Who is Zaid Hamid?
So, I turn to you, my collective hive brain. Who is this “Dr.” “Prof.” Zaid Hamid? He has, from most accounts, secured a niche similar to Glenn Beck in Pakistani media – combining ultra-nationalism with a taste for finding Zionist or Hindu involvement in the Pakistani sphere. Here he explains, for example, what truths lie behind “conspiracy theories”: “We are against the Zionist politics of the Brahmanical elite”. Alrighty then. Some other hair-raising stuff here with Ali Azmat. He is also, through his privately produced program Brass Tacks,

Kulwant Roy
Who among us hasn’t dreamed of unearthing rare historical treasures in old cast-aside trunks? Ok, maybe you haven’t but I stay up all night dreaming such scenarios. Jeremy Kahn, Kulwant Roy: Indian history in a yellow crate of negatives, NYT, Tuesday, June 17, 2008. Also, some of the photos are on Outlook India. I especially loved this one, with the caption:

C-A-F-F-E-E
A german nursery rhyme, that I just found. I need coffee, desperately. C-a-f-f-e-e / C-o-f-f-e-e C-a-f-f-e-e / C-o-f-f-e-e trink nicht so viel Caffee! / Don’t drink so much coffee nicht für Kinder ist der Türkentrank / Not for children is this Turkish drink schwächt die Nerven / Weakens your nerves macht dich blaß lassen und krank / makes you pale and sick Sei doch kein Muselmann / Don’t be a Muslim der das nicht lassen kann! / who cannot leave it – Carl Gottlieb H

Word
Charles Taylor, The philosopher-citizen: In our time, we can almost fear that the public intellectual is an endangered species. On the one hand, the role can be trivialized by the proliferation of collective petitions for fashionable causes which it is very easy to sign. On the other, in the making of policy the intellectual is often replaced by the expert, master of some narrow field, who is rarely asked to decide on the use to be made of his expertise. In this world, Jürgen Habermas stands out as a shining example of the philosopher-citizen, two roles indissolubly linked in a figure of gr

Delhi Sultanate
Ok, this is like catnip to me, you know? I just cannot resist. Taru Dalmia aka Delhi Sultanate transplanted from Germany to Hindoostan, lays them slow. I especially like Mental Slavery but ’tis not on youtube. Check it. [h/t Jahnavi P.]