The people who taunt the baba log are, as you might have guessed, baba log themselves. There is among them a competition, quiet but unceasing, for the prize of being the least Baba of them all. What is curious, and what they have not yet permitted themselves to see, is that they do not regard themselves as accidents. Yet no man chooses the hour or the circumstances of his birth. He can, if he dares, use the knowledge and the information scattered around him to look, without mercy, into the mirror of his own condition. He can accept that his forefathers placed their knees upon many necks, and that there is an experiential difference, not merely a difference of degree, between being broke and being so poor that death by diarrhea is the ordinary wage of an ordinary day. He can accept that all his leftism, all his talk of justice, has not yet protected the poor from this death. We are not speaking of those who fall seriously ill and are then permitted to crawl back into their hovels to die. We are speaking of the daily, preventable extinction of those whom the country has already decided do not need to be seen.
It is time to stop speaking of compassion and of love. It is time to stop speaking of this tehzeeb and that tehzeeb. Such language has become an offense to the few who still possess a genuine sense of culture; it makes them want to retch. Keep your demonstrations of sympathy for the downtrodden to yourselves. Most of you have never paid the medical bills of the people who cook your food and clean your houses. What is required is not more talk of equality but its most modest, most concrete beginning: that the young person from the small town, who is still connected to the rural life of this country, be granted the dignity of education, of decent housing, of sufficient nutrition. Let that much happen. And keep your radical wet dreams to yourselves. Those rum-soaked fantasies have never worked and will not work now.
One last thing: Stop telling your friends in the West that you know this country in any depth. You do not .
In "The Discovery of India", this is how Jawaharlal Nehru talks about invention of zero in India with subsequent calculations of squares, square-roots, cubes, cube-roots, value of pi etc.
To make it more intelligible to new generation, Nehru used roman alphabet ‘a’ to define the zero in four ways: a-a, a+0, a-0 and a/0.
In the section "Mathematics in Ancient India" of Chapter 5 ("Through the Ages") in The Discovery of India, Jawaharlal Nehru praises the mathematical achievements of ancient India and argues that many foundations of modern mathematics originated there.
He then explains that:
1. The numerals commonly called "Arabic numerals" reached Europe through the Arabs, but were originally developed in India.
2. Ancient India laid the foundations of modern arithmetic and algebra.
3. The introduction of the decimal place-value system and the symbol for zero was a revolutionary advance that greatly simplified calculation and transformed mathematical thinking.
4. Indian mathematicians made important contributions to algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and astronomy.
He refers to scholars such as Aryabhata and later mathematicians whose work influenced the Arab world and, through it, Europe.
Nehru's overall conclusion is that India's contribution to mathematics was not merely local but global: the decimal system and zero became indispensable tools for modern science, commerce, and technology.
#Nehru #TheDiscovery #IndianMaths #IndianScience #Mathematics #Zero #Algebra #Science #geometry
Shree Adoor Gopalakrishnan, one of the most influential Indian Filmmakers, will be the Guest of Honor during the opening session of the upcoming Navrasa Duende World Movie Festival.
Watch Mathilukal with a conversation with Adoor Gopalakrishnan at 10:30 AM on 20th June 2026.
The musical piece in this video is the main soundtrack of the 1965 film "For a Few Dollars More".
This cinematic masterpiece belongs to the "Spaghetti Western" genre, directed by the legendary Sergio Leone and starring the iconic Clint Eastwood. The film's entire soundtrack—unique, gritty, and spellbinding—was composed by the great maestro Ennio Morricone.
@HimalSouthasian The review is a helpful introduction to the book and its contents.There is a new generation out there who are being enticed by racy reading and sensational focus on individuals,and archeologies that have been seemingly ignored.Hopefully this one resists these attractions.
@Dipankar_cpiml Isn't he the puppet on a string ? When parliamentary democracy is the model those without power or wealth shall continue to suffer.Just like wars.Or is there an abandoned tool ?
Polish prodigy Marcin Patrzalek responds to those claiming his music is fake.
Watch this tutorial breakdown: One guitar, zero fakes – mastering melody, bass, and percussion all at once.
In 1961, Satyajit Ray made his first ever documentary, a project commissioned by the Government of India to celebrate the birth centenary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. With music by Jyotirindra Moitra and cinematography by Soumendu Roy, this 54 minutes long documentary can be found on YouTube.
@AJEnglish The diminishing mythology of the Dalai Lama is on life- support .Now you know how the American awards are pro- religious,anti- science,against progressive ideas,globalised and essentially anti- Communist.
@Dipankar_cpiml The confused role of the Left in WB about supporting TMC or fighting it led to the Left decimation further now and in the future.Grass root organisation,public protests and mass participation in daily struggles is not banal but an inescapable need.Fight the forces of fascism.
Avoiding the elephant in the room is Menon - not to mention Indo- Israeli and Netanyahu-Modi dalliance,dumping the progressive Islamic world to be on the wrong side of history, is losing the moral goodwill and leadership of an emerging multi-polar millennium .
𝗚𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿?
On May 27, the anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru’s passing, I found myself wondering what India’s first Prime Minister would make of the world today.
Imagine Nehru appearing unexpectedly at the dinner table.
He would surely marvel at India’s transformation: a major economy, a nuclear and space power, a digital innovator, and an increasingly influential voice on the world stage.
But after listening patiently to our account of India’s rise, he might ask a simple question:
“During the ongoing Iran crisis, where exactly is India?”
This question is worthy of thought.
The conflict is not some distant regional war. It touches directly upon India’s interests: energy security, shipping through Hormuz, inflation, supply chains, connectivity through Iran, and the welfare of millions of Indians in the Gulf.
Yet India has appeared more observer than participant in the diplomatic conversation surrounding the crisis.
This is not a call for reckless activism or nostalgia for another era. The world of 2026 is vastly more complex than the world Nehru inhabited. Strategic autonomy requires prudence and restraint. But there is a difference between restraint and reticence.
Nehru understood something that remains relevant today: influence derives not only from power, but also from presence.
India of the 1950s possessed far less economic and military power than India does today. Yet it sought to shape international conversations on Korea, Suez, Indochina and Congo. It did not always determine outcomes. But it was rarely absent.
The Iran crisis also reveals another reality. We often speak of a “multipolar world”, but what we increasingly see is a world of intermediaries.
Countries such as Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and others have acquired diplomatic relevance because they possess channels of communication that others lack. Influence flows not merely from military strength, but from connectivity.
This is where India should excel.
We engage the United States and Europe, maintain ties with Russia, have deep interests in West Asia, participate in BRICS and the Quad, and retain credibility across much of the Global South.
Strategic autonomy should not become strategic silence.
The challenge before India is not whether it should mediate every conflict. It is whether a country of India’s scale and aspirations can afford to be absent from conversations that directly affect its interests.
Nehru would not have asked us to return to the diplomacy of the 1950s.
But as he leaves the dinner. he might ask whether a stronger India has become too cautious about using its voice.
Today we possess
unprecedented weight.
The question is whether we’re prepared to exercise an equally confident voice.
The future will not be shaped by great powers alone. It will also be shaped by those capable of connecting worlds that no longer trust one another. We have the power to be one of those.
Good night, Mr. Nehru.
#India #Nehru #Iran #Diplomacy #ForeignPolicy #StrategicAutonomy #GlobalSouth #WestAsia #Geopolitics #InternationalRelations
@jawharsircar In your experience has the BJP or Modi provided an alternative,secular,little-corrupt ,some development model,less inequality in their governed states ? Loyalists step down and do not try to bring down the house on its inmates.