India's top 50 powerful people

The list of 50 most powerful people of our times is recently published by India Today.

Not a single philosopher, thinker or writer has made it. Luckily we have AR Rahman, a composer, listed.

This in a country which gave birth to philosophers and thinkers of the caliber of Vivekananda, Adi Shankaracharya, Radhakrishnan, Chanakya and writers of epics like the Ramayana, Mahabharatha, Geeta, The vedas & the upanishads, Artha Shastra, Geetanjali and the Kama Sutra, which still mean so much not only to Indians but people all across the world.

The country which has such a vast reservoir of writing talent does not consider anyone to be influential.

It would mean two things -

The choice is governed by commercial considerations. The list includes everyone who can be connected with the ability of making money and are head turners. Starts with Ratan Tata, the Ambanis, Mittals, Godrej, Birlas, Ruias and also includes Sharukh, Amitabh and Swami Ramdev. Even Amar Singh and Parmeshwar Godrej find mention in the list.

Indian writers are no longer appealing to their readers. They have not been able to come up with ideas that influence the thinking of the readers.

The pen may be mightier than the sword but it has been bulldozed into silence by the creators of wealth. Sound bites are more important and visible.

Van Gogh - The Genius

Hello,
Earlier I wrote that I was attacked by a sense of madness every ten days and waited for the inspiration to hit me. Then on the eleventh day realized how normal I was. I thought I could never
be as insane as Van Gogh.
Disappointed I did a little more research on Van Gogh and lo behold! What do I find - he was normal till very late in life.
I do have a chance then is it not?
Thanks to wikipedia I am hopeful once again.
Regards,
Manoj

LEFT EARLY FROM OFFICE - LEARNT SOMETHING

Hi,
For the first time in three years we had a major power outage at office today. Work cam to a standstill. With everything on computers we could do nothing but sit around waiting for power to come back.
Finally, one hour before the office closure the Chairman sent a message that we could leave. Almost everyone left and I was amongst the first to leave.
So what did I learn - Well I learnt that I no longer like writing on paper with a pen. The computer allows you so many neat corrections while writing and even at a later stage/date, but when you write on paper no such corrections are possible. You cut and scribble on top and on the margins. Later when you try to read what you wrote you dislike the scribbling and miss the neatness of the computer.
I wonder how maybe just five years back I was writing pages without corrections. Has my thinking become complicated?
Best wishes,
Manoj