Benjamin Franklin
In the 84 years that he lived, from 1706-90, the following is a non-exhaustive list of inventions/experiments/topics that Benjamin Franklin dabbled in: Positive and negative electrical charge...
View ArticleThe Remarkable Shivaji
Thanks to being the resident Social Science teacher at home, I got to read the content on Shivaji in the Class VIII NCERT textbook. The chapter made random references to Afzal Khan, Shivaiji’s raid of...
View ArticleErica Jong on Ted Hughes’ Irresistibility
Erica Jong burst into the literary-feminist scene in 1973 with the publication of her provocative novel Fear of Flying, a work that became emblematic of second-wave feminism. The book is also...
View ArticleWinnie and Nelson
When we think of Nelson Mandela, we have this statesmanesque vision in our minds. A man who suffered incarceration for 27years and then emerged to lead and heal a country torn by Apartheid is always...
View ArticleQueen Elizabeth – Quirky, Risqué and Moving Tales
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...
View ArticleOn Henri Bergson
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...
View ArticleSpinoza’s God
The most dramatic moment in the history of philosophy must be Socrates being forced to drink hemlock. If one is asked to pick another moment that could rank high on drama, my submission would be...
View ArticleOn Simone Weil
In the early years of my career in development, one of the raging debates was about the glory and ethical principle of working in the ‘field’ against joining organizations that paid lip service to...
View ArticleOn Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt, one of twentieth century’s most famous political theorist and philosophers was catapulted to global fame with her coverage of the trial of Adolf Eichmann – the key architect of the...
View ArticleOn Freud
Each time I hug and pamper my children, I subconsciously know that I’m contributing to the scaffolding of their mental architecture and shaping the landscape of their emotional world. And that dear...
View ArticleRushdie’s ‘Knife’
Writing about happiness is probably one of the hardest things to do. Writing about trauma is far easier and also cathartic. For Rushdie: Happiness writes in white ink on white pages. In other words,...
View ArticleThe Sexual Exploits and Secret Diaries of Victor Hugo and Keynes
As I had written earlier, I read Victor Hugo’s ‘Les Miserables’ last month and I’ve been busy dipping into the commentaries and analyses of the work. Mario Vargas Llosa’s lectures on ‘Les Miserables’...
View ArticleRaja Rao
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...
View ArticleExcerpts from Cheever’s Journals
As I had written earlier, I began the year with John Cheever’s Journals. I’ve never read any of his works before and only knew him as the master chronicler of the American suburban life. ‘Chekov of the...
View ArticleParfit
Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time - Bertrand Russell Russel’s quote is something that I often think about each time I spend time reading stuff that I barely understand and more importantly that...
View ArticleThe Tokyo Trials and India’s Radhabinod Pal
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...
View ArticleBeyond the Lamp: Florence Nightingale’s Statistical Legacy
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...
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