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Caves are inseparable from human imagination. When the Vanara army searches for Sita in the Ramayana, they are clueless and lost in the dense forest. Tired, thirsty, and hopeless, Hanuman sees some birds flying into a cave, which he infers is where water must be…

I learned about Don Quixote, a novel written in the early seventeenth century, through various articles. It is the most translated and best-selling Spanish novel by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra. Still, I have only recently read its English translation by John Ormsby…

Lately, I have visualised life as a strange loop, exploring the enigmatic, self-referential patterns often defining human existence. In fact, ‘I Am a Strange Loop’ is the title of a book by the cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter, published in 2007…

I arrived in Hyderabad in 1982, and since there were no official housing options, I rented a section of a house in the Vidyanagar neighbourhood. From there, I would take the local train to Uppuguda, and as a form of physical exercise…

The Mahakumbh Mela, one of the largest gatherings of people for religious purposes worldwide, has just concluded in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. The Kumbh Mela takes place every 12 years by rotation at four locations—at Haridwar, on the banks of the Ganga River…

Nestled in a family and career, it may appear a little unsettling to consider oneself part of a cosmos, primarily unknown. But when this realisation dawns that not only one but everyone else around, and indeed everything, are a mere part of a larger drama that is rolling out…

I have always believed in the mystery surrounding this world. As a child, I believed in mythological stories, the stories in my textbooks, and the ones I heard on the radio (Television was not avaiable in homes until the 1970s). Then, when I entered the realm of books, I related to the stories there. Only after enrolling in GB Pant University and living surrounded by scientific institutions did rationality dawn on my consciousness…

Two people played a crucial role in my professional life—Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, under whom I worked first from 1982 at the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and later as his pupil till he departed in 2015, and Dr B Soma Raju, Cardiologist…

Certain words and phrases gain prominence at different times, and this is becoming a fashion in the Internet media world. “Deep State is currently circulating about the mysterious powers that run the world…

David Deutsch (b. 1953), a British physicist at the University of Oxford, is among the world’s foremost philosopher-scientists alive. He has worked on fundamental issues in physics, particularly quantum computing, quantum information and constructor theory. I learned about him through his books…