So many of the gastronomical delights of our modern life would be impossible without modern refrigeration. Cheeseburgers, chilled beer, ice cream and of course all the imported exotic items like Norwegian salmon, Swiss cheese and Australian beef would have just remained local delicacies restricted to a few 100 kilometers from their point of origin had … Continue reading Our Refrigerated World
In the early years of my career in development, one of the raging debates was about the glory and ethical principle of working in the ‘field’ against joining organizations that paid lip service to development. Looking back, all of it appears so juvenile; as if development was only about working in rural, remote settings and … Continue reading On Simone Weil
In ‘Free to Choose,’ Milton Friedman—the poster boy of free markets and the favourite punching back of the left—makes an interesting comparison between India’s 30 years after independence and Japan’s 30 years after the Meiji Revolution. At these respective moments in time, both countries were similar in terms of their rigid feudal/caste structures, limited natural … Continue reading An India-Japan comparison
After visiting Sanchi, my next stop was Bhimbetka. Since I don’t own a car in Delhi, road trips aren’t a common feature of my life. So the two-hour drive from Sanchi to Bhimbetka was relished. The paddy fields, village roads leading to hamlets tucked away from the highway, India’s vaunted toll roads, Dusshera celebrations with … Continue reading Bhimbetka Notes
The Sanchi stupa is a spectacular Buddhist monument. It’s address is an unusual one as Sanchi was a city that the Buddha never visited during his lifetime. Hiuen Tsang who spent 15 years in India checking out all the major Buddhist sites makes no reference to Sanchi in his writings. The stupa is believed to … Continue reading Sanchi Notes
Until September 1924, India’s history was considered to have begun not more than 2500 years (500 BC max) ago. That month, John Marshall, the Director General of the ASI, in a piece published in the Illustrated London News, announced to the world the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization based on excavations in Harappa and … Continue reading Discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization
