On an unexpected day I had a caller in Bangalore. It was C.S. Ramakrihnan (CSR), a long time friend. I have had many friends, big and small and I often wondered whether I have friends in the sense others talk of theirs. I cant say I have childhood friends whom I remember now. Nor my…
Category: People
Globalisation ended Marxism?
Eric Hobsbawm, the Marxist historian, at the end of his rather elaborate essay on the fall of Communism in 1989 asks the question: Whether or in which of its forms, Marxism, the intellectual justification and inspiration of communism, would continue remainsa matter of debate. Clearly, if Marx would live on as a major thinker, which…
Remembering Mulk Raj Anand
December marks the hundreth year of the birth of Mulk Raj Anand who lived to a ripe age of nearly 99 years. And who in his life time strode the Indian arts stage, literally like a colossus! I had the good fortune to come into contact with this multi-faceted great Indian who inspired countless fellow…
National traits, attitudes and character
A series of scandals ! Yet Indians deny themselves all truths! What about the special Indian traits? Our attitudes? Our character? Why we don’t talk so much about our Indian weakness for double talk and double standards? Each nation and culture has its own special raits, attitudes and character. US President George Bush talks and…
My Oxford day intellectuals and scholars
I have written elsewhere, some time ago, about the number of persons who influenced my thought and also the way I think about issues. Those whom I didn’t not know personally but whose books influenced me form one set of such persons. These range from poets to philosophers, journalists, men like Boris Pasternak and other…
Amartya Sen on rural migration
Where too many theories don’t work! Amartya Sen was in India recently and he was at his usual best: brilliant, insightful and oh, too many stimulating words and suggestions. So too another Nobel Prize economist, the American Joseph Stiglitz too was in India and he too was so brilliant and made very many insightful points….
Living through cynical times!
Javed Akhtar on society’s values! Society’s education perceptions and priorities After going through the BJP education minister days it seems a springtime under Mr.Arjun Singh, the new HRD minister. But poor Mr.Singh! Can he deliver on the promises of the government? We mean the education for all and the midday meals targets? We are not…
What use universities? Indians becoming mental slaves!
How to understand our times? Are we not living under the American empire? are not our intellectual beliefs, our uppie culture, consumerism make us already mental slaves of American power There are manychallenges for India. As the largest democracy it had survived the post-Independence period. India’s many capabilities make us a serious contender for a…