Excerpts 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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...
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