Author Archives: udaykumarvarma9834

Maha Shivratri offers an opportunity to consider and comprehend what Lord Shiva stands for. In the trinity of Gods, Shiva supposedly controls the aspect of destruction. Destruction is a precondition for creation. As the sum total of all energy is constant, only the forms it takes transform, any new creation shall necessarily involve demise ofContinue reading “Maha Shivratri”

In May of 47 BCE, Caesar travelled to Asia to confront and defeat the rebellious Pharnaces II, King of Pontus, in an area near the Black Sea in north-eastern Turkey. With only three legions, Caesar marched against Pharnaces and his force of 20,000 and trounced him handily in the Battle of Zela, or what isContinue reading “General Napier and the One-Word Despatch”

“E vero, e vero, e vero!This is the ring you gave me and these are your promises!”(Artemisia’s statement while being tortured during her rape trial) Women painters are not widely discussed and a list of outstanding painters is likely to miss a woman. Whether it is the result of relatively fewer women artists or theContinue reading “A Painter who took Revenge in Oil”

A plaque in East London reads, “The ablest and most renowned Navigator this or any country hath produced lived in a house a few yards from this spot, 126, Upper Shadwell“. This ‘ablest and most renowned’ navigator is Captain James Cook, who is credited to have done more than any other explorer in human historyContinue reading “A Tryst with Death on a Lonely Shore”

“I didn’t write it. God wrote it. I merely did his dictation.” Few books in the history of humankind have been able to keep a tryst with destiny. Das Kapital is believed to be one such book. But there have been others too. Some are privileged by providence to be widely acclaimed while some others,Continue reading “An Abolitionist Little Woman who started the Great War”

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of United States was born today February 12 in the year 1809. He was the tallest President, physically (6 feet 3 inches), literally, morally and intellectually, and definitely the tallest in public esteem and regard. He was also the first President to sport a beard though not the only one.Continue reading “A President Raises a Beard”

“the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.”Perhaps one of the most discussed public issues of all times is theContinue reading “Robert Peel and Police Reforms”

“C’est le guet…Il a sonné dix!Il a sonné dix!”This booming, resonating call is heard every night between 10 and 2 for the last six hundred years by the residents of Lausanne, Switzerland. This is the call of the night watchman. Emanating from the ramparts of the local Cathedral, if this call were not to come,Continue reading “Le Guet de Lausanne(The Night Watchman of Lausanne)”