Podcasts as the Archives of the Future The rise of the long-form podcast may ultimately prove to be more than a cultural or technological phenomenon. It may represent a profound transformation in the way human civilisation records itself. What appears today as an explosion of digital conversation may tomorrow be recognised as one of theContinue reading “Conversations at the Edge of History-II “
Tag Archives: history
Conversations at the Edge of History -I
Dwarkesh Patel and the Rise of the Serious Podcast In recent years, the long-form podcast has evolved from a niche digital experiment into one of the principal arenas of contemporary discourse. Politicians, scientists, entrepreneurs, philosophers, and cultural figures increasingly prefer podcasts over conventional television interviews or newspaper conversations when they wish to reflect freely, speculateContinue reading “Conversations at the Edge of History -I”
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”
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”
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”
The End of The Red Corridor
Is India’s Maoist Insurgency Truly Near Its End? When redoubtable Amit Shah, the Home Minister, declared that India would soon be free of the world’s longest-running Maoist insurgency, it carried the cadence of closure—a decisive end to a conflict that has simmered, flared, and endured for nearly six decades. Yet, like many long wars foughtContinue reading “The End of The Red Corridor”
An Evening that Spoke for the “Third World”
The gathering was not large. Yet it was the kind of gathering where numbers quietly surrender to thought. On that evening, we had assembled to release a collection of poems titled तीसरा जहाँ, written by Savita Jain ‘Savi’, herself a retired senior government functionary. The book explores the lives, pains, hopes, aspirations and quiet resilience ofContinue reading “An Evening that Spoke for the “Third World””
Who owns A Language?
A widely circulated interview between Elena Reyes, a Filipino professor of English, and a veteran British broadcaster James Whitmore did something quietly radical. In a few unadorned exchanges, it unsettled a belief so deeply normalised that it often goes unquestioned: that there exists a proper way to speak English, and that this propriety is bestContinue reading “Who owns A Language?”
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