Plus Ultra

In my previous post , I had referred to the plight of frogs and crickets whose mating calls get drowned in the high noise generated by human...

While on a trek through the elephant sanctuary near Thekkadi, after we had walked a couple of km, the guide asked us to stop, to remain abso...

“For 50 years, the Dalai Lama asked us to use peaceful means to solve the problems, and that achieved nothing. China just criticizes him. Af...

What is the earliest event in your life that you can remember? Think back. Maybe a wedding you went along with your parents or a vacation....

Here is someone putting forward a theory – or, perhaps reviving an old one- that there was an Indus Valley civilization which belonged to t...

As a frequent traveller, I’ve had my share of aggressive co-passengers intent on starting a conversation and hell-bent on ruining my sleep. ...

Numerous studies show that people who consume lots of vegetables have lower rates of heart disease, hypertension , diabetes , eye problems a...

Via Kottke , I came across this recent piece in The New York Times, that gives a list of interesting things that were lost and found in New...

Neha argues, in a recent post , that it is futile to give a scientific spin to some faith-based action. If, for instance, you believe in rah...

In a collection of short stories that I read recently, the editor had taken pains to group together stories that had similar ‘elements’. The...

I had commented some time back on the ingenuity shown by the media in lavishing praise on Tendulkar, even on occasions when he had failed m...

In this post , I had wondered what was it about ‘boys falling into wells” that had the television channels pitching their tents to provide a...

I remember the first time that I convinced myself to buy a Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL), to replace one of the humble incandescent bulbs i...

Rice is in short supply , the world over. So is wheat. . Eating more meat is not the answer, as grain production will need to go up by a fac...

“The kind of knowing you get from experience”, writes Joe Kissell in this post , “is qualitatively different from what you get by reading ab...

In the barber shop that I go to, there is a certain protocol for training new hands. The first few weeks, the new recruit does some basic an...

‘Revenge’ is such a recurring theme in our movies and is an important ingredient in the masala mix. Why, even in sports, a common headline i...

The Bharatiya Custodians of Public Morality (BHACUPUMO) has condemned the organizers of the IPL league for allowing cheerleaders to take par...

Slate refers to a recent, as yet unpublished study , that reports that those Muslims who went to Mecca came back with more moderate views o...

Remember the childhood days when you loved to play with sand, but the response from your parent was less than enthusiastic? Or, how as a par...