In his latest work ‘The Age of Revolutions’, Fareed Zakaria argues that the world’s first revolution that transformed the relations between the state and its citizens and ushered in the modern ideas of liberalism was not the American, French or the English revolutions. It was instead the Dutch Golden Age. Feudalism never took root in … Continue reading England’s debt to the Dutch
I’m the person who is generally unmoved when I read about the ‘looming climate apocalypse’, the probabilities of an asteroid collision with the earth or say, a future pandemic. I’ve always been a rational optimist when it comes to human progress and the belief in man’s ingenuity. Despite this, I was shaken, spent a few … Continue reading Nuclear Armageddon
Last week, a friend of mine who’s relocating abroad, shared a predicament of his. He has a Jamini Roy in his collection which cannot be shipped to his new residence. It was only then that I got to know about the Government of India-designated list of Nine Gems whose works are classified as National Treasures. … Continue reading National Treasures
Over the last two weekends, INTACH, in collaboration with ThisDay, organized a Heritage Walk-Leader Training Programme in Delhi. On a whim, I joined it and found it thoroughly enriching. The programme was a blend of lectures and on-site walks stressing the Dos and Don’ts of conducting heritage walks. The star-studded lineup of speakers included Swapna … Continue reading Heritage Walk-Leader Training Programme
As I had written earlier, I read Victor Hugo’s ‘Les Miserables’ last month and I’ve been busy dipping into the commentaries and analyses of the work. Mario Vargas Llosa’s lectures on ‘Les Miserables’ is collected as a volume called ‘The Temptation of the Impossible’. Reading it, I discovered that our man Hugo was a sex-addict … Continue reading The Sexual Exploits and Secret Diaries of Victor Hugo and Keynes
From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose The ball turret … Continue reading Masters of the Air
Last year, I spent half a day riding a horse in Pahalgam. Though it was a typical touristy thing to do when in Kashmir, the experience was exhilarating. To get a sense of a horse’s power, its intelligence and to appreciate why it was so central in human civilization, I would highly recommend getting on … Continue reading On Horses
I did a day trip to Patna which was also my maiden trip to this historical city. The little that I saw of the city from the airport to the Sardar Patel Bhavan looked very much like Ranchi and Rourkela. Somehow, the poverty was also starkly evident – rundown buildings sharing space with incongruous flyovers, … Continue reading Day trip to Patna
In the 17th century, coins in England were regularly ‘clipped’ to siphon off the gold and silver. When penalties failed to curb the practice, the Crown decided to accept and demonetize all circulating coins irrespective of their quality. Since the quantity of gold to mint new coins was higher than what was collected from the … Continue reading The Door and Window Tax
Last year, I spent a long weekend in Lucknow. While the cuisine was the main draw, the Shiite influence over the city is unmissable. Large and small Imambaras dot the city and remind us of the relatively short-lived dynasty of the Nawabs that ruled Oudh. (Imambaras, unlike mosques, are not merely prayer spaces but structures … Continue reading Lucknow’s Shiite Influence
