Some great non-fiction I read this year (in no particular order). The hyperlinks take you to my posts inspired by the book: We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience I've been reading up on biographies of philosophers to better understand their ideas. This one on Arendt was great … Continue reading Best Non Fiction 2024
My habit of buying one comic a week was more or less maintained through the year. Some of the standout ones that I encountered: Hakim's Odyssey:This French trilogy tracking the life story of Hakim - a Syrian-French immigrant driven out from Damascus during the 2015 civil war was THE comic of the year for me. … Continue reading Best Comics – 2024
I know I should be reading more fiction. But the ones I picked up this year mostly turned out to be great ones. The best that I read this year (in no particular order): PachinkoI'm late to the party with this one. The NYT brought out their Top 100 books of this century and I … Continue reading Best Fiction – 2024
The Kindle is great to read huge tomes. The ‘minutes remaining’ indicator for each chapter provides a reference point for the time needed to finish a book. Nothing like it to make slow and steady progress with the classics. I read Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch’ over the last two months with no trouble with motivation. Eliot’s philosophical … Continue reading Eliot’s Middlemarch and ChatGPT
Soon after landing in Calicut, my mother whisked me away to Guruvayoor. Visiting the temple town after seven years, travelling by auto, train and bus, was a memorable experience. The highlight was the hour spent sitting just a meter away from a tusker – Monsieur Peethambaran. My daughters even managed to touch and stroke his … Continue reading Guruvayoor Notes
The uniqueness of Hinduism lies in its inability to be defined by a singular set of rituals, beliefs, or practices. Are Hindus vegetarians? Do Hindus sacrifice animals? Do all Hindus fast on specific days? Are Hindu prayers always in Sanskrit? Do all Hindus worship sacred groves? Are the Vedas the foundational texts of the religion, … Continue reading The European Influence on Hinduism
Arnold Kling’s ‘The Three Languages of Politics’ is a short, succinct and handy toolkit to categorize political communication. For Kling, the three dominant political groups – the Progressives (what we call the Left in India), the Conservatives and the Libertarians communicate along dedicated axes. Liberals view political conflict as Oppressed vs. Oppressor Conservatives view political conflict … Continue reading The Three Languages of Politics
Queen Elizabeth must be the only person on earth whose daily life was chronicled from the day of her birth until her death in 2023. And as the monarch of Britain, it’s mind boggling to imagine the number of personalities she’s rubbed shoulders with. Craig Brown’s ‘Q: A Voyage Around the Queen’ was a quirky … Continue reading Queen Elizabeth – Quirky, Risqué and Moving Tales
At the height of his fame, Henri Bergson, was not just France’s leading philosopher but also arguably the most popular public intellectual of his age. His lectures were jam-packed and the audience cut across all classes and gender. Bergson, is most known for his concept of time which he called Durée. For Bergson, the qualitative … Continue reading On Henri Bergson
Yesterday, I was at the Chandigarh Secretariat of the Government of Punjab. The structure, an iconic landmark of the city, is also one of the best representations of Brutalism - the minimalist architectural style emphasizing functional designs employing raw materials like exposed concrete. While much of the interior has been redesigned and repurposed, the staircase … Continue reading A ‘Brutal’ pic
