Blog
The Unfulfilled Promise of Healthcare
Recently, I had the opportunity to spend nearly three hours in conversation at the Care Foundation, graciously hosted by its CEO, Mr. S. G. Prasad, whose quiet commitment to accessible healthcare has sustained many meaningful initiatives over the years. The meeting brought together Mr. B. V. Satya Sai Prasad, a lawyer-turned-industrialist now...
Kafka in the Age of the Gig Economy
In my youth, when I first read Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, published in 1915, it seemed to belong to a distant, shadowed landscape of European modernism—strange, unsettling, intellectually luminous, yet safely contained within literature. One reads differently at twenty, differently again at forty. Now, in my seventies, I find that the story has...
Those Who Transcend the Known
The best part of my career has been meeting eminent people and learning—often quietly—about the many facets of human excellence—something missed by those who pursue excellence in their own fields and live within their silos and echo chambers. Even now, when I travel less, Providence seems to arrange moments of rare grace: encounters with...
The Alchemy of the Balcony
I have been deeply engrossed in reading Shakespeare for a while. It remains one of the most astonishing paradoxes in literary history that Romeo and Juliet—a drama pulsing with murder, deception, impulsive rebellion and ethical transgression—has been remembered across continents and centuries, not for its violence but for a single, moonlit...
A Scientist and a Gentleman
In every civilisation, there are two measures of success. One is public and noisy—titles, awards, positions, headlines, and the temporary glow of importance. The other is almost invisible: the quality of a human being. History remembers the first for a moment and the second forever. The tragedy of modern life is that we have learned to celebrate...
Learning the Art of Writing by Reading
I enjoy reading quite a lot—sometimes as much as ten hours a day, though on average about eight. Reading has become my primary pastime—not as a leisure activity, but as a discipline. I read good books, chosen carefully, ordered online and added to a personal library built slowly and meticulously over the past fifty years. Every book is wrapped in...
From Disease to Wellness: Time for a Paradigm Shift
Modern medicine is magnificent at one thing: it rushes heroically to the battlefield after the war has already been lost. When the coronary artery is blocked, a stent is inserted. When the pancreas fails, insulin is administered. When cancer erupts, it deploys surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy like heavy artillery. These interventions save...
A Hero’s Journey of Taking Cognition Beyond Mortal Neurons
In an age mesmerised by rankings, metrics, and loud declarations of success, the most consequential journeys often unfold quietly. They are not propelled by brilliance alone, but by curiosity, humility, and an unyielding fidelity to truth. The exploration of consciousness—the deepest and most elusive mystery of human existence—has always advanced...
Science, Service, and the Long Goodbye to Leprosy
It was already evening when they arrived, and I sensed a good feeling. The light had softened, retreating gently from the edges of objects, as though the day itself wished to listen to what came next. Dr. Gangadhar Sunkara came with Dr. Chinnababu Sunkavalli—both close friends, healthcare researchers, and men marked by that particular stillness...
Empire Without Flags
Still in her twenties, Rebecca F. Kuang has emerged as one of the most incisive literary voices examining empire’s afterlives. Born in China, raised in the United States, and educated at Cambridge and Oxford, she broke through with The Poppy War, a novel rooted in China’s wars, colonial trauma and organised violence. Its success grew into a...
