Ephemeral Reflections

Not very long ago, I was very interested in visiting Andaman and Nicobar islands. But the winds started blowing in another direction and I wasn’t anymore. It turned into a checklist, which I had to do get rid of from my mind. Finally, after all these years, circumstances notwithstanding, I landed in Port Blair, alone. Seems like a roadmap of my life ahead.  But let the travelogue begin (because I have never documented my travels in word before)!  For a 6 day trip, sure I packed a bit too much travel in it. Some of it was worth it. Some were not.  The first thing which strikes you instantly from the air is the dazzling emerald and sapphire colours of the pristine waters surrounding the islands. All the documentaries I have seen, just spring to life in that movement. And I was going to frolic in this environment for the whole week! I have now kind of made it my thing, and I don’t know whether people do it consciously or not, that I always vising any museums associated wit...

 I have decided not to start a new book unless I have finished writing a comprehensive review of the last one. Reasons? I hardly can form a cohesive piece of writing which does not sound like the rambling of my mind. I need to practise writing on a focussed topic and it is high time I get on it. Oh, And my blog needs to be resuscitated too. So, let us get started. However, this post might be longer than the review itself. After having been to (only) some of the famous (and some others not so) temples in India, I have always wondered why temple food tastes soo different, delectable? Of course, the one reason is slow cooking imparts its own flavours which are hard to get in home kitchens. But are there any other factors? And the variety you encounter is a reflection of the vast culinary diversity of India. For example, Vaishno Devi Prashad includes dried apples and walnuts. The sweet and sour pumpkin curry served in Chattarpur mandir langar is one of my favourites. While I will never...

  artwork by@allison_horst     After framing the title I realised that it is reminiscent of The title of ‘my experiments with truth’ by Mahatma Gandhi. As, I have never read that book or its summary, so I can not put any disclaimer here whether or not this article is inspired by that work. Now these tidbits aside, let us move on to the topic. I was first introduced to this magical language called ‘R’ in my masters. To say that my masters course exposed me to the areas of research and methods of teaching for science which I was not exposed to in my graduate course (which was basically an extension of school work), would be an understatement. It widened my perspective on science which otherwise I would have treated in the same as textbooks. Even though we were taught bioinformatics in bachelors, the need for learning programming wasn’t mentioned even in passing. It will definitely not improve your career prospects. It was just about using a set of tools for some analysis an...

The most imperative thing here is the reason why I started reading this book. Because this defines the context in which I saw its content. It has been some years since I started wondering what the cause of violence by religious people is. Violence is part of human nature. But if we blame certain religious beliefs incite violence then why, why Buddhist majority countries like Vietnam and Sri Lanka persecuted their minorities. If religion does grant you peace then why another majorly Buddhist country, japan, turned out to be one the worst offenders of war crimes in world war II. Do their beliefs not create an inherent conflict? Where nationalism triumphs religion? And where religion directs nationalism. Most of the Tibetan protests have been non-violent. But at the same time, can you ignore the firebrand Buddhist monks of Sri Lanka? I wanted to know how such deeply religious people could live a life that is in complete contrast to the ​​original teachings of their dharma. Although this b...