Opinion

Opinion: The Top 5 Words Of 2022 And What They Reveal About Us

In this sense, whether we 'like' these five-fingered offerings or not, they handily indicate that even at our loneliest, we are never quite alone.

Opinion: A Forensic Examination Of Prashant Kishor's 'Agar Vote Hai'

The recent brouhaha over the comments of the political advisor to the Trinamool Congress, Prashant Kishor, on who will win the election in Bengal offers us a classic case of how a tiny particle of language, if ignored, can lead to major missteps in i

Opinion: U.S. Shows Itself Up As "Nation Of Flaws"

The United States, has long taken pride in describing itself as a 'nation of laws', in the words of its sixth President, John Quincy Adams. Yet, under its forty-fifth President, Donald J. Trump, it's more apparent than ever that it is also a 'nation of flaws.'

Opinion: Kamala Harris - The Power Of A Name

Every aspect of Kamala Harris's life as Joe Biden's historic Vice-Presidential pick will now be discussed threadbare in America and elsewhere. What will probably pass unnoticed, however, is something most Indians know by default. This is the meaning of the name 'Kamala'.

Opinion: My Encounters With Stephen Hawking In Delhi

As a scientist, he exemplifies for me the best of the humanities, of what it can mean to be someone who lived almost his whole adult life entirely dependent on other humans for physical help but whose mind was ever independent, questing and transcendent.

Opinion: When Words Like "Anti-National" Are Thrown Around

"Words matter", as a wiser and older George W. Bush has advised President Trump. Yes, they do here in India as much as in the US. Remember "Pappu" and "Feku"? Such labels stick. However, they are not half as problematic as invisible half-words and powerfully emotive discourse.

Opinion: 3 Reasons Why Modi's 'Raincoat' Metaphor Is Brilliantly Bruising

Two seemingly lightweight utterances that prompt reflection on why "mere words" are so enduring.

Opinion: What The Suicides At IIT Tell Us About Where We're Going Wrong

The youth of this country are, in effect, sending our planners and politicians a strong message. But is anyone listening?

Opinion: Britain's EU Vote Is Really An FU Vote

The UK's recent decision to leave the EU seems to have about it a similar air of confusion- with perhaps similarly daunting long-term consequences as well.

Opinion: Yes, Sanskrit At IITs May Be A Good Idea. But Conditions Must Apply.

Given the recent perturbations round an ancient language, this may be as good a time as any to review the possible contribution that Sanskrit, as well as the many languages of modern India, can make to intellectual paradigm-shifts in an age of virtual reality.

Opinion: Analysis Of Rohith Vemula's Suicide Note

Rohith sees himself condemned to live in a world of mean and heartless human distinctions, including but not confined to caste, where personhood is reduced "To a vote. To a number. To a thing."

Opinion: Bag Wapasi in Delhi

There's no denying that awful ills beset our capital and our country at large but, equally, a limitless resource that we can bank on without hesitation has to be the collective conscience and individual good sense of India's ordinary citizens.

Opinion: IS and the Use of "Prostitution" Metaphor

Understanding the language and metaphors of terror could give us vital clues to its workings.

Opinion: Why Aren't Scientists Returning Awards?

If the spate of Award-wapsi is a 'motivated protest' by persons who have been patronized by the Congress or the Left, that would be as true of the scientists. Why then have few, if any, scientists protested publicly?

Opinion: In Cold Blood - Why Sheena Bora Case Grips Us

Those closest to us (trusted parents, children, friends) can always hurt us the most and cases like the Mukerjea-Bora one show up this awful possibility. That is why they grip us.

Opinion: Why IIT Founder Nehru Wanted Arts for Engineers

For the most part, I believe, the long suffering IIT students seem to enjoy their 'HUKKAH' courses because these allow them, as they sweetly put, to 'learn to relax'.

Opinion: 4 Urgent Questions Provoked by the IIT Roorkee Controversy

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence from the IITs, old and new, to suggest that poorer, rural students are finding it increasingly hard to keep up with others in both classroom and social space.

Opinion: The Pros and Cons of PM Modi's Silence

His 'freedom of speech' is, so to speak, restricted by what he does not know.

Opinion: An IIT Teacher's View on the Madras Controversy

If the political right to protest is sacred, both inside and outside Parliament where so many 'unacceptable' statements have been made of late, then so is the individual right to dissent.

Opinion: Satya Nadella and Manjul Bhargava on a Coding Secret

The internet trinity of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg all agree on a simple article of faith. Schoolchildren, college students and most everybody should learn to code because programming a computer "teaches you how to think".