Naiyar Masud: The Storyteller of Lucknow
About finding and reading the Urdu writer Naiyar Masud.
Rendezvous with Rama
On the strange hero of Valmiki’s psychological masterpiece.
The Griffith Ramayana
How an Englishman went up a subcontinent and came down an Indian.
Troubled Times At Ridgemont High
The American school system is broken. For God’s sake, stop fixing it.
Odd Gods, God’s Odds
Four-player God-minton. Sam Harris & Michael Shermer versus Jean Houston Deepak & Chopra over God’s existence. God abstains from judgment.
Reason & Religion: Odd Couple Redux
Reza Aslan and Sam Harris discuss religion and reason. Let’s hug it out, bitches.
William Makepeace Thackeray: The Indian In The Closet
Miscegenation — racial mixing — is a recurring theme in Thackeray’s works. Strangely enough, the most obvious explanation is also a plausible one.
Tribhanga: Strike A Pose
The tribhanga pose — contrapposto — is a very common feature of South-asian art. It has intriguing connections (and differences) with Greek conceptions of the ideal. This is a look at some of them.
Kolam: What The Hand Said
Kolams are curvilinear shapes drawn by Tamil women, usually early in the morning and usually just outside the house. Kolams have fascinating relationships with the labyrinths of Crete, sona drawings of the Chockwe and picture grammars.
Caste, Closure & Contagion
Caste is not the same thing as class or race. I argue that it’s better to think of it as a “closure system” rather than a hierarchy. A closure system is … what the heck, read the damn thing. Inspired by Christopher Alexander’s essay: “A City Is Not A Tree.”