Of reason and realism
Laurie Penny writes on Longreads: Remember the U.S. presidential debates of 2016? Remember how the entire liberal establishment thought Hillary Clinton had won, mainly because she made actual points,…
Op-eds
182 posts
NYT on fire
As the world burns, is anyone paying attention to the New York Times? Because if you're not, you should: it's catching fire as well. On May 23, the grand old newspaper published a report by Ma…
The Nehru-Gandhis' old clothes
The following tweet has been doing the rounds the last few days: https://twitter.com/churumuri/status/1062680702066388992 It carries an important message from India's recent past, that a time of…
Using 'science' appropriately
Ref: https://twitter.com/shekhar_mande/status/1129957335877672960 (Setting aside the use of the word 'faith') The work that some parts of CSIR has done and is doing is indeed very good. Howe…
Clouds, rain and radar – Addendum
My piece on May 12 calling out Prime Minister Narendra Modi's baffling conviction in his knowledgeability about surveillance radar systems and atmospheric attenuation has prompted some criticism a…
Clouds, rain and radar
I am not a person jo saare vigyan ko jaanta ho – lekin maine kaha itne cloud hain, baarish ho rahi hai ki ek benefit hain ki hum radar se bach sakte hain. This is Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Transl…
Poisoned trees bear poisonous fruits
Of late, there has been a clutch of Tamil films that have endeavoured to show the Hindu right-wing in poor light, associating its rituals with violence and oppression. The two most notable examples ar…
Star Wars and the dynastic principle
Late last week, I picked up Ram Guha's Patriots and Partisans. I know shamefully little about India's modern political history – before and after Independence – certainly beyond the virtual bo…
The black hole image's question of kind
In my latest op-ed for The Wire, where I defended the criticisms of some people who called the EHT's black hole picture too blurry, there are two lines that aren't entirely true. This post att…
What it means to be scientific
<!-- wp:paragraph --> On April 1, a few days after India successfully completed its ‘Mission Shakti’ ASAT test, an editorial in the RSS mouthpiece Organiser read: In the initial days, scie…
Look right and left before you cross
For as long as there were two political groups at loggerheads with each other, there has been an aspiration to be – or remain – on friendly terms with someone on the other side. “Don’t let politics ge…
Rich-poor divide
Deadly air exposes rich-poor divide, Channel News Asia, March 21, 2019: Delhi's affluent, who are often better informed about the dangers of pollution, increasingly expect the same safety measure…