Who killed the dinosaurs?

Sankar Chatterjee -- an Indian origin professor at the Texas Tech University has propounded a theory recently, to explain the extinction of dinosaurs from earth almost 65 million years ago. Chatterjee’s hypothesis is that a crater -- that he has named Shiva -- resulted in widespread destruction and mass extinction, thereby speeding up the departure of the dinosaurs from the planet. His theory is still being discussed and evaluated. But, it has once again brought into focus the tantalising mystery of the disappearance of the dinosaurs.

Click here to read about the dinosaur whodunit.

How the Berlin Wall fell

It was an event that signalled the end of an era. But, twenty years later, here’s a piquant point – the Berlin Wall actually fell because of a communication gap. In a new column for the Sunday Times of India, called 'Past Prism', I explored the reason for the fall of the Berlin Wall, incorporating accounts from people who were actually there as well as the lessons that the event currently has, for those in the Indian sub-continent.

Click here to read the new column.

The world of vernacular science fiction

It's a little known fact that science fiction in regional Indian languages is quite a popular genre. There are writers in Bangla, Kannada, Tamil, Marathi etc who are writing science fiction stories and some of them are doing quite well too. I spoke with a cross-spectrum of vernacular sci-fi authors -- on the perils, challenges and opportunities that their craft entails. The following story resulted.

Click here to read about the galaxy of regional sci-fi writers.