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
Thomas Hobbes, was born in the year of the Spanish Armada and lived through the English Civil War. When Charles I lost his head, he lived in exile in France and only returned after the monarchy was restored under Charles II. (I had written a bit about this period here). To understand his political philosophy, … Continue reading The Narrow Corridor, the Cage of Norms and the Red Queen Effect
The invention of the shipping container as a mode of transport by Malcolm McLean is considered to be a watershed moment in the history of global trade and logistics. By standardizing the size of the container (most are eight feet wide, eight and a half feet high and forty feet long), shipping became efficient and … Continue reading Once Upon a Time in Bengal
Most of the iconic structures of Bombay were built by the profits from the cotton trade. To understand this, one needs to grasp how cotton emerged as the key commodity driving imperialists, plantation owners and bankers for almost three hundred years. Columbus’ discovery of America and Vasco da Gama’s discovery of the sea route to … Continue reading The Empire of Cotton
China used more cement between 2011 and 2013 than the U.S. used in the entire 20th Century. Yes, you heard that right! Now, with this knowledge, it’s not unnatural to imagine China importing lots of crude oil, heavy machinery or vehicles. But the fact is that China’s largest category of imports is an entirely unrelated category … Continue reading The Chip Wars
