Museums and Repatriation
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,...
View ArticleA Conflict of Visions
In my line of work, I attend (often, forced to) a lot of panel discussions, workshops and conferences. Most of these have a set pattern. It’s usually around a global issue or something that affects at...
View ArticleDelhi during the Partition
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...
View ArticleBuildings aren’t static
Why is owning a house such an emotional pull for humans? Why do we derive so much joy from the act (in some cases the mere thought) of designing our living spaces, decorating rooms and pondering about...
View ArticleTeju Cole on Death and Music
I spent the Diwali Sunday at a friend’s place and finished Teju Cole’s Tremor (between the conversations). Cole, who was a sensation in Twitter with his micro fiction - until he decided to quit the...
View ArticleThe Underbelly of the EV Revolution
When something sounds too good to be true, always be suspicious. The incoming revolution in the transport sector heralded by Musk revolutionizing EVs - by making them an object of desire – has been...
View ArticleThe Sunni-Shia schism of Islam
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...
View ArticleBananas, Beaches and Bases
During this era Singapore Airlines, a government company, ran a centerfold advertisement that featured an Asian woman of somewhat vague ethnicity. She could have been Chinese, Indian, or Malay. She...
View ArticleMarilyn Monroe’s Literary Odyssey
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...
View ArticleDisney, Gemini, Wokeism…
Last year, I joined my children and watched a few minutes of Disney’s Little Mermaid. Unlike the Little Mermaid that I knew (white skin and red hair), this one was a Black and essayed by Halle Bailey....
View ArticleParametric Insurance for Disasters
One of the professional hazards in my line of work is that I’m at times invited to speak on topics that are complex and in which I have limited expertise. Last week, I had to speak on Parametric...
View ArticleMental Model for Categorizing Intellectuals
An apocryphal story has it that Confucius once became separated from his students in a strange city. They were searching for him when a local informed them that he’d seen a man who appeared...
View Article‘We Must Cultivate Our Own Garden’ for this is not the ‘Best of All Possible...
In the late 17th century, with scientific discoveries being the flavour of the season, Spinoza had already propounded his idea of God. Into this vibrant mix of new scientific thinking and philosophical...
View ArticleBest Comics – 2024
My habit of buying one comic a week was more or less maintained through the year. Some of the standout ones that I encountered: Hakim's Odyssey:This French trilogy tracking the life story of Hakim - a...
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