So many of Marilyn Monroe’s photographs are iconic. The one shot during the shoot of ‘The Seven Year Itch’ - in which her white dress billows up with the wind is probably the most famous picture of her. Her centerpiece appearance in the inaugural issue of Playboy in 1953 is also another popular one for … Continue reading Marilyn Monroe’s Literary Odyssey
During this era Singapore Airlines, a government company, ran a centerfold advertisement that featured an Asian woman of somewhat vague ethnicity. She could have been Chinese, Indian, or Malay. She stood in a misty, impressionistic setting, looking out at the reader demurely, holding a single water lily. There was no information about the airline’s fare … Continue reading Bananas, Beaches and Bases
In a recent National Interest column, Shekhar Gupta quoted an interesting statistic: “Almost all the million-plus Muslims killed across the Muslim world in the past decade have been killed by fellow Muslims, barring about 5,000 to 7,000 each (if that many) by the Americans and the Russians (acting for the Assad regime in Syria)” Thanks … Continue reading The Sunni-Shia schism of Islam
When something sounds too good to be true, always be suspicious. The incoming revolution in the transport sector heralded by Musk revolutionizing EVs - by making them an object of desire – has been touted as the best thing to have happened to mankind. While the energy to power these vehicles will someday be ‘clean’, … Continue reading The Underbelly of the EV Revolution
I spent the Diwali Sunday at a friend’s place and finished Teju Cole’s Tremor (between the conversations). Cole, who was a sensation in Twitter with his micro fiction - until he decided to quit the platform – in his latest book brings in the familiar and exhausting immigrant analysis of art, culture and history. A … Continue reading Teju Cole on Death and Music
Why is owning a house such an emotional pull for humans? Why do we derive so much joy from the act (in some cases the mere thought) of designing our living spaces, decorating rooms and pondering about the changes that would be necessary to be initiated in as we age. While a lot of it … Continue reading Buildings aren’t static
To describe the early 40s as a unique period in Indian history would be an understatement. World War II was raging, Britain was valiantly holding on against the Nazis, the Japanese were marauding in the seas of Southeast Asia, Chiang Kai-shek was battling them with US supplies airdropped from India, Burma had fallen and it … Continue reading Delhi during the Partition
In my line of work, I attend (often, forced to) a lot of panel discussions, workshops and conferences. Most of these have a set pattern. It’s usually around a global issue or something that affects at least a few hundred million people; and the respondents in 3 minutes pontificate on how the problem needs to … Continue reading A Conflict of Visions
Should the Kohinoor be returned to India? Doesn’t the Rosetta Stone rightly belong to the Egyptians? The Elgin Marbles – the highlight of the British museum – should be reinstalled in the Parthenon, right? What are the Egyptian mummies doing in the British Museum? And why aren’t the Benin bronzes returned? These are all fraught … Continue reading Museums and Repatriation
No conversation around the idea of democracy can skirt the English Civil War. The seventeenth century in England with the Stuarts in power also produced two of the greatest political philosophers of all time – Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. So, trying to get a sense of this period led me to Jonathan Healey’s ‘The … Continue reading The Stuarts and the English Civil War
