Category Archives: Culture
Look away
Not something I usually blog about but boy is this funny. (At least) Star Sports has been airing an ad for an app called ‘Magicpin’ that I think helps you in some way when you shop for stuff. And this … Continue reading
On science, religion, Brahmins and a book
I’m partway through Renny Thomas’s new book, Science and Religion in India: Beyond Disenchantment. Its description on the Routledge page reads: This book provides an in-depth ethnographic study of science and religion in the context of South Asia, giving voice to Indian scientists … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture, Science
Tagged book review, K Sivan, pseudoscience, Raja Ramanna, Renny Thomas, science and religion, scientific temper, scientism
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Reading books, writing words
It suddenly feels like a lot more people have been reading a lot more books. Or maybe they’re talking about it a lot more. I have one friend who went through more books in 2021 than there were weeks. And … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Life notes
Tagged blogging, reading books, writing stats
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On The Caravan’s new profile of The Hindu
On December 1, The Caravan published a 50-page report entitled ‘Paper Priests: The battle for the soul of The Hindu’. The report – actually, as a friend put it, a big profile – has many good parts and many others, … Continue reading
Posted in Analysis, Culture
Tagged casteism, Malini Parthasarathy, newsroom, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Siddharth Varadarajan, The Caravan, The Hindu
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Don’t donate bad food and call it ‘dharma’
There’s a troubling pattern among some people who give food away to homeless people and beggars. I have seen this happen first-hand with my folks, my extended family and their wider group of neighbours and acquaintances. All of them are … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Op-eds
Tagged Brahmins, Chocos, circular economy, dharma, junk food, noncommunicable diseases, street dogs
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The names of our dragons
The first piece of very-popular epic fantasy fiction I read was J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth saga, which, among many things, reminded me how much the American and British writers of ‘high fantasy’ owed the ancient mythologies of the people of … Continue reading
Posted in Culture
Tagged Babylonian mythology, J. R. R. Tolkien, Malazan Book of the Fallen, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Comics, Steven Erikson, The Eternals, Tiamut the Communicator
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Railroad to zealotry
“It would not be unusual for finger-stick testing to be met with skepticism,” says a spokesman for Theranos. “Patents from that period explain Elizabeth’s ideas and were foundational for the company’s current technologies.” Vanity Fair received this statement from Theranos, the … Continue reading
Review: ‘Love Death + Robots’ 2 (2021)
I’ve been curious why the Marvel Cinematic Universe picked the Malthusian catastrophe for the ultimate disaster the superheroes rescue everyone else from. Narendra Modi has invoked the misguided idea of some (religious) communities breeding too fast for Hindu India – … Continue reading
Posted in Culture
Tagged animated anthology, LDR, Love Death and Robots, Malthusian catastrophe, Netflix, Pop Squad, Sonnies Edge, Zima Blue
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On the International Day of Light, remembering darkness
Today is the International Day of Light. According to a UNESCO note: The International Day of Light is celebrated on 16 May each year, the anniversary of the first successful operation of the laser in 1960 by physicist and engineer, … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Scicomm, Science
Tagged astronomical twilight, atmospheric pollution, darkness, ecological commons, geological commons, Indian Astronomical Observatory, International Day of Light, light pollution, night sky, night sky commons, Project Kuiper, SpaceX Starlink
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The Government Project
Considering how much the Government of India has missed anticipating – the rise of a second wave of COVID-19 infections, the crippling medical oxygen shortage, the circulation of new variants of concern – I have been wondering about why we … Continue reading
Posted in Culture
Tagged black holes, City of a Thousand Planets, COVID-19 in India, COVID-19 pandemic, history, India oxygen shortage, medical oxygen, spacetime continuum
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