Why Is India Still Dirty?

March 23, 2026March 24, 2026 selvam Current Activity, Varia

If you have lived outside India for many decades, as in my case, landing again on Indian soil can be striking. The airports are modern, efficient, and impressive. Wow, Bharat Mata ki Jai!

As you drive outside the airport, however, two things hit you hard even as you admire the expanding infrastructure. They hit you very hard, undeniably hard: noise and dirt. India is noisy. India is still dirty.

The discomfort turns into embarrassment when travelling with foreign guests. The shame hits an epic-peak when the guest happens to be a German, as I realised in February 2026. We travelled from Trivandrum to Kanyakumari to Chennai to Delhi.

Kanyakumari district is simply dirty. One could blame it on the tourists. But cities such as Chennai and Delhi present a more complex […]

My contribution to Sunday Nation, Kenya

April 12, 2020October 25, 2020 selvam Articles/Chapters, Varia

{{unknown}}
26 April 2020
Covid-19 tests self-learning skills of students today

Covid-19 pandemic has challenged the status quo of the contemporary society on several fronts. Its impact has been felt across almost every aspect of life, including healthcare services, economics, entertainment industry and sports, work and family life, and in religious and educational practices. Amidst these global disruptions, the winners have been the contemporary twins, Information Technology (IT) and internet.

On the education front, the immediate focus has been on providing an emergency response, to keep the learning going remotely via the internet. If our investment of resources right now just targets a stop gap measure, we might miss an opportunity to make a systemic change to education. Covid-19 has thrust us by force, as it were, into how education ought to be carried out […]

Epiphany Video

January 6, 2017January 6, 2017 selvam Current Activity, Varia

Youth Development in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities

March 13, 2015 selvam Current Activity, Talks & Presentations, Varia, Youth Research

DSC_0008_4 Youth Development in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities
My presentation on 9 March 2015, at a joint teleconference between Institute of Youth Studies at Tangaza University College, Kenya and the Institute of Family Studies at the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland.
The purpose of the paper was to provoke some discussion among the students of both the institutions.
Preliminary Remarks
0.1. It could come as a surprise to some of my listeners that the speaker this afternoon is not an African. This is the advantage that scientific method offers us. A person from anywhere could scientifically look at a global or local phenomenon anywhere using the methodology of science. This said, having lived in two countries in the African continent for the past 23 years, and having travelled across the continent visiting at least 10 other countries, […]

A Tribute to Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)

August 31, 2013October 5, 2013 selvam Varia

Digging

BY SEAMUS HEANEY

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.
The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.
By God, the old man could handle a spade.
Just like his old man.
My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner’s bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.
The cold smell of potato […]