Black thread in the brightness: the second death of Pablo Neruda

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

7th February 20247th February 2024 Dilip

Svetlana Alexievich’s Nobel Lecture (2015)

‘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)

5th February 20244th February 2024 Dilip

‘Baba’ – A Personal Tribute to Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi, by A. L. Basham

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

23rd January 202424th January 2024 Dilip

Remembering Professor J.P.S. Uberoi: Scholar, Mentor, and Teacher (1934-2024) / Antim Ardas for Professor Jit Pal Singh Uberoi

NB: Jit Singh Uberoi was beloved of many of us who were not students of sociology. My personal link with him was not slight: he was on the interview committee which appointed me to a teaching position in Ramjas College, in August 1974. Thereafter we met and interacted in academic seminars as well as on… Read More Remembering Professor J.P.S. Uberoi: Scholar, Mentor, and Teacher (1934-2024) / Antim Ardas for Professor Jit Pal Singh Uberoi

9th January 20249th January 2024 Dilip

An Ode to the ‘Ad-Hoc’ Teachers of Ramjas English Department

These professors had to finish their doctoral research, write papers, present in conferences, and yet miraculously also had time for that extra reading that a student requested, or for lunch at D-School Canteen to give a serious answer to a question. Abinash Dash Choudhury Education as the practice of freedom—as opposed to education as the… Read More An Ode to the ‘Ad-Hoc’ Teachers of Ramjas English Department

15th December 202315th December 2023 Dilip

Louis Althusser: An Intellectual Adventure (2017)

Louis Althusser – an Intellectual Adventure (2017) This documentary traces the development of the thought of the Marxist French philosopher Louis Althusser (1918-1990), who influenced a whole generation of philosophers, including Lacan, Foucault, Derrida, Badiou and Zizek. Famous for his Definition of ideology and ideological state apparatuses. Althusser is credited with reinterpreting Marx in a… Read More Louis Althusser: An Intellectual Adventure (2017)

15th December 202315th December 2023 Dilip

Henry Kissinger: the Dr. Caligari of American Empire

‘no legal notice was more gratifying than the one CounterPunch received when Ken Silverstein published these photos of Henry Kissinger picking his nose during a press conference on Brazil. As Ken noted, “Kissinger was OK having his picture taken with murderers like Pinochet but upset when outed as a snot eater‘ (The Cabinet of Dr.… Read More Henry Kissinger: the Dr. Caligari of American Empire

4th December 20234th December 2023 Dilip

After the truth-shower

Philosophy, history, literature, current affairs, and other stuff. Posted by Dilip Simeon

Tag: memorial