Thirty letters in my name

One of India’s greatest contributions to the world is the number system that everyone uses today. What the world knows today as Arabic numer...

I am teaching a class this semester focused on the use of quantitative methods to improve the delivery of healthcare. Such things as: How ca...

I get along extremely well with cab drivers. I can hardly remember a ride without an enriching conversation. Many drivers in the major citie...

Perhaps globalization's most visible symbol is the ubiquity of Chinese products everywhere in the world. China in Africa is an especial...

How? With this product that will allow both the structured reading of books and unsystematic browsing. I am sold.

I've been overwhelmed with work. The downside of being an academic in the US, especially if you are in engineering or the sciences and a...

I met Karina at Casa Na Bolom , a hotel and an archaeological research institute in the highland city of San Cristobal de las Casas in Chia...

Asks Sheldon Pollock , in this essay in The Hindu . At the time of Independence, and for some two millennia before that, India was graced b...

While still on Pakistan, here's a brilliant piece of satire from Nadeem Paracha in Dawn , one of the country's most prominent news...

William Dalrymple writes in the New York Review of Books of the steadily disintegrating situation in Pakistan. The main reason for this is ...

The historian Ramachandra Guha, author of India after Gandhi , writes about his recent Lahore trip here . A sample: The day before I was due...

I learned Sanskrit for five years, in middle and high school. And yet, at the end of those five years, I had nothing to show for my efforts....

Generally, India has never been very distant, no matter where I've traveled. It isn't hard to find Indians and, besides, there is al...

I am back from Mexico. The trip was illuminating in many ways. It’s time now to get on paper everything of importance that I observed. I’ll ...

I should be writing about what I am doing in Mexico - as I vaguely promised - but I really haven't had the time. A part of me insists st...

Some readers of this blog know I am fascinated by Mexico. Why? There are many reasons, but one is certainly Mexico's history - particula...

By now, most of you would have seen this. As Falstaff says, reality can sometimes outdo fiction. What was President Bush's response? Th...

1. I've always put in a good word for the documentaries of Frontline , but now I've found another terrific source. This too a PBS p...

No, nothing to be alarmed about: I did not visit as a patient. My research focuses on developing methods that can make healthcare run more e...

Ghana, the first sub-Saharan country to gain independence - in 1957 - will have elections this coming week. After what happened in Kenya i...

It's that time of the year. Everyone has their own list of best books, and the New York Times has put up what it thinks is best. Toni ...

At Ethan Zuckerman’s blog, My Heart’s In Accra , I came across this remarkable post . It’s all about how the scarcity of resources engenders...

Came back from a road trip, to learn the horrifying news about Mumbai. Varnam provides some useful links; Amit Varma writes about his exp...