One pleasant morning in Chennai, I wake up to a message from my cousin. Expecting to read a new story, I open the document only to see a 20-page essay. It instantly wakes me up, not because it is something shocking, but because this is something I never expected her to write about.

Two weeks later, we meet in Bengaluru to discuss the coincidence: of what I had written around the same time, and the essay itself. Hear my sister break down the four patterns she saw in people when talking about governance, and tell us if you found them as well.

India carries a civilizational inheritance spanning thousands of years—languages, philosophies, sciences, spiritual traditions, and systems of law that governed social conduct long before any modern constitution existed. Today, we are the world’s largest democracy. By sheer scale and diversity, that alone is remarkable.
Yet the question persists: is India truly a democracy? Not in the procedural sense (elections happen, votes are counted, governments form). But in the substantive sense: Do the people function as sovereign?

Toxic masculinity or a powerful visual delight? Listen to this episode for my top ten lessons from the film.

You may have heard (as a joke or otherwise) that one must understand physics to watch Oppenheimer. Is that true? How much physics must you know before you watch it? More importantly, is that all you need to know? In this episode, I set the stage for you to get the best out of the film.

If you would rather read, head over to my blog to read this episode as a post.

How rampant is the conversion racket shown in The Kerala Story? Is it fact or propaganda? Is the government involved in this conspiracy? What are its implications?

One fine evening, I decided to give the film a watch, because what I had heard and what I read about the film were exact opposites, which kindled my curiosity. My cousin, who I think is usually rational, supported this film; that made me more curious.

In this episode, I dice through the entire block of available information to help you make a conscious choice about your stand with the film. This is not a film review. This is about objectively looking at the facts we have in front of us, such as:

• Why should it be difficult to believe that 32,000 people vanished?
• A case against the official religious conversion numbers
• A case for the non-Muslim girls that get sent to Syria
• Conversions and migration
• The numbers superimposed on the population
• The passport problem
• The issue of conversion
• National security from the educated point of view
• Should the film be banned?
• The ₹150 lesson
• How to handle the conversion issue

Original Post: http://https://blog.ramiyer.me/covid-and-high-orac-foods/.

A new message claiming to be from the CMC Vellor Doctors’ group is doing the rounds on WhatsApp. Is it another sensational message or a sensible one? Is the newer variant of COVID-19 more fatal?

Original: https://blog.ramiyer.me/covid-has-become-deadlier/.

If you would like to know more about how the virus behaves, read COVID and Credibility.

Ever since Prime Minister Modi made his speech on the 12th of May 2020, Aatmanirbhar started trending. My Facebook newsfeed showed countless memes and what not, about boycotting Chinese products. In this episode we try to understand what it would take to be free of Chinese products, if at all.