Category Archives: My Notebook

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR There’s chaos, racial prejudice, economic upheaval, not to speak of political and religious turmoil, all around. Picture this — the shocking civil unrest in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, among others, aside from the most recent, astounding Gen Z-initiated ‘perestroika’ in Nepal. When one thinks of the theory of chaos, one can’t help but […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR The lives of great achievers have always had a conventional simile: rags-to-riches aetiology, abusive childhood, poverty beyond hope, violence, and, in some cases, manic depression — a sort of Freudian element that runs through such ‘epic’ stories like blockbuster movies. You’d also think of it as a requisite element directly, or indirectly, responsible […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR The English wordsmith Evelyn Waugh placed it all in the right perspective, “[P G] Wodehouse’s idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in.” Perfect words; also, […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR It is rightly said that self-made individuals who know their path guide themselves — and, they cannot lose their way, or goal. This is primarily because the path they love to tread presents itself below their feet. The picturesque boulevard they choose may just as well twist, or turn, and impediments would emerge, […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR We are all trapped in a vice-like grip today — the deadly, toxic ‘hold’ of ethnic, emotional, or fanatical upheaval. A case in point — call it human deception, or the fluctuating progression of the nastiest of times. From the most sophisticated to the lowest of ‘low-tech’ advance. And, as the monstrous threat […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR His strength came from within. And, this was maintained by his love and understanding of the laws of the cosmos. Knowing that such laws are impersonal, and are at work in all things, he was, at once, a great success in his brilliant, artistic voyages. Besides, he was more than mindful that the […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Shyness is often thought to be a behavioural glitch. New research demystifies the idea. Shyness is not a medical disorder, a cause for parental anguish, or societal prejudice. It is a personality ‘type’ — one that is unique to each individual as their fingerprint. In other words, the problem of shyness is not […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Audrey Hepburn’s philosophy of life was direct: never in flight before contemporary difficulties. Her vision was straight and simple — that of a humble utopia that began and percolated in her psyche, for a noble cause: the children of our world. If gentle nature and great courage rarely manifest in one individual, she […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR David Lean’s magnum opus, The Bridge on the River Kwai [TBRK], made nearly 70 years ago, wasn’t just a movie; it’s an epic. Its award-winning cinematography, not to speak of a host of other breath-taking elements, so vital to making classy movies, was a landmark — a sentimental journey beyond the realms of […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR When his father first showed Albert Einstein, the greatest of theoretical physicists, a receptacle compass, it was like what the falling apple was to his illustrious scientific ‘forebear’ Sir Isaac Newton. Einstein was barely five years old, but he felt an indescribable experience — his mind lit up with the gadget, in a […]