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, in the early hours of the morning, ere the sun rose, was Chandragupta. To his reminiscence came the memories of…

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…

Rizi, It was fourteen years ago that you made a scrumptious meal out of a boy’s notebook, and thereby his homework, and helped him escape the copious terror of his mathematics teacher. That vivacious boy now perceives himself as a more serene, and perhaps more pompously, a thoughtful patrician —…

Manu: Behold! The gent finally remembers that he has an Indian citizenship! The return of the illustrious son! Varad: After all these years, you are still destitute of a good range of expressions, with that nearly impassive delivery. By the way, I never became American. …

Manu: Our society has never felt as alien to us as it feels of late, has it? Varad: With us ruling the roost, it never did. Manu: I would not have imagined that trite phrase, “Good old days” to be relevant in our lives so soon. Had it not been…

Full text of petition from V.D. Savarkar to the Government of India, dated March 20, 1920. — In view of the recent statement of the Hon. Member for the Home Department to the Government of India, to the effect that ‘the Government was willing to consider the papers of any individual, and given them their best consideration if they were brought before them’; and that ‘as soon…