Number of words: 229 If however, the Indian experience was unique for Islam so was the encounter with islam unique for Hinduism, other religions had been assimilated or marginalized; Islam alone could neither be swallowed whole nor be swept into a corner. The Hindus were shaken out of their insular mould and faced a phenomenon … Read more

Number of words: 779 There was a no further Islamicincursion from outsideover the next 285 years. But Islam spread through the gentle Sufi seints, which gave Islam in Sind its defenetive eclectic stamp. It was not till AD 997-nearly three centuries after Quassim – that Subutgin forced his passage through the Khyber Pass. This opened … Read more

Number of words: 57 “Peter Lynch, the legendary and highly successful manager of the Fidelity Magellan Fund for many years, once remarked that he calculated that more than half of the investors in his fund lost money. This happened because money would pour in after a couple of good quarters and exit after a couple … Read more

Number of words: 2,162 I have a simple philosophy in life I’ve learned from people much smarter than me. That is, watch the people you don’t want to be like, and do the opposite of what they do. I’m not trying to be a dick, but I have more than enough examples to last a … Read more

Number of words: 2,130 Harish Chandra Verma wasn’t an excellent student at school. Studies didn’t interest him as he struggled to pass all his subjects. For the Darbhanga native, whose family had endured hard times, adapting to an education system in Bihar that emphasised rote learning, was difficult. His father, who ran a school up … Read more

Number of words: 1,266 The world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, according to the first global scientific review. More than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, the analysis found. The rate of extinction is eight times faster than that of … Read more

Number of words: 1,844 Meet Jonathan Haidt, a professor of social psychology at the University of Virginia who studies morality and emotion. If social psychology was a sport, Haidt would be a Phil Mickelson or Rodger Federer – likable, fun to watch and one of the best. But what makes Haidt one-of-a-kind in academia is … Read more

Number of words: 2,371 What is so special about the human brain? Why is it that we study other animals instead of them studying us? What does a human brain have or do that no other brain does? When I became interested in these questions about 10 years ago, scientists thought they knew what different … Read more

Number of words: 303 The Cretaceous period ended about 66 million years ago, with the extinction of almost three-quarters of life on Earth, including dinosaurs. The extinction was triggered by an asteroid impact that created the 180-kilometre wide Chicxulub crater. Scientists were able to describe what happened the day after the impact event, the First … Read more

Number of words: 2,450 The phenomenal rise of the SUV all started with a squabble over chicken. It was 1963 – the height of the Cold War – and US president Lyndon Johnson was fuming over a tax that France and West Germany had imposed on cheap, intensively-farmed US chicken flooding European supermarkets. In December … Read more