Blogs
Biocontrol of Tropical Fire Ants
The tropical fire ant, Solenopsis geminata, has been a destructive marauder in my garden for more than a decade. In the search for an organic biocontrol, I enlisted the help of AI. It suggested the remedy of drenching the soil near ant mounds with the solution of a fungus called Beauveria bassiana that would selectively kill the topical fire ants, but leave other insects, fish, and humans unscathed. This resulted in a temporary decrease in ant numbers at the place of drenching. But the ant colony was not eradicated. It merely relocated to where the treatment was not applied. The measure was palliative rather than curative. A truly long-term, reliable, and repeatable organic solution to this problem awaits future research.Service as a Spiritual Practice
Service is a potent spiritual practice on the path to liberation. The Bhagavad Gītā is the spiritual manual par excellence among the texts of Sanatana Dharma on the subject of action. The specific guidelines for transforming any action into an act of worship, as set out in the Bhagavad Gītā are outlined in this blog. The lived experience of Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati, founder of the Divine Life Society, is recounted as an ideal example of the fruition of service as a spiritual practice.The Dearness Code
What causes an object or person to be dear? This question is discussed to finality in this blog that portrays the famous dialogue between the Vedic Ṛṣi Yājñavalkya and his wife Maitreyī, with some ideas thrown in from physics as we know it today.YouTube and the Trust Deficit
YouTube is awash with slick videos that offer seemingly authoritative advice on health, wealth, current affairs, and many other aspects of life. But if you were to look behind the curtain, all you would see is smoke and mirrors—not human experts. There is an uncanny resemblance to the revelatory scene in the movie, The Wizard of Oz. This is especially annoying and alarming, and is typical of the devaluation of truth that we are currently experiencing. And I think that AI, in collusion with human frailty and fallibility, has facilitated this trust deficit.Mastering English
This blog first found exposure in 2012 as a prescriptive essay intended to help students learning English. The Web was a hot resource then, much like what AI is today—in 2026. But the fundamentals of language learning remain unchanged, despite changing times and tools. It is my hope that this blog is as relevant to students today, as it was when it was first written. It has been suggested to me that I should write a whole series on Mastering English, and I shall endeavour to do so.Food as Medicine: Purple and Orange Sweet Potatoes
The sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam., is a humble and shy vegetable—a root tuber that hides itself by growing underground.
Although its name has the adjective sweet in it, the Glycemic Index (GI) of sweet potatoes is lower than that of the normal potato, when cooked the same way. A lower glycemic index means blood sugar rises more slowly after eating, which is important for diabetics and for weight watchers. The resistant starch and fibre in sweet potatoes also feed gut-friendly bacteria and promote gut health.
The anthocyanins in purple sweet potatoes act as antioxidants and boost overall health by neutralizing free radicals and preventing oxidative stress. It helps in preventing degenerative conditions like diabetes, heart disease, cancer, dementia, etc.
The orange pigment in orange sweet potatoes, beta-carotene, is a precursor from which the body makes the fat-soluble Vitamin A, which promotes night vision, eye moisture, and overall immune function.
Through this blog, I wish to disseminate the benefits of purple and orange sweet potatoes so that local farmers feel sufficiently motivated to cultivate and sell them at produce markets. If the buying public see the new cultivars and are inspired to try them out, we would be on the cusp of a revolution to improve overall public health through health-promoting food.
Two Rupees
I was driving through the grey haze conjured up by soft rain and bleak sky when my gaze chanced upon a human form crouched in the mud by the road. I looked into my rear-view mirror and discovered that it was a hapless man struggling to rise and stumbling and falling, to rise and fall again, perhaps defeated by the slushy mud, or by fatigue, or by cold. Thrice I saw him struggle to stand and thrice fall, drenched in the rain. The pantomime being enacted had all the makings of a Chaplinesque comedy on screen, except that this was not reel life but real life: so comedy turned to tragedy.On Binet’s Formula
The formula of Binet for the Fibonacci sequence for the nth Fibonacci number presents an excellent example to showcase the same mathematical result, arrived at from quite different approaches and perspectives, demonstrating the self-consistency of mathematics.Demystifying Fractional Powers
It is incredible how a simple question about the square root symbol and an exploration of fractional exponentials can lead us through a spellbinding journey of discovery, and ultimately open the vistas of advanced mathematics. Who would have guessed that the cube root of \(-8\) would have one real and two complex roots? Or that \(z^6 - 1\) would have roots that are multiples of \(\omega\) and \(\omega^5\)? Mathematics can be engrossing and endlessly fascinating as long as we are bold and patient enough to engage with it. The rewards are enormous and often totally unexpected.