My English translation of a conversation between Chanakya and Chandragupta in the 2011 T.V. series, Chandragupta Maurya (the YouTube subtitles shall vastly differ). (Seated beneath a tree in a forest, ere first light, was Chandragupta. To his reminiscence came the memories, alike happy and sad, of his late mother Moora…

Now it was that with the aid of Rishi Satyavrata, Lord Vishnu, Supreme of Lords, in the form of a fish big and majestic, led the most virtuous of mankind into the cyclical beginning of days; and the youngest of yugas commenced. …

It had been six years since his retirement from politics. In every wise, he was unusual. For one, he was hundred and thirty one years of age — an unusual extent of longevity. For another, he became prime minister at the age of sixty and held it for seven uninterrupted…

The General was back at his residence, and he sat in his specially built library reading a book, sipping fine digestif after an early dinner. The door to his library flung open and was shut with equal tempest. But the General was not startled. “I see something has agitated you…

Lest We Forget: The Life and Times of my Father Brig. John Dalvi (missionvictoryindia.com) A word of apology must form the preamble for this post, for it has become longer than I had expected. The focus ought ideally to have been on the obituary of Brigadier John Dalvi by his…

The conviction of Rahul Gandhi must bring to the fore the absurdity that is ‘criminal defamation’. It will rest on the books of law, undisturbed. However, so far as this scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty is concerned, I do not think he shall be imprisoned. Parameshwara forbid if any of…

My reading, confessedly poor, so far leads me to regard Edward Gibbon (08 May 1737–16 January 1794) as the historian most gifted in the art of writing. I have been spending the past several days reading his six-volume History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. …

Should the reader bear with my great eccentricity, it is possible, however unlikely, that he shall be met with a fresh perspective, though it be but an opinion prone to error. Tribe, village, city, kingdom, empire — the journey of man, passing through these stages in that order, has spanned…

In a manner of saying, I do not have political views. I lay great emphasis on the words ‘in a manner of saying’, for the word ‘political’ may itself be variously interpreted. I should like to elaborate on the meaning I derive. Of late, my interest has been seized by…