I was educated in Pilani, Providence, Delhi, Rishi Valley, Bombay, Cambridge, Austin and places in between. Once a computer scientist, I have written for my suppers for many years now: about political and social issues, travel, sports and mathematics. Computer science stresses clear thinking, reason, logic and getting to the heart of matters. Maybe those things shape my writing. Maybe not. My writing has won me several awards, including the Statesman Rural Reporting award, the Outlook/Picador nonfiction prize and the Newsweek/Daily Beast South Asia Commentary Prize. I've published nine books, most recently “Roadwalker: A Few Miles on the Bharat Jodo Yatra” (Penguin Random House, 2024). I live in Bombay with my wife Vibha, children Sahir and Surabhi, and cat Aziz. I miss my Rhodesian Ridgeback, Shaka ... but hey, I'm learning blues harmonica. I also write at Death Ends Fun: deathendsfun.stck.me Email: dilip.fb [at] gmail.com
Website: https://deathendsfun.stck.me/
by Dilip D’Souza Potholes and education. What connects the two? Not much, I imagine. But in recent days here in India, I’ve been musing over one, possibly tenuous, link. Especially on the night before I started writing this column, when we bumped and rattled through various pothole-ridden Bombay streets on our way home from a…
by Dilip D’Souza Let’s get this out right away: I want to write about defecation. It’s not the first time, I’ll admit. Some years ago I wrote an article about, of all things, a mathematical model for defecation. This was based on a 2017 paper I read with great interest. It had the fascinating title…
by Dilip D’Souza What is it about ants? No, I mean it. In all my writing over the years, ants have been a frequent and nearly beloved subject. Some, when set down in a maze and faced with a choice, tend to turn left. Some have walked on stilts while compatriots have had their legs…
by Dilip D’Souza Some mornings, I wake up thinking of Ahmedabad. It’s a city I’ve visited a few times; for a few reasons, it’s a city I’ve never really warmed to. But I’ve roamed widely there, often by autorickshaw. And on those mornings I’m talking about, it’s two of those rides I remember. The first:…
by Dilip D’Souza Here’s a factoid that, over a century later, still stuns: In 1914, the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan published an academic paper in which he spelled out 17 – yes, seventeen – formulas to calculate π (pi). This is remarkable on many levels. Most of us run into π in school, via an approximation.…
by Dilip D’Souza My friend Arjuna is an archer in the army. He has been on several campaigns, always victorious. His bow is as tall as he is. It is made of wood but strengthened with sinews. The combination makes it firm, supple and elastic. I say that, and marvel at the expert ease with…
by Dilip D’Souza Nearly six years ago, I lost a good friend to cancer. It was tragedy compounded, because he had lost his wife to cancer a few years earlier. That left their two daughters, orphaned in their 20s. More recently, another good friend has been struck with the disease. I know others too, as…
by Dilip D’Souza One day you spot the young enchanter you’ve had a crush on for months, but haven’t yet found the gumption to speak to. Still, you’re affected in ways you’ve heard about forever. You know – maybe you feel your heart beat faster? Maybe you think it skips a beat or three? You…
by Dilip D’Souza On a stargazing trip between September 19 and September 23 this year, I spied a supernova. Well, not quite. I took plenty of photographs of a spectacular night sky through the four nights I spent out in the open. Then I came home and looked through them, still filled with wonder at…
by Dilip D’Souza In South India, they’re worried. For following some stated national priorities, for performing well at them in comparison to the North, the states of the South might be punished: They stand to lose a certain quantum of political power. India’s 1971 Census counted about 548 million Indians. Primarily based on that number,…
by Dilip D’Souza The autumn equinox – well, autumn in the northern hemisphere – came and went a few weeks ago. I spent it, as I mentioned in my last column here, at the Hanle Dark Sky Reserve (HDSR) in north India. Four nights with some 40 other amateur astronomers, in the open at 14,000…
by Dilip D’Souza The Hanle Dark Sky Reserve is a spectacular spot in Ladakh, in the north of India. It’s surrounded by snow-capped mountains, and at 14000 feet, it’s well above the treeline. So the mountains and the surroundings are utterly barren. Yet that barrenness seems only to enhance the beauty of the Reserve. But…
by Dilip D’Souza The star Proxima Centauri has been in the news this August. One reason is actually as a sort of corollary, a side mention. Proxima Centauri, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B are the stars that make up the star system we know as Alpha Centauri: a triple star system, though without…
by Dilip D’Souza Allow a columnist his anguish, because what follows is almost all I have been able to think about for several days now. Years ago, a college mate jumped into a well. Well, in truth that’s a little bit of an exaggeration. He and I knew each other because we were partners on…
by Dilip D’Souza Many years ago, I spent a lazy evening in the Parque Balvanero Vargas in Limón, Costa Rica. I use that word deliberately, because I was lulled into laziness by the animal I was watching. In a diary I kept about that trip are these lines: “A small sloth is hanging upside down…