The few of us fortunate enough to have seen 2020 through can hopefully look forward to a better 2021. As always, this is the time for new year resolutions, and perhaps most people will long to be out once again, meeting their friends, relations and colleagues. Many will also be hoping to travel freely once… Continue reading Writings on The Wall #16: New Year Wishes
As we begin 2021, I thought of sharing a new monthly piece in place of Owl About Words, in which I shared Ivor Brown’s views of various English words, their origins, usage, etc. from his book, Just Another Word. As TS Eliot wrote in Four Quartets: “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language… Continue reading Ovid in the Time of Covid: Chaos
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Hello readers. Hope you are all enjoying a safe festive season in 2020. While the coronavirus pandemic rages around the world, there is hope in the new vaccines that are being produced. And perhaps those of us lucky enough to make it through 2020 can look forward to a better new year. The festive season… Continue reading Writings on The Wall #15: New Year Gift
I am back to reading non-fiction now, as you can tell. My father bought The Hidden History of Burma early this year and I thought it’s time I read it. Thant Myint-U, the author, being the grandson of U Thant, former UN Secretary General, was an important draw, of course. It’s a country I first… Continue reading History of Burma, But Which One?
These days, there is a lot of hope being pinned on the new vaccines that are being produced around the world. And there is finally a glimmer of hope in this long Covid-19 pandemic that has ravaged the world. The word that I have chosen for this month from Ivor Brown's book, Just Another Word,… Continue reading Owl About Words: Glimmer of Hope
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The days of the pandemic, when technology is playing an even bigger role in people’s lives and many are singing its praises, is a good time to turn to science fiction. To imagine what AI can do to our lives and our work. More importantly, to our relationships with each other. These days, I read… Continue reading Machines Like Us. Do They?
The Covid pandemic has cast such a long shadow over most of 2020, that as we near the end of the year I can't help but think of ways in which we can celebrate despite the virus. November seems to be the month for festivities of some kind in most parts of the world, from… Continue reading Writings on The Wall #14: Autumn Festivities
In a world of growing inequalities, there is no dearth of snobs. We are surrounded by them, as if we were back in the days of aristocracy and feudalism. But who would have ever thought that the word snob itself meant quite the opposite, in its early days. That's not all. Ivor Brown, in his… Continue reading Owl About Words: The Snobbery of ‘Sn’s
Peripatetic Perch 