This is a moment of great personal emotion as well as honor and pride for me. The moment is emotional because Yasaswy was among my closest friends for the last three decades. Together we had spent many a holiday and enjoyed many a dinner. In the last few years, there was hardly a fortnight when we did not meet over a quiet evening. My wife and I always looked forward to spending time with Yasaswy and his family. An evening with Yasaswy was like reading a good book or two. With his quick silver mind, Yasaswy, a great scholar and a great conversationalist, could keep us spellbound for hours. His many achievements in themselves are impressive, not the least of which is the ICFAI legacy. But even more impressive was his deep and rare scholarship and his insights into life’s larger questions.

I have chosen to speak about ethics in a changing society, because though as adults, most of us are aware that certain core values of ethics are probably timeindependent and in that sense more or less absolute, at a time when the morals and value-systems are changing in society, youth in the country is bound to wonder whether the principles we use to evaluate people’s behavior as right or wrong, or what we call as ethics, really remain unchanged in a changing society. Or do they change as a society undergoes changes? Do ethical values differ for different societies at a given point in time? Is morality the same as ethics? Who decides what ethical conduct is for me? Can a society become more or less ethical over a period of time?

However, I have no intention of making this an academic discourse. I merely intend to share my own musings on these questions in the hope that the subject will generate some interest among the youth, especially at a time when corruption stands at the center stage of the country.

Management Research Journal, Defining Ethics, Changing Society, Euthanasia, circumstances, bhajans in temples.