Earlier this month, while traveling to Bhopal, I was served this powdered concoction by the Indian Railways. Though it looked like chalk powder, the ‘food’ item in question was Knorr Instant soup and is a classic example of what goes as Ultra Processed Food aka UPF. According to the NOVA classification, processed food is categorized … Continue reading Ultra Processed Food
Human beings are self-centered. When I perform an act of altruism or a ‘good deed’, all that I’m doing is meeting my own self-interest – the need for acknowledgement from my peers, an addiction to the warm afterglow or in some cases a quest for glory. This is true for you, me and everyone else. … Continue reading On Philanthropy
We live in a world that places a premium on creativity. Companies expect their employees to be creative, parents want their children to become creative, mayors want to convert their cities to creative hubs, translators want to be acknowledged for their creative skills and artists strive to express their unique visions through creative work. But … Continue reading The Cult of Creativity
Last month, I had two ‘elevating’ experiences in Bombay. The first was my vertical descent from the third floor of a building to the ground floor. No, I didn’t fall from the balcony. I took an elevator – the only catch being that this happened to be the world’s largest. (I’m still trying to wrap … Continue reading Elevators as Mass Transport Systems
The invention of the shipping container as a mode of transport by Malcolm McLean is considered to be a watershed moment in the history of global trade and logistics. By standardizing the size of the container (most are eight feet wide, eight and a half feet high and forty feet long), shipping became efficient and … Continue reading Once Upon a Time in Bengal
Most of the iconic structures of Bombay were built by the profits from the cotton trade. To understand this, one needs to grasp how cotton emerged as the key commodity driving imperialists, plantation owners and bankers for almost three hundred years. Columbus’ discovery of America and Vasco da Gama’s discovery of the sea route to … Continue reading The Empire of Cotton
