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From self-1.md (Oct 2024 – Feb 2026)
Kadlekai Parishe 2024 — Groundnut Fair, Bengaluru (Nov 2024) The annual Kadlekai Parishe (groundnut fair) at the Bull Temple on Basavanagudi, Bengaluru — believed to be over 500 years old and associated with the legend of a bull destroying farmers’ groundnut fields, appeased by the offering of the first harvest. The fair attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors and is one of Bengaluru’s most beloved cultural traditions. deccanherald.com — https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/bengaluru/kadlekai-parishe-2024-all-you-need-to-know-about-bengalurus-unique-groundnut-festival-3292433
How I Discovered Celestial Geometry — Indian Temples (Nov 2024) An article on the sophisticated geometric and astronomical principles underlying ancient Indian temple construction — alignment with cardinal directions, proportional systems based on the vastu shastra and agama texts, and the encoding of celestial phenomena (solstices, equinoxes) in temple orientation. A reminder that pre-modern Indian architecture was deeply mathematical. deccanherald.com — https://www.deccanherald.com/science/space/how-i-discovered-celestial-geometry-3268918
Socially Distanced Layout of World’s Oldest Cities — IVC (Oct 2024) Research revealing that Indus Valley Civilization cities were spaced with surprisingly uniform inter-site distances — interpreted as evidence of deliberate territorial planning or supply-chain optimization rather than organic growth. The regularity implies a higher level of inter-city coordination than previously assumed for a civilization with no evidence of palaces or centralized political authority. phys.org — https://phys.org/news/2024-10-socially-distanced-layout-world-oldest.html
Behind the Emblems — Karnataka Dynasties (Dec 2024) An article on the symbols and emblems of Karnataka’s historical dynasties — the boar of the Chalukyas, the elephant of the Gangas, the double-headed eagle (gandaberunda) of the Hoysalas, and the tiger of Mysore — explaining their mythological origins and how they were used to project royal identity and legitimacy. deccanherald.com — https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/behind-the-emblems-3303790
Bakhshali Manuscript Video (Dec 2024) A YouTube video on the Bakhshali manuscript — a 3rd to 4th century CE mathematical text that contains the oldest confirmed use of the zero symbol as a placeholder dot. The manuscript, discovered in 1881 near Peshawar and now housed at Oxford’s Bodleian Library, contains algorithms for fractions, square roots, and arithmetic progressions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV_gXGTuWxY
M. H. Krishna — Wikipedia The Wikipedia article on M. H. Krishna (1887–1961) — Karnataka’s pioneering epigraphist and archaeologist who documented hundreds of inscriptions across the region, directed excavations at Chandravalli and Brahmagiri, and was instrumental in establishing the Karnataka state archaeology department. A foundational figure in bringing modern methods to Karnataka’s historical record. en.wikipedia.org — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._H._Krishna
India’s Iron Age — Tamil Nadu (Jan 2025) Evidence from Tamil Nadu suggesting that iron smelting in the region began in the first quarter of the 4th millennium BCE — making it one of the earliest iron-working traditions globally. The claim, based on new thermoluminescence dating of iron slag deposits, has significant implications for understanding South Asia’s technological history independent of West Asian or Central European iron traditions. thehindu.com — https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/iron-age-began-in-tn-in-first-quarter-of-4th-millennium-bce-stalin/article69130715.ece
Massive Reservoir at Rakhigarhi / Saraswati Basin (Jan 2025) Archaeological discovery of a massive water management system at Rakhigarhi — the largest known Harappan site — including what appears to be a reservoir or water storage facility covering several hectares. The finding contributes to understanding how IVC cities managed water in a seasonally variable monsoon environment. thehindu.com — https://www.thehindu.com/
Stone Tool Discovery — Ancient India (Dec 2024) A new stone tool discovery extending evidence of human presence in India to an earlier period than previously established — contributing to the complex picture of multiple waves of hominin occupation of the subcontinent before and during the Out-of-Africa migration of modern humans. thehindu.com — https://www.thehindu.com/
Indus Script Decipherment Article — The Hindu (Apr 2025) A Hindu editorial discussing new research proposing that the Indus script is a logosyllabary — a mixed writing system combining logograms (meaning-based symbols) and syllabic signs — similar to Linear B or Chinese oracle bone script. The logosyllabary hypothesis has gained traction as the most internally consistent structural model for the script’s organization. thehindu.com — https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/script-reading-on-deciphering-the-script-of-the-indus-valley-civilisation/article69108959.ece
Indus Script Fish Signs (Mar 2025) Analysis of the fish sign (zig-zag and straight fish pictograms) in the Indus script corpus — one of the most frequently occurring signs — and its possible relationship to the word for fish in Dravidian languages (meen in Tamil, potentially cognate with other Dravidian terms). The fish sign analysis is central to the Dravidian decipherment hypothesis advanced by Iravatham Mahadevan. academia.edu — https://www.academia.edu/19550772/Fish_symbolism_in_Indus_Valley_Civilization
IVC Logosyllabary Discussion (Reddit/IndoEuropean, Mar 2025) A Reddit discussion thread on the logosyllabic nature of the Indus Valley script — covering the statistical evidence (sign frequency distributions consistent with a mixed system), comparisons with known logosyllabaries (Sumerian, Linear B, Mayan), and the challenges of deciphering a script without a bilingual key. reddit.com — https://www.reddit.com/r/IndoEuropean/
Oracle Bone Script (China) — Wikipedia (Mar 2025) The Wikipedia article on Chinese oracle bone script — included as a comparative reference for Indus script discussions, since oracle bone script is another ancient logosyllabic system that was successfully deciphered (via continuity with modern Chinese characters). The comparison illuminates what makes decipherment possible and what is still missing for the Indus script. en.wikipedia.org — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_bone_script
Evidence of Oldest Alphabet — Syrian Tombs (Dec 2024) Archaeological evidence from Syrian tombs of markings that may represent the world’s oldest known alphabetic writing — predating the Phoenician alphabet by several centuries. The claim, if confirmed, would push the origins of the consonantal alphabetic principle back into the mid-2nd millennium BCE in the Levant. smithsonianmag.com — https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-say-these-mysterious-markings-could-be-the-worlds-oldest-known-alphabetic-writing-180985525/
Indo-European Origins — New Solution (Nature, Feb 2025) A Nature paper presenting a new genetic/archaeological synthesis of Indo-European origins — integrating the largest ancient DNA dataset yet assembled with archaeological site distributions — and proposing a model for how the Proto-Indo-European language spread in multiple waves from a Caucasus/Steppe homeland. nature.com — https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08531-5
Marija Gimbutas — Wikipedia The Wikipedia article on Marija Gimbutas (1921–1994) — the Lithuanian-American archaeologist who excavated dozens of sites in Eastern Europe, proposed the Kurgan hypothesis for Indo-European origins (now largely vindicated by ancient DNA), and controversially proposed that pre-Indo-European Europe had a goddess-centered “Old European” culture. en.wikipedia.org — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marija_Gimbutas
Lead Pollution in Ancient Rome Caused IQ Loss (Smithsonian, Jan 2025) Research estimating that widespread lead contamination from Roman plumbing, cookware, wine vessels, and atmospheric smelting emissions reduced average blood lead levels enough to lower cognitive function by several IQ points across the Roman population — a factor potentially contributing to governance decline in the late empire. smithsonianmag.com — https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-romans-breathed-in-enough-lead-to-lower-their-iqs-study-finds-did-that-toxin-contribute-to-the-empires-fall-180985781/
Ancient DNA — Sheep and Humans Co-Migration (Science, Jan 2025) A genomic study demonstrating that domestic sheep spread alongside human migration across Eurasia — with sheep DNA tracking Neolithic farmer and Steppe pastoralist movements almost exactly. The co-migration suggests sheep were so integral to early pastoral economies that human and animal genetic histories became deeply entangled. science.org — https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adn2094
Mammoths in North America During Ice Age (Smithsonian, Dec 2024) A Smithsonian piece on new evidence that woolly mammoths were a dietary staple for early Americans — including analysis of an ice-age infant’s bones showing mammoth protein signatures. The finding confirms that the first Americans were hunting and heavily consuming megafauna within centuries of their arrival. smithsonianmag.com — https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/an-ice-age-infants-bones-reveal-early-americans-ate-woolly-mammoths-as-a-protein-staple-180985618/
Japan Ancient Sea Voyage 30,000 Years Ago (Jun 2025) Research using a replica Paleolithic canoe to demonstrate the feasibility of the ancient seafaring journey from Taiwan or the Ryukyu Islands to Japan’s main islands 30,000 years ago — when Japan was separated from the Asian mainland by 200km of open sea, requiring deliberate long-distance navigation by the ancestors of the Jomon people. phys.org — https://phys.org/news/2025-06-ancient-canoe-replica-paleolithic-migration.html
Okinawans in Hawaii (Jun 2025) An article on Okinawan immigration history and the distinctive cultural community that formed in Hawaii — maintaining traditional practices (Eisa dance, sanshin music, Okinawan cuisine) while integrating into Hawaiian multicultural society. The Okinawan diaspora in Hawaii represents one of the most coherent overseas cultural preservation stories in the Pacific. honolulumagazine.com — https://www.honolulumagazine.com/okinawan-festival/
Coorg Genetic Study (May 2025) A genetic study on the Kodava (Coorg) people’s origins and unique haplogroups, finding that this warrior community from the Western Ghats of Karnataka has a distinct genetic signature — with elevated frequencies of haplogroups (including Y-chromosome lineages) suggesting partial descent from prehistoric hunter-gatherer or pastoralist populations different from surrounding Dravidian communities. nature.com — https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-08073-0
Vishnu Purana — Wikipedia (Apr 2025) The Wikipedia article on the Vishnu Purana — one of the eighteen major Puranas and a foundational text of Vaishnavism — covering its cosmology (four yugas, cycles of creation/dissolution), genealogies of kings and sages, and theological framework presenting Vishnu as the supreme deity. A reference for understanding the textual background of Vaishnavism’s spread in medieval Karnataka. en.wikipedia.org — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu_Purana
Japanese Scholar of South Indian Past — Noboru Karashima (Mar 2025) A profile of Noboru Karashima (1933–2015) — the Japanese Indologist who spent decades studying South Indian inscriptions, particularly the Chola copper plates and Tamil Nadu’s medieval commercial guilds, building detailed models of medieval South Indian trade, taxation, and land tenure from epigraphic evidence. A remarkable example of outside scholarship illuminating Indian history. thewire.in — https://thewire.in/history/japanese-scholar-who-caught-the-whispers-of-a-south-indian-past
Inscriptions of India Database (Mar 2025) An online database of Indian inscriptions compiled by the Halle-Wittenberg digital humanities project — searchable by region, dynasty, language, and date, providing access to transliterations and translations of thousands of epigraphic records. An essential research tool for anyone working on Indian historical linguistics or epigraphy. epigraphy.dh.uni-halle.de — https://epigraphy.dh.uni-halle.de/
Number of Inscriptions: Tamil vs Kannada (tweet) A tweet presenting comparative data on the count of historical inscriptions in Tamil and Kannada — both among the most epigraphically rich languages of any pre-modern civilization — and what the relative counts tell us about the geographic and temporal distribution of literacy, royal patronage, and administrative culture in the two language zones. x.com — https://x.com/
Mysore-Maratha Relations Using Kannada Sources (Mar 2025) An academic paper examining the historically fraught relationship between the Kingdom of Mysore and the Maratha Confederacy through Kannada-language sources — a perspective often absent in English and Marathi accounts of the same events. The paper documents Kannadiga communities victimized by Maratha raids and the Mysore response under the Wodeyars, Hyder Ali, and Tipu Sultan. academia.edu — https://www.academia.edu/44029040/The_Kannadiga_victims_of_Maratha_Empire_invasions
Humans Didn’t Domesticate Horses Until 4,200 Years Ago (Apr 2025) An updated LiveScience piece on the revised horse domestication timeline — connecting the later date to the Sintashta culture’s development of the chariot and the subsequent rapid spread of horse-mounted Indo-Iranian speakers across Eurasia. The finding tightens the correlation between horse domestication and the Indo-Aryan linguistic expansion into South Asia. livescience.com — https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/humans-didnt-domesticate-horses-until-4200-years-ago-a-millennium-later-than-thought
Harappan Beads — Gujarat Ports (Apr 2025) How the port sites of Gujarat (Lothal, Khambhat) became manufacturing and export centers for carnelian and lapis lazuli beads — among the most widely traded Harappan artifacts, found as far as Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf. The bead trade evidence is some of the clearest material proof of IVC’s integration into ancient global trade networks. thehindu.com — https://www.thehindu.com/
Ganitasarasangraha — Wikipedia The Wikipedia article on the Ganitasarasangraha by the 9th-century Jain mathematician Mahaviracharya — a comprehensive Sanskrit mathematical text covering arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and combinatorics that was one of the first works to systematically treat the mathematics of negative numbers and zero as complete arithmetic objects. en.wikipedia.org — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganita_Sara_Sangraha
Bhavana Journal: Mathematics in India (Mar 2025) An article in Bhavana (a mathematics magazine with an Indian focus) covering the history of mathematical traditions in India — from the Vedic sulbasutras through the Kerala school of mathematics, Brahmagupta, Bhaskara, and Ramanujan. The article highlights contributions (infinite series for π, combinatorics, algebra) that were developed in India centuries before European rediscovery. bhavana.org.in — https://bhavana.org.in/mathematics-in-india-6/
Wootz and Damascus Steel (Scientific American, May 2025) The Indian origin of wootz — a high-carbon crucible steel developed in South India (Tamil Nadu/Andhra) by at least 300 BCE — and its connection to the famed Damascus blade tradition: European and Middle Eastern bladesmiths worked imported Indian wootz ingots to create Damascus steel weapons. The article covers the metallurgical properties (carbide banding) that gave wootz its legendary cutting edge. scientificamerican.com — https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-mystery-of-damascus-blades/
Indian Monk Who Taught China — Bodhidharma (Feb 2025) An article on Bodhidharma — the Indian (likely Tamil or South Indian) Buddhist monk who traveled to China in the 5th or 6th century CE and is credited with founding Chan (Zen) Buddhism and teaching the martial arts exercises that became the foundation of Shaolin kung fu. Bodhidharma represents one of the most consequential South-to-East Asian cultural transfers in history. thehindu.com — https://www.thehindu.com/
Pig Domestication in the Indus Valley (Mar 2025) Genomic evidence for pig domestication at Harappan sites — contributing to the picture of IVC as a society with diverse animal husbandry practices (including cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats) beyond the zebu cattle that have traditionally received the most scholarly attention. academic.oup.com — https://academic.oup.com/gbe/article/17/3/evaf030/8041803
Behistun Inscription — Wikipedia (Jan 2025) The Wikipedia article on the Behistun inscription — a massive rock-cut trilingual text (Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian Akkadian) commissioned by Darius I (~520 BCE) that was the key to deciphering cuneiform writing. Included here as a comparative reference for understanding what is needed to decipher the Indus script: a bilingual text in a known and an unknown language. en.wikipedia.org — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behistun_inscription
Thondaradippodi Alvar — Wikipedia (Feb 2025) The Wikipedia article on Thondaradippodi Alvar — one of the twelve Vaishnava poet-saints (Alvars) of South India (7th–9th century CE) whose Tamil devotional poems form the Nalayira Divya Prabandham corpus. His name means “dust on the feet of devotees” — a characteristic expression of radical devotional humility in the Bhakti movement. en.wikipedia.org — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thondaradippodi_Alvar
All of Proto-Indo-European (Jun 2025) A comprehensive YouTube video on the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language — the hypothesized ancestor of all Indo-European languages including Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, Persian, and the Slavic, Germanic, and Celtic language families — covering the reconstructed vocabulary, grammar, and the methodology of comparative reconstruction. youtube.com — https://www.youtube.com/
Humans Almost Went Extinct 930,000 Years Ago (Apr 2025) Research identifying a severe population bottleneck in human ancestors approximately 930,000 years ago — when the effective population may have fallen to as few as 1,280 breeding individuals — potentially explaining a gap in the hominin fossil record and suggesting that modern humans are descended from a small founding population that survived this near-extinction event. science.org — https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq7487
Ancient DNA Reveals Most Europeans Had Dark Skin Until 3,000 Years Ago (Nov 2025) A genetic study showing that the alleles responsible for pale skin in Europeans only reached high frequency around 3,000 years ago — much more recently than previously assumed — suggesting that selection for reduced melanin production was driven by vitamin D synthesis requirements during the relatively recent shift to grain-based diets that are low in vitamin D. zmescience.com — https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/dna-ancient-europe-dark-skin/
River Drought Forcing of the Harappan Metamorphosis (Nature, Nov 2025) A Nature study on how hydroclimatic changes — specifically the southward shift of the Indian Summer Monsoon and the drying of the Ghaggar-Hakra river system — drove the transformation (and eventual decline) of the Indus Valley Civilization. The paper uses sediment cores, lake records, and fluvial geomorphology to reconstruct monsoon variability over the IVC’s lifespan. nature.com — https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02901-1
South Indians at Higher Risk of Heart Disease — Genetic Study (Nov 2025) A Bengaluru-based genetic study finding that South Indians carry unique mutations increasing susceptibility to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) — a structural heart condition — at higher frequencies than other global populations. The finding has clinical implications for screening and the design of population-specific cardiovascular risk models. deccanherald.com — https://www.deccanherald.com/india/south-indians-more-prone-to-heart-disease-study-3815339
Scientists Complete Most Thorough Analysis of India’s Genetic Diversity (Jun 2025) A Berkeley-led study comparing 2,700+ complete South Asian genomes — the largest such dataset assembled — mapping the fine-scale genetic structure of India’s population and documenting how thousands of years of endogamy within caste and tribal communities has created one of the world’s most genetically differentiated populations in a relatively small geographic area. news.berkeley.edu — https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/06/26/scientists-complete-the-most-thorough-analysis-yet-of-indias-genetic-diversity/
Mehdi Hasan’s MAGA Debate Experience (Jul 2025) Journalist Mehdi Hasan’s account of debating 20 young far-right MAGA supporters — and what he found most and least effective in changing minds in a format designed for spectacle rather than genuine exchange. Relevant as an example of the challenges of political communication in polarized media environments. https://youtu.be/fhkzEgWaNSI
Srinivagilu Inscriptions and Hero Stones — Wikipedia (Jan 2026) The Wikipedia article on Srinivagilu inscriptions in Karnataka — a site containing multiple hero stones (viragallu) and memorial inscriptions from the medieval period. Hero stones are one of the most distinctive Karnataka epigraphic traditions, commemorating warriors who died in battle, cattle raids, or protecting their community. en.wikipedia.org — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivagilu_inscriptions_and_hero_stones
Inscriptions of Bangalore East Taluk — Karnataka Itihasa Academy (Jan 2026) An academic study of inscriptions from Bangalore East Taluk, documenting hero stones, land grant records, and temple inscriptions from the Ganga, Rashtrakuta, Hoysala, and Vijayanagara periods — providing a ground-level historical record of the region now largely covered by Bengaluru’s eastern suburbs. karnatakaitihasaacademy.org — https://karnatakaitihasaacademy.org/inscriptions-of-bangalore-east-taluk-a-study/
Know Your Neighbourhood: Madivala, Agara, Koramangala, Bellandur (Jan 2026) A historical and cultural guide to south Bengaluru neighbourhoods — tracing the pre-urban history of areas now dominated by tech parks and apartment complexes, including the original village communities (agraharas, weaver settlements, military cantonments) whose names and tank systems still persist in the urban fabric. thelightbaggage.com — https://www.thelightbaggage.com/2020/06/know-your-neighbourhood-3-madivala.html
13th Century Stone Inscription Found in Bengaluru — Yelachenahalli (Jan 2026) Discovery of a Hoysala-era inscription at Yelachenahalli in south Bengaluru — documenting land grants and local administrative structures from the 13th century CE. The find is significant for demonstrating that even areas now deep within the urban core of Bengaluru were documented in medieval epigraphic records. timesofindia.indiatimes.com — https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/83708594.cms
Fort Malkhed — Manyakheta (Karnataka Travel Blog, Jan 2026) A travel blog entry on Fort Malkhed (ancient Manyakheta) — the capital of the Rashtrakuta Empire (9th–10th century CE), one of the most powerful dynasties in Indian history, who controlled much of the Deccan and conducted raids into the Gangetic plains. Today the site is a small town in Kalaburagi district with significant but undervisited historical remains. karnatakatravel.blogspot.com — https://karnatakatravel.blogspot.com/2014/06/fort-malkhed-manyakheta.html
Bukka Raya’s 1368 Kalya Inscription — Religious Harmony in Karnataka (Feb 2026) A 14th-century inscription at Kalya (near Bidar, Karnataka) documenting a historic pact between Vaishnava and Jaina communities under Vijayanagara king Bukka Raya I — an early example of formal religious coexistence negotiated at the royal level. The inscription is cited as evidence that the Vijayanagara Empire practiced genuine religious pluralism, not merely tolerance. deccanherald.com — https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/bukka-rayas-inscription-at-karnatakas-kalya-3886672
Altar of Fire Documentary (May 2025) A documentary on the Atiratra Agnicayana — an elaborate Vedic fire sacrifice that takes 12 days, uses 1,000+ bricks, and has been performed continuously in Kerala for over 3,000 years. The ritual is among the oldest continuously performed religious ceremonies in the world and was documented by Frits Staal in a landmark 1975 filmed performance. archive.org — https://archive.org/details/desktop_20210830
Ancient Brazil Whale Hunting — 5,000 Years Ago (Jan 2026) Evidence that Indigenous people in Brazil were hunting large whales 5,000 years ago — 1,000 years before Arctic cultures are known to have done so — using sophisticated harpoon technology. The finding challenges the assumption that large-scale cetacean hunting originated in the northern seas. zmescience.com — https://www.zmescience.com/science/archaeology/brazil-5000-year-old-whale-hunting/
Greatest Historical Discoveries of 2024–2025 (YouTube, Jul 2025) A video summary of major archaeological discoveries from 2024–2025, including cave paintings, ancient city sites, revised dating of known cultures, and new hominin fossils — providing a snapshot of how rapidly the deep human past is being rewritten by new excavation and dating techniques. https://youtu.be/mvfJfUUrWSw
Archaeologists Uncover 3,000-Year-Old Hidden Mega-Fortress (Oct 2025) The discovery of a major Bronze Age fortification in a mountainous region — one of the largest defensive structures known from the period, using cyclopean masonry and sophisticated siting that would have required substantial labor mobilization. The find contributes to understanding of Bronze Age state formation and military organization. msn.com — https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/news/content/ar-AA1NGdks
Cakmaktepe vs Gobekli Tepe: Rewriting the Neolithic Timeline (Feb 2026) A video exploring the recently discovered site of Cakmaktepe (Turkey) — which may predate Göbekli Tepe as evidence of early sedentary or semi-sedentary communities engaged in monumental construction before the conventional Neolithic transition. The comparison raises questions about the sequence of agriculture, sedentism, and ritual architecture in the origins of civilization. https://youtu.be/dtYwZEMswic
History of Indo-Iranians: Sintashta Ancestry Spread — YouTube Map (Jul 2025) An animated map showing the spread of Indo-Iranian peoples from the Sintashta culture ~4,200 years ago, with ancestry percentage overlays showing how Steppe-related genetic contributions vary across modern South and Central Asian populations. A visual synthesis of the ancient DNA and linguistic evidence for Indo-Aryan migration. https://youtu.be/s-jTzmFpLGc
Thar Desert Is Greener Than Ever — At What Cost? (Oct 2025) A video on the unexpected greening of the Thar Desert (Rajasthan, India/Pakistan) over the past two decades — driven by increased monsoon rainfall possibly linked to climate change — and the paradoxical consequences: while vegetation cover increases, locust populations explode, traditional pastoral livelihoods are disrupted, and the ecosystem transition is ecologically destabilizing. https://youtu.be/sfLj95upL9c
Personal Note: Considering India’s Intellectual Achievements and Later Decline (Feb 2026) A personal historical reflection: India invented wootz steel, the zero and decimal system, calculus precursors (Kerala school), formal linguistics (Pāṇini’s grammar), and pioneered elephant warfare — yet fell substantially behind in later centuries. The analysis attributes this to fast horse-mounted warfare (enabling the Islamic invasions), then the decisive military advantages of firearms and ocean-going ships in the colonial era, leaving the subcontinent eventually functioning as the British Empire’s administrative back office. A meditation on the contingency of technological and geopolitical dominance.
100 Dishes in 40 Days: India’s Epic Wedding Feast (BBC, Oct 2025) A BBC travel piece on the 700-year-old tradition in parts of southern India (particularly among certain Tamil Brahmin and Vellalar communities) of presenting a groom’s family with a parade of dishes over weeks — a ritual demonstration of culinary abundance and hospitality that encodes community identity and intergenerational knowledge transmission. bbc.com — https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20251003-100-dishes-in-40-days-indias-epic-wedding-feast
Bengaluru Explorer: Musings of a New Zealander in Bengaluru (Oct 2025) Cultural observations on Bengaluru through a New Zealander’s eyes — the contradictions of a city that simultaneously maintains village-scale social networks and global tech industry rhythms, and what this tells us about how Indian cities absorb and transform modernity. deccanherald.com — https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/bengaluru/roaming-around-in-bengaluru-musings-through-the-eyes-of-a-new-zealander-3755495
The Sunday Read: Rhythms of Resilience — Sumana, Ghatam (Sep 2025) A Bangalore Mirror piece on Sumana — a percussionist who transitioned from Carnatic vocal training to the ghatam (clay pot percussion instrument) — and her journey establishing herself in a tradition where very few women have performed at the concert stage level. A profile that connects musical tradition with gender and institutional barriers in classical performance. bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com — https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/opinion/sunday-read/the-sunday-read-rhythms-of-resilience/articleshow/112959174.cms
SC Review of Anti-Conversion Laws: Rights Must Prevail Over Religious Policing (Sep 2025) A Deccan Herald editorial on the Supreme Court’s notice to Karnataka and other states regarding anti-conversion legislation — arguing that laws requiring government permission for religious conversion violate constitutional freedoms of conscience and religion, and that their enforcement disproportionately targets marginalized communities. deccanherald.com — https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/editorial/rights-must-prevail-over-religious-policing-3735120
How Karnataka’s First Waste-to-Energy Plant Works (Aug 2025) An article on Bengaluru’s waste-to-energy facility that incineration-generates electricity from unsegregated municipal solid waste — covering the engineering process, capacity, emissions management, and the debate about whether waste-to-energy diverts attention from more sustainable waste segregation and recycling programs. deccanherald.com — https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/bengaluru/how-karnatakas-first-waste-to-energy-plant-burns-bengalurus-garbage-generates-electricity-3650799
My Religion Taught Me to Speak Up: Deepak Kumar Confronts Mob in Uttarakhand (BBC News India, Feb 2026) The story of Deepak Kumar — a Hindu man who, invoking his own religious duty of justice, publicly confronted a Bajrang Dal mob threatening a Muslim-owned shop in Uttarakhand — and the subsequent attention and threats his act attracted. The incident illuminates the moral agency of ordinary citizens amid communal polarization. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNsYkWL2-dY