RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR What has genetics got to do with tennis? More than what meets the racquet sport. Witness: family ties in the form of Venus and Serena Williams, two sisters who traded skewers and flyspecks not just on their march to the top of women’s tennis, but also on their way up the ladder towards […]
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Science has especial intentions; and, therefore, specific comprehension and/or readership profile for books—of a protocol not merely confined to the world of facts, but also literary embellishment, unlike standard, popular opinion. In actuality too, science is creativity personified and vice versa. This is not all. Science, like its writings, is, doubtless, the exploration […]
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR The good old philosophers Plato and Aristotle intoned their ethical standpoint, or metaphysical thought, within Greece, where they lived. Yet, the best part was their universal intellectual reach, or expanse. They moulded a vast, all-embracing philosophical epitome, never before personified — in ancient Greece, or elsewhere — although they may not have had […]
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR It goes without saying that we are in the midst of what futurist Alvin Toffler called “the rattling and shaking.” And, with no let-up in sight, and no end to the cultural and economic upheaval, interspersed with the COVID-19 scourge, or ‘earthquake,’ we are witnessing a fundamental ‘shift’ in our lives at work […]
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR When ‘His Airness,’ Michael ‘Magic’ Jordan, or just MJ, the King Arthur of Basketball, made his final bow from the game, his legion of fans was happy, elated, and, maybe, sad. Happy, because Jordan had given them a million moments to showcase memories of his true greatness; elated, because they’d now cherish recollections […]
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Notwithstanding our ‘clash’ with the times, also convention, there has been a huge transformation of position in our minds — from the old to the new. This has been engineered by our progress in science. Put simply, science’s success in explaining and predicting our natural world has now come to stay, be it […]
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Character is, indeed, the psychological muscle that moral conduct requires. Its bedrock? Self-discipline, as Aristotle observed, not to speak of self-control. A related keynote of character is being able to motivate and guide oneself, whatever your occupation, including the ability to defer gratification, and control and channel one’s urges to act. Les Ames’ […]
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Adapting to uncertainty, or ambiguity, is a fact of life, because evolution, or nature, does not design immortal beings — this is best represented with and through the surrealistic magic of movie-makers. Balance, or homeostasis, relates to physiological stability, or adaptability. It is also linked to mechanisms for maintaining internal viability and defence […]
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR Pablo Picasso was a genius among geniuses. He was, doubtless, the greatest painter of the last century, who embodied a daring sense of brilliance of form and essence. For a revolutionary artist, who was as iconoclastic as any conquistador can be, Picasso was a relentlessly ‘truant’ persona, always ready for new battles, what […]
RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR F Scott Fitzgerald was a remarkably gifted novelist, a writer par excellence with his own indelible stamp of dainty luminosity. Fitzgerald’s literary magic was not just rooted in his delectable prose, or his amazing range and versatility, but it also dwelled in his poetic imagination, dazzling vision and seemingly effortless — and, also […]