Coffee With Rajendra - A Conversational Psychotherapy Experience

After travelling for 3.5 hours from Udaipur, the bus stopped at a small restaurant somewhere 50 kms from Pali. The stoppage was supposed to be very brief, perhaps 10 minutes. I got down and went across the opposite side of road, far from everyone's sight to pee. I preferred natural soil more than a toilet to be the more worthy recipient of my holy water. I give my love to where it's needed than to waste it somewhere where it doesn't make much of a difference. I walked back across the road to the restaurant. Hot tea, snacks were available. My sight was beholden by a pack of Sona Chakri. The name on packet seemed suitable to be nickname of a friend, so I bought one to send a pic to her.  Then, I bought a cup of tea for me and another one for my sister Sanjana. Taking out money from wallet while my hands were occupied with multiple items was a daunting task and required assistance of my sister and the shopkeeper. After paying for everything, as me and Sanju took the first sip ...

Madness in incomprehensible ingenuity. Much of human consciousness remains inaccessible to our logical mind. Yet, with empathy we can be capable of exploring realms deeper than what's accessible to our logical mind.  The psychological development of a society proceeds as the realms of insanity become comprehensible to and accommodated within the category of the sane. It's when the the structures responsible for maintaining sanity are no longer threatened by or destabilised by elements of insanity that would do no harm if dealt with the right emotional translation. When that happens, take for example: angry outbursts in form of verbal abuse from your partner would no longer seem painful, you would be able to take it lightly and laugh at it, just as you know that the next moment the same person will be singing praises. Instead of terming him or her insane, you would give her a more kind term 'bipolar' and adapt accordingly. You would learn the right tactics from a book of...

  Vulgarity can often be strangely liberating. For a while, it swiftly puts us at ease from the bondages of decency and propriety, and makes the wild and improper in us easier to live with. Vulgarity ridicules the petty worries we cultivate in our culture, and reminds us of an idea which many among us need to visit once in a while : 'no one knows'. For this reason, vulgarity was cherished and celebrated among the aristocratic class in the 16th century Italy. Vulgarity exhibits indifference towards structures of traditional snobbery and hierarchy and promotes a sense of equality of status among people. It frees the experience of happiness and pleasure from being subject to parameters of achievement and growth in the society which views an inadequate concept of meritocracy as  equality of opportunity, and sees achievement as a symbol of inherent worth and talent. Traditional snobbery legitimises happiness only when it is accompanied by an increased proximity to something sacred ...