Vinay Kumaran

  A few years ago I discovered a site called Quora. I searched for something on Google and it took me to an answer on Quora. For those who are not familiar with it, Quora is a site where people can post questions and other people can answer them. I found it intriguing and looked at some of the questions and the answers posted. Some of the answers looked vague and long drawn. More an attempt to seek attention than a real answer to the question by someone who knows about the subject. I created an account and answered some of the simple medical questions. Apparently, people like simple factual answers. If people like your answers they upvote them. Depending on how many of you answers are read and how many are upvoted, you can become an expert on a topic. Soon I was an expert on about 20 different topics ranging from liver transplantation to astronomy to Terry Pratchett to cricket. By now I was also posting answers to questions about politics (still brief and factual) and religion (ditto).

I was talking to one of my fellows the other day. There was a discussion about dietary restrictions. He was surprised to hear that I have no religious affiliation and no dietary restrictions. He was under the impression that most Indians are Hindus and vegetarian. He told me that most Japanese people do not have a religious affiliation which, in turn, surprised me. My only visit to Japan was to Kyoto and most of the 'places to see' there seemed to be Buddhist temples. In any case, my thoughts turned to the manifest fact that much of the irrational human behavior of the modern age seems to be rooted in religion. Objections to abortion and stem cell research in the US, the fact that nobody from a minority religion or without religious affiliation has ever been elected to a major leadership position here, the conflicts between India and Pakistan, the middle east situation, Israel and the Arabic countries, the list goes on. In history too, some of the greatest crimes committed by

I am not patriotic. I don't think 'my' country is the best country in the world. I don't even think it's useful to think of any country as the best in the world. I'm not even completely on board with the idea of countries. The idea that you can draw an imaginary line on a map and that people on one side of the line are somehow different from people on the other side seems strange to me. There are good things everywhere and there are problems everywhere. Wherever we find ourselves, there are things we can do to make life better for everyone, or worse. That's the only choice that makes sense. When I finished my fellowship, I returned to India because that's where I had skills that were needed. Now, after working in India for 12 years, I find that the skills I acquired there are more useful in the US where they're scarce so I find myself back in the US.  There are serious problems in both countries, beginning with the leaders they have elected. Those a

I must admit I have trouble understanding the appeal of religions. When I was a child, I was told the tales of Hindu religion. The stories were enormously entertaining.  Hindu Gods were like the Avengers or the X-Men. Different Gods had different superpowers. Ram and Arjun were great shots with the bow and arrow. Bhim was like ' The Thing' from the Fantastic Four, immensely strong but not very intelligent.  Hanuman was like Superman, he could fly and lift mountains and swallow the sun accidentally. However, it soon became evident that the world of the Gods was a fantasy world. In the real world, people were good or bad on a spectrum and there were not necessarily consequences to either being good or being bad. Good people and even children not yet old enough to decide whether to be good or bad could suffer and die. Bad people could prosper and enjoy the fruits of their evil through long luxurious lives and nothing supernatural ever happened. Prayer, no matter how sincere, (an

I must admit I gave up on 'War and Peace' many times. I started reading it, got mired in the number of characters with unfamiliar names, was put off by the clunky English of the translation and confused by the sheer proliferation of Princes. To me, a Prince is the son of a King but apparently the Russian word which was translated into 'Prince' by an uninspired translator means merely the son of a member of the nobility. In any case, I started several times and got distracted by another faster moving book and by the time I got back I realized that I had lost track of the characters (who had not yet done anything to distinguish themselves) and would have to start all over again. I asked my friend, Rajesh Behl, whether it was actually worth persisting. He said 'yes, it's worth it.' Perhaps I still would not have focused on it long enough if it had not been for a break from work of nearly 6 months during which I moved from India to the US and waited for the v

The right wing in politics is in the ascendant all over the world. In India, it is represented by the BJP and Modi, in the US by the Republican Party and Trump and in the UK by the Tories and Brexit. Erdogan in Turkey is another example. The right wing is comprised of otherwise normal people. Many of them are intelligent and have done well in their professions. They tend to be less educated, more religious and older than the left wing but that's a statistical measure. There are representatives from all ages and all levels of education. There is an excellent book by Jonathan Haidt called "The Righteous Mind" which attempts to analyse how the right wingers think and is well worth a read. It is obviously futile to dismiss right wing politics as 'short-sighted', 'self-serving' and 'cruel'. That strategy does not work and the fact is that they are in the ascendant. It is important to understand how they think so that a viable way forward can be fou