By Graciela Mochkofsky It may come as no surprise that a country as deeply polarized by its recent history as Chile is also at war over the relevance of its preëminent poet, Pablo Neruda. In December, fifty years after the coup d’état that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power, Chileans rejected an attempt to write a new constitution… Read More Black thread in the brightness: the second death of Pablo Neruda
‘I have written five books, but I feel that they are all one book. A book about the history of a utopia …’ Svetlana Alexievich held her Nobel Lecture on 7 December 2015, at the Swedish Academy, Stockholm. She was introduced by Sara Danius, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy. The lecture was in Russian.… Read More Svetlana Alexievich’s Nobel Lecture (2015)
NB: The only book by Greil Marcus that I’ve come across is The Dustbin of History; a set of incisive literary essays, mostly book reviews and cultural cum historical meditation. Well worth reading. As is this essay. DS whatever language is the language of your work, if I can move anyone else as that work… Read More Greil Marcus: Why I Write
NB: I had posted this in November 2022, and am reposting it today because of its prophetic quality. Apologies to those who have already read it. DS First posted January 31, 2015 यह चिट्ठी महात्मा मोहनदास करमचंद गाँधी को पहुंचे. महात्माजी, मैं न संसद-सदस्य हूँ, न विधायक, न मंत्री, न नेता. इनमें से कोई कलंक… Read More हरिशंकर परसाई: महात्मा गाँधी को चिट्ठी पहुँचे (1977)
By Dan Bilefsky The Japanese philosopher was the recipient of the $1 Million award for 2022, which is given to thinkers whose ideas have “provided wisdom and self-understanding in a rapidly changing world.”.. Mr. Karatani had promoted a modern form of “reciprocity” he had observed in ancient Ionian culture and that he had sought to apply… Read More Kojin Karatani Wins Berggruen Prize (2022)
Myth taken symbolically is the glass through which we darkly see: Hans Jonas Amar Kanwar: The Peacock’s Graveyard. Reviewed by Aruna D’Souza Marian Goodman Gallery; New York City, through February 24, 2024 Five poetic stories in image and text reveal the ever-present power of nature, greed, friendship, and philosophical inquiry Amar Kanwar: The Peacock’s Graveyard,… Read More The Peacock’s Graveyard
NB: During World War II, Albert Camus joined the French Resistance against the Nazi occupation; and worked as editor of the underground resistance journal Combat. In 1943, he began writing a series of letters to a hypothetical German friend. In a time when justice and truth seem helpless before ideology and hatred, Camus’ 81 year… Read More Albert Camus: Letters to a German Friend (1943)
First posted August 15, 2013 “Yes, I know all that. I should be modern” – begins Ramanujan’s ‘Conventions of Despair’. Others in India have felt this impulse, and it has pulled them in different directions. In politics, it has drawn them towards nationalism, socialism and fascism. In religion, it has had similarly contradictory effects: either… Read More Nakul Krishna on A. K. Ramanujan: The literary legacy of an Indian modernist / The essay censored by DU’s Academic Council
NB: D. D. Kosambi (1907-1966) was one of India’s most accomplished intellectuals. Hailing from Goa, he was a polyglot familiar with Konkani, Marathi, Hindi, Sanskrit, Pali, English, French, Italian and German (I may have missed some languages). He was a mathematician, statistician, geneticist, philologist, physicist, numismatist, archaeologist, historian and public intellectual (find a biography here). He… Read More ‘Baba’ – A Personal Tribute to Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi, by A. L. Basham
First posted January 24, 2014 The road to the offices inside Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics’ (IUCAA) Children Science Centre in Pune passes through a well-set, well-manicured lawn past the administrative buildings of the place. The tranquil atmosphere of the campus is broken only by the chaos in the room opposite his office. Noisy… Read More Toys from Trash: Teaching kids science using everyday objects / Visit Arvind Gupta’s Archive
After the truth-shower 