Tag Archives: India

Hit Refresh (it’s the F5 key)

Posted on May 15, 2024 by smellincoffee

When I first began using computers in the late 1990s, Microsoft was establishing itself as The Establishment — a successor to IBM, becoming the uncool behemoth. It wasn’t quite there yet, but it would be there soon. A few years … Continue reading →

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The Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi

Posted on March 23, 2023 by smellincoffee

© 2005, 2019 General Press Publishers183 pages The Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi is a book better judged by its cover than its title, for the title makes it sound like a collection of jokes and sage observations from a … Continue reading →

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Conquerors

Posted on October 25, 2019 by smellincoffee

Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire © 2015 Roger Crowley 364 pages Roger Crowley’s Conquerors is a history that starts with hope and ends in horror, at least of the slasher-film kind. Suffice it to say, if you … Continue reading →

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Dinosaurs, India, and the smartphone

Posted on May 31, 2019 by smellincoffee

We in the United States  recently enjoyed a three-day weekend, ostensibly for the purpose of honoring fallen soldiers, though I suspect for most it’s just an occasion to shop and cook out before the summer heat becomes unbearable.  I took … Continue reading →

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Our Time Has Come

Posted on January 30, 2019 by smellincoffee

Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World ©  2018 Alyssa Ayres360 pages The India of the 21st century is more than  the word’s back office;  by some measures, it has already overtaken Japan as the … Continue reading →

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The Wonder That Was India

Posted on September 1, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Wonder That Was India© 1959 Arthur Llewellyn Basham586 pages For the past few weeks I’ve been enjoying The Wonder That Was India, a Will Durant-like survey of Indian history and culture prior to the Mughal invasion.  Its opening section … Continue reading →

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Midnight’s Furies

Posted on July 21, 2017 by smellincoffee

Midnight’s Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India’s Partition© 2015 Nisid Hajari352 pages Although greater India has rarely remained united in its long history, there was every reason to hope that it would emerge from the centuries of British dominion in … Continue reading →

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A New History of India

Posted on July 13, 2017 by smellincoffee

A New History of India© 2000, sixth edition Stanley Wolpert471 pages India isn’t an easy place to keep running. Stanley Wolpert’s A New History of India gives a chiefly-political, mostly-modern history of one of the world’s most ancient civilizations, a land … Continue reading →

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The Elephant and the Dragon

Posted on May 6, 2017 by smellincoffee

The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us© 2007  Robyn Meredith272 pages For most of the 20th century, Europe and the United States enjoyed an outsided influence on global … Continue reading →

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In Spite of the Gods

Posted on March 6, 2017 by smellincoffee

In Spite of the Gods: the Rise of Modern India© 2007 Edward Luce400 pages In Spite of the Gods appraises India’s culture as its ancient civilization enters the 21st century as the world’s largest democracy and one of its largest … Continue reading →

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