image source: resanskrit.com Scene I In my first post of the current series, a reader has asked about how Odisha fell from its high pedestals of fine arts, affluence, power and glory. The presence of large number of huge temples of architectural grandeur indicate to affluent times in the past and to be affluent the … Continue reading The Quitters of Hindustan
Category: Nation&Society
Nua Mahulia
Nua Mahulia - this word which has strange rhyming resemblance with the word Oumuamua* is not any interstellar object. Nor is it any Greek or Latin word for a legal term. It is the name of my native village. The theme of this present series of blogs being mera gaon mera desh, a post about … Continue reading Nua Mahulia
A Virtual Tour of Mughal India
I don't write book reviews. But sometimes, I write about a book or share my excitement about a book that enthralled me. You may call it a book review if you chose so. In fact this article was first published as a Book Review in the September 1999 issue of 'Bengaluru Review'. I am sharing … Continue reading A Virtual Tour of Mughal India
The Liberals of Hindustan
Liberalism comes from the latin word libre which means 'free'. Libre is the origin for other words like liberal, liberty, libertarian, and libertine. It is also the inspiration for two of the most frequently used words in Indian social media these days : librandu and fiberal. Even though its popular use started in 17th century … Continue reading The Liberals of Hindustan
The Idea of India
If I were asked to have only one post on the current AtoZ theme, mera gaon mera desh, I would have this one. It is a book review of ‘India: a sacred Geography’. The book was written by Diana L. Eck - an award winning professor of comparative religion and Indian Studies at Harvard University. … Continue reading The Idea of India
The Missing History of Hindustan
In my first article of this series I have mentioned about the tradition of Boita Bandana and Bali Jatra that commemorate the glorious maritime adventures of Odias in South East Asia. The businessmen who engaged in such maritime trade were known as sadhabas. There is a popular folk tale in Odisha about one of sadhaba … Continue reading The Missing History of Hindustan
mera gaon mera desh
Having missed the theme reveal post as I was late in waking up to the AtoZ challenge, I hope this post would compensate for that. In almost all Indian languages, a village is called a Gramam or any of its minor variations. Same way the word palli and its minor variations (like in Kannada it … Continue reading mera gaon mera desh
we can’t do away with English but …
I had the opportunity of listening to William Dalrymple when he had come to the Times Literature Festival, Bengaluru this year to promote his latest book - The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company. From his account it appears that, unlike the Mughals, the British did not have to struggle either to … Continue reading we can’t do away with English but …
my B-town connections
Because ‘Bombay’ starts with the alphabet B and most of the Hindi movies borrowed their style and substance from Hollywood, I think the naming of Hindi Film Industry as Bollywood was perfectly logical. The yellow journalists used to call Bombay the B-town, while using it with reference to the glitterati that inhabited the city. By … Continue reading my B-town connections
will vasudhaiva kutumbakam ever be a reality?
Today when the whole of humanity is divided even in the face of a common enemy, what lofty ideals our ancient seers had. They conceived of a utopia where the whole humanity is bonded like a one family. This was long before a map of the whole world was available. By virtue of my association … Continue reading will vasudhaiva kutumbakam ever be a reality?
