Few of us realize how narrowly India missed experiencing the horrors of the Second World War. Japan wreaked havoc all across Southeast Asia and it was a miracle that we managed to hold them off at Kohima. After their capitulation, the Allied Powers wasted no time in setting up the Tokyo Trials, taking inspiration from … Continue reading The Tokyo Trials and India’s Radhabinod Pal
We live in an age of dwindling attention spans. The rise of Instagram and the clickbaity nature of the links that we encounter each day is proof of this. The advice given to every aspiring writer is to catch the readers attention before they wander away and to cleverly deploy images to mold their opinions. … Continue reading Beyond the Lamp: Florence Nightingale’s Statistical Legacy
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
I spent the Dusshera weekend in Dharamshala. It was only after booking the tickets did I realize that the India-New Zealand World Cup match was also happening there at the same time. With the snow-capped peaks as the backdrop, it is little wonder that the cricket stadium is India’s prettiest. Like a typical tourist, I … Continue reading The Dharamshala Weekend
A friend of mine spent the previous two years in Penang as part of an international consortium in the business of designing and fabricating semiconductor units. Being an avid sketcher and a photographer, I got to see glimpses of the city through his posts and updates. Though I knew next to nothing about the place … Continue reading Discovering Penang (through books, how else!)
During the Great Depression, a decade of droughts and severe dust storms caused an ecological phenomenon called the Dust Bowl in the United States. Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado were gripped by mass rural impoverishment. The situation became more fraught as the period coincided with the introduction of mechanized farming pushing thousands into penury. … Continue reading The Dust Bowl
Last month, I spent the Independence Day weekend with my family exploring Ahmedabad and Baroda. The highlight of Baroda was the audio-guided tour of the Lakshmi Vilas Palace. We spent close to two hours admiring the palace and its treasures. Like any major Indian palace tour, there were manicured lawns, dazzling chandeliers, the mandatory tiger … Continue reading Aurobindo, Auroville & Pondicherry
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
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
