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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…

The second wave of COVID-19 in April 2021 created a month-long horror show of people dying due to a shortage of medical oxygen and hospital beds, dead bodies floating in the river Ganga, and rampant black-marketing of lifesaving drugs. Come June 2021, the season had yet to change, and a sea of tourists flocked to Himachal Pradesh…

On the eve of my cardiac bypass surgery on 6 February, 2004, at the Care Hospital, Hyderabad, my friend, Madhu Reddy, the Chief of University Press, who published Wings of Fire, came to see me. He gifted me, Glass Palace, a book written by, perhaps the best of contemporary authors, Amitav Ghosh (b. 1956). I read the entire 552-page novel while still in hospital…

One of my fond childhood memories is that of visiting the hydel station cum water pump at Bhola, near Meerut City with my father. We took a public bus, which was divided into two zones – the front and the rear – and there was a differential in ticket. The road was a mix of strips of masonry and asphalt…

There has been a well-orchestrated campaign in the media to amplify the devastating effect of the pandemic in India. While the excitement of some foreign channels to show emerging India in a bad light can be understood, why Indian channels chose to add to the mood of despair was baffling…