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The Indian legend has it that goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswathi respectively bestow wealth and learning on earth. It was the belief that both the goddesses would never bless the same soul. Such was their mythical rivalry that each would deny her munificence to the one under the other’s patronage. In the popular perception, the phenomenon of the rich merchant and the poor pundit was supposedly the manifestation of the goddesses at odds. Thus, the merchant accumulated wealth, however contributing to the commerce, while the pundit enriched society through his knowledge, himself remaining impoverished, nevertheless, both seemed reconciled to the enmity of their respective patrons in heaven as t...

Where to look for the soul of India in print, or now in digital mode? Is it in the writings of those for whom the muse is their mother tongue or those who happen to muse in the alien English? Where to savour the flavour of Indian life in fictional form? Is it in that ‘stronger and more important body of work of Indian writers working in English’ as trumpeted by Salman Rushdie or in the supposedly ‘true to life’ depictions (not the same thing as the examination of the human condition) on the variegate canvas of regional languages penned by the vernacular writers?  And certainly, it is an overkill on the part of the bhasha writers to suggest, as was done, that ‘an...

Yes, breaking free, that’s the immediate challenge before mankind as far as space travel is concerned. In our quest for interstellar voyage to the nearest neighboring star we are still restrained by the gravity of our planet. We have successfully stepped onto the closest celestial body, the moon. Made our presence felt on the other planets of our solar system. But that’s just the first step in this lifelong journey that we have been preparing ourselves for. If the goal is to reach the Alpha Centauri within the next couple of centuries or to exploit the resources of the planets of our solar system, we have to think big. I mean really big, not just sending these tubelike pesky rockets to o...