Making vaccines for the world.
Vaccinating the world is, needless to emphasize, a complicated problem. It has technological, economic, social and political aspects that aren’t easily solved. As studies suggest that there is a hu...
Where are the songs when we have death all around?
You wake up in your village. You see a hundred half burnt bodies washing up your sacred river. Which song will you sing? If the voice is stuck in your lumpen throat, how will you let the grief esca...
Does Compassion Correlate with Wealth?
I am not trying to answer this question (in the title) from an individualistic perspective. That’d be a philosophical quest, which is well beyond my remit here. However, it is possible to answer th...
Little Chandrika (1).
Chandrika (Moonlight in Malayalam), was a full fifty years old when she adopted two more children. It wasn’t your routine midlife crisis that pushed her into it. In fact, going by all indicators, f...
പ്രണയവും സമയവും.
പ്രണയത്തിന്റെ ഏറ്റവും ഊഷ്മളമായ ഭാവം സമയമാണ്. മറ്റെന്തിന്റെയും മേലെ, പ്രണയത്തിൽ സമയം അതിന്റെ സർവ്വ ശക്തിയോടുംകൂടി കെട്ടുപിണഞ്ഞു കിടക്കുന്നു. സത്യം, സ്ഥലം, രഹസ്യങ്ങൾ തുടങ്ങി മനുഷ്യൻ ആഗ്രഹിക്കുന്ന എന്...
The era of global politics driving the local.
In democracies, local political compulsions drive the policy. Often, there are mechanisms in place to make sure that these compulsions don’t lead to undesirable outcomes. This could be a wrong fore...
Love, confabulated (2).
[Sagar finding love, as written by Fathima] What do I like the most, the dusk or the dawn? Both are eerily similar. It is hard to distinguish the dusk from dawn. Especially after a long afternoon...
Love, confabulated.
Fathima was curious enough. It seemed that she didn’t understand Sagar at all. They have been talking with each other for the past a few days. When Sagar first pinged her, she never expected that t...
Kisses unkempt.
It is a pity that kisses have to disappear. Aren’t they one of the sweetest creations that (wo)mankind can afford? They could be summoned at will and thrown away without much regret. Some of them l...
What is it, even if you win this universe?
This song, written by Sahir Ludhiyanvi and sung by Mohammed Rafi is an ode to a spirit that is alive since the dawn of civilization. It is the enduring conflict between a rebel poet who finds socie...