Satish Bhalerao

Cricketer Rahul Dravid once said, "There are many formulas of success and I might be knowing only one or few of them". I agree to his statement. With this cautious note I write about few courses, which I know. Many students confront a question, what is after BA? This article is to make aware students about some institutions and courses available in Mumbai city for students having Bachelor of Arts Degree. 1.  TATA INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES  ( Deonar / Gownadi ) This institution is well-known across India. It offers plethora of course to arts students. It conducts a National Eligibility test for selecting students  Courses Available : Master of Arts in Education (Elementary)   [  View Details  ] Master of Arts (Development Studies) [  View Details  ] Master of Arts (Women's Studies) [  View Details  ] Master of Arts / Master of Sciences (Environment, Climate Change and Sustainability Studies) [  View Detail...

Some members of Maratha caste often write Patil or Deshmukh before or after their surname. In fact, in the time of identity and superiority assertion, some have replaced their surname and write only Patil or Deshmukh in the place of their surname. I tried to figure out meaning of these two surnames. I found that Patil and Deshmukh were designations during feudal era, in Maharashtra and nearby areas.   In simple terms, the Patils and Deshmukhs used to be head of village and Pargana (district), respectively. This Patils and Deshmukhs would be from any caste, but mostly from agrarian community which nowadays claims itself Maratha by caste. (And in this discussion, I will limit to them only.) In the course of time, these two attempted to assert that they are different from other Marathas. This assertion has given rise to subcastes within Maratha caste, i.e. Patil Marathas and Deshmukh Marathas. You will find a Deshmukh family in a village very rarely and many Patil families, as t...

I have read about two well-known British scholars who were extremely interested in society, in general and biology in their life: Herbert Spencer and Richard Dawkins. However, Herbert Spencer perished or became least relevant due to, inter alia, his ‘cerebral hygiene’ i.e. unwillingness to read others writings. But this is not a case with Dawkins. In his autobiography he has given some footnotes with useful references and further readings i.e. his web page. Isn't it strange to have footnotes in a biography?  This book published in 2013, contains 15 chapters, all of them written in chronological order. In the beginning you would find a genealogical tree of Dawkins family: both maternal and paternal. Stories before his birth and of early childhood are also there in book, thanks to his mother’s dairy. In fact, in first few chapters he should have named his mother as co-author. There are chapters devoted to his early schooling, preparatory schooling, schooling, college days and...