Interview with A.R.Venkatachalapathy

Here. A review of his book

IN THOSE DAYS THERE WAS NO COFFEE...WRITINGS IN CULTURAL HISTORY

BY A.R. VENKATACHALAPATHY 
 The Kaapi Cats

On Frank Ramsay’s pragmatism

Philosophy must be useful

seems to be happening with a lot of world leaders

 https://www.facebook.com/749518284/posts/10157927069633285/

Orwell's politics 'Quintessentially English'

Orwell and the British left
George Orwekk: voice of a long generation

indian politics

The Congress may be able to reinvent itself if India remains a democracy: Christophe Jaffrelot

India's civic response

As hunger grows, Mumbai’s community kitchens may hold lessons on ensuring nutrition for the poor

And that’s how our world leaders have acted in the face of Covid-19.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/495773-covid-leaders-disaster-movie/

India's covid response

Modi stumbles,India's deepening coronavirus crisis from Finsncial Times
Why won't India admit how Covid-19 is spreading? From BBC News.

Cavafy poems

“Waiting for the Barbarians” and the Government Shutdown By Daniel Mendelsohn
Other countries, other shores by Orhan Pamuk both from 2013

Long read on pandemics

How pandemics wreak havoc-and open minds

Some seem to have immunity to Covi-19

The people with hidden immunity against COVID-19 “ Most bizarrely of all, when researchers tested blood samples taken years before the pandemic started, they found T cells which were specifically tailored to detect proteins on the surface of Covid-19. This suggests that some people already had a pre-existing degree of resistance against the virus before it ever infected a human. And it appears to be surprisingly prevalent: 40-60% of unexposed individuals had these cells.”

Remembering C.S.Seshadri

Remembering C.S. Seshadri. Though I was not closely associated with Seshadri, in a somewhat closed atmosphere that I lived, some memories filter across. What I remember most about him is his good nature. TiFR had high attrition rates with respect to new students and a loose atmosphere of guiding students. Many who did well in university found it difficult to cope with the atmosphere where they had to do some independent thinking and many used to drop off or sent off. The reasons were never clear cut. Possibly it had some thing to with the personalities of students as well as seniors. In this sort of atmosphere, Seshadri was a sort of oasis for many who did not quite fit in. He took them under his wing and guided them with kindness and rigorous training. He was bubbling with ideas and always could provide them with problems to work on. But what probably mattered was the friendliness and kindness with which he treated them. Almost all thrived and went on to do well with their mathematical careers. And his friendliness also was helpful to those with whom he did not interact directly and differed from him in many ways. At the same time, he himself was constantly developing and changing. I think that all who knew him will remember him fondly.
https://thewire.in/the-sciences/c-s-seshadri-from-proofs-to-transcendence-via-theorems-and-ragas 

One of the next frontiers

Ashutosh Jogalekar makes me want to go back to school.
Brains, computation and thermodynamics

A long read on Gandhi

Was Gandhi racist?
“ Was Gandhi racist towards blacks? The short answer is: before 1906, emphatically yes; from 1906 to 1913, qualifiedly yes; after 1913 or so, increasingly no. However, we need to ask a supplementary question: what light and shade does thinking with Gandhi throw on our current understanding of racism and anti-racism? To that question, the schematic answer would be: most of us are anti-racist in a speciesist way, or by invoking the idea of a unified human species where all of us are equals.”