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 Freud in his essay, Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming, explores the psychological origins of artistic creativity and the impact of literature on readers. He draws parallels between the imaginative activity of creative writers and the day-dreaming of ordinary people. It is a discussion about the relationship between creative art and unconscious phantasy. In it, Freud talks about the role of daydreaming and fantasy in human behaviour, and how creative writers are able to express their daydreams without shame or self-reproach. Read the essay below (for academic use only) Creative Writers and Day Dreaming PDF Freud argues that the child's play and the adult's phantasies/daydreams share a common element—the desire to alter an unsatisfactory reality and fulfil unfulfilled wishes. The creative writer is like a successful daydreamer who is able to transform their private fantasies into works that provide pleasure to the audience. Freud suggests that the writer's choice of subject

 Every politician, when he leaves office, ought to go straight to jail and serve his time, thus goes an American folk saying. Politics and politicians have come to be synonymous with dishonesty, favouritism, and corruption. This perhaps is the underlying reasoning for many good and competent people to stay away from active politics; and many corrupt and incompetent people to get attracted to active politics. The good people’s silence and inaction make it easy for the wicked people to fill the world with their opinions, lies, and propaganda; and establish their agendas and actions as normal and standard. For Gandhi, being political was not a choice, but an imperative. He famously said, “Anyone who says they are not interested in politics is like a drowning man who insists he is not interested in water.” Gandhi returned to India on 19 December 1914, after his sojourn in England and South Africa, as quite a matured man of forty-five, having seen the worlds of exploiters and the exploited.

  Parties and governments are competing over who will push for a more policed and disciplined society. It gives a false sense of safety. On 14 August, as India was celebrating the Nehruvian stroke of the midnight hour, when the world was sleeping, and India awoke to life and freedom; elsewhere and everywhere in our country men and women, especially women in large numbers hit the streets on the eve of Independence Day, to protest the rape and murder of a trainee doctor on duty in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata; and the attempt of the powerful to derail the course of the investigation; they hit the road to reclaim their life and freedom. The ruling dispensation and patriarchal establishments narcissistically keep feeling good about everything in our country and broadcast it across the globe generously, but the protest indicated that women of the country do not feel the same, they feel the former and the strong men of our country are just feeling good but
are not being goo

  What does one do when one’s compassion cup goes dry and empty; when one comes to a point where there is nothing more left to give? I lost my mother very recently. She was 93. For the last two and a half years, she was ill, and for the last one and a half years, she was bedridden. Though all her children, when they visited her, used to be generous in taking care of her needs, it was my brother and his wife who took care of her day in and day out. They did an amazing job; they regulated their daily routine to make sure that mother did not lack anything, they sacrificed their possible travels and outdoor fun activities to make sure that there was someone with mother always. As days passed, weeks passed, months and years passed, I could see exhaustion and a certain level of irritation setting in with them. There were feelings of helplessness and powerlessness in the face of distress and pain, for medically they could do nothing more for mother, except to give palliative care. Other sibli

  This summer has been a season (for the young) of writing exams and (for the adults) of casting votes; and for both, waiting expectendly for the results. Come June, and it would be time for the students to get back to school, and for the politicians (the elected ones) to get back to the Parliament. Though this seems to be a coincidence, there definitely is a consequential connection between education and election, or one could qualify them saying, a good education and a good election. Gore Vidal, an American author, well known for his outspoken political opinions and his witty and satirical observations of American society, said about the American electorate, “Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half.” Looking at the general percentage of voter turnout, and observing both the proportions of population having no privilege of education, and even if they have, considering the character of education often provid

 Vote is the most powerful non-violent weapon in a democracy­­–and that explains, on the one hand, why it scares and unsettles the powerful and the authoritative autocrats; and on the other hand, why people still believe and hope in democracy. It is the vote that demands connection between the most powerful and the least powerful politically. It is the vote that demands accountability and answerability from the mighty politicians. It is the vote that forces the politicians, at least momentarily, to uncouple themselves from the Adanis and Ambanis and engage with the aam aadmis of our country. Let elections come, politicians and leaders who seldom are seen among the common folks are found walking, talking, and eating with them. Once in five years our country, like many countries across the globe, conducts the sacred ritual called elections, where every citizen pulls themselves off from the anonymity of the irresponsible crowd, and self-importantly takes responsibility for their and their

  We have grown up hearing the ancient wisdom, "Water is life, and clean water is health." The recent water stress that cities all over the country, and very palpably Bengaluru, is facing indicates that our life and our health are at risk. At any time, in want of water, our electrocardiogram graph can go flat into a straight line.  The demand for water has exceeded the available amount of water. 1.2 billion people, one in every seven persons, across the globe spend their day searching or waiting for water. Can we bounce back? The answer is in building and maintaining a blue-green infrastructure. In a region, if the amount of renewable water per person is below 1,700 m3, the country is said to be experiencing water stress. If it is below 1,000 m3, it is said to be experiencing water scarcity. And if it is below 500 m3, it is experiencing absolute water scarcity. We are not yet at absolute water scarcity level; but indications are that our negligence, indifference and lack of i

  In 2024 democracy will be tested
like never before. More than half the world’s population is going into their national elections, which includes, India, the United States of America, European Union, and many other countries in Africa and Asia. The remaining half of the population of the world, like the people of China, Russia, and others, pretty much have no power to exercise free and fair elections. Going by the political commentaries that we hear so loud and clear, the far right is making progress and might claim victory in major elections, we would
have national leaderships spanning
from majoritarian populists to fascist dictatorships, and many of our freedoms and institutions would be compromised; the world as we know would change; it will not be the same post 2024. The order of the world as we know since the end of World War II, or in the case of India, from the time of our independence might take a dangerous turn. Will democracy survive 2024 bumper elections? In spite of having

 Religiosity has no definition. Living for
 a truth to dying for a lie could all be religiosity. On the one hand, it is as clear as what we see happening at homes, in worship places, and on streets during festive days and nights; on the other hand, it is as hazy and ambiguous as what its effects are. And there is no better place to fish than in hazy waters. Hyperreligiosity is an extreme and disproportionate display of already very ambiguous religiosity, whereby psychologically, a person experiences intense religious beliefs
or episodes that interfere with normal personal and social functioning. Collective or group hyperreligiosity, looking at its manifestations, is hyperreligiosity multiplied by the population of India. Here in India mass religiosity is triggered by the vocal force of one or a few, to shocking propositions. Here people kill, or even are ready to die, which have nothing to do with truth or falsehood, or needs nothing in particular to kill or to die for. Our ego gets ti

 Signs are everywhere. Our dear lives and its inescapable surroundings are changing their course; or is it that big changes around us are affecting things that matter to
us the most. 2023 suggests that we are changing, politically, culturally, and technologically in a faster pace than ever before. We, like the unannounced eruption of a volcano or arrival of an earthquake, are pushed to a sudden leap into the unknown. A quantum leap or a disruptive upheaval? Only time will tell. We are a species that is good at adapting and fitting in–and that gives us hope. Moving beyond individual events, which are perceptible to our naked senses, what are the big drifts and developments that shaping our world? What is the big picture? We should not go about as if we have not seen them. It took humanity over two million years to progress from sharpened rocks to polished met- al for hunting and gathering. In modern times, humanity took over a hundred years to move from steam engines (1712) to electric

 Do we need leaders in a utopian society? However utopian a society may be, if there are humans, they will obviously form into groups and organisations. According to the study of Peter Ferdinand Drucker, an American management consultant, educator and author, if we put a group of people together what
can naturally come out of them is friction, confusion, and underperformance; for anything more than this we need leaders. A group cannot self-direct itself. If we as
a group need order, peace, success, etc. we need leaders. Rightly so every community and nation has leaders. Watching leaders of various nations in recent times makes us realise that every community and nation who has leaders does not necessarily end up having peace or genuine success and prosperity. Why? Going Populist ‘I, me, and only myself’ approach is against democratic results. Narcissistic populist leaders make themselves into a cult of personality with ‘56-inch chest’ who occupy
a place above the institutions of a coun

 We in unison agree that media control people. But we seldom approve that media control us; because we are not able to give up media. Giving up media appears to be giving up our freedoms; but in truth it is media and their masters that hold us sway. We, for better or for worse, are products of media to a great extent. The images that we have of the world, the other, and even of ourselves are a lot from the media. We sit, in buses and trains, on transits, in office, even on our thrones, scrolling down on our screens. We get influenced, immersed, and lost in the content and form of the mass media. Plato’s 24-century-old allegory of the cave is so very true in the case of the social media today. The allegory portrays people as slavish, naïve receivers like sponges; knowing only
as much as they are told, whether it is true or not. Plato underlines that people consider reality to be just the visible world, when reality in truth is more
than what meets the eye. His allegory assumes that if a

 Gandhi is a man of paradoxes. It is easy to find mistakes and inaccuracies with Gandhi. His inconsistencies are part of his evolving and shifting self-concept, says a well-known Gandhian, Sunil P Ilayidom. He elucidates it with anecdotes and examples from the life of the Mahatma. Gandhi was against writing letters, for him it took away the human warmth of meeting someone personally; but Gandhi was someone who wrote thousands of letters in his life, numbers say that he wrote about 108,000 letters in his lifetime. Gandhi was against Railways, according to him trains would take away the serenity of Indian countryside and villages; but Gandhiji was a regular train traveler. He did not appreciate women participating in public life; but it was in his time women felt most comfort- able to make their presence felt in public life and affairs. Gandhi kept shifting, changing, and evolving. Gandhi himself has said that if I have given different opinions about one thing in different times, take wh

  We are entering the election year. We are entering the most vulnerable phase of our democracy. The most exposed and susceptible point of a democracy is during its elections. It is the time where money and power do their dirtiest jobs. It is the time when people, even MLAs and MPs are not spared, are bought and sold like slaves; and people allow themselves to be sold and bought like pigeons in the market. A country or an organisation becomes vulnerable during elections because it could become an exercise of demonstration of mindless tyranny of the majority. In Democracy Power Is a Fundamental Right There are many forms of governments, but only in modern democracy people hold power as a fundamental right. In every other form of government the ruled are at the mercy of the rulers. Monarchies are absolute; a republic is authoritarian with power in the hands of a few; in oligarchy power is held by a small group of powerful and wealthy people, often they are hidden from the people; a dicta