I just finished Steinbeck’s ‘East of Eden’. The 850-page book is being adapted for the small screen, and the seven-episode series is dropping on Netflix in October. After reading this, I can confirm that Steinbeck’s best work is definitely ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ which I wrote about earlier. But nevertheless, the book kept me engaged. … Continue reading The Church and the Brothel: Steinbeck’s American West in ‘East of Eden’
Ron Chernow’s Pulitzer winning work - ‘Washington: A Life’ was a detailed biography of arguably the greatest American of all time. Unlike Ben Franklin, Jefferson or Hamilton, he was neither charismatic nor an erudite genius. But his greatness mainly stemmed from the fact that he nonchalantly gave up his role as the Commander-in-Chief of the … Continue reading George Washington
Over the past few days, I flipped through Tirthankar Roy and K. Ravi Raman’s ‘Kerala, 1956 to the Present: India’s Miracle State’. The book is part of Cambridge University Press’s Economic Histories of Indian States series. The next volume expected to be published in a month is on West Bengal. The central argument of the … Continue reading A Critique of the Kerala Model of Development
Through a cracking CWT episode, I discovered Julia Ioffe’s ‘Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy’. The book traces the entire arc of Russian history from the Bolsheviks to Putin through a feminist lens and the lived experiences of Ioffe’s own family (who also happen to be Jewish and experienced the … Continue reading The Tragedy of the Russian Woman
In the 84 years that he lived, from 1706-90, the following is a non-exhaustive list of inventions/experiments/topics that Benjamin Franklin dabbled in: Positive and negative electrical charge terminology Hypothesis that lightning is electricity Kite experiment on atmospheric electricity Lightning rod Lightning-protection systems for buildings Idea of electrical grounding, Concept of capacitors and batteries Observation that … Continue reading Benjamin Franklin
Last week, I got to hear Umayalpuram Sivaraman playing the mridangam in Delhi. He turns 91 this year. Whenever I see someone in their 90s (doesn't happen too often with me since I live in India, not Japan), I'm always reminded of the philosopher Bryan Magee's analysis of centenarians. According to him, when you're in … Continue reading Twenty People Away from Christ
After reading and writing a bit about the American Revolution, I have been tackling the biographies of a few of the Founding Fathers. Jon Meacham’s ‘Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power’ was the first of the lot. In 1962, at a dinner honoring the Nobel Prize winners of the Western Hemisphere, President Kennedy began his … Continue reading Thomas Jefferson’s Legacy (It’s Complicated)
Satluj: Wrote about this here. The Agency (Season 2): Worth watching as it takes off from where it left us in Season 1. Great Expectations (1946): Wrote about this here Great Expectations (1998): Wrote about this here Patriot: Malayalam cinema is slowly learning to make slick flicks. But the writing needs a lot more improvement. … Continue reading What I Watched – August 2026
Sikkil was accompanied by the legendary Umayalpuram Sivaraman (going strong at 91) on the mridangam, Delhi Sriram on the violin and B.S Purushotam on the Khanjira. Chalamela (Varnam) in Nattaikurinji Siddhi Vinayakam in Shanmukhapriya by Dikshitar Kanintharul Purinthal in Kalyani by Papanasam Sivan Nenarunichi Nanu in Maalavi by Thyagaraja Chesinadella in Todi by Thyagaraja I … Continue reading Sikkil Gurucharan at Chinmaya Mission Auditorium, New Delhi
Thanks to being the resident Social Science teacher at home, I got to read the content on Shivaji in the Class VIII NCERT textbook. The chapter made random references to Afzal Khan, Shivaiji’s raid of Surat, his defeat by Jai Singh, the famous escape from Agra, his coronation, Tarabai, Thanjavur etc. The mandatory reference to … Continue reading The Remarkable Shivaji
