On Turning Thirty

Turning thirty is believed to be a significant moment in an individual’s life. It is not as though the first thirty years don’t have their own milestones. At nine or ten, we enter middle school; I remember how thrilled I was - finally, finally, I was allowed to discard the pencil and take up a […]

No license to rape

In a heartening development, the Supreme Court has made it clear that nobody has the license to rape a woman and claim that it’s ok because she has already been sleeping with others. The disheartening thing of course is that the Supreme Court is needed to point this out, when it should be perfectly obvious. […]

Somerset Maugham & Racism in Fiction

Lately, I’ve been reading a collection of Somerset Maugham’s short stories. I’m reading Maugham after a very, very long time, and I don’t remember enjoying his work, especially the short stories, this much when I was younger. For one thing, I was struck by the clarity which his descriptions produce. Reading them, it is possible to immediately […]

Short and Weird

A couple of days ago, I was thinking - that I have no clue how to write in brief. I can’t remember too many short blog posts I’ve written. Well, that changes with this one. I’m not a big one for trivia, but I had to share this. The weirdest search term that has led […]

Sexual Harassment at the workplace

It is now almost 20 years since the Visakha guidelines were first put in place, to protect working women from sexual harassment at their place of work. Still, it is clear that in many cases, the implementation is not clear at all. Two days ago, Nisha Bhatia, a Director at the RAW Training Wing in […]

The Origin of Humankind

I’ve just finished reading noted anthropologist Richard Leakey’s lucid book on human evolution, ‘The Origin of Humankind’. In school, dreary teaching often made me feel as though science was fundamentally un-understandable. Biology was better than chemistry, which in turn was better than physics, the biggest bogey of all; still, this fear of science was almost […]

Rape and Harassment in India

4 years ago, Australian tourist Emilie Griggs was raped and murdered on her visit to India - infact, before she even had seen anything of the country, on her way out of the airport itself. Yesterday, a Delhi Court sentenced the 2 accused to death, on the basis of forensic and circumstantial evidence. This may […]

Atithi Devo Bhava

Atithi Devo Bhava, so the Upanishads say. And one would like to believe that, in a different age in India, this was very much true. I don’t know if it really was; were guests ever welcome at all times? And did it extend to any kind of guest, as our scriptures teach us to welcome? […]

Yelagiri Hills

Yelagiri Hills is sometimes known as the poor man’s Ooty - I hope it stays that way! I got back yesterday after a lovely two days spent there, walking, playing games, catching up with old friends - all in Yelagiri’s pleasant not cold-not hot weather. Without the crowds and noise of Ooty. I wonder how […]