Here is Abhijit’s response which I thought of publishing as a post rather than as a comment:

After a 3 week gap, I was excited to read your blog on the “life unexamined”. Your style of highlighting the “need to examine ones life” by referring to autobiographies is very powerful and thought provoking. It reminded me of Shri Ya Di Phadke’s foreword in his book Agarkar……. He refers to Lokmanya Tilak’s statement that the danger in writing autobiographies or biographies of great men is that one tends to portray the achievements, the qualities, the greatness and rarely explores and paints the other side of ones life and personality….Actions and Achievements are the epicenter . I believe that one insight which emerges from your recent blog is that the reader as well needs to be aware of this and not get swayed by the persona of the character and merely look at the greatness. The reader needs to look for other reflections as well. Vijay Tendulkar in his (Hey Sarva Kuthhun Yeta) book has excellently demonstrated this explorative tendency even though he is writing on great men like Jayprakash Narayan, Dr Shivajirao Patwardhan. For me, I have got one more insight on being a complete reader of biography or autobiography . It is going to be difficult though…… To balance emotions and reason while reading is a difficult balancing act….. I wonder how you manage to do it………..

Regards,

Abhijit