We have been pained by recent the spate of desecration of crosses and other holy spaces in Goa. While we have not been able to nap the culprits, Goans have shown that they cannot be provoked by the sinister designs of the wicked perpetrators of these crimes. The impacts of these crimes are devastating to its victims and cannot...
Dealing With Theft of One’s Enjoyment: A Lesson from the Corona Moment of Humanity
Covid-19 and the consequent lockdown are taking away our enjoyment. We are experiencing theft of enjoyment. Psychoanalyst Jacque Lacan calls it the theft of the Thing. It is taking away our way of life. We feel that something precious to us is taken away from us. How are we to face this theft of our enjoyment? How...
Facing ourselves at a Time of Coronavirus – I
The crisis that is afflicting us in Indians today is more than an economic and political crisis. It is a crisis of subjectivity. Even at a time of great human distress, we cannot forget the communal virus. The semio-capitalism has pushed us into dark eons of semio-politics. Semio-capitalism and semio-politics are inter-related and have seized us from inside. It...
Being Real at the Time of Coronavirus – II
We are facing a killerati in coronavirus. We also have another cultural virus that has been afflicting us for centuries. It is the virus of caste. It has mutated over time and today it has become what we call Hindutva. Both these viruses are lethal and have killer instincts. We may regard them as two sides of the same...
Being Real at the Time of Coronavirus – I
Our cough has always been dangerous. Today it has become hazardous. We may still not cough humanity to death. We can certainly give it a death blow. This is why masks are used to censor this danger in our public places. Don’t trespass has become a norm. It forbids our cough or spits in public. Wearing a mask is...
Being Susegad at a Time of Coronavirus – III
At a time of great uncertainty , we Goans will do well by unearthing the critical power of our susegad attitude. It being a performative anticipatory predisposition is reflexive but not mindless. It has the mind of its own and is associated with what I called zero thinking. It is a transcendental form of living that immerses into the...
Being Susegad at a Time of Coronavirus – II
Zero is not just an empty space holder. It is also a multiplier of space and value. The power of zero is mathematically fully explored. One can also find its philosophical explorations. Zero opens an unbound space. It truly presents a blank slate. It is a matrix of power that can lead to fresh germination of ideas and visions....
Being Susegad at a Time of Coronavirus – I
The susegad attitude is unique to Goans. It is reflexive for us. We cannot fully theorize it. It is like a floating signifier. This is so because it makes our identity. Claude Lewi-Strauss , French anthropologist teaches that ‘identity is a sort of virtual home to which it is essential that we refer to explain certain things.’ Maybe we...
Religion at a time of Coronavirus
Coronavirus has proved to be counter-public in all its senses. All publics have been forced to go private. One of the most visible among them is religion. The roots of the process of political and moral contestations of the role of religion can be traced in European Enlightenment. Coronavirus has simply offered no time for any such contestation of...
Coronavirus and the Second Coming of (Hu)Man
Coronavirus has bridged the gap between life and death. The distant death has become a near actuality. We are challenged to live with an imminent death. The undoing of life has entered our life and disrupted our ways of being human. It is time to think about human life in its integrity in the wake of the global pandemic....
