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Briefly Noted: Jade Dragon Mountain: A Mystery by Elsa Hart
Jade Dragon Mountain: A Mystery (Li Du Novels) by Elsa Hart Early in the 17th century, the English were trying to get a foothold in India as traders with the visit of Thomas Roe to Jehangir’s court. In...
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Briefly Noted: The Black Widow by Daniel Silva
The Black Widow by Daniel Silva In the opening scene of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, SS colonel Hans Landa or the “Jew Hunter”, reaches the home of a French dairy farmer looking for a...
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Preserving Long Term Memories
Penelope questions Odysseus to prove his identity (by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, 1801) Here are few incidents that baffle the mind. In Odyssey, Odysseus reaches home a decade after the Trojan...
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Prof. Irfan Habib’s “Secularism”
Njannenna Bharatheeyan by K K Muhammed Few decades back, at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Prof. Irfan Habib summoned his former student and now faculty member K K Muhammed to his office. Muhammed...
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Ayodhya: Marxist Mischief
“The Ram temple is to a Hindu, what Mecca and Medina are to a Muslim. A Muslim cannot imagine both these places under the control of another religion. Muslims should feel the pain of a Hindu, whose...
View ArticleNo One Does Yoga Anymore
Embed from Getty Images Yoga is a multi billion dollar industry in America and yet it has nothing to do with Yoga. In the 1970s, Neem Karoli Baba said that no one does Hatha Yoga anymore and the...
View ArticleThe Self-Validating, Self-Sustaining Transcendental System
Embed from Getty Images The best way of knowing something is through direct experience. You watch a beautiful sunrise and you feel joy. There is nothing here that deludes the senses. Another way is...
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The Power of Habit
The Power of Habit is a best-selling book which explains how habits are formed and how you can develop good habits. According to the book, habits have three components (1) a cue (2) a routine and (3) a...
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Revisionist History
CREDIT – Bill Hudson, AP The above picture was taken in 1963, during a protest march for civil rights, in the United States. This was the time in history when Martin Luther King and his people were...
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Lessons from Panchatantra – Artha
The evil jackal Damanaka meets the innocent bull Sañjīvaka. Indian painting, 1610. In the first book of Panchatantra, the merchant Vardhamana sets off from the city of Mahilaropya and has to abandon...
View ArticleThe brilliance of Panini
Long time back in Takshashila, there lived two students who were studying to be grammarians, a popular topic. One of them was dull; the other very bright. Everyone used to make fun of the dull boy and...
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Was Buddhism a social reformation of Hinduism?
There is an academic notion that Buddha was not just a religious teacher, but a social critic and a revolutionary social theorist. He is also considered a social reformer who challenged the Brahmin...
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Mudrarakshasa by Vishakadatta
Mudrarakshasa, written by Vishakadatta (Translated by R S Pandit) in 6th century CE, is a political thriller set in an interesting period in Indian history. It is the time of Chanakya, Chandragupta...
View ArticleHow George Washington became an American
There were three revolutions in the 18th century which followed one after the other in the Western world. The first one was the American revolution, resulting in the Declaration of Independence in...
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Why did the Renaissance occur in Italy?
Jonathan Körner One person responsible for making Florence a wealthy place was Cosimo de’ Medici who took over the family bank in 1430s. The Medici bank innovated in bookkeeping,...
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Sanskrit Notes: Tenses
Learning Sanskrit byAvanish Tiwary (Flickr) Like any language, Sanskrit has the three tenses: the present, past and future. They are called वर्तमानकालः, भूतकालः and भविष्यत्कालः respectively. For the...
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Turmeric Gets Popular in the West
Peets ad for Turmeric Coffee That was an Ad from Peet’s Coffee. Who would have thought about adding turmeric to coffee? But looks like that is a thing now. Costco, a popular wholesale store, too is...
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Sanskrit Notes: Context
Wise Principle (This is the translation of a story which appeared in Sambhashana Sandesha magazine. The translation is mine) Once upon a time, a pundit went to the river to take a bath. While taking...
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The Paninian Prakriya
(It is recommended that you read The brilliance of Panini before this article) Panini’s Ashtadhyayi रामः पठति – Rama studies. If it happened in the past, you would say, रामः अपठत् and if it is going to...
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Movie: Spotlight – Exposing child abuse in the Catholic church in Boston
“I find that the city flourishes when its great institutions work together” In the wild, a predator stalks a herd, identifies the weakest animal and then preys on it. It was the same tactic that Boston...
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