Figuring Things Out

It is not the best of times to be a soldier at the Line of Control (LoC)... Headhunters are back in action on both sides of the border. U...

Over the past four days, both houses of the Indian Parliament have been debating the need to permit Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in mul...

Farish Jenkins - paleontologist and polymath, died on Nov 1, aged 72. While reading an obituary put up by the Economist for Jenkins I wa...

What is the story behind this iconic photograph of the  Patola palace in Tibet? The photographer, Galen Rowell was leading a tour-gr...

According to industry specialists, China will spend $49 billion on jet engine development over the next two decades. There is a clear e...

What drives people to do something extraordinary? For some folks, the challenge itself is the lure. When George Mallory, a famous mount...

Vashnav, Milan (2012): RESIZING THE STATE , The Caravan, 1 Oct 2012, url - http://www.caravanmagazine.in/perspectives/resizing-state - A...

A few days ago, the Indian Prime Minister handed over the 210-million-th Unique Identification (UID aka Adhaar) card to Bali Devi of Puraw...

WikiMap of India during the 'Epics Period' A passing reference caught my eye today. In an Indian Express op-ed article , a ...

View Larger Map Last week, the I ndian Express carried a eulogy dedicated to the soldier's of the 13th Kumaon Regiment who defende...

What is it to sleep hungry? This was a question Harsh Mandar asked an audience of university-educated, middle-class Indian youngsters. S...

When an El Nino drought destituted the farmers of the Deccan plateau in 1876 there was a net surplus of rice and wheat in India. But the v...

Its now the Navratri festival season and a great time for shopkeepers stocking on dry fruits. For a nine-day period, millions of North In...

* Srivathsan, A (2012): SMALL IS BIG FOR INDIA'S BOOMING RETAILS SECTOR, The Hindu, 30 Sep 2012 - http://www.thehindu.com/news/national...

At the core of numerous 'landmark judgments' passed by the Supreme Court of India, are individuals who stood up against the syste...

An Ektara is a single-sting intrument that has numerous variations in India. One that is commonly seen in rural North India is fashio...

 Today is the last day of one of the most unproductive sessions of the Indian Parliament. Over the last three weeks, the Indian Parliam...

Which is this strikingly beautiful grasshopper couple, perched in a Papri tree? Answer from Shaku, 10 Sep., 2012: Ak grasshopper...

* Mehta, Bhanu Pratap (2012): THE QUICKSAND OF CASTE, Indian Express, 28Aug12, URL - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-quicksand-of-ca...

A few days ago, when I requested the librarian at CPR for a copy of Pankaj Mishra's recently released book, "From the Ruins of E...