The Cultural Exchange Between India and Southeast Asia

Number of words: 346 From the first century of the Christian era onwards wave after wave of Indian colonists spread east and south-east reaching Ceylon, Burma, Malaya, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Siam, Cambodia, and Indo-China. Some of them managed to reach Formosa, the Philippine Islands and Celebes. Even as far as Madagascar the current language is … Read more

The Quest for Meaning: Science, Religion, and Human Values

Number of words: 1,047 My early approach to life’s problems had been more or less scientific, with something of the easy optimism of the science of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. A secure and comfortable existence and the energy and self-confidence I possessed increased that feeling of optimism. A kind of vague humanism appealed … Read more

The Clash of Privacy and Profit in the Digital Age

Number of words: 766 What happens when an unstoppable force hits an immovable object?  In a recent speech in Brussels marking International Data Privacy Day, Apple CEO Tim Cook went on the offensive against Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. Cook’s speech seems to be a direct response to Facebook’s recent attack on Apple, in which the world’s largest social network took … Read more

The Anthropocene Era

Number of words: 433 Chances are, the works of the world’s insects touch your lips every day. The coffee or tea you savor, both are pollinated by insects. Apples, oranges, cabbages, cashews, cherries, carrots, broccoli, watermelon, garlic, cinnamon, basil, sunflower seeds, almonds, canola oil — all are insect-pollinated. Honey, dyes, even some vaccines require insects to come … Read more

The Intersection of Agriculture and Wildlife Conservation

Number of words: 923 MUMBAI: After several failed attempts, Dhanesh Parashar, a 36-year-old cashew farmer from Dodamarg in the Sindhudurg district has finally found a new ally in his struggle to keep free-ranging elephants from chomping down on his crop: honey bees.NSyes, elephants — the largest animal on land — are afraid of bees. So intensely that the … Read more

Architecture as a Mirror of Human Aspirations and Values

Number of words: 398 Three  is a story about architects that reflects current beliefs about that discipline and its relation to education. When a certain school of architecture asked its graduates what they had found most wanting in their architectural education, the responses ran somewhat as follows: graduates who had been out of school five … Read more

The Battle for Artistic Freedom

Number of words: 912 ‘We’d be reduced to a country of incarcerated artists and flourishing lapdogs if powerful institutions continue to show an inability to tolerate rebuke,’ says Kunal Kamra in Supreme Court. Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra defended in the Supreme Court on Friday his alleged scandalous tweets against the judiciary saying if the court … Read more