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Shelley had written these lines which stayed with me through all these years after graduation: "We look before and after, and pine for what is naught.... ......Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought" Winter brings with it a sense of melancholy in the evenings, a sense of ruing for what could have been, of hidden regrets. Human nature is such that regrets form a substantial part of our consciousness. We constantly pine for what has not happened, what we did not do, what could have occurred. This yearning for a changed reality often takes away from us the sweetness of the actual moment. We keep looking into the past and yearning for a better future. How about thankfulness for the present joys? Most of us don't live in the present, so to say. Lets make a conscious decision to live life as it is, one day at a time. As if supposing our breath were to stop tomorrow. Can we let go of our life without regrets? Have I done what I really wanted to do, o...

Euthanasia or mercy killing continues to be a debatable issue in most countries. In India, the so-called human rights and medical associations raise their hackles whenever the issue crops up. No one has the right to decide when a person becomes totally unfit to leave, they say, with their holier than thou attitudes. As long as their is life, there is hope for survival, etc. So we have a long bed-ridden, vegetating Aruna Shanbaug kept alive just to suit the opinions of these experts. She has no consciousness, can't even do the basic functions, except breathing, but she has not been granted mercy death. I am sure there must be countless patients like her, brain dead, limb dead, mere vegetables just kept alive on the ventilator, by money squeezing doctors and hospitals. Of what use is such life and for whom? The patient has long ceased to live, is just existing with external aid. How long do you want to prolong the misery of the patient and that of the relations? Doesn't eve...

On Sunday's episode of "Satyameva Jayate", the show's host, superstar Aamir Khan had brought in three popular actresses of Hindi cinema to comment on the day's topic of harassment of women. All the actresses were very vocal about their strong dislike for unwanted male attention. They were unanimous in their disapproval of lewd behaviour and antics that are apparently inspired by the hero's similar antics on screen. So far so good. After all they totally decried the emulation of eve-teasing behaviour that is often depicted in popular Bollywood cinema. As modern, rational thinking women of today, such denunciation was expected from them. But the question remains of why they themselves agree to do raunchy, explicit item numbers on screen, which cause more rampant damage because they show the female body packaged as a sexual toy? Deepika's recent portrayal of a bar dancer in "Happy New Year" blatantly cashes in on her raunchy dance numbers showi...