RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Viral infections are a dime a dozen, a quandary to laypeople and medical professionals alike. In the recent past, a medley of viral epidemics, such as SARS-Coronavirus [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome], H1N1 influenza, Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus [MERS-Cov], and others have bamboozled us. The latest viral storm, coronavirus [Covid-19], a pandemic of […]
Author Archives: Rajgopal Nidamboor
01
Feb
Feb
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Sidney Lumet’s statistical roll-call in Hollywood was not only remarkable, but legendary too. His films received more than 50 Academy Award nominations; besides, he was nominated for Best Director seven times no less. He was also the focal point of several retrospectives, awards, and honours. This meditation is a review accolade for and […]
01
Nov
Nov
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR No Indian ruler has aroused as much admiration and hatred as Tipu Sultan, the ‘Tiger of Mysore.’ His is a mixed legacy: a paradox of contrasts and a piebald reflection of our changing times. This piece does not take sides; it looks at the Tipu persona without sporting tinted glasses. First, things first. It was […]
01
Oct
Oct
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Earnestness, it is aptly said, is the font of authority or authenticity, where ‘auto’ means ‘self’ — your original instrument and ‘entea’ — or tool connotes communication. This explains why our credibility as a speaker or leader in any field of activity, for example, is directly correlated to the extent to which the audience […]
01
Oct
Oct
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR We live in an era of paradoxes — of sometimes pleasing, usually passable, and most often ear-splitting music, aside from the typecast ‘stamp,’ or raucous remix[ed] digressions, thanks to hi-tech glitz. This isn’t all. There seems to be a growing penchant for Punjabi-accentuated Bollywood songs in Hindi films today — rather than perceptible […]
01
Jun
Jun
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth got together and published Lyrical Ballads, with A Few Other Poems, in an edition of 500 copies, over 210+ years ago? The whole idea was exciting, all right. But, it wasn’t a tizzy, earth-shattering event, really. Rather, it was a humble beginning. Yet, beneath the surface it […]
01
Mar
Mar
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR There isn’t a moment where a computer chip in today’s world stands still — without activity. The buzzword is our globe is more than digitised — and, there’s no going back. More than 50 per cent of the world population has an Internet connection today — so much so, the ’Net is no […]
01
Nov
Nov
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR The Booker Prize has often thrown surprises — sometimes, with good intent; sometimes, without rationale. If Arundhati Roy’s brilliant novel, The God of Small Things, was chosen with agreeable objectivity, Ian McEwan’s Amsterdam, a modest novel, characterised the exact ‘archetype’ of the not agreeable. However, like it or not, Booker is Booker — […]
01
Apr
Apr
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR When ‘His Airness,’ Michael ‘Magic’ Jordan, or just MJ, the King Arthur of Basketball, made his final bow from the game, exactly 15 years ago, his legion of fans were happy, elated, and, maybe, sad. Happy, because Jordan had given them a million moments to showcase memories of his true greatness; elated, because […]
01
Dec
Dec
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Our manufacturing economy has given way to a radically restructured, decentralised information web: of globally dispersed facts, knowledge and ideas. They are not only principal products, but they are also much sought-after rewards of economic life. Put simply, such facts and knowledge are not tantamount to wisdom, yes. Yet, they are, in more […]