The other day we watched “Taare Zameen Par [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986264/]” (Stars on Earth), a new hindi movie. An enlightening film to say the least. A must watch for all ages! One of the songs, “Maa” (Mom/Mother), is touching with its simple yet beautiful lyrics. It…
Over the years, it has been debated in the meta-popular culture that we might be living in a simulation [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_reality#We_are_living_in_a_simulation]. I wrote [https://www.nilkanth.com/archives/2007/07/05/are-you-tuned-to-the-godcast/] about this “Matrixical” notion earlier. And again,…
In 1957 Hindustan Motors rolled out the first Ambassador car. Sturdy and rounded, the Ambassador still races on Indian roads, ironically serving both as a taxi cab as well as a official transport for government officials. These 50 years of the Ambassador have represented India’s indigenous efforts in the…
I wrote [https://www.nilkanth.com/archives/2007/12/07/life-is-a-self-fulfilling-prophecy/] about Bill Gates philanthropic work earlier. While Bill Gates will step down from his role at Microsoft this July, Melinda Gates talks [http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/04/news/newsmakers/gates.fortune/index.htm] about living with Bill,…
It takes truly magical thinking to imagine we will keep resolutions [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1699853,00.html] that experience suggests are generally impossible. One study found that nearly a quarter of us lapse within a week, the vast majority before the year is out.…
A pigment in the skin, melanin, determines the skin color in all of us. Melanin itself, however, is red (pheomelanin), or dark-brown to nearly black (eumelanin). Skin color selection is more genetic at birth, but what intrigues me is that as we “evolve” we get selective, in a vastly wasteful…
Books on history and sociology tell us that as civilization grew, we created rules. A group of “powerful” people introduced governments. Then a smaller group of “wealthy” people made corporations. And gradually, the dynamics changed from democracy to corpocracy [http://www.amazon.com/Corpocracy-Business-Roundtable-Hijacked-Greatest/dp/0470145099/ref=pd_bbs_sr_…
In the tech community, people often believe that an “idea” can make them the next Google or the next Facebook. However, its not essentially the idea that drives the wagon. It’s the simplicity of the idea in solving something that matters. Take the toothbrush for example. It’s a…