Some Hard-to-Chew Facts!

    For the foods we chow down on every day, labels and nutrient values do not tell us enough about the history of their evolution or the processes used in their production. When we eat, we don’t always know what is the chemistry, botany or geographical source of what […]


Climate change and the commons

    In the past couple of years, we have all discussed and dissected, with intensity, the man-made climatological changes that have hit our earth. It has become frustratingly clear that it is not enough to debate the science, the predictions and the impact on our future lives on earth, […]


First Principles and Aesthetics

  When we say first principles, we claim we are going down to the basics. To a fundamental truth. Being totally iterative, methodical and without prejudice. We are arriving at a fundamental principle. Scientists are not supposed to assume anything until they arrive at a first principles truth. Can we […]


Making Khichdi or Hodgepodge Out of Identity and Class

  Beliefs and affiliations There are many people who relate the concept of “class” to level of income. This is understandable given that a majority of people see “class” as an extension of an archaic English approach towards social “classification” based on upbringing, education, social standing, behaviour, etc., which emerged […]


Man on a Rocking Chair in San Juan & I Shot a .38

Man on a Rocking Chair in San Juan   In San Juan I found a man rocking on his balcony, the floors creaking, the glaze in the gaze, a daffodil stem hanging from his lips. I asked him was he truly an Indépendantiste? He shot me a glance, red in […]


Populism: Mesmerize and Confound the Present and Sully the Past!

  Sometime in 1976, Jean Baudrillard, the French philosopher, suggested that saturating the media with carefully selected flash news disables the concept of historicity, depth, intelligence and transparency in following daily events, and creates a hyper-reality that challenges or drowns out reality. The “War against Terror” in the aftermath of […]


Sustenance is not debatable

Perhaps the notion that indigenous people living on reservations should have the same constitutional right to clean drinking water as non-indigenous people has not really dawned on the city people!