wrong, then you lack empathy, not religion.” Anonymous This anonymous quote that I received as a forward and in turn forwarded to my friends, though seemingly clear, rational and reasonable is however susceptible to misunderstanding and misinterpretation. On reading the quote, religionists’ first instinct is[Read More…]

by 21/12/2022 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
A Time To Recover, Renew, Restore, Refresh

A Time To Recover, Renew, Restore, Refresh

What will we do when this SARS Covid-19 lock down is over? Will we go back to frantically doing what we were doing before…, rushing madly towards meeting our goals of livelihood without thinking of the damage we have been doing to the environment which had a short respite from us? Will we go back to doing with a vengeance[Read More…]

by 05/06/2020 Comments are Disabled Environmental Protection
Earth Day

Earth Day

May we be receptive to the wisdom of nature and the knowledge that if her laws are obeyed, our lands and people will flourish May we save the planet from present practices of destruction and allow the raw wounds of the earth to heal May we bring back the natural harmony of nature and restore to our souls the richness[Read More…]

by 23/04/2020 1 comment Arts/Literature
The TB Paradox

The TB Paradox

     What causes much more death and tragedy throughout the world, for several decades than Covid-19, but does not cause panic and hysteria, and, is not considered an emergency? It’s TB Folks! Tuberculosis Tuberculosis – or TB, as it’s commonly called — is a contagious infection that usually attacks your lungs. It can spread to other parts of your body, like your brain and spine.[Read More…]

by 21/04/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Humanity Means Being Humane

Humanity Means Being Humane

Humanity means *“the quality of being humane, benevolent”, it also meansbeing kind, compassionate, understanding, sympathetic, empathetic, gentle and generous. But weseem to have forgotten what humanity really means. To us, nowadays, humanity only means that we are human i.e. bipedal primate mammals. Not only that, we ridicule those do have humane character traits and consider them impractical misfits. We think they[Read More…]

by 15/02/2020 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Parliament house in New Delhi on July 24th 2015. Express photo by Ravi Kanojia.

What Is ‘Good Governance’, And What Is Not

“Good governance is about the processes for making and implementing decisions. It’s not about making ‘correct’ decisions, but about the best possible process for making those decisions.” goodgovernance.org.au Good governance is the art of looking at problems, diagnosing them and finding solutions through collective decision making. It is the process of decision making with the participation and consensus of all members of society.[Read More…]

by 27/07/2019 1 comment Life/Philosophy
The India That We Want: Politicians In The Future

The India That We Want: Politicians In The Future

In future we need politicians who have moral fibre and large hearts. We need politicians who are honest, generous to a fault, and, not greedy; with absolutely no aspirations for wealth and power for themselves and who are not richer than the poorest in their constituencies. We would want politicians that are open books, and, who are above political games[Read More…]

by 26/06/2019 Comments are Disabled India
Followers And The Leader

Followers And The Leader

Some folks who were considered fairly intelligent, have fallen under the spell of a man. According to his fervent fans he is much more.He is a politician with a self-measuredfifty-six-inch chest. Though this man has not sullied his livelihood by doing anything else except politics all his life, his ardent supporters feel that he has a highly developed intellect. They[Read More…]

by 16/05/2019 3 comments Uncategorized
Rahul Gandhi (C), President of India's main opposition Congress party, his mother and leader of the party Sonia Gandhi and India's former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (R) display copies of their party's election manifesto for the April/May general election in New Delhi, India, April 2, 2019. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

Political Manifestos Neglect Out Environment

  None of the political party manifesto’s mention the most important factor on which we are dependent for our existence. Our environment! The environment,unquestionably, is the most important factor of our lives. Our lives really do depend on our environment. Yet our political parties do not mention anything about how to sustain and preserve our bio-diversity, or, even how to[Read More…]

War Is The Loss of Humanity

War Is The Loss of Humanity

I’m living with war in my heart/ I’m living with war in my heart and my mind/ I’m living with war right now/And when the dawn breaks I see my fellow man/ And on the flat-screen we kill and we’re killed again/ And when the night falls I pray for Peace/ Try to remember Peace/ I join the multitudes/ I[Read More…]

by 02/03/2019 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Aggressively Fight For Peace And Not For War

Aggressively Fight For Peace And Not For War

A human being killing another human being is inhuman. Therefore, a terrorist, or a suicide bomber is inhuman. Suicide bombers lose their humanity to political and religious rhetoric brainwashing – and kill. But, being temporarily inhuman, they have nothing to do with religion or politics. They are robots. And what they do is against religion and politics. The accepted understanding[Read More…]

by 23/02/2019 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Dropout from WhatsApp education academy

Dropout from WhatsApp education academy

I’ve dropped out of regular learning From WhatsApp Education Academy I will now be dabbler, an occasional Visitor, an irregular scholar I have decided to manage my own consumption of information Away from device dependency, I will regain my ability to remember and store memories, and give myself more time for contemplation, time-in-nature, reading books and face-to-face social interaction I[Read More…]

by 21/07/2018 1 comment Arts/Literature
For Madhu: In Memory

For Madhu: In Memory

Headline: Adivasi Youth Beaten to death in Kerala – An adivasi youth Madhu (27) was beaten to death by settlers in the Adivasi heartland of Attapady, Kerala, for allegedly stealing food. The murderers took selfies with the victim and posted on social media. Countercurrents.org — February 23, 2018 in Human Rights Ancient people Exult in the forest, the land, the[Read More…]

by 24/02/2018 3 comments Arts/Literature
Participation Is Good Citizenship: The Pledge – Kicking Off 2018

Participation Is Good Citizenship: The Pledge – Kicking Off 2018

Most of us have been brought up to believe that we’d be damn fools to think any differently from the way everybody else thinks. We are brought up to conform and not call attention to ourselves or our views. Independent thinking is considered neither good for our own welfare, nor for anybody else. We are consciously taught that our course[Read More…]

by 26/01/2018 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
We Keep Ourselves Peaceful

We Keep Ourselves Peaceful

Every action produces an effect and every effect
in turn becomes a cause and produces still further
effects, and causes, and effects, and causes, and
effects and causes…
Like spreading ripples of water

by 09/01/2018 2 comments Arts/Literature
Environmentalists Are Earth’s Antibodies

Environmentalists Are Earth’s Antibodies

        An antibody is a protein produced by the body’s immune system when it detects harmful substances, called antigens (bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses) and chemicals. Many of us conceive of nature as a boundless resource to be exploited without any consequence. But, the natural world is vulnerable and our natural resources are precious and finite. Changing climates are[Read More…]

Saving Our Planet With Reciprocal Altruism

Saving Our Planet With Reciprocal Altruism

 “The only choice left to us is to decide how much worse we are willing to let things get. We still have time to save, or restore, a large part of the gentle and benevolent environment that has made our lives possible. We can’t, however, do it easily. We can’t do it at all without at the same time making[Read More…]

by 18/11/2017 2 comments Counter Solutions
Living My Own Religion

Living My Own Religion

“Believe in everything, nothing is sacred. Believe in nothing, everything is sacred” Quote ~ Tom Robbins in ‘Even Cowgirls Get The Blues’ Man needs religion. Religion needs man. This is a generally accepted axiom. There are myriad religious practices, rituals and rites, and different regional belief systems called ‘faiths’, at least 10,000 of them in the world. According to various[Read More…]

by 29/09/2017 Comments are Disabled Life/Philosophy
Feeling blue

Alleviating AFSS: Acute Financial Stress Syndrome

For a few weeks recently, I woke up every day with a headache, body ache, slight fever, sinus congestion, acid reflux and inability to concentrate on anything for long. Why this was happening was a miserable mystery. There was no need for all these symptoms of physical illness to arise simultaneously as my health is otherwise good. I then realised[Read More…]

by 28/09/2017 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Epitaph For Gauri Lankesh

Epitaph For Gauri Lankesh

”I will do what i can and I will say
What I should. These intolerant voices
Find strength in our silence.
Let them learn to argue using words
instead of threats”

by 09/09/2017 1 comment India
Demonetisation

Demonetisation

To hunt crocodiles, the pond was dried.
No crocodiles were found because they can live on land too.
But all the small fish died.

by 22/06/2017 2 comments Arts/Literature
Consuming Passions And Environment

Consuming Passions And Environment

    “Runaway growth in consumption in the past fifty years is putting strains on the environment never before seen.” The United Nations’ Human Development Report 1998 (UNDP Report) WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN – LAMENT When will we ever learn? That “conspicuous consumption” only satisfies our shallow need for positive appraisal, self-esteem and Identity. That happiness is not the result of[Read More…]

by 20/05/2017 1 comment Life/Philosophy
All We Like Sheep Are Being Led Astray

All We Like Sheep Are Being Led Astray

  “Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.” ― Bertrand Russell We are often taken aback by the vehemence with which our friends, associates and acquaintances disagree with our observations, especially while discussing the political motivation of politicians. We are also surprised by their loyal devotion to the[Read More…]

by 12/05/2017 2 comments Life/Philosophy
Photo by John Vetterli

I’d Rather Be ‘Intellectual’ Than Stupid

Politicians, once they come to power, blame ‘intellectuals’ and ‘liberals’ for slowing down their bid for absolute control and power over all of us citizens. Politicians use the words ‘Intellectual’ and ‘liberal’ to malign, belittle and disparage social thinkers and independent minded social commentators who differ and disagree with them. Social commentators and all those who do not agree with[Read More…]

by 03/05/2017 1 comment Life/Philosophy
Who’s Afraid Of Aadhaar UID?

Who’s Afraid Of Aadhaar UID?

     Political corruption is a manipulation of policies, institutions and rules of procedure in the allocation of resources and financing by political decision makers, who abuse their position to sustain their power, status and wealth. www.transparency.org It was around midnight, and the family was having their late, last supper. As the clock struck twelve, they heard the dreaded midnight knock![Read More…]

by 02/05/2017 2 comments India
The Truth About Our Acceptance Of Manufactured Truth

The Truth About Our Acceptance Of Manufactured Truth

     Post-truth, a dubious compound word has been officially recognised and admitted into the Oxford dictionary in 2016 thereby acknowledging its legitimacy. Shamefully, our acceptance of this word into our vocabulary is in truth a measure of our moral inadequacy, because it shows that we are willing to conform, play the game and allow public deceit and political dishonesty to[Read More…]

by 14/02/2017 4 comments Life/Philosophy
Demonetisation: The Poor Don’t Matter Except To Buy Votes

Demonetisation: The Poor Don’t Matter Except To Buy Votes

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded. Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed. Everybody knows that the war is over. Everybody knows the good guys lost. Everybody knows the fight was fixed: the poor stay poor, the rich get rich. That’s how it goes. Everybody knows. Leonard Cohen Everybody knows that the elected party governing India wants to decimate all[Read More…]

by 18/11/2016 1 comment India