I doubt whether my parents would have ever imagined in the early years of their married life how multinational our family would later become: I am a US citizen, my sister lives in India, and my brother is an Australian citizen. Three siblings in three countries on three different continents!

There were a number of reasons why I hated--yes, that strong an emotion--the college where I did my undergraduate studies. One of them was this: the pathetic library it had. Now, maybe my expectations coming out of high school were unrealistic.  But, I had assumed that a college would have a library that w

A few years ago, I had included in the syllabus a reading on the crisis in Darfur--this was back when it was a major problem.  I provided students with a map of Africa, with the outline of the political boundaries of countries without their names, and asked them to identify Sudan and a few other countries.  One st

The introductory class that I am teaching this term, made me wonder and question, yet again, what exactly higher education is about.   I have noticed over the past couple of years that students get a lot more focused whe

When we were kids, my brother and I once were upset with something--the details I have forgotten now, and I am sure it was something absolutely trivial--and we decided that we would go on a hunger strike. I couldn't have been even at a double-digit age, and my brother is two years younger, and there we were refusing to eat

Paging Dr. Freud. It is related to an important organ of mine for which he might have some answers. No, not that organ.  The brain.

As unfair as it might seem, one-term US presidents simply cannot ever return as presidential candidates to give the presidency another shot.  Thus, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush didn't need anyone telling them that their political days ended with their respective defeats.  Further, the constitution compels the

One student in an online class remarked something complimentary (I hope so, at least) about me bringing in readings and other materials from so many different places that are not necessarily academic in nature.  But then, that is what I have signed up for by opting for the teaching profession.  Teaching is not mer

A few months ago, one day I saw a couple of ants in the kitchen.  I went on a red alert after killing them--I was sure that the two meant that more were on their way. Sure enough, they came. In increasing numbers.  After a few more days of spot and kill, when I saw a long line of them marching, I call

In an earlier post, I noted the logic that if we as consumers want to pay nothing more than $14 a shirt, then it can happen only with the kind of conditions that led to the catastrophe in Bangladesh.  The New Yorker

This blog post on the tax we are effectively imposing on the younger generation attracted quite a few visits, according the site traffic data.  I commented there, rather sarcastically, that:

A continuation of sorts of the posts over the years. Growing up in India, there was no concept of a special day for mothers.  Or fathers. In my initial years in the US, the concept of wishing mother or father seemed strange.  Very odd.  The idea of wishing on a designated day is the

Am re-posting here an op-ed of mine that was published in the Statesman Journal back in October 2011.  It is a follow-up to the comment that Mike Thissel posted in response to this post. ***************

I started reading Cass Sunstein's essay in the New York Review of Books because it was about one of

In what seems like eons ago, when I had started teaching in California, we were discussing nuclear energy in the economic geography class.  One student, whose name I have forgotten all these years later, with a track record of wisecracks, raised his hand.  I should have known better than to recognize his hand, but

It feels like hotter than hell, and the high was only 82 degrees.  Yesterday it was even hotter--89 degrees, and about 20 degrees higher than normal.  Damn this global warming! Eleven years in the mild conditions of Oregon have spoilt me. Completely. When the temperature goes more than 72

Yes, we have completed only five weeks of the ten-week quarter.  But, I am ready to call it a success. I don't have to wait for any longer. It is not that I don't have to classes anymore; I do.  I have tests to assign and papers to grade.  But, yes, the term is a success already.

We consumers want to pay the lowest price possible for whatever we want to buy.  The market works, and works furiously, to get us products at those low prices. This drive for low prices has led to China's rise as the world's factory.  In

To be out and about on a pleasant evening is a pleasure all by itself.  There was no way I was going to waste an unusually awesome spring evening. I picked up the copy of the New Yorker, which I planned to read while sitting in the car and overlooking the cityscape.  Water bottle, cellphone, an

As a starving graduate student--ok, "starving" is an exaggeration--every once in a while I played the lottery.  I typically bought a quickpick lotto ticket for a dollar--this was back in California.  It was always a disappointment that I never had even two numbers that matched with the winning ones.  I comfor

Last night, even as my eyes were half-closing, and with my right arm tiring quickly holding the New Yorker thanks to the tennis-elbow issue that I am dealing with, I simply had to, had to, finish reading the absolutely depressing narrative on the

A few days ago, a student, "K," who was in one of my classes last fall, knocked on the office door to say hi, and we ended up having a wonderful conversation for more than half-an-hour.  I told her it felt like I was talking with my daughter and not with a student. "That's a good thing, right?" she asked

My version of macho is all about standing up for ideas. It is never macho in the sense of muscles. Which is also why I have often commented that Hillary Clinton has a lot more cojones than many American males combined! When people see me, and hear me talk, there is a high probability that they think I am an eas

"Make hay while the sun shines" confused me back when I was a kid.  Because, in the parts of India where I grew up or vacationed, the sun always shone, and mercilessly it seemed like.  Except for those few weeks of monsoon rains when everything everywhere was damp.  Damp enough that sometimes mold grew and mo

If you are thinking that my blogging, yet again, about the Uighurs can mean only one thing: their situation hasn't improved and something serious happened recently, yes, that

Even if I am a total dud in helping students in my classes understand and appreciate the materials, I bet there are very few who doubt my commitment to liberal education.  If they paid attention

By April 1986, I had quit

As I often note here, I feel incredibly lucky to have been born and raised in a wonderful country with lots of stories of its own, and to then to make myself at home in another wonderful country on the other side of the planet. In the old country, a music legend died yesterday--she was 94.  In the country

"Such a wonderful day" remarked my neighbor.  It has, indeed, been a string of gorgeous sunny, spring days.  "I bet it makes your commute also easier without the rains" he added. I merely smiled as we went our different directions. The reality is that the commute and life seem to have bee

I stayed away from blogging anything yesterday because of a nagging suspicion that I might end up ranting about Earth Day.  As much as I am worried about the natural environment in my own way, I am convinced that we misplace our emphasis when we worry more about the plastic bags that are tossed about while ignoring ...