Blogs

In a plot twist that would make every Indian aunty proud, the United States has decided that 50 states just isn’t enough children to marry off. Enter Greenland—a perfectly content, ice-covered landmass minding its own business until Uncle Sam decided it was time for an arranged marriage. The family recon mission (Ladki dekhne jana) This…

The seizure of a Russian-flagged and registered ship – formerly known as Bella 1 and later rechristened as Marinera – by US forces in the North Atlantic has led to a massive debate about the legality of the action. Russia has criticised the move as ‘piracy’, while US maintains it was acting lawfully as the…

When we look at the world rationally, the world looks rationally back, Hegel said. Following this precept enables Alexandre Lefebvre, professor of politics and philosophy, to float against the zeitgeist centred on bemoaning the rise of illiberalism. His book Liberalism as a Way of Life urges readers to, instead, recognise how deeply liberalism is still the water we…

Vijay Hashia The cardinal question before us is whether time, space, causation, our experiential world, and even our personal identities are real or merely conceptual frameworks – ideas created, shaped, conditioned, or designed by forces unknown to us. These reflections recall Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, where prisoners, chained deep inside a cavern, see nothing…

But shoes don’t make or unmake the (wo)man Last Feb, haters called Vivek Ramaswamy “uncivilised” for going barefoot at home. So, if shod feet are the hallmark of civilisation, US startups seem to be connecting with their inner brute. Cursor, Replo, Composite and dozens of others have strict shoe-off policies. Pundits diagnose this as the…

Some people think wearing shoes makes you more “civilised.” But that’s not really true Last February, some people online made fun of Vivek Ramaswamy for being barefoot at home. They called him “uncivilised.” But if wearing shoes means being civilised, then many modern offices would seem quite the opposite. Some American startup companies like Cursor…

Western Ghats is pivotal to life on Earth The word biodiversity is thrown about rather casually in conversation about the planet. Including by most politicians and developers, who are steadily,  incrementally, irreversibly building homes & roads & a million infra, unscientifically, out of forests, hills, rivers and swamps. For them, true conservation is being ‘anti-development’,…

“Beyond the stage of intellect there is another stage. In this another eye is opened,” said Persian Sufi master and philosopher Hazrat Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058–1111). What the great mystic referred to is the eye of the heart – the eye that sees God as one’s Divine Beloved. Sufi mystics say that when the spiritual…

How would you deliver an impactful one-hour talk on data visualisation? I would say dress well, speak well, and talk relevantly. Start with what visualisation means and why it is essential to represent a concept or an output in pictorial forms. We perceive and recall visual elements of communication more effectively than textual or numeric…

Rising temperatures and pollution in Tamil Nadu are pushing maternal mental health to the brink. Targeted state action that supports the well-being of mothers and their children is essential. Parvathy,* mother to an 18-month-old, says, “My house feels like an oven that I can’t turn off.” She resides in Chennai’s industrial belt, under a corrugated…