The 2022 Iranian-French movie ‘Holy Spider’ was a treat at multiple levels. The movie is based on a real-life serial killer who murdered sixteen women in the late 90s in the city of Mashhad, Iran. The pull of world cinema is that it immerses you in geographies and historical periods that create a vivid impression, … Continue reading Holy Spider
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
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
Kyoto was the first choice as the target for the atomic bomb during World War II. It was an industrial center, had production capabilities of close to four hundred aircraft engines a month, and was an intellectual center of Japan. Hitting it was calculated to deal a body blow to Japanese morale. However, at the … Continue reading The Pacific Theatre in WWII
Patrick Olivelle’s ‘Ashoka’ is the first volume of the ‘Indian Lives’ series of Harper Collins, edited and put together by Ramchandra Guha. The work adopts a scholarly approach towards the man and his ideas. Re-reading aspects of his life is a great way to be reminded of Ashoka’s greatness. The only Indian empire to match … Continue reading Ashoka and the Mahabharata
I’ve always been enamored of the power of modern medicine to stamp out diseases from the face of the earth. But when you think of it, we’ve only done that with one disease: smallpox. And therein lies a great puzzle: Why didn’t we succeed with the others. Can we? Should we? (ChatGPT informed me that … Continue reading Disease Eradication vs. Strengthening Health Systems
During the last thirty years of the 18th century, the most feared adversary of the British was undoubtedly the father-son duo of Mysore – Haider Ail and Tipu Sultan. Looking back, its fascinating to imagine the international influence that the two wielded. The Anglo-Mysore wars were keenly tracked by the French and going the Machiavellian … Continue reading Tipu’s Tiger
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
The 1930s was a remarkable decade for Indian writing in English. Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable and R.K. Narayan’s Swamy and Friends were published in 1935 and Raja Rao’s Kanthapura followed in 1938 – a year before WWII. Last month, I picked up Raja Rao for the first time and tackled Kanthapura, The Cat and Shakespeare … Continue reading Raja Rao
Joe Studwell’s ‘How Asia Works’ is a seminal work examining the different trajectories adopted by the Asian countries in the aftermath of the Second World War. India doesn’t figure in the scope of this work. The focus is mainly on Northeast Asia (Japan, Korea), South East Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam) and of course China. Studwell … Continue reading How Asia Works
