Ideas We Believe

Countess authors have written on war, whether war and peace or the art of war. It's sometimes astonishing how pervading the idea of a war is over human civilisation. But the nature and structure of war have mainly changed, while the similarities are uncanny. But without just being philosophical, let's understand how the terms that are floated today are a realisation of power and limitation of its projection. In that sense, this piece is a treatise on peace or, if I can, a seeming decline in war's enticement. Wars were fought for the expansion of one's territory. But it remains a question of how and who the war served. In that sense, the armies were a protector of the ruler. Thus, the war was intended to gain rule except when it was led by vengeance or the decree of a religion. But what was expected was that most of the greatest conquests were in the form of an expedition, thus having to have a geographical continuity, which became necessary for people to establish loyal...

The world today is 281 trillion in debt to itself. There is no science more mysterious than that of money. What drives my enthusiasm for finance is its underlying devotion to mathematics, just like most of the pure sciences. This pride in being extremely logical and putting rationality before empirical bias is what makes it worthy of a Nobel (though not the original one). But its influence on daily life is enormous, a genuinely distinct feat in pure sciences. So let's delve into the unapparent philosophical side of the currency. 281 trillion is a significant amount. If everyone called on their cards, we would have a lost game of poker. In fact, we have such a bluff on the table that we can't risk calling it. It is horrifying that this accounting deficit makes no difference to the world. Has there ever been a scam this benign? Or do we need a piece of the puzzle? The latter seems rational. The reason for this debt is simple, sovereigns have printed more and more money over the y...

In a powerful piece which challenges the earlier established trust within the virology researchers, Dr Nicholas Wade has put in a few arguments that we cannot afford to overlook. He points out the practise of developing virulent in-vitro strains for a gain of function, to have counter-action ready in case nature puts us in trouble. However, we probably ran into trouble in this double agent game, and what is to blame is still unclear. Is it the human error, the risk-taking nature of the scientific community or the plethora of lies that were spun to misguide the world? The consequences of the latter are more lasting than the former. Science experiments gone wrong is the narrative that has fuelled dystopian sci-fi thought for years. We could have, in a sense, brought virology under the same scanner as that of nuclear proliferation, given the deaths that are today attributed to the covid. This is more concerning because science is an easy target and hasn't been a particular political l...

What if a large part of your life was determined when it started. I am not talking of something random as fate. This is a socially enforced stigma that comes with your gender. Doesn't your blood boil at such a designed mal-conduct? You can not wake up one fine morning and say it's over. Let's all be equal over the land these sunrays reach, and so shall it be. We must dig deep into the circumstances that have brought us here and decide how to proceed. History : Like all arguments stretched, let's find some history with our ancestors. Although many hunters made the probability of a fulfilling dinner higher, at one point in time, our ancestors decided to specialise. One part of the head was to be a "hunter" and the other "gatherer". This is where biology played an important role. Mainly because one of the sexes was far too necessary for continuing the human race, later months of pregnancy and natal care forced half of the population to have a sedentary ...

The service sector has embraced its long waiting armour, "work from home". As tech-powered solutions to avoid social gatherings continue to rise, I was concerned about the long-lasting ripples it might leave behind in the modern work culture. In fact, there could be other changes that this phenomena of working from home might trigger. The push for using technology to create a virtual presence rather than a physical one was booming over the past few years thanks to better communication architecture. The coronavirus pandemic, only served to coerce it. But there is hardly any way of getting back from this. Infact, its better in two aspects one that if something could be done more comfortably from home there is apparently no point in forcing a culture. In fact, large corporates like google were actively working to make employees feel home at their offices. Now they have to feel official at their homes. Which can be done by simply having a soundproof conferencing room (or may...

Crisis and Conflicts are moments of truth for any society. Not only because it deconstructs the secondary paraphrasings like the economy, but because also puts to test the social machinery. Modern emergencies have explored a new non-natural side to calamities, like nuclear meltdown and bio-hazards amongst others. For a common man, the question often strips down to survival, and decisions become too personal. However, for the larger social institutions, namely the government, the question is more pressing and answers quite unclear. A crisis is the points where wealth proves to be blubber of protection. The rich are inevitably the fortunate. They have access to services and getaways, a poor can never fathom of. Adding to the misery is that as the focus shits to the exigency, the common welfare services too take a hit. However, for the rich, most of the affairs are generally from their pocket. Because the untrained human response to panic is mostly the same, the rich tend to even go ou...

The unusual thing about peace is that its true worth is realised only in times of war. As the horrors of the wars begin to fade away from the memoirs, people begin to actively devalue the efforts for peace. this is the true challenge to peace to convince people that war is the worst option. A look at the list of non-fiction booker prize for the last two decades shows a shift from topics of history to that of health and ecology. this brings up an important question. the generation which was apart of the greatest wars ( the military world wars and the strategic cold war) have begun to recede away from the limelight. the modern writers chose to adorn the more sophisticated needs of survivals. A shift from human emotions of anger, revenge and hatred to that of care, concern and altruism. The results of wars, namely democracy and globalism, have begun to wear away as the great wars move deeper in history textbooks. "democracy survives on the virtues of the defeated". As long ...

How do you access a dictionary these days? The Internet, right. Well, let's talk about the English language today. Mostly the era of emerging words, when urban dictionary, gets more clicks than the oxford one. I remember of days when my dad, would always look with disbelief at the pocket dictionary, constantly cross-examining the words with his dusty reference book of the '80s. Not all languages have seen such a shift in their word usage, rather many are losing out in the battle, leaving certain words only to the dictionary, but English has. In fact, there is some historical connotation to this new sport. The world war had crowned the U.S as the new power centre of the globe, giving it a scope to spread its culture over the nations. But, the U.S. had killed its indigenous culture long back like Australia. It had become the assemblage of the Europeans who wanted to move out of the nation-states. With the lack of an indigenous language, the U.S. went with an unusual choice,...

The entertainment industry in India is waiting for yet another disruptive innovation, with millions of young users equipped with gigabytes of data every day, there is a new untapped customer base. Not particularly untapped since it makes do with pirated movies and free web series. But, there is an apparent lack of entertainment streamed towards them. Also, the shift from television sets to mobile devices, sets the stage clear for a change in content. the spikes in porn consumption and adult web series do speak of this unattended guest. The popularity of two platforms, mostly youtube and TikTok, have also helped in developing a new class of actors. To name a few Sumeet Vyas, Jitendra, Bhuvan Bam and much more. It has become apparent that the arduous task of going from one to another production house seeking a side role in a daily soap or movie, is on a decline. Not that, people won't get their debut at soaps and movies, but it seems easier to get a web series and keep working tha...

The Notre Dame de Paris, vibrant and unique as it is, also boasts of millions, given in donation for the supposed rebuilding of the ancient architecture. Most of this amount can be traced back to the wealthy, the sophisticated, the luxury-seeking, just a handful of families around the world. To me, the question is not if this money could have been used in the welfare of the needy, because I stand by their right and discretion to spend their own wealth. But the critical question is, even to the creamiest strata of the society, religion does have a significant impact. Now, heading back to India. Although the ruling party made no apparent movement to suggest their affiliation to any religious body, the intellectuals (and somehow many of them liberals) did cry out loud that the politicians were using religion as their weapon of mass mobilisation. What they supposedly thought, was that such aggressive revelation would make people morally conscious of their choice and chose the otherwise...

A beautiful facet of Indian mythology is its very nature of the presentation. Most of the stories are merely answers to intriguing questions, drawing attention to the basis of societal design and functioning. The narration merely presents a scenario to questionee. Quite different from other forms which build upon a higher than a human figure of the hero and dehumanise the villain. So, when mythology is retold, it must be open to new perceptions and interpretations. This by no means should be judgmental, rather a more encompassing exercise. But, the picture of modern society speaks a sorry tale. A place where, a constant and deliberate attempt is made to match between the protagonist of myths, to ensure just a mental pleasure or some other gains. This, however, comes at a cost, the cost of reason since most choose to accept the majoritarian opinion as for the truth. The shift, from dialogue to an authocratic discourses is at the heart of the atavism , I intend to speak of. Look...