'They can do what they want' - Morgan won't do a Kohli if fans heckle Smith, Warner
Spectators pay a lot of money," Morgan said. "They can do what they want.“
Spectators pay a lot of money," Morgan said. "They can do what they want.“
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Sunday, June 23, 2019
Saturday, June 22, 2019
Will there be war?
Will he? Won't he? How Trump's impulses are driving his Iran policy
Back from Iran War Brink: Trump wants to Walk back Iran Crisis that He created with Severe US Sanctions
And Seth Abramson on Twitter https://mobile.twitter.com/sethabramson/status/1141928933866311681?s=12
Suggest the likeliness of war. As Juan Cole says towards the end of his article:
“Again, this crisis is of Trump’s making. His conviction that he could stiff Iran without consequences, all for the sake of looking tough with his MAGA base, was a serious miscalculation. It is the problem with having an ignorant and yet opinionated man at the helm of the US government. He is guaranteed to make basic mistakes that put the US on a war footing even though that appears to be the last thing Trump wants.
Back from Iran War Brink: Trump wants to Walk back Iran Crisis that He created with Severe US Sanctions
And Seth Abramson on Twitter https://mobile.twitter.com/sethabramson/status/1141928933866311681?s=12
Suggest the likeliness of war. As Juan Cole says towards the end of his article:
“Again, this crisis is of Trump’s making. His conviction that he could stiff Iran without consequences, all for the sake of looking tough with his MAGA base, was a serious miscalculation. It is the problem with having an ignorant and yet opinionated man at the helm of the US government. He is guaranteed to make basic mistakes that put the US on a war footing even though that appears to be the last thing Trump wants.
Unfortunately, Iran will provoke again, and next time the US warmongers may win the argument.”
Friday, June 21, 2019
A review of ‘Lineages of Modernity...’ By Emmanuel Todd
Review:Reversing into the future: welcome to the paleo world by Andy Martin. An excerpt:
"If economics is conscious behaviour, and education and religion are our subconscious, then it is still family relationships that form the deepest level of our unconscious life. Hence it is around individualism that the clash (or at least divergence) of civilisations will occur. Todd sets out a table in which different societies are compared in terms of their core values under various headings to do with attitudes towards equality, feminism, endogamy and authority. The “anthropological distance” between the Anglosphere and Denmark (hello, Danes!) is zero. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the combined distance from Saudi Arabia is 7.5. I think we can assume, in the aftermath of Khashoggi, that the Saudis don’t exactly prioritise press freedom. Todd offers an equation which explains 9/11: “Maximum incomprehension + intimate association = hatred.” On the other hand, we shouldn’t be so Russophobic. We are closer to Russia (1.5 distance) than Germany (2.5)."
"If economics is conscious behaviour, and education and religion are our subconscious, then it is still family relationships that form the deepest level of our unconscious life. Hence it is around individualism that the clash (or at least divergence) of civilisations will occur. Todd sets out a table in which different societies are compared in terms of their core values under various headings to do with attitudes towards equality, feminism, endogamy and authority. The “anthropological distance” between the Anglosphere and Denmark (hello, Danes!) is zero. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the combined distance from Saudi Arabia is 7.5. I think we can assume, in the aftermath of Khashoggi, that the Saudis don’t exactly prioritise press freedom. Todd offers an equation which explains 9/11: “Maximum incomprehension + intimate association = hatred.” On the other hand, we shouldn’t be so Russophobic. We are closer to Russia (1.5 distance) than Germany (2.5)."
UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia unlawful, court of appeal declares
UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia unlawful, court of appeal declares “Later, Fox was understood to have privately told at least one MP that he expected that the review process called for by the court would take about 10 weeks – and would not lead to any of the previous licensing decisions being overturned.
Arms trade campaigners say that Paveway, Brimstone and Storm Shadow bombs of the type used by the Saudi air force in Yemen are covered by separate “open licences”, which have not been suspended by Fox, and are only under review. “The bombs will continue,” one source added.”
An Incredibly Detailed Map Of Medieval Trade Routes
An Incredibly Detailed Map Of Medieval Trade Routes “The map above is probably the most detailed map of Medieval Trade Routes in Europe, Asia and Africa in the 11th and 12th centuries you can find online. It includes major and minor locations, major and minor routes, sea routes, canals and roads.”
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
A passage from Emmanuel Todd’s recent book
A passage from’.https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Lineages_of_Modernity.html?id=AdKcDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y..’ by Emmanuel Todd:
“Despite high and comparable educational levels, their birth rate indicators diverge in proportions that imply different destinies. By 2015 (again), the United States, with 1.9 children per woman, the United Kingdom (1.9), Australia (1.9), Sweden (1.9), France (2.0) and Russia (1.8)were not too far from the threshold of 2.1, which essentially makes the replacement of one generation by the next possible. On the other hand, Germany (1.4), Japan (1.4), and South Korea (1.2) had reached rock-bottom values that prohibit the natural renewal of the population and require either the use of mass immigration or the acceptance of demographic decline. We will see how these differences are easily explained by the subterranean persistence of distinct family values, those that concern the status of women in particular”
Todd’s family systems is described in the second of the articles listed here by Brian Micklethwait
“Despite high and comparable educational levels, their birth rate indicators diverge in proportions that imply different destinies. By 2015 (again), the United States, with 1.9 children per woman, the United Kingdom (1.9), Australia (1.9), Sweden (1.9), France (2.0) and Russia (1.8)were not too far from the threshold of 2.1, which essentially makes the replacement of one generation by the next possible. On the other hand, Germany (1.4), Japan (1.4), and South Korea (1.2) had reached rock-bottom values that prohibit the natural renewal of the population and require either the use of mass immigration or the acceptance of demographic decline. We will see how these differences are easily explained by the subterranean persistence of distinct family values, those that concern the status of women in particular”
Todd’s family systems is described in the second of the articles listed here by Brian Micklethwait
Sunday, June 16, 2019
Friday, June 14, 2019
A small success
A small success. I visited Heal Paradise a few times and once invited Aruna Tella to visit the place. Recently, she tried to send two children of one of the persons in Swadhar Greh to Heal Paradise since the lady is destitute and lame and has no resources to look after them. Though the institute was started with the idea of serving India (there are also artificial limb section and one for the deaf), some bureaucrat decided that these institutes should serve only the districts where they were located. Aruna contacted the organisers and told them that it is privately funded autonomous institute and cannot be dictated by bureaucrats and they offered to take up the fight. Meanwhile she phoned one of the bureaucrats concerned and told him how unjust his attitude was and also contacted some local child welfare organisers and requested them to protest. All this happened in a few hours and now the children are offered schooling there. Except for the initial medical check ups, the schooling with all the residential facilities will be free. I am very pleased that I have been supporting Aruna impressed by her altruism and courage and what all I did in the episode is suppling a few phone numbers. Even from abroad, it seems possible to help the poor in India a little if one knows some good local organisers like Aruna Tella and Rahul Banerjee.
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Heal Paradise
Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy
The untold story of Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy with glimpses of Abdul Salam along the way
Sunday, June 09, 2019
Janaki Ammal
A glorious yellow bloom in honour of botanist E.K. Janaki Ammal in passing, the article says “Records of her life available publicly note that caste and gender discrimination forced her move to the U.K. where she joined the John Innes Institute, Norwich, as a cytologist. ”
A long write up about her Gender, race and science in twentieth-century india: e. K. JanaKi ammal and the history of science by Vinita Damodaran gives more details. A shorter version here. Some excepts from Vinita Damodaran’s article:
“Born on 5 November 1897 to a lower caste family of North Malabar, Ammal had a chequered ancestry. Her mother was the illegitimate child of John Child Hannyn- gton of the Madras Civil Service, a member of a well known imperial family who had resided in India for some generations.24 Her father, who retired as a sub-judge of the Tellicherry Court, came from an educated family of the Tiyya caste; he was an employee of Hannyngton and had chosen to marry his illegitimate daughter once his first wife died. The elder daughter of Hannyngton from his Indian mistress was married to an Anglo-Indian and became Martha Feukes.25 The younger daughter, who retained her Indian name Devayani, married E. K. Krishnan in 1878. Hannyngton clearly led the double life of many British civil servants in India. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries it had been a regular practice for East India Company officials to have Indian wives.”
One of the early references to brahminism is by J.C. Bose in a 1917 letter”“you know that Brahmanism and priestcraft are not unknown in English science. The evil is far more accentuated here [in India] where the number of scientific men are few, and where wire pullers have succeeded in securing positions of authority”
And “Darlington was typical of the scientific mentors of his period in that in extending his largesse to female employees under him, he often formed intimate relationships with them, if only briefly. Janaki was to prove no exception and in three of her let-ters written in the 1930s she indicates her emotional involvement with him. This was only to be a brief interlude but the relationship was one that was to dominate her life. “
A long write up about her Gender, race and science in twentieth-century india: e. K. JanaKi ammal and the history of science by Vinita Damodaran gives more details. A shorter version here. Some excepts from Vinita Damodaran’s article:
“Born on 5 November 1897 to a lower caste family of North Malabar, Ammal had a chequered ancestry. Her mother was the illegitimate child of John Child Hannyn- gton of the Madras Civil Service, a member of a well known imperial family who had resided in India for some generations.24 Her father, who retired as a sub-judge of the Tellicherry Court, came from an educated family of the Tiyya caste; he was an employee of Hannyngton and had chosen to marry his illegitimate daughter once his first wife died. The elder daughter of Hannyngton from his Indian mistress was married to an Anglo-Indian and became Martha Feukes.25 The younger daughter, who retained her Indian name Devayani, married E. K. Krishnan in 1878. Hannyngton clearly led the double life of many British civil servants in India. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries it had been a regular practice for East India Company officials to have Indian wives.”
One of the early references to brahminism is by J.C. Bose in a 1917 letter”“you know that Brahmanism and priestcraft are not unknown in English science. The evil is far more accentuated here [in India] where the number of scientific men are few, and where wire pullers have succeeded in securing positions of authority”
And “Darlington was typical of the scientific mentors of his period in that in extending his largesse to female employees under him, he often formed intimate relationships with them, if only briefly. Janaki was to prove no exception and in three of her let-ters written in the 1930s she indicates her emotional involvement with him. This was only to be a brief interlude but the relationship was one that was to dominate her life. “
Born on 5 November 1897 to a lower caste family of North Malabar, Ammal had a chequered ancestry. Her mother was the illegitimate child of John Child Hannyn-gton of the Madras Civil Service, a member of a well known imperial family who had resided in India for some generations.
24
Her father, who retired as a sub-judge of the Tellicherry Court, came from an educated family of the Tiyya caste; he was an employee of Hannyngton and had chosen to marry his illegitimate daughter once his first wife died. The elder daughter of Hannyngton from his Indian mistress was married to an Anglo-Indian and became Martha Feukes.
25
The younger daughter, who retained her Indian name Devayani, married E. K. Krishnan in 1878. Hannyngton clearly led the double life of many British civil servants in India. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries it had been a regular practice for East India Company
officials to have Indian wives.
Born on 5 November 1897 to a lower caste family of North Malabar, Ammal had a chequered ancestry. Her mother was the illegitimate child of John Child Hannyn-gton of the Madras Civil Service, a member of a well known imperial family who had resided in India for some generations.
24
Her father, who retired as a sub-judge of the Tellicherry Court, came from an educated family of the Tiyya caste; he was an employee of Hannyngton and had chosen to marry his illegitimate daughter once his first wife died. The elder daughter of Hannyngton from his Indian mistress was married to an Anglo-Indian and became Martha Feukes.
25
The younger daughter, who retained her Indian name Devayani, married E. K. Krishnan in 1878. Hannyngton clearly led the double life of many British civil servants in India. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries it had been a regular practice for East India Company officials to have Indian wives.
Saturday, June 08, 2019
Friday, June 07, 2019
Some articles on Indian languages from Mint
Konkani: a language in crisis “Konkani became the first Asian language ever printed, in the first volume published by the first press set up in the continent, in Goa in 1556. Later, the first modern grammar book of any Indian language was Arte da Lingoa Canarim, published in 1640 by pioneering English Jesuit Thomas Stephens. By the middle of the 17th century, there was a substantial body of Konkani literature in print, described by Fordham University’s late polymathic linguist and scholar Jose Pereira as “a great achievement...far in advance of any modern Indian tongue".”
How a Bihari lost his mother tongue to Hindi
“Your Tamil pain
How a Bihari lost his mother tongue to Hindi
“Your Tamil pain
In neighbouring Assam, it was Kamrup—meaning Lower Assam and North Bengal, not the Ahom territories of Upper Assam—where the early stalwarts of Assamese culture did their life’s work. Assam from ancient times was known as Kamarupa till the end of Koch rule in the 17th century, according to the renowned Assamese linguist Upendranath Goswami.”
Thursday, June 06, 2019
Monday, June 03, 2019
Charles Correa
India: from a Philosophy of Ages, Architecture for Today by Charles Correa
Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal photos
AD Classics: Bharat Bhavan / Charles Correa
His other projects are mentioned in the Wikipedia article Here.
Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal photos
AD Classics: Bharat Bhavan / Charles Correa
His other projects are mentioned in the Wikipedia article Here.
Sunday, June 02, 2019
Amherstia nobilis
Amherstia nobilis new to me. Apparently it can be seen in several campuses in Mumbai but I missed it during my long stay there.
https://youtu.be/GFfsPvGOGPY
Friday, May 31, 2019
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Aditya Chakrabortty on Britain
Britain is in the grip of an existential crisis that reaches far beyond Brexit
“If you leave the EU, you do so to become something else. But you don’t appear to know what you want to become.”
“If you leave the EU, you do so to become something else. But you don’t appear to know what you want to become.”
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Sunday, May 26, 2019
Perepa P.C.Joshi RIP.
He passed away this morning at 8:30 am IST. He was a classmate from 1960-62 and roommate during 1961-62 and we have been in touch since then though we lived in different places.
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
DK Pattammal following Saigal
“Anyway, coming back to the old Devdas, the songs are all great. But one of the reasons why Balam Aye is stuck in my head is because its tune was copied faithfully for the Kalki Krishnamurthy song Poonkuil Koovum Pooncholaiyil Oru Naal! You can hear DK Pattammal sing it in this youtube clip where SS Mani plays the gramophone disc with the song. I wonder when Kalki composed it, though I am quite certain that his song followed the Hindi original. After all, Pattammal began recording only in 1938 or thereabouts.” says the author in Musings on some film songs-1. Another similar story From Thandi Hawayen to Konjum Purave.
Mothers and sons
Bonobo moms play an active role in helping their sons find a mate
“Interestingly, bonobo moms did not extend similar help to their daughters, nor were there any observations of daughters receiving assistance in rearing their offspring. "In bonobo social systems, the daughters disperse from the native community and the sons stay," Surbeck says. "And for the few daughters that stay in the community, which we don't have many examples of, we don't see them receiving any help from their mothers."”
“Interestingly, bonobo moms did not extend similar help to their daughters, nor were there any observations of daughters receiving assistance in rearing their offspring. "In bonobo social systems, the daughters disperse from the native community and the sons stay," Surbeck says. "And for the few daughters that stay in the community, which we don't have many examples of, we don't see them receiving any help from their mothers."”
Madhukar’s Shukla on scale in social projects
The "Jetty Project": Is "Scale" necessary for "Social Change"? “Many such small, yet transformational changes, happen because the local social entrepreneurs (as we would call them) are uniquely positioned to do make them happen - they leverage the highly contextual, and often tacit, local knowledge to identify critical social problems, mobilize local resources and develop a solution which is relevant and viable in the local context.”
Bilkis Bano case
Gujarat riots gang-rape survivor receives justice after 17 years “Legal experts and activists say Bano's case is unique, marking a rare instance of justice for a victim of sexual violence during communal riots.”
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Nehru’s last interview?
Namit Arora who posted this on Facebook says in one of the comments:
“A general comment. Nehru really has a great deal going for him, and I don’t wish to dwell on his flaws here, especially given the monstrosity that currently occupies that office (who is attacking Nehru for all the wrong reasons!). Nehru was a brilliant and reflective statesman, and it's astounding how far we have fallen today.
But, with that caveat, I’d note that Nehru, for all his talk of land reform, including in this interview, did very little on that front. He had regressive views on reservations, had defensive upper-caste attitudes towards the caste system, and did little to annihilate it in his 15 years in office. In the fight between Ambedkar and Gandhi, Nehru remained oddly silent, and didn't stand with Ambedkar. For a socialist country, he didn’t grant universal primary education the urgency it deserved – as did China. He also created the deadly AFSPA, which his great grandson is now trying to dismantle as a campaign promise. He mishandled Kashmir and led the country into a disastrous war with China. Scholars now also attribute some responsibility for Partition to him. Additional aspects of his legacy have been critiqued by later liberals, some of which I covered in the essay ‘No Saints or Miracles’ in my book.”
Friday, May 17, 2019
Bob Hawke RIP
Popular forever: the intellectual larrikin that was Bob Hawke by his press secretary Barrie Cassidy
Bob Hawke rise was predicted by an Indian soothsayer Ramakrishna Sarathy Future Perfect ( Sarathy said that he was correct about 70 percent of the time and hoping reach 90 percent).
Madhukar Shukla on scaling
https://m.facebook.com/notes/madhukar-shukla/scaling-social-entrepreneurs-dream-and-conundrum/10156575314256795/
Check also An industrial policy for good jobs by Dani Rodrik and Charles Sabel
Significant innovations in India (civil society)
India's most significant innovations have roots in civil society
And a ‘foreigner’ played a significant role in many of them:
A champion of India’s poor: Sonia Gandhi’s most valuable, and least acknowledged, contribution
And a ‘foreigner’ played a significant role in many of them:
A champion of India’s poor: Sonia Gandhi’s most valuable, and least acknowledged, contribution
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Book review by Noah Smith
Book Review: The Revolt of the Public, by Martin Gurri “If you do not read "The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium," by Martin Gurri, you will not be sufficiently prepared for the world to come.
Well, you probably won't be anyway. No one will! But this book brings together a startling number of important threads of contemporary politics, geopolitics, public affairs, and media, and weaves them into a coherent, comprehensible, and very plausible narrative. And it does so far better than any other book, blog post, or Twitter thread that I have seen attempt to deal with these issues (including my own modest foray). So buy this book and read it.”
I just bought it.
Books and lectures
Why books don’t work by Andy Matuschak. Well not completely anyway. We know some parts work for some people some of the time. But overall comprehension of how and why they work is lacking. It is important for education to know some more and research seems much needed.
Monday, May 13, 2019
Samir Shukla on some Indian academics
Worried Indian scientists and my friend’s sons
“As the story of my friend is obviously unique and one of a kind, I hope that it is not linked by my readers with my scientist friends I mentioned in the opening paragraph in any manner.
“As the story of my friend is obviously unique and one of a kind, I hope that it is not linked by my readers with my scientist friends I mentioned in the opening paragraph in any manner.
We all know that most of the academic community toiling in Indian institutes have been constantly engaged in pushing science and technology ahead for benefits of the nation and the result is evident.
The state of the nation clearly proves that our academic researchers exactly know what are the areas of research that the nation needs them to work on and hence no one should dare ask them what to do, or rather no one should dare ask them what they are doing at all.
It is nothing but sheer misfortune that with so many hard-working researchers toiling in India, we remain the only large sovereign nation not to have won even one Nobel Prize for science. So, let us not start making false assumptions on that irrelevant trivia.
It is also just some dirty trick of fate that, with all these scientists diligently working and solving the problems of the nation for all these decades, we still have billions living below poverty line and enduring a hell of a life, as there is no doubt that scientists have no role to play in the prosperity of a nation.”
My comment: I did not read all the comments but I see this sort of things by some approximate Anna Karenina principles: “All large groups are similar” and “The larger the group, the closer it is to the general populace around”. I think that our views of academics were formed when the group was small with few shining lights highlighted by texts of an earlier period.
Anya Parampil on Ricardo Hausmann and Venezuela
“While unknown to most Venezuelans, Hausmann remains a key player in his country’s tumultuous politics. During a talk at the World Affairs Council of Greater Houston in November 2018, he eerily predicted Guaidó’s self-proclaimed presidency, telling the crowd “the international community is now focused on the idea that… January 10th is the end of the presidential period of Nicolás Maduro.”
“On January 11th, Nicolás Maduro will not be recognized as… the legitimate president of Venezuela,” Hausmann anticipated. “I think that’s an important date.”
On January 11th, when Juan Guaidó declared his preparedness to become president of Venezuela, the Harvard professor’s prophecy was fulfilled.
Almost two months later, Guaidó appointed Hausmann to serve as his representative at the Inter-American Development Bank. ” from Ricardo Hausmann’s 'Morning After' for Venezuela: The Neoliberal Brain Behind Juan Guaido’s Economic Agenda
Ricardo Hausmann seems to be a respected economist with a number of interesting ideas https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Hausmann
Ricardo Hausmann seems to be a respected economist with a number of interesting ideas https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Hausmann
An excerpt from a book by Aatish Taseer
The emperor of destiny
“A search in Benares for Brahmins, the twice-born, leads to an encounter with a young member of the aristocracy of the mind”
“A search in Benares for Brahmins, the twice-born, leads to an encounter with a young member of the aristocracy of the mind”
The Twice-Born: Life and Death on the Ganges | Aatish Taseer
Sunday, May 12, 2019
Natural sequence farming
How weeds help fight climate change
“Natural sequence farming has four main elements. First, restore fertility to improve the soil; second, increase groundwater; third, re-establish vegetation, including with weeds if necessary; fourth, understand the unique needs of a particular landscape.”
“Natural sequence farming has four main elements. First, restore fertility to improve the soil; second, increase groundwater; third, re-establish vegetation, including with weeds if necessary; fourth, understand the unique needs of a particular landscape.”
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