I made him speak at Oxford! Swami Rangandananda,till now the president of the Ramakrishna Mission had passed away recently. Born in the Kerala village of Trikkur, near Thrissur in 1908,the swami had very impressive life, starting as a humble young boy to reach the top and emerge as a scholar, speaker and philosopher.Why I write…
Education for all: Attainable Objective?
When the current regime assumed office in Delhi with Deve Gowda at the helm, there was some noise about making education for all a reachable goal by 2000 AD. Under Gujral, this goal seems to have receded to the background. No one talks of education these days. Education at any time is a boring subject,…
What makes for good schools?
Schools occupy the minds of parents, thinkers and governments as the very basis of a civilized society. No country underrates the importance of educating their children. There are advanced countries like the European nations and the USA where schooling evokes strong feelings of warmth and fierce criticisms. Warmth as schools gives families and children that…
What is history?
History is series of accidents Big events have no big causes! Marxists believe history has a pattern or lessons. Non-Marxists like Alan Taylor (who taught me history) thought history is a series of accidents. As Taylor had said many a time the first war was triggered because on the “fateful July 28 1914,all the six…
The internet revolution
With the two college kids, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the Google phenomenon came about and now, life is impossible without searching the Google everyday! It is just ten years the duo were students at Stanford Universe and in the ten years the world’s biggest and richest company had been created out of nowhere! Larry…
The Last Hurrah?
A letter to the President of India India as a liberal and open society? Recognize the transforming power of the individuals, institutions and the new technologies! India as it is, a liberal and open society? Not yet? Not fully yet. Our Constitution is a great document, it exceeds in its intrinsic qualities, its vision and…
Next Nobel Prize for Indian literature?
Which Indian language will have the distinction? Kannada or Bengali, Malayalam? Tamil has no chance! So too Hindi & others! As I finished writing on Tagore and Yeats my thoughts turned to contemporary Indian literature. The Indian language literature. One of my recent preoccupations has been to promote Tamil, my mother tongue, its current literature…
Gopal Krishna Gandhi
Governor,West Bengal An old acquaintance! I just read the recent convocation address of Mr.Gopal Krishna Gandhi,the Governor of West Bengal at the University of Burdwan. It makes interesting reading and also it kindled my meories of the days past when I got to know the current Governor in his young age,perhaps in his teens near…