There are reunions, and then there are IAS reunions. The former involve nostalgia. The latter too involve nostalgia; but also protocol, subtle comparison, and the quiet belief—held with touching sincerity by almost everyone present—that time has treated them with exceptional generosity, and that they have aged distinctly better than most others in the batch. TheContinue reading “FIFTY YEARS LATER”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Raghu Rai: A Lens of Conscience
It has been more than a week since Raghu Rai departed. The first wave of tributes came swiftly—glowing, rich, heartfelt, and entirely deserved. And yet, some lives do not yield themselves fully to immediacy. They linger, gather depth within us, and return with a quiet insistence, asking to be reflected upon. This tribute arises fromContinue reading “Raghu Rai: A Lens of Conscience”
गुलमोहर : दहकने से पहले
गुलमोहर दहकने लगे हैं. मेरे घर के सामने गुलमोहर का एक सुगठित, सम्पन्न वृक्ष है। सुदर्शन तो वह है ही, गिलहरियों की अठखेलियों का एक चंचल प्रांगण भी है। मेरी सुबहें और साँझें अक्सर उनकी क्रीड़ा को देखते हुए बीतती हैं. दिन के आरंभ और अंत का इस से सुंदर और अर्थवान यापन और क्या हो सकता है?Continue reading “गुलमोहर : दहकने से पहले”
Rain, Briefly!
This evening, in Bengaluru, the rain arrived—not with the authority of the monsoon, nor with the drama of a seasonal shift, but with a certain hesitation. It was preceded, as such moments often are, by a gathering restlessness. The wind rose first—uneven, exploratory—moving through the trees with a sound that was neither whisper nor warning.Continue reading “Rain, Briefly!”
The Second Mind: Part – III
A Three-Part Reflection on Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Human Intelligence. Control, Catastrophe, and the Fragility of Intelligence Beyond disruption and creativity lies a more unsettling terrain—one defined not by possibility alone, but by vulnerability. AI, for all its sophistication, rests upon foundations that are at once powerful and fragile: data, infrastructure, and systemsContinue reading “The Second Mind: Part – III”
The Second Mind Part-II
A Three-Part Reflection on Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Human Intelligence. Creativity in the Age of Intelligent Machines If disruption defines the outer landscape of AI’s influence, creativity lies at its most intimate frontier. For centuries, creativity has been regarded as a defining attribute of human intelligence—the capacity to imagine what does not yetContinue reading “The Second Mind Part-II”
The Second Mind-Part I
A Three-Part Reflection on Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Human Intelligence Part I Disruption and the Rewriting of the World Disruptions rarely arrive with a clear declaration of intent. They begin as faint tremors beneath the surface of established order, unsettling assumptions before revealing their transformative force. History offers many such moments—the printing press,Continue reading “The Second Mind-Part I”
Service at the Crossroads: Part II
The Test of Our Times—Integrity, Power, and the Demands of Viksit Bharat If Part I is a reflection on what India’s civil services have been, Part II must confront what they are in danger of becoming—and what they must yet strive to be. For all their history and institutional depth, the civil services today standContinue reading “Service at the Crossroads: Part II”
Service at the Crossroads: Part I
The Idea of the Civil Service—From Steel Frame to Living Institution There are institutions that merely administer a nation, and there are those that, in quieter and less visible ways, help shape its destiny. India’s civil services have at their best, belonged to the latter category—an enduring presence through upheaval and change, lending continuity toContinue reading “Service at the Crossroads: Part I”
The Moustache Question: A Gentle Inquiry into a Serious Folly
It began, as many revolutions do, with a small, disarming question.“Why don’t you just shave it off?”My seven-year-old granddaughter had no stake in the centuries-old debate. She surveyed my cautious trimming with the clinical detachment of a philosopher and the impatience of youth. To her, my moustache was neither symbol nor style—merely an unnecessary shrubberyContinue reading “The Moustache Question: A Gentle Inquiry into a Serious Folly”
