Control the mind and you control reality!

At 23, Julius Caesar was a junior politician on the way up.

But he had an advantage : confidence and brains.

Sailing across the Aegean Sea, he was captured by Sicilian pirates.

They demanded a ransom : 20 talents of silver.

(That's about 620 kg, worth about $ 600,000).

Caesar insisted the ransom must raised to 50 talents of silver.

(Around 1,550 kg, worth $ 1.5 million).

Now the pirates didn't know what to make of this.

Normally, their captives tried to escape as cheaply as possible.

They didn't understand what was going on.

But if he said he would double the ransom, why argue?

They let Caesar's men go back to Rome to raise the money.

No one had ever been ransomed for such a vast sum before.

He must be very special, he must be incredibly important.

That ransom demand put Caesar on the political map.

He had just invented the Veblen effect.

Although Thorstein Veblen wouldn't give give it that 

name for another 2,000 years.

The Veblen effect is when consumers perceive higher-priced

goods to be worth more, simply because they cost more.

Like Rolex, Cartier, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Louis Vuitton,

Christian Louboutin, Harrods, Cristal Champagne.

None of them are actually any better than the cheaper alternatives

but the price alone makes them seem more desirable.

Caesar had effectively made himself a Veblen brand.

He'd placed a value on himself greater than anyone in Rome.

But, as far as anyone in Rome knew, it wasn't him who had done it.

It was an independent valuation. So it must be true. 

And because Caesar was now so highly valued, his men had little

trouble raising the ransom money

They returned to the island and freed him.

But Caesar wasn't going to allow the pirates to keep that sort of money.

As a now important and famous man, it was easy to raise a force.

He hunted down the pirates and took back all the money, plus everything

else they pillaged, then executed them all.

So Caesar was now both very rich and very famous.

And in time, with that same combination of confidence and brains,

he became ruler of all Rome.

And he presided over the golden age of the Roman Empire.

Expanding it from Spain to Germany, from Britain to the Middle East.

Because Caesar knew that reality begins in the mind.

So the most important piece of real estate in which to

stake a claim is the human mind.

How you stake a claim in the mind is by creating a perception.

And how you create that perception is by controlling the context.

Control the context and you control the mind.

Control the mind and you control reality.

Tailpiece.

Our day had begun at 4, when Lekha's cellphone's alarm had gone off. Mini, Lekha and I were ready after our chores and set off at a half past 6. Lekha and Mini wanted to have a 'darshan' of 'Neelamperoor Amma' and it was ascertained that we needed to reach the temple before 9, after which it would shut down after the morning's proceedings.

By 8, we'd finished our breakfast at a restaurant off Thiruvalla but the unfortunate thing was that Lekha espied a hair on her plate, after finishing off the appams and stew. It was sad but we didn't raise a shindig because we'd a long day ahead; but I must admit that I did feel bad for her.

We were at the temple by a quarter to 9 and had a nice 'darshan' of the goddess. I always have a nostalgic feeling when I'm at Neelamperoor which is Muthachhan's birthplace and try to visualise my mom's younger days with her parents! We saw the three daughters of his elder brother - Maheshwari peramma at 95 (she's up and about and does her personal work without anyone's help), Gomathi peramma (at 93, she has been in a pathetic state. She subsists on plain water, makes a few sounds and looks at you without registering as to who you are) and Santha kunjamma(she's home bound and can hardly walk as her legs are swollen and is under ayurvedic medication). But weren't they happy to see us which has always been a special experience for me!

From there, we'd gone to spend time with my cousin, Girija who'd recently lost her husband. She and her daughter, Sri Rekha stay in a massive house enroute to Alappuzha town from the Thanneermukkam regulator. We were seeing Girija - the eldest daughter of Appukkuttan kochachhan, dad's immediate younger brother who'd passed into the mist of time comparatively young at 52 yrs of age - after her marriage in '85 and her daughter, for the first time. Each of us were busy with our lives and didn't have time for each other......the sad truth!

We were back home by a half past 5 and I was happy that we could do all the things that we'd planned to do during the last 10 days.

And tomorrow's gonna be an early and a long, hectic day!