Both, Hemingway and Virginia Woolf insisted that one ought not to judge. Describe, not opine, they suggest. I try. Then, sometimes a surge of thoughts make things go haywire. An instance - the range of views that Indians returning to India dole out as they make their way back. Lately, I have come across quite [...]
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Observations from parent-teacher meeting
Last week at Poorna, we had parent-teacher meeting (PTM) spanning over two days. I was looking forward to this since the current academic year began. I wanted to see and get to know the parents of the kids I was spending time with in sociology classes. At Poorna these meetings have an unhurried and informal [...]
‘Property’ in its contemporary form
In an earlier post history of the idea of property was traced briefly. This one continues the exploration of normative and operational basis for the idea of property. The merit of this pursuit lies in the realm of grappling with several contestations that have emerged in the contemporary society. These contestations are between various classes, [...]
On contract research & CROs
A contract research organization (CRO) is a firm which provides research services on contract basis to firms in pharma, biotech and medical devices industry. When research services are provided by a company in any other area which is outside of these sectors it is generally labelled as consulting. In the past four odd years in [...]
The Fall of a Sparrow – Salim Ali
The Fall of a Sparrow - my current read, is an autobiography of the maverick Indian Ornithologist Dr Salim Ali. He borrows the title from Shakespeare’s Hamlet - “…there’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow”. Striking is the man’s spirit for adventure and passion for studying birds. Birwatching, he writes is one of the most [...]
First things first – bombings & governance
Derek Gregory at Geographical Imaginations shares this interesting special issue - Game of Drones of the New Inquiry. From the set of essays, Madiha Tahrir's reportage on bombings in Pakistan is a painful read of what the human condition looks like amidst the killer drones which has been more frequent in the Pakistani skies that the birds [...]
Anatomy of a Disaster: Cyclone Phailin
This month we are on an assignment which takes us to cyclone affected districts of Orissa. Reflecting on what we saw from our travel in the region in the aftermath of Cyclone Phailin (which struck India’s eastern coast on October 12, 2013) it appears that Odisha's preparedness and response to the disaster is an extraordinary example [...]
