# Adarsh Badri


## Posts

- [Review of Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/arundhati-roy-mother-mary-comes-to-me/): There was something—deeply etched in me—that made me dislike Arundhati Roy. For a very long time. Not that I read something she wrote and found it objectionable, but because I had learnt, almost instinctively, to resent her. It was a dislike I carried without argument, without reason—one that felt natural, even righteous. How could I not? Every morning in Sainik (army) school, twelve-year-olds like me were administered a steady dose of nationalism—in how we walked, how we spoke, how we learned. This was hardly unique to army schools in India, but here, it was delivered with a particular discipline. In… Read More »CV
- [Review of Deborah Levy’s Hot Milk](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/review-of-deborah-levys-hot-milk/): Deborah Levy’s 2016 Booker shortlisted novel Hot Milk is about Sofia Papastergiadis, a 25-or-so-year-old anthropologist-cum-barista, and her mother Rose, who travel to Almeria in Spain to attend a clinic in search of a diagnosis and treatment for Rose’s mysterious paralysis of her legs. To attend this clinic, run by Gomez, a US-trained doctor with extremely unconventional treatment methods, and Julietta, his daughter, the nurse-sunshine, Rose has mortgaged the last of her assets—the small London house—and all of her savings. Upon arriving at the beach-clad town, where jellyfish—“Medusas”—are almost always on a stinging spree, Sofia and Rose rent a house near… Read More »CV
- [Review of Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale View of Hills](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/kazuo-ishiguro-a-pale-view-of-hills/): I read Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale View of Hills, first published in 1982, with intense curiosity. Until then, I had only sparsely known Ishiguro as someone who had won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. And, I take it you would have assumed so, I did not read anything by Ishiguro then. So, when I was browsing through fiction in my University Library, I found a book titled A Pale View of Hills, with a misty yellow cover and a hazy backdrop of a girl running and a woman chasing after her. I picked it up. I read its blurb, which… Read More »CV
- [Review of Amia Srinivasan’s The Right to Sex](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/amia-srinivasan-the-right-to-sex/): Today, the incel culture has permeated across societies. If one goes back a decade or two, in the late 1990s, it was Alana, a nerdy queer woman, who coined the term ‘invcel’, that is, ‘involuntary celibate’. With ‘v’ removed later, it came to be popularised as incel. Alana’s Involuntary Celibate Project became a forum for the community of men, women, and LGBTQ group members to share their depression, loneliness, and awkwardness. Later, when Alana began dating someone, she handed over the forum moderation to another member and left for her happy life. However, it wasn’t until May 2014, when Eliot… Read More »CV
- [A Day in the Life of Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya (Museum on Indian Prime Ministers)](https://adarshbadri.me/day-in-life/pradhanmantri-sangrahalaya-india-delhi/): For more than two years now, first as a research assistant on a project and later for my own PhD project, I have travelled to the Prime Ministers Museum and Library (earlier known as the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library) in New Delhi. The Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya—a newly constructed spherical structure just behind Nehru’s Prime Ministerial house—sits closer to the library. However, despite its closeness and proximity, it had never interested me in grabbing a half-dollar (50 Rupees) ticket and visiting this archaic structure. Every day, for the last two years or so, I would hop onto the auto rickshaw every… Read More »CV
- [Review of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/review-of-han-kangs-the-vegetarian/): Han Kang’s novel The Vegetarian, published in South Korea in 2007 and translated into English by Deborah Smith in 2015, begins as follows: “Before my wife turned vegetarian, I had always thought of her as completely unremarkable in every way”. This impeccable sentence was enough to hook me on this book. Sure, there have been several books that captivate us in their opening sentences. But this one, in particular, was so remarkable that with every word, I felt more enchanted and disturbed at the same time. In every sense, Han Kang’s storytelling and Deborah Smith’s translation are brilliant. True to… Read More »CV
- [Notes: E.H. Carr on What is History?](https://adarshbadri.me/notes/notes-eh-carr-on-what-is-history/): Between January and March 1961, a former diplomat and historian, particularly the historian of Russia, Edward Hallett Carr, delivered six lectures as part of the George Macaulay Trevelyan Lectures at the University of Cambridge. E.H. Carr’s lectures soon became published as a famous book, What is History?, which discussed and debated history and historical theories of his time. In these lectures, E.H. Carr asked his listeners what constitutes history. To understand what constitutes history, it is essential to examine how “facts” emerge—and become established—in history, and how they shape historians and their history. Nineteenth-century historians, such as Ranke in the… Read More »CV
- [Review of Devika Rege’s Quarterlife](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/review-of-devika-reges-quarterlife/): Devika Rege’s debut novel, Quarterlife, published in 2023, explores the fraught political realities in India after the emergence of the right-wing nationalist party, which rose to power in 2014. The story follows three people whose lives are deeply intertwined with each other and those around them. Set in Maharashtra — where business capital and Maratha identity collide and shape political tensions — the novel also traces how Hindu nationalist ideologies first took root and came to sustain. Devika Rege’s Quarterlife opens up the ways in which each of these elements came to engage and contradict each other. In doing so,… Read More »CV
- [Notes: Ashis Nandy on the Politics of the Assassination of Gandhi](https://adarshbadri.me/notes/ashis-nandy-political-assassination-of-gandhi/): In recent days, I have been reading essays on Mahatma Gandhi, an architect of the national independence of India from British colonial rule. One among them is Akeel Bilgrami on ‘Gandhi as Philosopher’, where he articulates that integrity is an essential element of Gandhian thought. Another is Faisal Devji’s Gandhian logic of suffering as inherent to Gandhian nonviolence. And others include Karuna Mantena, Uday Mehta, Ashis Nandy, Gene Sharp, Shahid Amin, David Hardiman, and Ajay Skaria, who have all discussed an aspect of Gandhian thought which constitutes his logic of worldmaking after empire. In his essay, “Final Encounter: The Politics… Read More »CV
- [Messianic State And The US Foreign Policy](https://adarshbadri.me/international-affairs/messianic-us-foreign-policy/): After the end of the Cold War and the subsequent “unipolar moment” in the 1990s, the US foreign policy significantly focused on the promotion of democracy and human rights globally. Equipped with the “democratic peace” thesis (which argued that no two democracies go to war) and “American exceptionalism” (which premised that America has a unique role in the world), US foreign policy focused on a Wilsonian vision of creating a world “safe for democracy.” During the period between 1991 and 2020, the US attempted over 188 military interventions globally, whereas between 1948 and 1991, it had only intervened in about… Read More »CV
- [Review of Banu Mushtaq’s Heart Lamp](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/review-of-banu-mushtaqs-heart-lamp/): Banu Mushtaq’s 2025 International Booker Prize-acclaimed anthology “Heart Lamp” narrates the stories of Muslim women in their joys, sorrows, struggles, miseries, and all things in between. Mushtaq is a Kannada writer, hailing from Hassan, a south-western part of Karnataka. Emerging from a tradition known as “Bandaya”, which is loosely translated as dissent, a challenge to the existing order, Mushtaq’s writings capture the essence of hailing from and being in a conservative Muslim household. In Banu Mushtaq’s “Heart Lamp”, one encounters experiences of patriarchy, tradition, misogyny, and age-old customs that, in many ways, curtail a woman’s—and particularly, Muslim women’s—abilities to navigate… Read More »CV
- [A Day in Life of a PhD doing Archival Research in India](https://adarshbadri.me/day-in-life/archival-research-in-india/): I am in India’s capital city, New Delhi, where I am scouring through archival materials these days. Archives are the places where governments and private individuals (possibly of importance) share their documents, papers, and other materials, for whoever wishes to access them. Scholars tend to do their archival research in India in two places: the Prime Ministers Museum and Library (PMML) and the National Archives of India (NAI). At the moment, I am in PMML, which houses a trove of private papers and newspapers in physical and microfilm formats. PMML, previously known as the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), houses a great deal… Read More »CV
- [How (Not) to Take Meaningful Break From PhD](https://adarshbadri.me/newsletter/take-meaningful-break-from-phd/): It’s that time of the month when I provide an update on life and my PhD. And in this newsletter, I discuss how I tried to take a meaningful break from PhD. It’s been over a year since I started my PhD in IR in Brisbane, Australia. But, after a year of stay in Brisbane, and towards the end of March, I moved to India to visit family and friends. My family lives in a remote village in the northern part of the Karnataka state. It is a fully-fledged farming household. Early morning, one wakes up to irrigate the land,… Read More »CV
- [2024 Recap: Books, Movies, and PhD](https://adarshbadri.me/newsletter/2024-recap-books-movies-and-phd/): It has been a while since 2024 is over–and it is time for a 2024 recap. Years pass by, and with every new year, we tend to reflect on how our previous year was—and what we wish the next year to be: kinder, successful, healthier [among many other human desires]. And as with the previous year and the year before, I remember holding onto a few resolutions. However, rarely have I succeeded in following them through. Resolutions, just like everything else, require sustained effort and discipline. But most of us can’t claim to be disciplined, do we? For me, the… Read More »CV
- [How I Became a Runner](https://adarshbadri.me/newsletter/how-i-became-a-runner/): I am writing this newsletter about how I became a runner and how my journey has come to shape me. Today has been good so far. I did the Parkrun today. In South Bank Parkrun, where I usually—religiously for a while now—run, about 800 runners (young and the old alike, with their dogs, with their babies in baby carriages, with their smartwatches and sunscreens) huddle through the wide lanes of the Brisbane pathways. Even though today was exceptionally hot in the mornings, I did fairly well with the run. In the last few runs, I have been running 5k in 25… Read More »CV
- [Notes on Surviving Cyclone Alfred—That Never Was](https://adarshbadri.me/newsletter/notes-on-surviving-cyclone-alfred/): The start of March has been spectacularly ominous. At the start of the month, Brisbane witnessed something unusual, even by the standards of Brisbane weather. Cyclone Alfred—Alfie, as some Aussies would call it—hit Queensland’s shore. Some 50 years ago, Cyclone Althea, a category three cyclone, hit Queensland and almost flattened much of the Townsville area. But that is now a memory, and most of the Queenslanders were not even privy to it. March 5, Wednesday. Soon after the news of Cyclone Alfred’s landing on the shores of Brisbane was made known, panic set in across the city. Young and old… Read More »CV
- [Making Sense of Writing and Life](https://adarshbadri.me/newsletter/making-sense-of-writing-and-life/): Every once in a while, I put my head down and write the most boring things in the world. That seems like a good catharsis away from all PhD work. And today is one such. In this newsletter, I try making sense of writing and life. Just some time ago, a little before starting to write this, I wrote an essay for my blog: “To Brush or Not to Brush Your Teeth”, a satirical take on how invested people are in the knowledge/myth surrounding the act of brushing their teeth in the mornings. Well, I have had enough of writing… Read More »CV
- [Things I Read in 2024](https://adarshbadri.me/newsletter/things-i-read-in-2024/): In 2024, along with my PhD writing, I did some things I read, including some non-fiction. That I am both aware of and guilty of. But, for the last few months, I have been preparing documents for my thesis statement presentation scheduled for next week. Therefore, these last few months and weeks have been more thesis than anything else. But recently, I had some time to get back to reading and writing other things. Recently, I completed a few books I had read halfway through, wrote reviews for those books I had read in between, and even managed to read… Read More »CV
- [Notes: The Craft of Writing Well](https://adarshbadri.me/newsletter/notes-on-the-craft-of-writing-well/): While I regularly update my blog with some interesting essays, I find it challenging to push out newsletters similarly. Nevertheless, I will continue to write more newsletters over time. It is also a space for me to engage with my readers more personally. I want to tell them how I develop ideas for my blog and what I write about them. Here are three writers: Orhan Pamuk, Austin Kleon, and Paul Graham. I have come across their writings recently and have come to admire their writing practices. Things Orhan Pamuk Tells Us About Writing Well. The first author I introduce… Read More »CV
- [Review: ‘Sookshmadarshini’ is a Malayalam psychological thriller](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/review-sookshmadarshini-malayalam/): In every neighbourhood, there are detectives and the supposed mysterious characters. Every family holds that one character who tends to get sceptical of everything and does not and will not accept anyone’s word for it. There are also those who are on their bandwagons: those who follow their scepticism—curiosity even—into the abyss. There are also those who are extremely suspicious—they shield their lives so much so that their life depends on it. And when you bring together all these characters, you get a mystery thriller. MC Jithin’s directional ‘Sookshmadarshini’ is a Malayalam fun thriller, moves away from a conventional police… Read More »CV
- [Review: ‘Kishkindha Kaandam’ skillfully narrates emotions and suspense](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/review-kishkindha-kaandam-malayalam/): Dinjith Ayyathan’s ‘Kishkindha Kaandam’, a 2024 Malayalam thriller, enmeshes emotions, familial relations, and mystery in his storytelling. Monikered after Ramayana’s Kishkindha Kaandam, where Lord Rama allies with the monkey gods Hanuman and Sugriva on his quest to bring Sita back from Raavana’s Lanka, the movie peals together layered narration of the search for the truth and the suspense that drives the life of the characters. In Dinjith Ayyathan’s story to monkeys come to feature significantly in all their intermingling with the humans. The story begins with Ajayan (Asif Ali), who, a forest officer himself, brings his new wife, Aparna (Aparna… Read More »CV
- [Review: ‘Santosh’ is a tense police procedural layered in social disparities](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/review-santosh-hindi-sandhya-suri/): The Indian state works interestingly; it is powerful and powerless simultaneously. Take the police as a state institution, for instance. Even to this day, after seventy-five years of Indian independence, police procedures are deeply implicated in an individual’s caste, class, religion, and gender positions in society. Police stations, similarly, work to benefit the rich at the expense of the poor. In several households, it is considered a disgrace to go to a police station and/or enter a courtroom. In the 2025 movie ‘Santosh’, a Hindi-language police procedural drama set in rural north India, Sandhya Suri, in her very own exquisite narration, captures the harsh… Read More »CV
- [Review: ‘Manjummel Boys’ is a beautiful ode to friendship](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/review-manjummel-boys-malayalam/): We all go on trips with friends. Those car rides. Those stops on the roadside to sip a cup of chai. That loud music and too much noise huddling between soothing classical tunes and the nuisance-induced drama. That adrenaline rush. Everything seems fabulous with friends. But much for the bravado of one or two, things could get adventurous—and sometimes, go wrong in the blink of an eye. Manjummel Boys (2024), directed by Chidambaram, is a Malayalam survival thriller inspired by a real-life incident from 2006 in Guna Caves in Kodaikanal. The film follows a group of eleven friends from Manjummel,… Read More »CV
- [Review of Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s The Burden of Democracy](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/pratap-bhanu-mehta-burden-of-democracy/): The birth of a new nation-state at the end of British colonial rule enabled sovereignty to be restored to the people for the first time in its history. People, who were, until then, mere subjects, could now be known as citizens—with social, political, and economic rights. They could exercise their vote now. However, seventy-odd years after this historical moment, India’s democracy is mired by the challenges it faced at its formation. What are the burdens that Indian democracy carries with it? Pratap Bhanu Mehta’s 2003 book The Burden of Democracy is a short but extraordinarily evocative essay on the Indian… Read More »CV
- [Review of Avinash Paliwal's India's Near East: A New History](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/review-avinash-paliwal-indias-near-east/): When a journalist once asked Jawaharlal Nehru how he would stop the ‘contagion’ of military coups across India’s neighbourhood (read: India’s near east), Nehru remarked that the ‘contagion [of democracy]’ from India would spread towards the other South Asian states. Since then, many things have happened, but India’s northeastern neighbourhood seems to be far ‘less connected in 2024 than it was in 1947’. And the illusion of democracy still seems far-fetched. After a brief glimmer of democratic hope, the 2021 coup led by Tatmadaw put the country back in the hands of military generals and, later on, in full-time crisis… Read More »CV
- [Review: ‘Adolescence’ Brilliantly Captures Andrew Tate-style Masculine Misogyny](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/review-adolescence-netflix-drama/): They say adulting is hard. And just as I finished watching this Netflix drama series, ‘Adolescence’, monickering the transitional phase from a child to becoming an adult—the process of adulting—definitely feels difficult. Personally, for me, growing up in an army school and transitioning into an adult—a so-called ‘man’—came with its own additional challenges. But perhaps this could also be true for lots of other people who have gone through this phase in life. Socialisation, for one, is at its peak. Friends and family introduce you to ways to subscribe and perform manhood in our own little manosphere. The adolescent phase… Read More »CV
- [Review: 'The Great Indian Kitchen' is a Wholesome Commentary on an Indian Household](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/review-the-great-indian-kitchen/): Kitchen—one place in Indian households delineated as a space for women. Men, by free will or forced socialisation into patriarchy, are placed far away from all spaces near the great Indian kitchen. Since I was a young child growing up in a village household, I have only seen the kitchen occupied by women in my household. Now, every once in a while, when I go back home on vacations, which last for about a month in the whole year, I (now equipped with the so-called modern education) try to amend them. So, I cook the Masala rice, or a curry,… Read More »CV
- [Review: ‘Conclave’ is a Brilliant Narration of Vatican’s Papal Ambitions](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/review-conclave-vatican-pope-movie/): I recently went with a friend to the cinema to watch ‘Conclave’. I thoroughly enjoyed both the cinematic experience, the frames and the colours in the movie. Until watching this movie, I did not truly know or understand how popes are elected. So, in a way, it was also an education. Edward Berger’s directional film, ‘Conclave’ has been nominated for the 2025 Oscars in eight categories, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor, among others. It took home one Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for writer Peter Straughan, who turned the acclaimed Robert Harris novel with the same… Read More »CV
- [Review: ‘Dabba Cartel’ is Chaotic but a Gripping Thriller](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/dabba-cartel-gripping-thriller-series/): What starts off as a dabbawalla home business in Thane’s suburbs spirals into a drug operation in this new thriller ‘Dabba Cartel’, monikered ‘Narcos Thane’. A homemaker, Raji (Shalini Pandey), her house help, Mala (Nimisha Sajayan), Raji’s mother-in-law, Sheela (Shabana Azmi), a former corporate employee and now a failed business owner, Varuna (Jyotika), and house broker agent, Shahida (Anjali Anand) join together to sell drugs in tiffin boxes in this somewhat new attempt at a very desi crime thriller. Initially, it was Mala’s boyfriend who dragged her into the drug business and instructed her to sell drugs by placing them… Read More »CV
- [Review: 'The 8 Show' is Just Too Grotesque to be Good](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/review-the-8-show-grotesque/): In the Netflix series The 8 Show, eight participants, all in financial hardship—perhaps who have already decided to die by suicide—take part in a Money Game. They are trapped in different floors, with each floor increasing both in size and value. The person opting for the top floor (eighth floor) has both her money double quicker than the one below and so on. A Fibonacci sequence of sorts. Initially, the eight participants decided to cooperate with each other, trying to figure out the rules of the game and make as much money as possible in the process. That is despite… Read More »CV
- [To Brush or Not to Brush Your Teeth](https://adarshbadri.me/notes/to-brush-or-not-to-brush-your-teeth/): A great many battles have been fought in the world over the years—and nothing comes nearly close to the one where thousands of Redditors come head-on against one another every year. And then, the following year. And so on. With each individual penning hundreds of words in anticipation of another thousand words in response, these battles are difficult to fathom. The climate change hoaxers come nowhere close. Flat earthers—they are no competition. Ukraine war fades in the background. And even Elon Musk and Donald Trump—and their DOGE bros—haven’t been made aware of their competition. Each year, as the ritual goes,… Read More »CV
- [How Emily Herring Brought Henri Bergson to the People](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/emily-herring-henri-bergson-review/): I had only come across Henri Bergson recently—a friend had fleetingly mentioned that his text on memory was difficult to grasp, perhaps. Thanks to Emily Herring, I now know that Bergson was once the most famous philosopher in the world. His popularity peaked at the height of the start of the 20th century. It had once caused a traffic jam on Broadway Street. People flocked in numbers across all sections to listen to him. Women mainly. The New York Times would go on to write heaps of praises for this philosopher. So did other newspapers and periodicals. Within the philosophical… Read More »CV
- [Things China's DeepSeek Does Not—And Will Not—Tell You About Politics](https://adarshbadri.me/technology/deepseek-china-content-censorship-topics/): When Sam Altman’s OpenAI released ChatGPT, I was clearly amazed. ChatGPT did most of everything that Google did before it, calculators did before Google, and humans did before calculators. In the last twenty years, the internet has just gone crazy. Everything—almost everything—was now at the grasp of AI. ChatGPT told better stories, wrote better essays, explained better scientific nuances, solved better complex maths, and wrote better codes than humans. This was revolutionary but lucrative. It costs large sums—in billions. It needed large chunks of the most expensive and advanced chips (geopolitically, this would have meant Chip Wars). In the past… Read More »CV
- ['Traffic Signal' is a Cultural Artefact](https://adarshbadri.me/politics-society/cultural-artefact-traffic-signal/): It may seem odd to propose traffic signals can tell us so much about our culture. But, in reality, traffic signals are the gateway to one’s culture. In traffic signals, the young and the elderly alike cross paths—huddling through, juggling between, and striding forth—zebra crossing, meeting strangers, falling in love, reeling through heartbreaks, sobbing every now and then, laughing with (and at) one another, sipping coffee, and slurping bubble tea. Traffic signals halt our movement and absorb us into the world for a moment. Just as we wait for signals to start blinking, we feel, observe, smell, rationalise, envy, smile,… Read More »CV
- [Review: ‘All We Imagine as Light’, a kaleidoscopic view on life, belonging, and intimacy](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/review-all-we-imagine-as-light-movie/): Payal Kapadia’s directorial feature debut, All We Imagine as Light, is a poetic film about millions of invisible immigrants and their lives in Mumbai. Migrants from all over the country move to Mumbai city in search of a better life but struggle to belong in all its colours, fast-paced routine, loneliness and alienation therein. Kapadia’s storytelling in All We Imagine as Light is one of a kind. There is sadness, quiet, noise, happiness, and joy packed within the same screen. There are fears that bind the characters to things. In the story, some of them defy those fears; some never… Read More »CV
- [Review: Squid Game season 2 lives up to the hype and expectation](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/review-squid-game-season-2/): Squid Game, a South Korean dystopian thriller TV series written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk for Netflix, had become a cultural phenomenon overnight. Everyone talked about Squid Game during the initial days of its release. The series itself consisted of a secret contest between 456 players who are reeling through financial distress and poverty. They have to play children’s games—a zero-sum kind, where you have to risk death if you lose–with each other and win.  The prize money is 45.6 billion. In the first season, Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), a divorced father and indebted gambler who lives with an ailing… Read More »CV
- [Review of Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/review-of-lisa-hallidays-asymmetry/): When I picked the copy of Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry, I was amazed at the number of critical appraisals the book had received. Almost everyone mentioned on the cover was impressed with its ‘extraordinary’, ‘singularly inventive and unforgettable’ novel that takes on the ‘a stunt of transcendence.’ Obviously, there was also this anecdote running around the author: Halliday (Read: Alice) dated the American author Phillip Roth (Read: Ezra Blazer, who was forty-five years over her age). Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry is innovative in its techniques. There are three parts to the book, each connected with the other but also starkly disconnected from… Read More »CV
- [Review of Joya Chatterji’s Shadows at Noon](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/review-joya-chatterji-shadows-at-noon/): Our school textbooks in India, for instance, teach us that both India and Pakistan are distinct from each other. While India was a secular country, Pakistan was a Muslim nation. One scholar further alludes to India as a thriving democracy and Pakistan as autocratic in nature. However, the revisionist history writing in recent years has turned these claims on their head. The argument is that there is much more in common with all of South Asia than the differences. Now, again, with the Hindu Nationalist regime of Narendra Modi at the helm, it becomes difficult to sustain a celebratory narration… Read More »CV
- [Review: ‘In Our Prime’, a Heartwarming Korean Movie](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/review-in-our-prime-korean-movie/): I have always dreaded maths. Just as I entered grade 10 in my school, I dreaded trigonometry—and that was not even the hardest. There were other lessons: probability, calculus, differentiability, matrices (the 2*2 matrix was easier, though!), and integrals. And my maths teachers were quite disappointed with my progress. Trust me, they did their best. Even more, they helped tutor, give extra classes, and every now and then, say, motivating quotes, if that was any help. Deep down, I knew I sucked at maths. That awareness came early when I would dose-off in classes when my teachers taught us calculus.… Read More »CV
- [Review: 'Murder Mindfully' is masterful mix of dry humour and psychological thriller](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/review-murder-mindfully-series/): Murder Mindfully, two seemingly opposite words strung together, makes for a good TV story. At one end, there is a murder; at the other, there is mindfulness—a sense of calm one craves but struggles for it. And in this 2024 German dark-comedy Netflix series, one would have to go so far as to kill people to stay mindful and calm. Murder Mindfully is one such series that keeps you entertained throughout the end. The twenty-first century is puzzling for many. There are too many things happening all through. At the start of the century, the internet was born, and today,… Read More »CV
- [Essential Readings on Writing a Creative Non-Fiction](https://adarshbadri.me/notes/essential-readings-creative-non-fiction/): This is the list of resources for effective creative non-fiction writing. I will keep updating this page again and again. While I have not wholly read all the books and articles, I hope to keep this list as a mechanism to refer to and read them. Books to read on writing a creative non-fiction: Articles to read on creative writing: My blog articles on writing well: Interviews and YouTube:
- [Review of Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/review-of-banana-yoshimotos-kitchen/): In Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen, published in 1988 and translated into English in 1993 by Megan Backus, we encounter attachments. When I was a young child, I was very attached to stationary stuff—paper clips, markers, compasses, gum, pens, paints, and a lot of other things I have come to forget. Whenever I had a chance at things like these, I would cut pages from my notebooks and start crafting things. This one time, I made a small envelope, wrote a cute letter to my father, and posted it in a nearby post office. It was not so long ago. Unfortunately, the… Read More »CV
- [Review of Pallavi Raghavan’s Animosity at Bay: An Alternative History of India-Pakistan Relationship, 1947-1952](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/pallavi-raghavan-animosity-at-bay/): The story of India-Pakistan relations has often been told as one of hatred—the animosity often nurtured prior to the partition and its aftermath. It is argued that the woes of the bloody partition, which culminated in the massacre of over a million people and displacement of over another ten million across borders, continue to haunt the two postcolonial nations. And in that sense, added to other contentious things—such as the issue of Kashmir—the two countries have found it difficult to trust each other since independence. Pallavi Raghavan proposes a rather unconventional take on India-Pakistan relations in her book Animosity at Bay: An… Read More »CV
- [Review of Carlo Ginzburg’s The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/review-carlo-ginzburg-cheese-and-worm/): In 1976, Historian Carlo Ginzburg published Il Formaggio e i Vermi in Italian. Four years later, Ginzburg published its English translation (translation: John and Anne Tedeschi): The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller in 1980. The book was very unlike the historical text produced then. Only a few years earlier, the Italian school of historiography—called Microstoria (or microhistory)—had emerged as a counter to the macroscopic and thickly quantitative Annales school, led by Fernand Braudel during the mid-1950s and 1970s.[1] Annales school told big stories, such as how capitalism developed in historical epochs. Unlike Macrohistory and its… Read More »CV
- [Review of Farzana Shaikh’s Making Sense of Pakistan](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/farzana-shaikh-making-sense-of-pakistan/): There is no dearth of books about Pakistan. And there are all kinds of explanations for its raison d’etre—its contentious birth, the authoritarian roots, and the ongoing persistence of ethnic and religious violence.[1] In her book Making Sense of Pakistan, Farzana Shaikh traces the condition of today’s Pakistan to the conflicting visions of the role of Islam in public life.[2] Over the years, scholars have debated significantly about the conflicting visions about what it means to be a Pakistani and what Pakistan stands for. In some of the early explanations about Pakistan, Hamza Alavi discussed Pakistan as an “overdeveloped state” with… Read More »CV
- [Review of Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman's Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/review-guriev-treisman-spin-dictators/): There once was a time when dictators were responsible for the deaths of millions of people. Not so long ago, dictators controlled all aspects of their citizens’ lives, including who they spoke with, what they consumed, how they dressed, and who they revered. Above all, people feared these dictators. The twenty-first century, however, is a strange time for dictators. There is a new brand of spin dictators. Unlike in the past century or so, these spin dictators have ditched their military uniforms for Western suits, seldom use military force, refrain from using violence, do not censor information, do not execute… Read More »CV
- [Review: ‘His Three Daughters’ is the Sibling Drama We Need Sometimes](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/review-his-three-daughters-movie/): The story in ‘His Three Daughters’ begins in a cramped apartment in New York. The three estranged sisters—Rachel (Natasha Lyonne), Christina (Elizabeth Olsen), and Katie (Carrie Coon), are together. And their father, Vincent, is dying. What transpires thereafter is the drama you expect among siblings, their divergent personalities and lifestyles, and their misunderstandings. ‘His Three Daughters’, directed by Azazel Jacobs, is a heartfelt exploration of family dynamics and complexities in sibling relationships. Interestingly, the movie does—at no point—move beyond that cramped New York apartment or, otherwise, a bench outside the apartment where Rachel smoked her joints. And this she did,… Read More »CV
- [Martin Luther King Jr. Writes an Important “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”](https://adarshbadri.me/letters/martin-luther-king-jr-letter-jail-alabama/): Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most influential black civil rights activists, wrote a letter on April 16, 1963, when he was imprisoned for civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama. The “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is considered one of the most important writings on the American civil rights movement.[1] King’s letter is a powerful defence of the non-violent struggle he espoused against racism and racial segregation in American society. Martin Luther King Jr. led a series of non-violent protests organised by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to address racial segregation in Alabama in the 1960s. King had served… Read More »CV
- [Why Does India Struggle to Win Medals in the Olympics?](https://adarshbadri.me/politics-society/india-struggle-win-medals-olympics/): As the Paris Olympics 2024 reaches its culmination, India has ended its campaign with six medals. The Indian contingent has secured about five bronze medals, a silver medal, and no gold medals. Among the five bronze medals, three came in shooting events—with the young shooter Manu Bhaker winning two medals in the 10m air pistol women’s and mixed team with Sarabjot Singh and Swapnil Kushale winning a bronze in the 50m Rifle 3P event. Much like the last time in Tokyo, the Indian hockey team defeated Spain to clinch the bronze medal in Paris. And this year, Aman Sehrawat, the… Read More »CV
- [How to Format Your Academic CV for Master's or PhD Abroad](https://adarshbadri.me/how-to-guide/format-academic-cv-masters-phd-abroad/): Students planning to pursue their study abroad must have an excellent academic CV. It should be able to reflect your personality as a whole and help you present yourself to an academic audience. Making a good academic CV is essential because it gives the first impression of you as an individual and an academic. Academic committees reject many of the applications based on their CVs. Therefore, one must be extra careful when making a CV for colleges abroad. You may follow the advice and tips in this link while making your academic CV. But along with that, here are some… Read More »CV
- [11 Effective Tips That Make Your Academic CV Stand Out](https://adarshbadri.me/how-to-guide/10-tips-formatting-academic-cv/): An excellent academic CV requires a good design as much as a website, which functions based on backend technicalities and frontend designs. It should look pleasant for the audience. Against that backdrop, I suggest three critical CV formatting elements: templates, fonts, and styling. 1. It takes time to master your skills in building a good academic CV. Writing an academic CV may seem straightforward, but It isn’t all that easy. One aspect is doing things (like writing papers and presenting at conferences), and the other is knowing how to present them. Both of them matter. Let’s say your CV presentation… Read More »CV
- [Notes: Risk Society by Ulrich Beck](https://adarshbadri.me/politics-society/notes-risk-society-by-ulrich-beck/): Writing against the backdrop of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster, Ulrich Beck first published Risikogesellschaft in Germany in 1986. The book’s English translation, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity, by Ulrich Beck, was released in 1992. The book is centred around two concepts: the notion of “reflexive modernisation” and “the issue of risk” (Beck 1992, 4). Risks are defined as the probability of harm and not the harm itself. It is the probability that matters. Since the risk is seen as the “scientific realism” that needs to be studied in laboratories by scientists with their naïve understanding of the lived realities,… Read More »CV
- [Top 10 Places to Visit and Things to Do in Brisbane, Australia](https://adarshbadri.me/day-in-life/places-visit-and-things-brisbane/): Brisbane is Australia’s third-largest city after Sydney and Melbourne. I moved to Brisbane for my studies at the University of Queensland in early January 2024. I must admit I haven’t travelled as much as I wished. But I have travelled around a bit. The commute is worthwhile, given the use of Go-Card for all services—ferries, trains, and buses—across Queensland. Travelling by ferry is one of the best experiences, given the brilliantly designed bridges across the Brisbane River. In this blog, I highlight some places you should visit and what you do in Brisbane. Fret not—most of these places are absolutely… Read More »CV
- [It is Time to Rethink the “Bullshit Jobs”](https://adarshbadri.me/politics-society/rethink-the-bullshit-jobs/): While studying at Jawaharlal Nehru University in India in 2022, I was often puzzled by the incessant paperwork we had to do to get things done. Upon getting admitted to the University online, you would have to stand in a neverending line for bureaucratic acceptance. Despite all the meticulous documentation online, you had to produce paper—a representation of what is deemed authentic. At the end of the line, I was asked if I had an electricity bill for my previous stay in Delhi between 2018 and 2020. Frankly, I did not keep one of mine. However, the administrative staff ordained… Read More »CV
- [Notes: Numbers in the Indian Colonial Imagination by Arjun Appadurai](https://adarshbadri.me/history/numbers-colonial-imagination-appadurai/): What role did “number” play in the colonial imagination and state practices? This is the question Anthropologist Arjun Appadurai deals with in his 1993 essay: ‘Number in the Colonial Imagination’. In essence, Appadurai seeks to contribute to—and unravel—the complex nature of the colonial logic of governance. Contextually, Appadurai adds to the scholarly contributions of Edward Said’s “orientalism”[1], Bernard Cohn’s “colonial investigative modalities”[2], David Ludden’s “oriental empiricism”[3], Nicholas Dirks’ “cultural roots” in colonial governance[4]. The role of numbers in colonial imagination suggests that it helped structure a one-dimensional “volatile politics of community and classification” and sustain “bureaucratic power” over all colonial… Read More »CV
- [Chipko’s Lessons for Today’s Global Environmentalism](https://adarshbadri.me/international-affairs/chipko-lesson-global-activism/): In the early 1970s, precisely three things happened in global environmental history: at the institutional level, the United Nations held its first Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm; at the academic level, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring gained prominence for advocating environmentalism; and at the local level, the Chipko (tree-hugging) movement began in northern India as a response to the state’s neglect of ecological concerns. While the Stockholm Conference and Carson’s seminal book have remained the referents of global environmentalism, Chipko’s novel environmental activism articulations have often been forgotten. With the independence from British colonialism in 1947, the Indian leadership focused on rapid development centred around… Read More »CV
- [When Jinnah’s Spirit Spoke of Pakistan’s Future](https://adarshbadri.me/history/jinnahs-spirit-spoke-pakistan-future/): Not every day do we encounter a spirit discussing a country’s future. This is a particular case. And in attendance is Mr Jinnah’s spirit (you heard it right!). Mohammad Ali Jinnah, a cigarette-smoking, wine-loving, ham sandwich-gobbling lawyer, spearheaded the Pakistan movement towards its formation in 1947. As a paramount leader of the Muslim League between 1913 and 1947, Jinnah is hailed as the father of Pakistan. With its formation in 1947, Jinnah became the governor-general of Pakistan until his death. Jinnah’s Pakistan: “moth-eaten”? In his statement on 4th May 1947, Jinnah noted: “The question of a division of India, as… Read More »CV
- [Notes: Paul Graham’s Tips About Writing](https://adarshbadri.me/on-writing/paul-graham-writing-notes/): If you are someone looking for advice on writing, you rarely point to a computer geek turned entrepreneur for advice. In this essay, I take that plunge. Today, I want to discuss about Paul Graham. Prominently, his writing—and the advice he gives us on how we write and ought to write. Paul is a prominent figure in the tech world. He is known for his startup accelerator firm, Y Combinator, which has successfully funded Airbnb and Reddit, among others. However, a lesser-known aspect of Paul is his essays. He writes on a wide range of topics: tech, philosophy, writing, and… Read More »CV
- [Mahatma Gandhi’s Letters to Adolf Hitler](https://adarshbadri.me/letters/mahatma-gandhi-letter-to-adolf-hitler/): If one were to contrast two personalities wholly contradictory, it would be Mahatma Gandhi and Adolf Hitler. Mahatma Gandhi was instrumental in his struggle against British colonialism and India’s quest for independence. Throughout the struggle against foreign rule, Gandhi used non-violence (ahimsa) as a potent tool to fight the violent British state. Gandhian values of non-violence have been used by others to fight in the face of state power to this day. Gandhi and Hitler: Two contrasting worlds In contrast, Adolf Hitler represented all that Gandhi feared about humanity’s greed and the propensity for hatred and violence. Hitler was an… Read More »CV
- [To Write Like Orhan Pamuk is to Struggle Through Writing](https://adarshbadri.me/notes/to-write-like-orhan-pamuk-is-to-struggle/): For quite some time, I must admit here, I have been obsessed with reading about how others write. Specifically, I have been fascinated by what a writer does. What is it like to be a writer? How do they write? Is there an unusual routine? Do they have a specific time when they sit to pen their thoughts? Or are they just as clueless as I am right now, penning this essay about Orhan Pamuk’s writing style without fully understanding him—reading most of his novels or understanding the depth of the literary forms he engaged in? I am not sure.… Read More »CV
- [Review: Laapataa Ladies is a fun-filled and powerful narration of feminism](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/review-laapataa-ladies-feminism-india/): Recently, I sat (somewhat reluctantly, guilt-ridden by the number of movies and series I was hooked on) to watch Kiran Rao’s latest Netflix film, Laapataa Ladies. I must admit, at the outset, that it is one of the best movies produced by Bollywood in recent years. The storyline is simple. It is a story about how two young brides get lost in the train—veiled (and wearing the same outfit). Despite all the well-narrated humour and horror of its characters’ lives, Laapataa Ladies (Missing Women) presents a powerful critique of Indian gender norms. It presents the village society as it is.… Read More »CV
- [Austin Kleon's 10 Tips to Show Your Work](https://adarshbadri.me/notes/austin-kleon-10-tips-to-show-your-work/): In the last few weeks, I have picked Austin Kleon’s other equally fabulous book, Show Your Work: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered. One of the biggest challenges for artists in the day and age of social media is getting noticed. While finding avenues to discover for yourself may sound easier, advertising your work is challenging. Perhaps people find it harder to be noticed because they have to attract someone enough to spend a minute or an hour on you—your work. So, most of the time, we don’t even try. Artists may compete with zillion others to… Read More »CV
- [The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is  Detrimental to India’s Minorities](https://adarshbadri.me/politics-society/caa-detrimental-muslim-monorities/): The Indian government recently announced its decision to implement the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which was passed by parliament in 2019. The decision to implement the new citizenship act had then set off nationwide protests and deadly violence in Delhi and other parts, receiving significant backlash from civil society and the public. However, times have changed now significantly. A general election is around the corner in 2024, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to set off with a thumping victory. In that vein, several changes have come to the fore. Background to the implementation of CAA There is an… Read More »CV
- [Austin Kleon's 10 Tips to Steal Like an Artist](https://adarshbadri.me/notes/steal-like-an-artist-austin-kleon/): Austin Kleon’s 2012 bestseller Steal Like an Artist is about advice: the writing ones, the creative ones, and the stealing ones. Advice, nonetheless. In those 160-odd creative pages—with glittering sketches, bold titles, and brilliant advice—the book is a marvel one can hold onto for now, and for later. One of its first few pages read: “Art is theft”, a dreary quote from a celebrity artist who painted Guernica, Pablo Picasso. In the later pages, Kleon admits: “This book is me talking to a previous version of myself” (p.1). But turns out you can use it, too. There are ten tips… Read More »CV
- [Poems That Tell a Tale of the Struggle for Palestine](https://adarshbadri.me/letters/poems-that-tell-the-story-of-palestine/): Poetry evokes emotions. Perhaps when the world turns a blind eye to the horrors in Palestine, it is crucial to read poems. In these crazy times, there is nothing like poetry to remind ourselves of humanity. And we all need some poetry right now to feel for Palestinians, their children who are bombed by the Israeli forces—and whose memories are forever etched in the tragedies of today. Dead fathers. Uncles who just lost their legs. Mourning mothers on the streets. And a weeping baby across the alley.  Even as the people, in scores of thousands, rush against the tide of… Read More »CV
- [What is the Universal Basic Income (UBI)?](https://adarshbadri.me/politics-society/universal-basic-income-ubi/): The Universal Basic Income (or, in short, UBI), as the name suggests, is a social welfare proposal which provides all citizens—rich, poor, and elderly alike—with a regular basic minimum income paid by the government, without the need to work. It is a guaranteed minimum income of sorts, which societies have come to think of as a revolutionary step in the backdrop of incessant automation of jobs (or, as I put it earlier when the robots take all our jobs!). Even though no country has fully adopted this basic income structure, how the concept has spread in the last decade is… Read More »CV
- [Future of Work: How Robots Completely Take Over All Our Jobs](https://adarshbadri.me/philosophy/future-of-work-robots-take-over/): What happens when artificial intelligence (or robots) replace all humans in workplaces? This is a million-dollar question about the future of work for our generation. As human societies, we have come to terms with work. In everyday socio-political relations, work defines us. It tells us what we do and how that matters to society. The Christian Protestant ethics are sustained on the logic of working hard. As the saying in the Indian language of Kannada goes: kayakave kailasa (“work is worship”); we consider work a godly act. Apart from earning our livelihood, work also helps us keep ourselves focused and… Read More »CV
- [Franz Kafka’s Love Letters to Milena](https://adarshbadri.me/letters/franz-kafkas-love-letters-to-milena/): When I was in the Indian city of Bangalore, a literary enthusiast introduced me to a few letters from Franz Kafka to Milena Jesenska, a Czech writer who wrote between 1920 and 1923. Writing letters to anyone in the age of the internet feels like an arduous endeavour. But sitting in a corner and thinking, feeling, and writing is a privilege. Perhaps in this context, Susan Lendroth writes: “To write is human, to receive a letter: Divine!” However, my generation’s folks are a little too happy with an Insta ID of their crush. And for them, a reply to their… Read More »CV
- [The Magnificent Ram Mandir and the Indian Democracy](https://adarshbadri.me/politics-society/indian-ram-mandir-politics/): There is something extraordinary about India. One such occasion—there are far too many—was the inauguration of the Ram Mandir on January 22, 2024. Well, you might wonder what makes it so unique. The commotion surrounding the occasion was rather unusual. At the function, the leader of the right-wing cadre-based organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), known for its open antagonism towards Indian Muslims, was seated next to the prime minister of India, who is purportedly supposed to defend constitutional morality. There were actors, cricketers, businesspeople, politicians, and the usual sadhus you find all over Varanasi, all elites and (some proles)… Read More »CV
- [What is the Teletransportation Problem or the Duplicates Paradox?](https://adarshbadri.me/philosophy/teletransportation-paradox/): Star Trek has some freaky storylines. The American sci-fi television series in the 1960s, created by Gene Roddenberry, follows the adventures of the starship USS Enterprise and its crew members. If you have watched even one of the seasons, you are sure to have come across a certain Teletransportation. Star Trek and Teletransportation As its name would suggest, a transporter is a fictional teleportation machine which converts a person/object into an energy pattern (dematerialisation) and then sends it to a target location where it will be reconverted into matter (rematerialisation), meaning the person/object. In simple words, a transporter would send… Read More »CV
- [Living in Brisbane: Things to do as a student who just arrived in Australia](https://adarshbadri.me/day-in-life/life-and-times-in-brisbane-two-weeks/): I have taken an inevitable plunge in life in the last few weeks. I left for Brisbane, Australia, from New Delhi, India, on the eve of Christmas in 2023. Moving places is tricky. It entails leaving one comfort space in search of another. It also requires one to endure leaving behind a part of their lives (i.e. families, friends, and loved ones) in that certain space and move on into the unknown. While it can be oft-challenging, people move all the time. They leave one place for another in search of jobs, better education, and a good life. The act… Read More »CV
- [Reflections: My Blogging Journey in 2024](https://adarshbadri.me/how-to-guide/reflections-on-my-blogging-journey/): Writing (here: blogging) has become a passion for me. It was not always like this, though! From my early schooling days to my bachelor’s, I have come to disdain everything to do with English Grammar. To be frank, I sucked at it. However, something thoroughly changed at Delhi University (DU) during my Masters. I wrote things more confidently. I also wrote in a manner others could read and enjoy some time. At the time, I remember gleaning through Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis—Samsa and his existential crisis; Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment—the Raskolnikov and his regretful life; re-reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm… Read More »CV
- [Notes: Hamza Alavi’s Influential Essay on Overdeveloped Postcolonial State](https://adarshbadri.me/notes/hamza-alavi-overdeveloped-postcolonial-state/): Hamza Alavi’s ‘The State in Post-Colonial Societies: Pakistan and Bangladesh’ is one of the highly influential essays on postcolonial societies. An influential Marxist sociologist from Pakistan himself, Alavi’s work analyses the structure and the role of postcolonial states in South Asia. His writings extensively focused on the overdeveloped bureaucratic and military machinery inherited from colonial rule. For Alavi, the classical Marxist reading of the central role of the bureaucracy and military in the government and political development raises some fundamental questions. He notes, unlike the usual Marxist reading of military and bureaucracy as instruments of a single ruling class, the… Read More »CV
- [Important Soviet Influences in Hungary and Poland](https://adarshbadri.me/history/soviet-influence-hungary-poland/): Eastern European nations remain distinct and bear the influence of the Soviet Union. A strong and permanent imprint of Soviet influence may be seen in the political landscape of Eastern Europe. In Hungary and Poland, the challenge of navigating the turbulent waters of domestic politics is particularly acute. Both nations have struggled to balance their aspirations for freedom and European integration with their historical ties to the Soviet Union. Using the Soviet issue as a strategy, political parties have regularly mobilised their supporters and built their political agendas. This article examines the influence of Soviet-related narratives in Eastern Europe, with… Read More »CV
- [We Have Always Been in "Polycrisis"— And Now We Know It!](https://adarshbadri.me/philosophy/we-have-always-been-polycrisis/): Not many social terms have gained as much prominence as ” polycrisis” in the past few years. The term “polycrisis” has been used, misused, reused, and abused over the last two years. Having gained prominence against the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian War in Ukraine, polycrisis represents the multiple, intricate, oft-conflicting crises the world grapples with today. In October 2022, Historian Adam Tooze wrote for the Financial Times: “We are in an era of ‘polycrisis’”. A little before that, in his newsletter Chartbook, Tooze explained: “A polycrisis is just a situation where you face multiple crises. It is a situation… Read More »CV
- [Review of Karen Armstrong's Islam: A Short History](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/islam-a-short-history-karen-armstrong/): In her book Islam: A Short History, Karen Armstrong seeks to untangle the tumultuous history of Islam through time. It accounts for all the historical development of Islam, documenting the rise, development, and challenges posed by its growth. In doing so, it seeks to dispel the misconceptions about Islam and Muslims prevailing in our times. As a keen observer of religious history, Armstrong’s book on Islam is concise and easy to understand. Armstrong’s book consists of five chapters, each chronicling how Islam developed over the years—beginning with the life of Prophet Muhammad (570-632) and the foundational ideas of the Muslim… Read More »CV
- [Aldous Huxley’s Interesting Letter to George Orwell](https://adarshbadri.me/letters/aldous-huxley-letter-to-george-orwell/): In 1949, Aldous Huxley, the writer of the dystopian novel Brave New World (1931), wrote a letter to George Orwell. Curiously, Huxley taught French to Orwell during his school days. In 1949, Orwell published a groundbreaking work, Nineteen Eighty-Four, which would eventually become the most celebrated work in the English language. More importantly, it introduced its readers to various ways authoritarian tendencies flow through societies. Orwell had sent a copy of his book to Huxley. Despite his deteriorating eyesight, Huxley read Orwell’s book carefully and reflected on the haunting future envisioned in Nineteen Eighty-Four. In his letter, Huxley praised Orwell… Read More »CV
- [10 Practical Tips for Writing an Excellent Book Review](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/guide-to-writing-book-review/): How do we write a good book review? This is the question I get asked several times by my peers and friends. But, at the outset, I recognise that writing a good book review takes time. It comes with practice, as much as almost everything else we do. Besides, a good book review requires effort, skill, and a delineated method. I am unsure if I write good (enough!) book reviews, but I have been honing my writing skills for quite some time now. Moreover, in my scholarly field of politics and international studies, I have been fortunate enough to have… Read More »CV
- [Review of T.C.A. Raghavan’s The People Next Door: The Curious History of India's Relations with Pakistan](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/raghavan-india-pakistan-relations/): India-Pakistan Relations, since their inception in 1947, have been fraught with a complex “enduring rivalry”—like characteristic, with multiple issue areas such as Kashmir, the Indus Waters Dispute, nuclear weapons, and more recently, state-sponsored terrorism. While several books have been written over the years addressing parts of—or the whole—issue of the complex rivalry between India and Pakistan, there are not many books as nuanced and intricate as T.C.A. Raghavan’s The People Next Door: The Curious History of India’s Relations with Pakistan, published in 2018. The book seeks to tell the story of India-Pakistan relations in its deeply wrought context and is… Read More »CV
- [Feedback Sandwich: How does it help us effectively grow?](https://adarshbadri.me/how-to-guide/defence-of-the-feedback-sandwich/): Recently, I came across a term that encompasses how we receive feedback, known as feedback sandwich. Several times, if the peers and mentors are kind, we receive good feedback despite how bad our work turns out to be. (If the mentors and peers are not kind, you may have to rethink your decision to stay in your work ecosystem.) Positive feedback is usually empowering by its very nature. It helps one to push themselves further, despite how difficult that is. That does not mean all feedback one receives is positive; there is a tinge of ways one could improve oneself.… Read More »CV
- [Notes: India's Supreme Court Verdict on Marriage Equality](https://adarshbadri.me/politics-society/supremecourt-marriage-equality/): With the recent initiative of online streaming of Supreme Court (as well as several high court) proceedings, there is an increased awareness about how courts function. There is a great deal of understanding among laypersons (such as myself) about how constitutional benches function, how arguments are presented, how rebuttals are proposed, and how judicial activism/interventions are done. Notwithstanding that, one of the recent constitutional bench proceedings I keenly observed was a case about “marriage equality”, where the petitioners had presented the prayer that the “right to marriage” be treated as a fundamental right in the Indian constitution, and special marriages… Read More »CV
- [America’s “Israel” Taboo is Now Everyone’s To Deal With](https://adarshbadri.me/international-affairs/america-israel-taboo/): It is challenging to discuss Gaza, Palestine, Hamas and the more significant Israel-Palestine crisis without fear of judgment from the one interacting, from bystanders, overhearers, or even from a bothersome person. Even after more than 10,000 people have died in Gaza in recent days, Piers Morgan would still ask, “Do you condemn Hamas?” He had previously asked the same question after 5,000 people were killed in Gaza, which he had first asked when over 1,000 people were killed in Israel. Sure, I denounce Hamas! Will it, however, put an end to the massacre of defenceless civilians, including women and children,… Read More »CV
- [The Curious Case of Reincarnation of Shanti Devi](https://adarshbadri.me/history/shanti-devi-reincarnation-india/): Not every day do you hear a story where you are not just left puzzled but also get you all too excited to read more about – and even write about. While working on a project about Members of Parliament, I encountered someone called Shanti Devi. The story of Shanti Devi is both fascinating and very well-documented. For years, her case garnered significant interest among political leaders, freedom fighters (even Mahatma Gandhi) and scholars. Early Years of Shanti Devi Shanti Devi was born on December 11, 1926, in a not-so-well-known place near Delhi. Like other kids of her age, she… Read More »CV
- [A Day in the Life of Dilli Haat](https://adarshbadri.me/day-in-life/a-day-in-the-life-of-dilli-haat/): Dilli Haat, what do you think of this shoppers’ stop? Despite staying in Delhi for over five years, I have been to Dilli Haat about three times (and twice in the last two years). It is situated near the INA metro station, which connects the yellow and pink lines of the Delhi metro. As you walk from the metro station, you come across a ticket counter, where you have to buy tickets priced at Rs. 30 to enter the market. The last visit was sudden because this time, we (a bunch of friends) went to get the Canadian currency exchanged… Read More »CV
- [Climate Change: 10 Important Terms to Understand the Debate](https://adarshbadri.me/global-governance/terms-climate-change-debate/): Climate change is one of the most significant contemporary issues for human societies. Barely any issues are as significant as climate change in today’s world. Sure, there has been a COVID pandemic, there is also war in Ukraine, and then there is a global economic recession, along with all the communal upheaval across the globe, mediated by inequalities and poor living conditions. Some (like Adam Tooze) have referred to the accumulated condition of the present crises as polycrisis—a fancy term that still hasn’t gained significant consensus about its meaning since its coinage. The climate debates that often overshadow everyday discussions… Read More »CV
- [How to Read a Book Like Virginia Woolf?](https://adarshbadri.me/how-to-guide/how-to-read-a-book-virginia-woolf/): Reading a book Virginia Woolf-style, is not all that difficult. Reading—if one enjoys this chore, as I suppose you would if reading this essay—like everything else, is a banal activity. It certainly comes with its techniques and rules. It requires knowing how to internalise what you have just read as much as enjoying the process of reading. But there is more to reading than just sitting in one corner of a room and reading. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), an English novelist and essayist, in the essay “How should one read a book?” tells us the art of (living to) read books.… Read More »CV
- [What can IR students learn from the Movie "Rashomon"?](https://adarshbadri.me/international-affairs/ir-students-learn-rashomon/): Let me tell you a story of Rashomon! Say a man – specifically a samurai – is killed in the woods in a seemingly remote village forest in Japan. One by one, each witness is brought before the court and told to narrate the story. First comes the woodcutter, who claims to have witnessed the horror of seeing the samurai’s dead body. Then comes a priest, who testifies against the likely attacker, a bandit. Then, Tajomaru (an infamous bandit) narrates his side of the story, which entails how he killed the samurai. Then appears the wife, who was seduced and… Read More »CV
- [Dogtooth: A Bizarre Movie about Manipulation and Confinement](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/dogtooth-a-bizarre-movie/): Dogtooth, a 2009 Greek psychological thriller movie directed by Giorgos Lanthimos, is a harrowing tale of manipulative and overprotective parents who have confined their three adult children in their house, barring them from any outside influence. This movie is inspired by a 1972 Mexican film, The Caste of Purity, by Arturo Ripstein, who claims to have based the story on a real-life story of an incident in Mexico when he was young. The story is set somewhere in the Greek countryside, in a beautiful bungalow with a gorgeous swimming pool, a vast green-patched ground, and a fenced compound tall enough… Read More »CV
- [George Orwell and the Rules for Writing Well](https://adarshbadri.me/on-writing/george-orwell-and-the-rules-for-writing/): orwell on writing
- [Writing a PhD research proposal for admission to Indian Universities](https://adarshbadri.me/methodology/exceptional-research-proposal-phd/): Writing a PhD research proposal is your first step while considering your PhD journey. It is true that most of us, at this stage, are not all that lucky to have undertaken a master’s degree in a university that trained in research. Some of us were clueless about how a research proposal was written until the PhD entrance. Not very long ago, I was there. Many of us are at that stage when we first consider doing a PhD. But it is vital that you believe in yourself first and in the technique second. At the outset, let me say… Read More »CV
- [Notes: The Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/genealogy-of-morals-nietzsche/): genealogy of morals Nietzsche
- [Becoming Sceptical in a Democracy is Not All That Bad](https://adarshbadri.me/philosophy/becoming-sceptical-in-democracy/): Trust, some people claim, is the hallmark of a well-functioning democracy. An extension to this argument is that the erosion of trust in democratic structures could cause the decadence of democracy. Oftentimes, political trust has caused belief in democracy and is a consequence of democracy. Citizens cooperate with a trustworthy government and respond to its policies. Conversely, in dysfunctional democracies, trust is fragile in its form and content. There is widespread polarisation and unencumbered discontent in such democracies. Today’s world is replete with examples of such democracies, where citizen trust has ceased to exist. I want to try and turn… Read More »CV
- [Review of Mohsin Hamid’s The Last White Man](https://adarshbadri.me/book-review/mohsin-hamid-the-last-white-man/): Very few writers can hold your concentration through meticulously crafted long sentences as Mohsin Hamid does in his book, The Last White Man. Hamid is a phenomenal storyteller. “One morning Anders, a white man, woke up to find he has turned a deep and undeniable brown”, the book’s first sentence (perhaps one of the rare short sentences you may find in this work) hooks you through till the end. In The Last White Man, Hamid seeks to challenge “whiteness” in ways you would feel it the most, the most deceptive ways it works, and how things change as we change… Read More »CV
- [Thandatti:  A riveting village movie in the backdrop of a death](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/thandatti-drama-backdrop-of-death/): Rarely do movies succeed in presenting brilliantly scripted stories through simplistic acting that feels profoundly natural. Thandatti does precisely that. Drawing the name from a pair of missing earrings (Thandatti are heavy gold earrings worn by women in parts of India), the Tamil movie directed by Ram Sagaiah takes the audience through a village where police are not welcome and brings them safely back to life. The story is simple. There is a police constable, Subramani, who is on the verge of retirement and is loathed by his higher-ups. He is sincere—and has a certain unorthodox way of dealing with… Read More »CV
- [Why Do Many Indian Parents Want Their Child to Become an IAS Officer?](https://adarshbadri.me/politics-society/indian-parent-become-ias-officer/): Has it ever occurred to you what it feels like—or even means—to live freely? Despite all our personal privileges, are we truly free? Is anyone really free? These are the kinds of questions I thought through today as I traversed through the wide alleys of Central Delhi, getting drenched in the rain, escaping getting hit by ever-speeding cars, and slowing down to think if my friction-less chappals would slip and the white pant would get muddy. Upon reaching the metro station, I was in a long queue of passengers huddling through the security maze. After all this, I am left… Read More »CV
- [Taliban and the Negative Impact on Women's Education in Afghanistan](https://adarshbadri.me/international-affairs/taliban-women-education/): According to a recent BBC report, the Taliban has instructed the schools not to allow girls over the age of 10 to attend schools in Afghanistan. This development has come after a total ban on Afghan women receiving secondary education and attending colleges late last year. Since the withdrawal of US troops and the subsequent Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, women have been erased from all aspects of public life. And somehow, the world has paid no heed to these regressive policies. During the period of the US-led reconstruction of Afghanistan, women were going to schools and colleges… Read More »CV
- [The Cost of Peace in India and Pakistan Relations](https://adarshbadri.me/international-affairs/india-and-pakistan-peace/): Since their independence in 1947, India-Pakistan relations have sustained mutual animosity towards each other. The bloody partition that caused the death of over a million and displaced over 15 million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs across borders has left a lasting imprint on the two countries. India and Pakistan fought three major wars in 1947, 1965, and 1971, and the 1999 Kargil conflict. Since 1998, the two countries have acquired nuclear weapons, consequently leading to the fear of escalation in the Indian subcontinent.   Since 2014, India-Pakistan relations have undergone turbulent shifts. India’s initial enthusiasm for dialogue with Pakistan was transformed into… Read More »CV
- [Madeinusa: Fascinating Review of the Coming-of-Age Peruvian Movie](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/madeinusa-a-review-peruvian-movie/): Madeinusa is a 2005 Peruvian-Spanish movie directed by the then-29-year-old Claudia Llosa. It tells the story of a young coming-of-age girl named Madeinusa. The story is set in a fictional small village called Manayaycuna (“the town no one can enter” in Quechua) in the Andes mountains. The movie portrays a mix of beauty, brutality, innocence, and hope. There is poverty. There is tradition. And there is a celebration—of oft-confusing, complex, and incomprehensible traditions. The story covers three days into the lives of villagers in Manayaycuna and a stranger from Lima. The stranger, Salvador (a white outsider), a geology expert, is… Read More »CV
- [Shiva Baby: Review of a Fun Roller-Coaster of a Movie](https://adarshbadri.me/entertainment/shiva-baby-movie-review-watch/): Shiva Baby is a tragedy-induced funny movie about a confused teenager in the midst of her (extended) family.  The storyline is as follows: A sugar baby, Danielle, runs into her sugar daddy, Max, and her ex-girlfriend/lover, Maya, while sitting shiva (a mourning period in Jewish tradition). This is Emma Seligman’s (aged 24 at the time of shooting) first movie. But this looks as good as it gets. The film is shot through sitting shiva, holding your attention—keeping you laughing, feeling pity, and even, at times, wondering—all through. Danielle, the lead protagonist, is already late for the Shiva event. And there… Read More »CV
- [Notes: A Feminist Critique of Carl Schmitt's “Real Possibility of Physical Killing”](https://adarshbadri.me/philosophy/real-possibility-of-physical-killing/): Ethnic clashes between the majority Meitei and the minority Kuki community have engulfed the Indian State of Manipur. In a recent video that went viral on July 19, 2023, two Kuki women were groped, raped, and paraded naked by a mob of Meitei men. The video sparked outrage across the country about the “real possibility of physical killing”, causing the ruling political elites to acknowledge the situation in India’s northeastern state. This is not a one-off case. Manipur’s chief minister, N. Biren Singh, acknowledged on live television that there have been “hundreds of similar cases”. In the face of violence,… Read More »CV

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- [Privacy Policy](https://adarshbadri.me/privacy-policy/): Who we are The website address of this site is: https://adarshbadri.me. It is a personal blog, held by Adarsh Badri. Comments When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public… Read More »CV
- [CV](https://adarshbadri.me/cv/): Click here to download the latest CV [updated as of January 2026]
- [RESEARCH](https://adarshbadri.me/writings/): Peer-Reviewed Articles “Culture Machine: How MetaCLIP Codifies Culture”. New Media & Society. May 2025. (with Luke Munn) https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448251336429 [download the article here] “The United States is a Messianic State: Rhetorical Roots in US Foreign Policy Since 1991”. Australian Journal of International Affairs. vol. 79. no. 1. January 2025. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357718.2024.2415113 [download the article here] “Feeling for the Anthropocene: Affective Relations and Ecological Activism in the Global South”. International Affairs. vol. 100. no. 2. pp. 731-749. February 2024. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiae010 [download the article here] “Quad and the Indo-Pacific: Examining the Balance of Interest Theory in Quad Coalition.” Strategic Analysis. vol. 46. no. 6.… Read More »CV
- [ABOUT](https://adarshbadri.me/): Adarsh Badri is a writer and political science enthusiast. He is currently pursuing his Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Delhi.
- [CONTACT](https://adarshbadri.me/contact/): Please reach me at adarsh.badri[at]uq.edu.au


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