Despite completing four decades on earth, I’m yet to learn a single mantra or a complete prayer. While I'm fascinated with rituals each time I see them, I’ve never felt the need to bow down to them or worry about not giving them adequate ‘respect’. I’m convinced that the hold that religion has over our … Continue reading On Rituals
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
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
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
Feminism, like all isms, brooks no dissent. For this reason, Louise Perry’s argument against the sexual revolution, brought about and cheered largely by the feminist movement from the 60s, requires a wider reading. While I disagree with her conclusions, her courage to stick her neck out and make her arguments makes this an important addition … Continue reading The Case Against the Sexual Revolution
I’m someone who has always found train journeys to be magical. It’s not the swanky berths, fancy catering or the air conditioning that draws me in but the melancholy of dark vistas, remote hamlets, headlights of cars on lonely highways and tiny deserted railway stations in the middle of nowhere. Watching these sights appear and … Continue reading The Melancholia of Edward Hopper
I grew up in the United Arab Emirates where the falcon is the national bird. It’s on the national emblem and hence an ubiquitous sight on stamps, official documents, government buildings etc. If you spend considerable time in the Middle East, it’s not uncommon to come across an Arab with a menacing falcon perched on … Continue reading Falconry and the Arabs
Roald Dahl, the celebrated children’s author has suddenly become problematic for the self-proclaimed guardians of 21st century sensitivities. Puffin has hired sensitivity readers to replace ‘problematic’ words such as fat, black, Kipling etc and bring in a gender-neutral tone to his writings, even if it means changing the meaning and tone of his works. The … Continue reading Sanitizing Roald Dahl
We don’t walk much these days. I mean, humans as a species. With the rise of modern transportation and our frenzied lifestyles, our sense of space and the time needed to cover vast distances has also been lost. Rahul Gandhi, in his Bharat Jodo Yatra managed to cover an average of 25kms over 4 months … Continue reading The ‘Out of Eden’ Walk
