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Life is an enigma. The randomness of events and the unpredictability of human nature make things complicated at times. Not only are people so very different from one another, even individuals change with time and their behavior with different people is tinged with many different shades…

When I accompanied Dr APJ Abdul Kalam to Patna in Bihar State in 1999, he was the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India. The Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), which Dr Kalam chaired, had initiated an agriculture project in Paliganj…

Tanya visited me on Diwali with her husband, Gopi Reddy. Fresh from a Vipassana retreat of ten days, she radiated joy – face lit with a smile and gait poised in serenity. I am familiar with this form of meditation, but I asked her to narrate her experience…

The lockdown period showed how much human activity has been polluting the environment. The air got cleared and rivers turned blue, something of a first time for the teenage generation. It was proved beyond doubt that with the fast pace of life, mankind, on a consumerism binge…

I am into the third year of my confinement to my home. My coronary arteries have dealt with all possible interventions – a bypass surgery in 2004, rotablation and stenting in 2017 and after another angiogram a year later, I am on optimal medical management of stable angina. In between, the lockdown spell came and everyone was confined to home for a while.

I was initiated to the idea of “science with a human face” by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, who in 1992 set up a program to develop Civilian Spinoffs of Defence Technology and make me its “lynchpin.” Working on this initiative, I came in contact with some truly outstanding scientists whose work had created tremendous impact on the lives of ordinary people.

Terrorism is the scourge of the modern world. All scientific advancement and technological prowess get nullified by the terrorists – living in various safe havens – and striking civilization at their will. Is the era of progress, development, civility and openness over? Has the “Sine Wave” of history turned downward?

In 1965, there was a war with Pakistan. In January 1966, Russia presided over a compromise in Tashkent, now the capital of Uzbekistan. On the night of signing the agreement, Indian Prime Minster Lal Bahadur Shastri died. Russian Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin…

No moment ever returns in life. Time flies like an arrow, forever forward. “Impermanence is the hallmark of existence,” said Buddha. And as goes one saying, “You can’t take bath in the same river again,” as the water you have bathed with has gone away downstream and you are bathing the second time in the water that has freshly arrived…

It is very natural that we want to be happy. Happiness begins with the fulfilment of our needs – food when hungry, water when thirsty, and sleep when tired. But it does not stop here. Once we get all this, we start seeking further comforts – a good bed to sleep, an air conditioner, and so on…