IN Invisible Women, author Caroline Criado Perez highlights systemic, implicit biases against women that are so staggeringly fundamental, they are downright revelatory - if you’re a man. Women reading the book will likely nod knowingly & resonate with the rightful tone of frustration weaving through the book. Here are a few examples of the several data-backed, historically male-driven blindspots detailed in the book. Most automobile companies only design car safety features for the average sized human male.…

ON 15th August 1975, the Bangladesh Army executed 13 family members of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, the newly anointed Prime Minister of the democratic nation of Bangladesh, including the PM himself and an unborn baby. The Indira Gandhi led government of India was obviously appalled by this development, considering the role it had played in the Bangladesh liberation a mere 4 years prior, but certainly had lost any moral right to have an opinion on it, given that India was no longer a democracy at the time.…

I care about semiconductor chips. I’ve chosen this line of work & been a part of it for over 11 years now & have no regrets over it. From an engineering standpoint, designing and manufacturing chips is an utterly fascinating, complex interplay of software and hardware - a revelation made abundantly clear & accessible to non-nerds through extensive research & attention to detail in the subject of this review. Chip War by Chris Miller, which attempts to consolidate the complete evolutionary journey of modern semiconductors from the late 50s up to the present day, is therefore essential reading for me and my tribe.…

INDIA has a strong, indigenous culture of loving performance art in various forms, including cinema. Whether we like it or not, we’re surrounded by people who love different kinds of cinema. For decades, through it’s rich dichotomy of commercial and art-house sensibilites, Indian cinema has frequently been used as a prism through which societal issues such as poverty, sexism, language, culture, religion & capitalism have been seen and shown. The contemporary challenge though, is having an original and meaningful opinion of cinema.…

ANIRUDH Kanisetti’s Lords of the Deccan reads like a summer blockbuster - lots of drama and intrigue, full of heroes and villains - and takes you on a journey worth the price of admission. Skilfully packaged within that perfectly enjoyable exterior though, is a nuanced take on medieval South Indian history that challenges the way we are conditioned to comprehend India’s history. Matsyanyaya was the law of the land, heroes and villains consistently swapped positions and the conflicts, like in real life, were fueled by human desires like power, legacy & self-preservation.…

WE LIVE in a time where political leaders ubiquitously rely on region, caste, language, religion, nepotism & other shortcuts to forge a connect with their electorate. George Fernandes, a Tuluva English-speaking Christian born in Mangalore, armed with none of the said shortcuts, led some of the biggest & successful trade union strikes of independent India among a potpourri of industry workers from regions & languages across the country seeking a better life in Bombay.…

While walking along the beaches of Pondicherry in Septmeber 2021, I was inspired while in conversation with Archita (a usual happenstance in my case & a testament to the gem of a person that my wife is) to mindfully make time for reading books. Since then I have managed to channel that inspiration on a regular basis and have been reading consistently. The joys of reading a book are continually reinforced for me with every new book that I read - it is perhaps the best way to expand one’s mind, accrue empathy & slowly add wisdom, one layer at a time.…