Yearly Archives: 2020

Levitt Model for Covid-19: No room for complacency

A disease prediction model proposed by 2013 Nobel laureate Michael Levitt that relies on a simple mathematical formula was recently applied to India and various states by Prof. Bhaskaran Raman, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay. Several researchers have already highlighted the limitations of this model such as assuming a linear extrapolation of the growth rate and not factoring the time-dependent… Read more »

Remembering Nehru

Nehru’s death anniversary – May 27. I recall going, like so many others, to Teen Murty. An opportunity to reflect on Nehru’s achievements and failures. Acknowledging several failures, I see his overall contributions as positive, importantly positive. Today, ‘Nehru ke Aulaad’ has become an abuse. This is tragic. He is accused of awarding himself the Bharat Ratna. No one remembers… Read more »

Indian women work much harder than men – is anyone listening?

All women work. Even those who are not considered ‘working,’ work, and work hard. That is because they are the ones who are usually responsible for all care work in the family. This is true for the entire world but truer for India and other South Asian countries. According to a global report published by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and… Read more »

इस मौखिक गोलबंदी के बाद!

इस मौखिक गोलबंदी के बाद! इसके बाद एक उजाला है, अंधेरे की परछाई के उस पार जो बन्द होते दरवाजों की कंगूरों से झांकती हैं स्थिर होकर, देखती हैं चटाई को बनते हुए जिसे एक स्त्री बनाती है, अपने खर्राये हुए तलवों को छुपाते हुए जांघों पर रख कर सहेजती हुई इस गोलबंदी का असर है उसके ऊपर भी हो… Read more »

The Question of Difference (Part three of three): Poverty of Imagination

Feminist or a Womanist? . . . Those in the middle get caught in the cross – fire away at the other side. If you are not for us, then you must be against us. If you are not for us, then you must be against us. People get scared enough, they pick a team. Be it for Buddha or… Read more »

The question of difference (Part two of three):  Meaning of difference

Sleeping, turning in turn like planets Sleeping, turning in turn like planets rotating in their midnight meadow: a touch is enough to let us know we’re not alone in the universe, even in sleep: the dream-ghosts of two worlds walking their ghost-towns, almost address each other. I’ve wakened to your muttered words spoken light- or dark-years away as if my… Read more »

The question of difference (Part one of three): Two stories

Postcard from God – I Yes, I do feel like a visitor, a tourist in this world that I once made. I rarely talk, except to ask the way, distrusting my interpreters, tired out by the babble of what they do not say. I walk around through battered streets, distinctly lost, looking for landmarks from another, promised past. Here, in… Read more »