Short read: India’s Banu Mushtaq makes history with International Booker win
For the second time in three years, an Indian author has won the International Booker prize. Unlike the Booker prize which is awarded to authors whose works are in English, the International Booker Prize includes works translated into English from other languages. Geetanjali Sree, a Hindi author won the prize in 2022. This year, it […]
Short read: Gretchen Rubin: One sentence can change your life
Gretchen Rubin is one of the world’s most influential psychologists and she has written several outstanding books such as “The Happiness Project” and “Better than Before: How to Make and Break Habits and build a Happier Life”. Her latest book is titled “The Secrets of Adulthood”. In this interview she tells the BBC that: “There’s […]
Short read: How Kolkata improved its air quality within 6 years
Until a few years ago, those of us who are regular visitors to the City of Joy believed that it deserved to be right up there with Delhi as one of the most polluted cities in India. Now, things have changed for the better. Adrija Datta writes for the Indian Express: “Over a span of […]
Long read: Tom Gayner: «Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger Laid Out the Playbook»
Ever since Warren Buffett announced he will be stepping down from the helm of Berkshire Hathway, we have heard from many a Buffett disciple that Berkshire won’t be the same again. Here is one who thinks otherwise. Tom Gaynor, the CEO of Markel Group, also an insurer like Berkshire and invests part of the premiums […]
Long read: Jayant Narlikar (1938-2025): The North Star in Indian astrophysics, he was ahead of his time — and space
Great investors are known to have the seemingly impossible twin traits of conviction to go against convention (the market) on the one hand and yet the humility to be open to the possibility that you could be wrong. Turns out it is no different with great scientists as this obituary of one of India’s most […]
Long read: Joe Biden’s Decline: The Coverup and the Story Behind It
Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson have recently published a book titled “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again”. The editor of the New Yorker, David Remnick, interviews the authors of the said book. We learn several interesting things about Biden’s tumultuous final year in the White House – […]
Short read: Virat Kohli has been Indian cricket’s most influential figure
Many would debate the subject of the article. Yes, Kapil, Sachin and Dhoni have all had a significant impact on Indian cricket but the author Greg Chappell, a legendary cricketer himself, backs his case nicely with this. For the uninitiated, earlier this week, Virat Kohli unexpectedly announced his retirement from Test cricket, the game’s format […]
Short read: Did South Korea’s legendary female free divers evolve for a life underwater? Scientists find new evidence
This article from CNN introduced us to one of the most remarkable communities in the world: “An island 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula is home to a unique and celebrated community of women: the Haenyeo. These women dive year-round off Jeju Island, collecting sea urchin, abalone and other seafood […]
Short read: India’s Chief of Information War during Op Sindoor night was fact-checker Mohammed Zubair
Innes Tang views himself as a patriot in HK. We see Mohammad Zubair as an Indian patriot. As Antara Baruah of The Print informs us, Mr Zubair stepped up to the plate when accurate information on a volatile situation was in short supply: “The aftermath of India’s military strikes in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir […]
Gaming or Gambling? Young Indians are getting addicted to ‘opinion trading’, and losing huge sums
Humans in general and Indians in particular love to wager a bet every now and then. But we Indians seem to take our punting instincts a bit too seriously. Until the regulator imposed restrictions recently, Indian traders had made the Indian derivatives market the world’s largest by volume by a healthy margin. India claims to […]
Long read: An Astonishing Sixty Years: The Legacy Of Hiroshima
This is a 20yr old lecture referring to the American dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. Hence the astonishing sixty years in the title; now still an astonishing eighty years indeed. Astonishing because the world hasn’t seen a single incidence of the use of nuclear weapons over what is a reasonably long […]
Long read: Hong Kong pro-China informer: ‘Why I’ve reported dozens of people to police’
Patriotism can mean different things to different people. For some people, patriotism means reporting to the authorities the “unpatriotic” activities of neighbours & colleagues. This article from the BBc profiles one such patriot – a former banker named Innes Tang – in Hong Kong. The BBC writes: “From a woman waving a colonial-era flag in […]
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