The woman who put the man on the Moon, and the birth of software engineering – Margaret Hamilton
On the 20th of July 1969, Apollo II landed successfully on the Moon. It is now a familiar picture in[…]
Read moreTechnologist, Thinker and Leader
On the 20th of July 1969, Apollo II landed successfully on the Moon. It is now a familiar picture in[…]
Read moreOne of my fondest memories of 1980’s television was the telecast of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos each week. I don’t need[…]
Read moreIt must have been an odd moment at the Johannesburg airport that day in the December of 1986. Archbishop Desmond[…]
Read moreThere is an unmistakable stamp on Jane Campion films. They are all beautifully shot, hauntingly slow, have a brilliant star[…]
Read moreThe opening paragraph in Barbara Tuchman’s magnificently written and critically acclaimed “The Guns of August”—her Pulitzer winning book on the[…]
Read moreThere are instances when an organization transcends its charter and becomes a social force assuming a broader and deeper place[…]
Read more(Note: After nearly four years, since charges were officially filed against Elizabeth holmes, the case is now in court. The[…]
Read more( A side note: Just last week, I happened to re-read German Philosopher Frederick Nietzsche’s brilliant book ” Thus spake[…]
Read moreरेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुण: परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात् | स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेय: परधर्मो भयावह: śhreyān swa-dharmo viguṇaḥ para-dharmāt sv-anuṣhṭhitāt swa-dharme nidhanaṁ śhreyaḥ para-dharmo bhayāvahaḥ ([…]
Read moreI love the title: “Jai Bhim”. Though this essay is a movie review, I would like to spend a couple[…]
Read moreThe light, this Diwali will bring tomorrow is special. Never in our generation have we struggled so much with darkness[…]
Read moreTo me, Halloween will always remain a day to revisit some of my favorite horror and slasher movies or to[…]
Read moreAll of us have experienced moments in our lives when we couldn’t remember or recollect something from the past. That[…]
Read moreReligious symbols and myths are not references to historical events, they are often pointers to one’s own state of being,[…]
Read moreThere are only a few books in English Literature whose titles have become part of the vernacular, of daily speech.[…]
Read moreIt is only an elite group of Indian software companies that have made it to Nasdaq, arguably the most glamorous[…]
Read moreA coder, developer, programmer, software engineer — all these roles are synonyms in the modern-day. No matter what we call[…]
Read moreA quote that is usually attributed to Frederick Nietzsche, the German philosopher, says, “ When we are tired, we are[…]
Read moreThe two young women who played the US open 2021 finals today have very short Wikipedia pages. Not a surprise[…]
Read more( Preface: September 11th, 2021 marks the twentieth anniversary of the tragedy at the twin towers. For my generation, the[…]
Read moreThe year — 1952. A touching moment in history: Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, walked into Joseph Stalin’s spacious and ornately furnished office[…]
Read moreLoss is one thing, grief is something else. When one loses somebody close, there is an immediate void, an existential[…]
Read moreA few weeks ago, I visited a colleague’s home in Atlanta for a get-together. It was a beautiful home, spacious,[…]
Read moreIn 2014, a very penetrating book written by Erik Brynjolfsson ( a tongue twister of a name), director at MIT[…]
Read moreThe people of Afghanistan are unfortunate victims of geography. For centuries the mountainous terrains of this country – populated by[…]
Read moreChronological dates have significant importance for us. So it should be. it is a reassuring measure, and it is deeply[…]
Read more( Preface: Last year was the seventy-fifth anniversary of the atomic bombings on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[…]
Read moreThe word Rasa in Sanskrit cannot be adequately defined. It has no specific meaning, other than indicating a sense of[…]
Read moreThere are literary masterpieces, whose beauty and force can only be experienced by approaching the work after a necessary period[…]
Read moreOne of the puzzling and unresolved questions in evolutionary biology is this mysterious need for two sexes- male and female[…]
Read moreThe American Presidential debates are part of a wonderful democratic process. It gives the people an opportunity to witness prospective[…]
Read moreOn the evening of 3rd of December 1926, a thirty-six-year-old Agatha Christie, by then, a fairly established novelist, kissed her[…]
Read moreBarbara Tuchman, my favorite historian had a simple piece of advice pasted on her desk ” Will the reader turn[…]
Read moreIf there is one thing, Man will pay any price, sacrifice everything; it is to live physically young forever. The[…]
Read more( Preface: I wrote this piece on October 25th, 2018 in New Jersey. Around forty years ago, between October 23rd[…]
Read moreAs of 2018, out of hundreds of thousands of IBM employees around the globe, only 295 are IBM Fellow Emeritus[…]
Read moreThere was a period when Australians dominated the Wimbledon Championships. Between 1960 and 1970, Rod Laver, Margaret Court, John Newcombe,[…]
Read moreOn my way back to Atlanta from one of my trips, a young man rushed into the flight, almost at[…]
Read moreOn Wednesday this week, the thespian Dilip Kumar passed away at the age of ninety-eight, bringing down the curtains on[…]
Read more( Note to readers: Even by my own standards, this is a lengthy essay. Hannah Arendt is one of my[…]
Read moreArvind Adiga’s 2008 Booker prize-winning book “The white tiger” may not be remembered in the long run for its flowery[…]
Read moreIn 1950, Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” created a sensation in world cinema. It still remains one of the most powerful movies[…]
Read moreIf the cricketing bat was a painting brush, then Sunil Gavaskar was its Rembrandt – a master of technique and[…]
Read moreThe word Nomad is derived from the Greek root “Nomas” — a wandering shepherd, someone who lives their life in[…]
Read moreIt is one of the tragedies of modern times, fueled by the rapid explosion of news and our continuous exposure[…]
Read moreWhen the champion hit the ball wide of his backhand, his trademark shot, a shot Federer has perfected over the[…]
Read moreThere is something about Wimbledon that makes it one of the most anticipated, prestigious, and watchable sporting events of the[…]
Read moreA few months ago, during one of our daily conversations, my mom asked me out of the blue: “What is[…]
Read moreSome coincidences are difficult to ignore. Human beings are, by nature, meaning-seeking creatures, and coincidences lend themselves to discovering patterns.[…]
Read more(Note: When I finished writing the essay, I realized that this is my 600th published piece. I began writing these[…]
Read moreThe Madras Music Academy is to Karnatik music what Carnegie Hall is to Western classical music. The Academy is the[…]
Read more(Note: this picture is an AI-generated image. It took several interactions with the Dall-E engine to get this scene right.[…]
Read moreThe Greek Philosopher Socrates never wrote a single sentence in his lifetime. What we know of him, his philosophy in[…]
Read moreIt is time someone wrote the love story of Murthy and Sudha, and I am glad that the acclaimed novelist[…]
Read moreSigmund Freud spoke about the “Oedipal” complex for the first time in his 1900 book “The Interpretation of Dreams,” and[…]
Read moreOn 26th November 1901, a day after Madam Auguste Deter was admitted to his hospital in Frankfurt, Dr. Alois Alzheimer[…]
Read moreI am no stranger to lengthy or multi-volume books. I have always enjoyed and found immense satisfaction in books that[…]
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