I have not yet written a sequel of a previous essay. So this is going to be my first attempt. But first, why did I decide to write a sequel? A few days back, I was watching a video by Angela Duckworth (author of the famous book ‘Grit‘) in a commencement speech. I will talk more about that later. While watching it, a burst of current popped into my brain. This topic resonated deeply with me as one of my previous essays focused on…
Humans are social animals. In fact, one of the prominent reasons homo sapiens triumphed over other powerful species is because of our ability to work and hunt collectively. Today, we no longer live in jungles or even remote places. Humans today are part of connected societies, nations, and continents. Globalization has connected us to the entire world. But this entire phenomenon has also made some of us misbelieve that there is no need to be part of a society or nation or feel proud…
I never enjoyed those zombie movies. Somehow I found the idea of zombies itself disgusting. I mean, they are ugly, technically dead, but also not completely senseless. They aren’t free humans; almost like something possesses them, and they remain unaware of it. When I see younger humans (that counts even children) today, a lot of them remind me of those zombies. They are oversensitive, impatient, addicted to instant gratification, etc. Now, before you presume I am overreacting, hear me out. Technology makes information increasingly…
The term work-life balance has become a trending topic in India these days. Out of curiosity, I visited Google Trends to see how popular is the term in recent times. Turned out, it is really popular, especially after January 2024. Here is the Google trend result: What accounts for this sudden surge? With countries that are developing fast with an aspiration of becoming developed fast, this has been pretty normal, as evident from history. Japan, after world war 2 aspired to become a robust…
It is time to share some of my best reads in the 2nd half of 2024. I shared a list for the 1st half here. Over the years, I observed a dilemma among people I know about which form of books should they be reading. Just 20 years back, books meant a physical form of printed books. But today, e-books have become another form of books that are in some aspect more convenient. What form of books should we be reading then? In a…
I am fond of the English word “Meticulous,” which means showing great attention to detail. Not that I am meticulous in everything I do, but my experience and observation have led me to conclude that the smaller details often make a big difference in life. This may seem intuitive, but most of us overlook the smaller, often insignificant-looking details in our busy days. There is a fascinating story of Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician. He was working at the Vienna General Hospital in Austria…
Just eight years ago, I had never even heard of the term “peer review.” I often wondered how scientific knowledge found its way into classroom textbooks. Who decides what to include and whether it’s accurate? During my PhD, I first experienced peer review and how it works. It made sense then to me. scientific peers are the ones who evaluate the validity of findings and determine whether they should be published. Here’s a typical overview of how the scientific peer review process works: But…
India, or Bharat, is one of the youngest countries on this planet, with an average age of 29. Currently, over 650 million Indians are under the age of 25, and 845 million are under 35. With such a large workforce, one would expect India to be the immediate next superpower. There is, of course, a lot of hope about India around the world right now. As an Indian, it feels so exhilarating to witness a time when most of the world looks toward India…
Among all the mystical words, luck is probably the most ancient and popular one. In our daily lives, we use it commonly as ‘good luck‘, ‘may you be the lucky one‘, etc. But even the best scientists would have difficulty describing or quantifying luck. While some people believe luck is just a statistical phenomenon, others are convinced that luck plays a big role in life. But which is closer to the truth? Probably no one has the absolute answer. The subject of luck is…
For many of us born before the digital age, magazines hold a special place in our hearts. They’re not just publications; they’re time capsules of nostalgia. Not that I don’t see magazines nowadays, but it is a reality now that magazine readers are declining fast. So fast that within 10-15 years, we may see the closure of most magazines in print format. You might be thinking, “What about e-magazines?” Sure, they exist, but can they convey the same feeling as print magazines? It’s like…
