Category Archives: My Notebook

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Life, in simple terms, is wholeness of being. In ancient cultures, the butterfly, the exquisite glider beyond compare, symbolised such wholeness. The wise, old Greeks contended that the gorgeous butterfly represented our soul, the symbol of life and its wholeness. They also believed that the multihued insect’s decorative wings represented change. One could […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR His name conjures up images of pure art, also science, of batting at its best — a canvas that Rembrandt van Rijn would have painted with relish. He integrated aesthetic judgment with truth and justice, no less: a theory of knowledge of what is merely artistic is also simply articulate. Not only that. […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Happiness, as most of us think, isn’t just pleasure, or synthetic satisfaction. “Many persons,” as Helen Keller put it, “have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” Human happiness cannot exist in a vacuum, or in isolation, because the […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Colour is, perhaps, the rainbow synthesis of our lives. There’s also a paradox — although we are incessantly fascinated by different colours, hues and tints, we do not always think of their power. We do not also sometimes notice the colours around us. Yet, as research testifies that — consciously and subconsciously — […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Balletic, in every sense of the word, great spinners are not typified characters, howsoever mildly they may illuminate the sap-green stage. They are important and often peculiar human beings whose strong realm of individuality is the source of their talents. For a variety of reasons: mental, physical, artistic, or technical, and magical — […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR It was 26 years ago that I first met Basty Premanand Shenoy — a quick-witted, eager beaver sexagenarian. We took off famously from the word go. What made our conversation especially riveting was our shared native ‘roots,’ not to speak of our common lingo, Kannada. That he had a fabulous memory was one […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR He’s my eldest first cousin’s son — and, in essence, my nephew. His name: Bangalore Ramesh. That he was some years elder to me led us to refer to each other as cousins. That’s one part. On the other, I was always in awe of him — a distinguished psychiatrist, scholar and educator […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR A woman’s breasts’ primal function is to produce maternal milk and wield sexual appeal. A woman who feels at ease with her breasts being the vanguard of the ‘skin of her thought’ stands up straight and self-confident. The breasts, which celebrate a woman’s anatomical endowment, are primarily glandular organs; they encompass no muscle. […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR “The real voyage of discovery,” wrote Marcel Proust, the French novelist-essayist, “consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.” This bids fair to three innovatively alluring medical possibilities: how we think, or feel, love, and find meaning in our life. New research suggests that the human heart thinks and […]

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR There’s been a demanding relationship between the study of substance and the study of form all through history — be it philosophy, or science. Well, if the study of substance began in Greek antiquity, we’ve come a long way — from the idea of four fundamental elements, earth, air, fire and water to […]