Jeyapaul Caleb

Author: Jeyapaul Caleb

  • When Christians get on an Ayodhya project

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    22nd January, 2024 was an important day for Hindus. The Ram temple at Ayodhya was dedicated, fulfilling the dreams of so many Hindus worldwide who desired a temple for Ram at the site where the Babri Mosque once stood. Being the birthplace of Ram, the temple is dedicated to Ram lalla, or the infant Ram.…

  • Daily Newsings: 28th May

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Daily Newsings are musings on the daily news. For today’s Newsing, we look at Spain, Ireland and Norway choosing to extend recognition to the Palestinian state. This is significant because these are Western European nations who have done so, and they historically were close allies to Israel. This is an indication that the European Union…

  • Daily Newsings: 27th May

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Daily Newsings are musings on the daily news. Two gruesome tragedies on Saturday have shaken the country — a fire in a hospital in Delhi on Saturday, which left 6 newborn babies dead, and a fire at a gaming arcade in Rajkot in Gujarat, which killed 28 people. In the first story, the hospital’s license…

  • Daily Newsings: 17th May

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Daily Newsings are musings on the daily news. Indian football’s greatest player of recent times has just announced his retirement. Sunil Chhetri scored 94 goals for India in 150 international matches over a period spanning nearly 19 years, and on 6th June this year he will sing his swan song. Sunil Chhetri was truly a…

  • Daily Newsings: 16th May

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Daily Newsings are musings on the daily news. Today’s big story is the release of Prabir Puryakastha on bail after being imprisoned under the Unlawful Activites (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for more than 7 months. Prabir Puryakastha is the founder of the news portal Newsclick. He was arrested on October 3, 2023, under the allegation that…

  • Daily Newsings: 15th May

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Daily Newsings are musings on the daily news. The big story for today is Prime Minister Narendra Modi filing his nomination papers on Tuesday for the elections to the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat. Let us consider the manner in which he filed his papers. He started his day by offering prayers at the Ganga and…

  • Daily Newsings: 14th May

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Daily Newsings are musings on the daily news. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced the results for grades 10 and 12 on Monday. The percentage of students who have passed the examinations has increased marginally compared to last year. Over the last 8 decades since the country got its independence, India has made…

  • Daily Newsings: 13th May

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Daily Newsings are musings on the daily news. For today’s newsing, we look at the report released by the Kota district administration that around 300 PGs and hostels are yet to install a spring device on their ceiling fans. This is in violation of a regulatory mandate to all the hostels and PGs in the…

  • Not in full-time ministry? You’re not a Christian

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Every individual follower of Jesus is called to be in “full-time ministry.” Allow me to explain. The word ministry means service. The first servant of the country is called the Prime Minister. The phrase “full-time ministry” means “full-time service.” Someone who serves all the time. The Bible’s demands upon the Christian The Bible instructs all disciples of Jesus to be in full-time service. Let us look at Galatians…

  • Daily Newsings: 10th May

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Daily Newsings are musings on the daily news. For today’s newsing we look at the political row that has erupted over the FIR filed against BJP leaders in West Bengal, alleging that the rape and sexual assault charges in Sandeshkhali were falsified. These developments have taken place a day after Trinamool Congress took to social…

  • Daily Newsings: 9th May

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Daily Newsings are musings on the daily news. For today’s Newsing, we look at two reports — firstly, the Copernicus Report has stated that this April was the warmest April at least since 1940, and secondly, Zia Haq, for the Hindustan Times, reports that the hot summer has been driving up vegetable prices. The combination…

  • Daily Newsings: 8th May

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Daily Newsings are musings on the daily news. For today’s newsing, we look at a story in page 2 of the Bengaluru edition of the Hindustan Times titled “It’s our time to demand change for gig workers.” The story is about the millions-strong cohort of gig workers across India. These are the delivery partners working…

  • Daily Newsings: 7th May

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Daily Newsings are musings on the daily news. For today’s Newsing, we look at a story in today’s edition of The Hindustan Times, titled ‘For Indian students in the West, a souring of dreams.’ Rajkamal Rao writes about the number of Indian students who are trying to emigrate to the Western countries, and especially the…

  • Daily Newsings: 6th May

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Daily Newsings are musings on the daily news. For today’s Newsing, we are looking at one of the ongoing electoral issues that the Congress and the BJP are sparring over — the issue of quotas. On Sunday, Rahul Gandhi said at an election rally in Telengana that the BJP wishes to do away with reservations…

  • Daily Newsings: 3rd May

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Daily Newsings are musings on the daily news. Today’s newsing is on the Prajwal Revanna sex scandal and how we as Christians can mourn, hope and fight.

  • Daily Newsings: 2nd May

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Daily Newsings are musings on the daily news. For today’s story, we look at a report on today’s edition of The Hindu titled “Budgets and Bills passed with little deliberation.” The report shows that in at least 3 states, more than 75% of bills were passed without any discussion in the legislative assembly. The report…

  • Daily Newsings: 1st May

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Who are our cities for? In today’s edition of The Hindu, we see an article that raises the question: who are our cities for? The article, written by Aravind Unni and Shalini Sinha, talks about the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act. It is an Act that came into effect…

  • Daily Newsings: 30th April

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    In today’s edition of The Hindu newspaper, two stories are quite interesting. The first story is about the warming of the Indian Ocean. According to an upcoming publication, the Indian Ocean had become warmer by 1.2 degrees Celsius between 1950 and 2020. Moreover, it is predicted to heat up a further 1.7 degrees Celsius to…

  • Daily Newsings: 29th April

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Political parties in India promise to do a number of things if they are voted to power. The list of these promises is published in the form of an ‘election manifesto.’ The Congress’ election manifesto, the Nyaya Patra, has a number of promises that bode really well for the country if implemented well. I’d like to highlight 2 of these promises…

  • Does it really make a difference?

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    The more that we read about the state of affairs in our country, the more we tend to lose hope. It is easy to say that every vote matters, but let’s be honest. At the end of the day, a single vote may not make the difference. Vote margins between those who win and those…

  • But what’s the salary like

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Whenever careers or jobs are being discussed, one of the common questions people ask is “What is the pay like?” Or perhaps it might be, “What is the scope of the field?” or “What are the opportunities in such a field?” The pattern of the world is to ask, “How much can I earn?… What’s…

  • We all desire Ram Rajya

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    One of the biggest events of the year 2024 was the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. This is the culmination of one of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s long-held hopes. The journey, which began in the 90s with the destruction of the Babri Mosque has finally ended for the BJP. But why does the…

  • We all want purity

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    On the 1st of January, 2 temples in Gollirahatti village in Karnataka were shut down after a Dalit had entered the village. The reason? Purification rituals needed to be done before the temple could be opened again. Wait. What? The Flawed logic of the system Why does the upper caste care so much about caste?…

  • Log kya kahenge: How the gospel frees us from the fear of man

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    There are a number of things that are done in our society because if we don’t do it, “what will people say” or “what will people think”. Or we avoid doing things because “What will people think?” Why disapproval of performance is bad news People may not approve of what we do or say. And…

  • Hope does not always wear a smile

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Silent night… Holy night… All is calm… All is bright… Sleep in heavenly peace. And yet, what about Manipur? What about Myanmar? Palestine? Ukraine? There is so little silence, so little calm, so little peace. Very often we sanitize the Christmas story. We make it sound neat and tidy. Yet, according to the Bible, Jesus…

  • Towers of Unity

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    At a height of 182 metres stands the tallest structure in the world — titled, quite interestingly, the ‘Statue of Unity.’ It is a statue of the first home minister of independent India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. It was erected and sponsored by the very government under whose watch one of the worst communal riots of…

  • Gospel Renewal of the Secular Indian

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    India is secularizing Although the Indian Constituent Assembly adopted secularism as a fundamental principle of the country right during the framing of the Constitution, the idea of secularism has only begun seeping into the everyday lives of citizens rather recently. Let us look at two reasons why the country is secularising: The impact of urbanization…

  • YOLO (You Only Live Once) – Do what makes you happy

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    The battle cry of a generation! That’s how American actor Andy Samberg described the phrase YOLO!  It is true after all. You only live once. But so what? What are the implications of the truth that you only live once? This is how my generation understands it. Since you only live once, you should only…

  • Teaching as an Act of Love: Creating a Culture of Flourishing

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Just got done with a tiring school day. Let’s run through the to-do list once again: Sounds overwhelming? Welcome to the life of a school teacher! How do we maintain our sanity amid such chaos? I think many teachers ask themselves the same question on a sadly regular basis. One powerful motivator that can help…

  • Addressing the Challenge Posed by Stray Dogs with Justice and Compassion

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    With an estimated 6.2 crore stray dogs, horror stories of dog-human conflicts, and around 18000 rabies-related deaths in the country, the issue of stray dogs is a real and pressing issue.

  • A Christian’s Response to a Story of Injustice

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Christianity often does not have clear cut easy answers to difficult questions. The Biblical response to the question of injustice is a case in point. How do we respond when we find gross injustice in the world?

  • Festivals, Power and Violence: The church as an island of refuge

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Citizens of the kingdom of God are called to be peacemakers. They are called to be apostles of peace — ‘sent’ by their King — the Prince of Peace. But how do we do that in the midst of violence and strife?

  • On the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as an MP and why democracy matters

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    As the country continues to talk about the leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi, being removed from Parliament, I thought it might be appropriate to talk about why democracy still matters.

  • Amritpal will not save Punjab

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Amritpal Singh is just one of the countless false prophets who have risen among humanity. They have a glimmer of truth but lack the whole truth. The whole truth can only be found in Jesus.

  • Being Merry on Christmas

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    I have often struggled with not being all that visibly excited about the season. But I think that’s okay. It is perhaps alright if we can count it as joy, to use the words of our brother James. So then the question is this: How do we count Christmas as merry or happy? Right accounting…

  • Christmas as Hope for a Power-Hungry Humanity

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Will we always be a people that is so caught up in our idolatry of self to our own destruction and loss of identity and purpose?

  • Examining Waste: What Does Our Garbage Say About Our Love for God?

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    For Christians who seek to glorify God in all aspects of life, the humble garbage bag asks us a few important questions.

  • How should Christians think about reservation policies?

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Governments can certainly frame laws and policies that directly rebel against God. But the majority of laws and policies that entangle our lives are not of this nature. How should Christians think through these complex grey areas?

  • The identity and mission of the disciples of Jesus

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Disciples of Jesus do not have to wonder long about their identity and mission. In chapter 17 of John’s gospel, we find the Master explicitly stating the identity and mission of his disciples.

  • 75 years of Independent India

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    As India marks its 75th Independence day, it is a good occasion to reflect on God’s love that has sustained this nation!

  • Is a steady stream of social media diet good for us?

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    What do we become by feeding ourselves a steady dose of algorithm-curated social media content? Do we control social media or does it control us?

  • What I learnt from writing 30 articles in 30 days

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Over the past few years I’ve had many failed attempts at building a regular habit of writing. This current experiment which started on September 8 has been a bit more fruitful so far. I have been writing an article a day for the past 30 weekdays (including Saturday as a weekday). The average number of…

  • Why are we curious? And how can we be more curious?

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Herbert A Simon, the noted Economist, gave a talk at Carnegie Mellon University in 1992 which was titled “The Cat that Curiosity Couldn’t Kill.” It is a rather interesting (and slightly humorous) read into how and why scientists study things. He said that curiosity is not just the beginning of all science, it is also…

  • Lego Blocks and Buildings: Does art need structure?

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    During my Undergraduate years, I dabbled with quite a bit of poetry and especially the spoken word variety. One of the recurring ideas I used to think about during those days were about rhymes and how forced rhymes are really bad. As a Literature student, I also studied about rhythm and meter and I always…

  • To learn better you must teach: Importance of Articulation in learning

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    One of the popular methods of learning a new subject is what is known as the Feynman Technique. Numerous books and blogs talk about the method. It is said that Richard Feynman, The Nobel Prize winning Physicist only considered to have learned something if he could give an introductory lecture on it.(P85, How to Take…

  • Are we using too many apps without thinking about the consequences

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    For a number of years now I have heard arguments and debates about technology. Is TV good or bad? Is the Internet good or bad? And for the longest time I had assumed that technology was neutral. It was a tool. And you could use the tool for constructive or for destructive purposes. However, as…

  • The Skills of Abstraction and Specification

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Each one of us has been taught to brush our teeth at a very young age. Now we might have been taught to do so using a green brush or a blue brush (or a brush of some other colour). Today if we were given a brush of a different colour that doesn’t mean we…

  • 3 Questions to ask yourself to maintain your mental health online

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    We are 2 decades into the 21st century, and the world is growing increasingly digital. I remember discussions from our journalism class less than ten years back where we discussed the possibilities of citizen journalism and the internet for building a meaningful discourse in society. A single peek into any social networking site, and those…

  • The Tools we use and how they shape us

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Neil Postman in 1985 wrote that Television had changed the public discourse of the USA. Whereas for the past many years the culture of the country was shaped by written literature, ever since the Television came people began to think in terms of meaningless images rather than thinking in terms of propositions and arguments. I…

  • Telegram and the paradox of free speech

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Telegram is a messaging app that presents an interesting riddle for our brains. When there were pro-democracy movements in Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, the authoritarian ruler, blocked access for days on end to websites and messaging services, but Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, ensured that Telegram remained online. In oppressive regimes, Telegram helps pro-democracy protestors.…

  • Focus on the big idea!

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Educationists often talk about the question of curriculum. It is common to hear teachers lament the constant pressure to cover the syllabus. This is rather unfortunate, because the goal of education shouldn’t be to cover a lot of things, but rather to uncover the few important things. How then do we decide what are the…

  • Hitler, Churchill, Kardashian, and why we study poetry

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    A few months ago I was gripped by an almost existential question – why do we teach poetry. I call this existential because as an English teacher (in-training), teaching poetry was a large part of what I had chosen to do for the rest of my life. And yet, try as I might, I found…

  • Illusions and survivorship bias

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Most of us have seen optical illusions. Often these are fun exercises. But why do we keep falling for such illusions? It is because our minds are seeing and interpreting the vision at the same time. The brain is using past experience to fill in the gaps and find reference points for what we’re seeing.…

  • Environments that foster creativity

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    I recently started reading the book, “Flow and the Psychology of Creativity” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. One of the lines I found really interesting was this: It is easier to enhance creativity by changing conditions in the environment than by trying to make people think more creatively. This comes in the context of constantly coming across…

  • Don’t Chase After Happiness

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    An interesting fact of life is that one rarely finds happiness by looking for it. I’ve been coming across this idea in many different places – a couple of books, a YouTube video and an article I read today. Although the sources present the idea in different contexts, they all contain the same idea. Let…

  • Why you need to take notes as a student of the Social Sciences

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    I’m sure all of us know that feeling of sitting down to do your assignment and half an hour later the page has one word: “Introduction” Writing lengthy essays for College is not easy. This is especially true if you are a student of the Social Sciences (I don’t really know how Engineering or Medical…

  • The Invisible Nature of Money

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Over this week I came across a very interesting book titled “Thank God for Bitcoin.” I haven’t finished it yet, but I have a strong suspicion I may not entirely agree with all of the authors’ positions. And yet the book has been quite interesting to read. The authors explore the very nature of the…

  • Critical Reading: Try to be a filter not a sponge

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    The phrase try to be a filter not a sponge is a line from the book Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I read the book a few years ago and that one line has stuck with me through these years. But how exactly does one do that? As many of you readers…

  • Why you need to take breaks

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    We all know that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Interestingly, it also makes Jack generally bad at his work – or studies if he is a student. A number of articles have been written about how the pandemic and Work-from-home has made many of us into 24/7 employees. But what…

  • Become the architect of your own life

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    The title for today’s blog post comes from a line in the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. He is speaking about the powerful effect that environment has on behaviour. In fact, Clear argues that environment is often a better predictor of behaviour than motivation. (page 86) If that is indeed the case, how do…

  • Opportunity Cost and the Finitude of Each day

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    A few days ago I read an excellent article titled “Hundreds of ways to get (stuff) done and we still don’t” by Clive Thompson on Wired. I may have censored the title a bit. 😛 Thompson talks about the huge number of apps that exist today to enable us to manage our tasks. And yet,…

  • Read 15 minutes a day

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    One of my favourite authors of recent times has been John Piper. In one of his books (I don’t remember which), he talks about the habit of reading. To be more specific he addresses a challenge that many people who do not habitually read face. Reading is a skill that can be developed Many people…

  • Why Copying is good

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Hunter S Thompson is said to have typed out entire pages of the novel, “The Great Gatsby” by Scott Fitzgerald. Thompson did this to get a feel of writing a really great novel. This was a method of learning for him. We often tend to think of copying as an evil that is part of…

  • Parkinson’s Law and some strategies to deal with it

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Writing a blog post a day has not been easy and I have technically already failed (since it is past 12). And so this is just a continuation of a post from two days ago where I spoke about how I submitted assignments on time for the first time. Parkinson’s Law is essentially a theory…

  • Loneliness and the uncertainty of making friends

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Loneliness is a very big challenge. And especially in recent times, things seems to be getting worse. I have been reading some interesting articles on various aspects of the issue. And here are some of my thoughts on a few of them. The Looking Glass Self and our wrong beliefs This week in our Sociology…

  • For the first time I submitted (most of) my assignments on time

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Anyone who has known me for a relatively long time knows that I do not have a great track record when it comes to finishing work on time. However, recently for the first time I submitted most of my assignments on time. One of the strategies that helped me do this was to break up…

  • Why I am scared of Zuckerberg

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    “What I’m excited about is helping people deliver and experience a much stronger sense of presence with the people they care about.”1 When Mark Zuckerberg says these lines, I can’t help but feel scared. But why? Isn’t social media such a wonderful tool for connecting with people? Social Media and the lone scroller Marion Fourcade…

  • The ordinary discipline of showing up daily

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    A year or so back I had watched a Matt D’Avella video where he said, “start before you think you’re ready.” Starting my blogging journey on 8 September on a random Wednesday did not seem dramatic enough. But I had procrastinated enough. I had to start writing. Today is the fourth day since then. I’m…

  • The surprising benefits of rules

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    One of the interesting paradoxes in life is that having more rules actually leads to greater freedom and greater prosperity in most areas of life. Let us look at a five such areas.

  • Lessons for academics from the world of athletics

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Sports can teach us so many things about studying and doing academic work. Here are 3 things I have recently been thinking about.

  • Education and Technological Tools

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Imagine driving a Ferrari and not knowing where to go! And yet, when it comes to education through technology, this is what most of us do. We need to focus on the process, not the tool.

  • Mr Iglesias – reasons why I liked the show

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    Mr Iglesias was a show that Netflix recommended to me around a year back. And in all honesty, I really loved the show. So what was it that made the show so memorable to me? Firstly, I think it appealed to me since I am a teacher too. While the context that Mr Iglesias taught…

  • Was I a smart student and did that matter?

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    All of us have probably come across the acronym IQ at least once in our lives. It is also highly likely that we have used it in some context or the other. What does it really mean and how do we understand it?  Most of us understand IQ to be a measurement of intellectual potential or capability. But how does one measure…

  • Why do we go to school

    —

    by

    Jeyapaul Caleb

    We often do things in life without thinking about why we do them. Going to school has become a part of life in many societies. When children reach a certain age, they are sent to school. In India, most of us may be able to give an answer to the why question. But our answers…

Follow us on Social Media