It is the first day of Navaratri this year, and also Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. There is the backdrop of violent unrest in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini earlier in the month, while the Ukraine war rages on. …

#EnergySensing A portal opens on 8 Aug 2022, into a storm. Whether you are swirled a bit, or flung around wildly, or out altogether, depends on where you have located yourself in the last two years. Some of the human species chose to bend and not break through the pandemic…

It’s been an intense, interesting couple of weeks, of witnessing contrasts. From the swanky Dubai offices of a client, a retail major, where people struggled to find time for learning while being caught in the whirl of work, to spending a week with grassroots socio-political leaders from around India who…

The third Ashra of Ramadan brought in an unending flurry of activities and challenges, and opportunities for inner and outer peacebuilding. While I could not manage to continue writing daily reflections, I did manage to spend a few minutes every day in meditation, whether it was while walking to a…

Adding to Ramadan festivities, today is Eid-e-Ridvan, a 12-day Baha’i festival that commemorates Baha Ullah’s declaration that he was a divine manifestation. Coincidentally this year, it ends as Ramadan does, culminating in Eid al-Fitr. The Baha’i faith is one of the world’s newest religions, having been birthed only in 1863…

In Jahangirpuri in Delhi, India, last week, communal riots broke out last weekend against the backdrop of a Hindu procession through a Muslim neighbourhood, and a demolition drive enforced in the neighbourhood in spite of protests from the community. What began with stone-pelting and arson left multiple people injured, arrested…

A friend sent across a video of her students rendering a graceful Kathak performance set to Bulleh Shah’s beautiful poetry ‘Hori khelungi kah kar bismillah’, and it made me wistfully remember the Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb of yore. It refers to the syncretic culture that evolved around the confluence of the Ganga…

After a long discourse on moral law in the epic Mahabharata, Yudhisthira, the eldest Pandava, states “ahimsa paramo dharmah”. A simple literal translation would be that non-violence is the supreme religion, though the words ahimsa and dharma, both are loaded in Sanskrit and have layers of meaning embedded in them…

A few years ago, the Islamic Networks Group (ING) embarked on a project to find common ground among various religions by outlining basic religious principles that guide most, if not all existing religions. Among other principles that emerged was the idea of human dignity and potential as a factor that…