Bertrand Russell and India It was a siege of sorts. We were tucked away in our hostel
rooms due to a ruckus between the locals and the students and for a week or so,
we were stuck in our hostel, with no classes. It all started with somebody assaulting
somebody and many other bodies joining the fraca…
Russell, Menon & Kumar
Bertrand Russell and India It was a siege of sorts. We were tucked away in our hostel
rooms due to a ruckus between the locals and the students and for a week or so,
we were stuck in our hostel, with no classes. It all started with somebody assaulting
somebody and many other bodies joining the fraca…
The Duodecennial concept of Malabar Most youngsters from the present generation would hardly
have come across these terms or their significance in their studies, though
they may have heard it from elders. In the past, however, it was quite important
and was implemented across diverse areas, such as …
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Most people have only a vague concept of the temple’s
history. I thought it would be a good idea to provide a brief overview based on
the perusal of historic records, primarily the many papers and books authored
by an early Malabar chronicler, KV Krishna Ayyar. Some years ago, I had written
about t…
And the Marut HF 24 project at Bangalore Prof. Dr. Dipl.-Ing. Kurt Waldemar Tank was not only a brilliant
German engineer and designer of many successful aircraft that flew in the
Second World War but was also a competent test pilot. Responsible for the
designs of the Fw 190 fighter, the Ta 152 figh…
A Revered War Correspondent This young daredevil from Parli, near Ottapalam, charmed men
and women alike, hobnobbed with royalty, prime ministers, presidents, Nobel
prize winners, and generals, was articulate and not only spoke well, but was also
a popular writer, a journalist, and a news reporter b…
SE Asia’s roving newshound News used to be reported from the source with engaging text by
journalists, and the challenges they faced and the risks they took are fodder
for so many thrilling tales. These days, however, distant back offices help
complete news bits with little personal involvement, and…
The Sad Story of the Conceição – Published by the
Chagos Conservation Trust (CCT) Sometimes I wonder at the surprising turns that life takes.
I was researching for material to add meat to the article that I was preparing
on Deigo Garcia and chanced upon a site related to the Chagos Archipelago,
wher…
Travails of the Kochiyan… It is difficult to quantify the waves of migrations between
Kerala and Ceylon – Sri Lanka over time, and the lines are quite blurred, but
then again, there was a time when the relations between Malayalees and the Sinhalese
in Ceylon, became intensely turbulent. Though there…
And its checkered history in India It would surprise many readers that this musical instrument,
so common to the music scene today, had such a troubled past. Born in France
and further modified to meet Indian requirements at Calcutta, to be mass
produced and sold in in the thousands, this humble han…
An Anglo Indian Colony in Bangalore The story of Whitefield in Bangalore starts with DS White, a
resident of Madras, who held the welfare of the marginalized Anglo Indians or
Eurasians, wallowing in the twilight period of the British rule in India, close
to his heart. A few villages or colonies wer…
Madurai’s peculiar connection to Scotland, Logarithms,
Colin Mackenzie, and a hero’s heart Madurai has a great cultural history, and for a long time
was Tamil Nadu’s cultural capital, and the ‘Toonga Nagaram, the city that never
slept’. It was one of those cities which endured so many rulers and cha…
Newspapers, websites, podcasts, radio news, and TV programs
are talking about the pros and cons of Chat GPT. I had just a cursory idea about
the whole thing and when my younger son Arun visited us recently, my wife asked
him what it was all about. After some prodding, he got on to the site and
proc…
Dali’s elephants Surus the war elephant, as some of you may know, belonged to
a much older time frame, and its connection to the artist Salvadore Dali, who
was born centuries later is quite interesting, to say the least. Some years
ago, many news reports were published about the gifting of an elepha…
The attack at the British Residency – Cochin Dec 29,
1808 As we read in the lengthy article that I wrote some years
ago on Velu Thampi Dalawa’s reign in Travancore, and his revolt against the
British EIC, leading to his death, there is a mention of the attack by the
Travancore Nair’s on the residenc…
