Been reading about Chanakya today. Quite a man. Nehru called him the Machiavelli of India, but rather, Machavelli should be the Chanakya of Europe. A casual reading of his Arthashastra leads me ot make me some observations:
* Chanakya keeps reiterating the point about how a good son is better than a bad one. No mention about daughters, though.
* In his opinion, a woman's place is in her home. But then, he was a product of his times.
* Most of his observations seem to talk about living a virtuous life and not straying from teh moral path. And this from a man who practiced the sama, daam, dahna, bhed principle!!
* He seems to have a thing against beautiful wives!!
Moving on, the modern-day Chanakya, P V Narasimha Rao has passed away. My own opinions about the man are quite mixed. When he was in power, I did not like him at all. He never said anything, did nothing to stop the Babri Masjid demolition, was involved in all sorts of scandals. But then, I had no idea what the future would bring. In retrospect, it seems like he was doing all he could to stay in power, and advance the cause of liberalism in India. And to give the man credit, he was good at what he did!! The BJP-led opposition tried their level best to bring him down, but he managed to run a minority government for full five years. May his soul rest in peace, and may he get a good house in his next life.
In other news, an old post of mine has surfaced, this one about two good movies I watched recently.
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