M.T. Vasudevan Nair (1933-2024): Kerala’s Literary Lodestar
For six decades, “MT” created characters and crises that became part of the psyche of the average Malayali reader and Kerala’s literary cognoscenti.
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The Enduring Legacy of Tiruvalluvar
On January 1, 2025, the iconic statue of the late saint-poet Tiruvalluvar in Kanyakumari, which stands majestically at the southern tip of Tamil Nadu, celebrated its 25th anniversary. The statue has become a symbol of Tamil Nadu’s cultural identity – just as timeless as the revered text authored by Tiruvalluvar himself.
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Culture | Online Blog | USA
Mark Twain (1835-1910), Anti-Imperialist Thinker for All Time
Well, we just missed his birthday, but what the hell. Born as Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835, Mark Twain is a universal genius both for the value of his literary work and for his articles and thoughts, in which his humor and combat are unsurpassed.
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Love After Life: Nobel-Winning Physicist Richard Feynman’s Extraordinary Letter to His Departed Wife
Several months after Feynman’s death, while working on what would become ‘Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman’ — the masterly biography plumbing the wellspring of Feynman’s genius — James Gleick discovered something of arresting strangeness and splendor.
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Cheraman Juma Masjid, the Temple-like Mosque of Kerala
Mosques were built by sailors during the lifetime of the Prophet, since the 7th century, along the coasts of India. The most famous of these is the Cheraman Juma Masjid in Kerala’s Thrissur district, widely believed to be the oldest mosque in the subcontinent.
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Culture | India | Online Blog
The Nation Is Not a Map Drawn On a Piece of Paper
Poem. Translated by Ayesha Kidwai.
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Culture | India | Online Blog
Swami Vivekananda and Western Women – The Living Vedanta
Pravrajika Atmaprana edited in 1995 a book called ‘Western Women in the Footsteps of Swami Vivekananda’. The truth is that those footsteps were made possible in the first place by Western women. It is to them that this essay is dedicated.
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Commemorating 200 Years of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony – 2 Articles
Trial, Triumph, and the Art of the Possible: The Remarkable Story Behind Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony: 200 Years of an Iconic Work of Art.
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How Does Kabir Still Speak to Us?
The tendency of the human mind, whether fighting for personal territory or fighting for justice, is to create an enemy: self vs the other, us vs them, good vs evil. In our times, which seem more divided than ever, Kabir invites us to look beyond easy binaries.
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‘Freedom From Fear is the Freedom I Claim for You my Motherland!’
India celebrates the 75th Republic Day on January 26. On this day, 75 years ago, in 1950, the Constitution pledged equality, regardless of gender, caste, religion, class, community or language. It is a fitting time to revisit this poem by Rabindranath Tagore on his vision of a truly liberated India.
