Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix,

the Science of Happiness Podcast.

For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want

to share that science with you.

And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley.

I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that

calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds.

This is a Thinking Loud Podcast from the BBC and for more details in our terms of use and much, much more about thinking aloud, go to our website at BBC.co. UK.

Hello. It was the 19th century sociologist August Comte who practiced cerebral hygiene.

A systematic attempt to read his mind of unwanted ideas so as to have room for, well,

for more valuable thoughts. It's an enticing notion, I mean perhaps if I could rid my memory

of that Murray mint jingle, I might be able to replace it with the date of my partner's birthday.

But of course cerebral hygiene might also deprive us of the shock of memory, that sudden manner in which a new event prompts a vivid chain of

recollections which you hardly knew were in your possession.

Such was the case this Sunday when I read Arundati Roy's attack upon Mahatma Gandhi.

It is time, said the book-a-priot-winning author, to unveil a few truths about a person whose doctrine of

nonviolence was based on the acceptance of the most brutal social hierarchy ever known, the

caste system.

Well, Gandhi descendants and historians rushed to express outrage, but my mind immediately went back a whole decade to the time

when a sociologist who lived among members of the lowest caste in that system,

the Dalits or untouchables, came on this program and not only gave a vivid account of their plight in modern

high-tech India but also spoke of the manner in which they were beginning to assert themselves.

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