The Ink-uilab Index (Ch. 16)
Dearest readers,
Recently, I was confronted with a somewhat audacious question: “What is your newsletter about?” I began listing out some themes and realized, I myself did not have an answer. Even the newsletter’s own description, crafted with deliberate ambiguity, states: “Ink-uilab is a collection of variegated reads and verse, curiosities and commonplaces, interspaced with commentary and critique.” But, what does this even mean?
Here’s an attempt to actually figure out what Ink-uilab is about. In lieu of a traditional chapter (however one defines that), I present to you the Ink-uilab index - or a compendium, a digital dictionary, a commonplace book, the timeline of the Ink-uilab cinematic universe, a list of alphabetized words, a waste of time, and the library of (psycho-)Babel. As any discerning social scientist would attest, one must first gather data before delving into its analysis. Here I present to you a snapshot of Ink-uilab, raw data on the various themes, characters, places, and media that we have touched upon. Perhaps in the coming month, we could run some regressions on this data and forecast the topics of the future chapter. Even better, we could just feed this index into a LLM and let it take over, mindlessly churning out a post every month. (While its punctuality might outshine mine, its prose may lack a particular panache.)
Without further ado, here’s the Ink-uilab Index!
**Note: This is a live-page, and I will be updating it with entries for every chapter.
A
Adiga, Gopalakrishna: Kannada poet [ch. 4]
Air India
and its mascot [ch. 9]
Akhnaten: Egyptian pharaoh [ch. 11]
Akhtar, Begum: Indian ghazal singer and actress
Akkadian
Albania
under Hoxha [ch. 3]
Ali, Agha Shahid: Indian-born Kashmiri-American poet
Ali, Mukhtiyar: Indian Sufi folk singer [ch. 6]
Allende, Salvador: Chilean physician and socialist politician
Altruism
and earning to give [ch. 4]
Al-Mulk, Nizam: Persian scholar, jurist, political philosopher, and Vizier
and the Siyasatnama [ch. 5]
Amin, Idi: Ugandan military dictator and politician
and his title and regime [ch. 5]
Anderson, Wes: American filmmaker
Andree, Salomon August: Swedish engineer, physicist, aeronaut and explorer [ch. 8]
Antiquities
and theft [ch. 3]
Anthems
National / Political [ch. 18]
Aranda, Luis Jiménez: Spanish-born French painter [ch. 6]
Archives
Artificial Intelligence
and writing literature [ch. 5]
Armstrong, Neil: American astronaut, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, aviator, and professor [ch. 8]
Atatürk, Mustafa Kemal: Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, and author
on his name [ch. 5]
Ayaz, Fareed & Abu Mohammad: Qawwali musicians [ch. 17]
B
Balloons
and nostalgia [ch. 4]
Bellingcat: Investigative journalism and open-source intelligence group [ch. 2]
Benjamin, Walter: German philosopher, cultural critic, and essayist.
on unpacking his library [ch. 6]
Bionics [ch. 5]
Bollywood
Bombay (or Mumbai)
Books
Borges, Juan Luis: Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator
and the Library of Babel [ch. 5]
Bukhara: [ch. 8]
Bukowski, Charles: American Poet [ch. 2]
Bulleh Shah: Punjabi mystic and bhakti-sufi poet [ch. 17]
Bulgakov, Mikhail
on writing [ch. 15]
Bowie, David: English singer-songwriter and musician
and Portuguese covers of his music [ch. 8]
C
Cafes
and Brittania and Co. [ch. 9]
Carver, Terrel: Political Theorist [ch. 18]
Chhatari, Muhammad Ahmad Khan: politician and Nawabi minister [ch. 9]
Chernyshevsky, Nikolai: Russian critic, novelist, and utopian socialist philosopher,
on ‘What is to be done?’ [ch. 4]
Chandna, Rishi: Indian filmmaker [ch. 6]
Chekov, Anton
on his career [ch. 15]
Chickens
as pets [ch. 6]
Chile
and experiments with socialism [ch. 5]
Chilli, Sheikh: stock jester of South Asian folk tales [ch. 10]
Christ, Jesus
and his wife (?) [ch. 3]
Churchill, Winston: British statesman, soldier, and writer
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor: English poet, critic, philosopher, and theologian [ch. 12]
Collectors
Colonialism
Communism
Communalism
and Babri Masjid [ch. 6]
Container Ships
as art [ch. 3]
Constanzo, Anthony Roth: American countertenor, actor, and producer [ch. 11]
Cornford, F.M.: English classical scholar and translator [ch. 13]
Cousteau, Jacques: French oceanographer, explorer, and filmmaker [ch. 8]
Crooke, William: British orientalist [ch. 10]
Cumberbatch, Benedict
reading Kubla Khan [ch. 12]
Curation
the art of [ch. 6]
Cybernetics [ch. 5]
D
Dall-E [ch. 5]
Death
book of, Egyptian [ch. 11]
Devi, Swarnakumari: Indian poet, novelist, artist, social activist [ch. 14]
Diaspora
R. Parthasarathy on exile [ch. 10]
Documentary
Dyson, Freeman: theoretical physicist and mathematician [ch. 12]
E
Egypt
ancient [ch. 11]
Elliot, T. S.: American poet, critic, essayist, editor, and publisher [ch. 8]
Etymology
of the plum etc. [ch. 8]
Erdős, Paul: Hungarian mathematician [ch. 12]
Existentialism
and the American university [ch. 4]
Explorers
and their motivations [ch. 8]
Ezekeil, Nizzim: Indian Jewish poet, actor, playwright, editor and art critic
on Brittania and Co. [ch. 9]
F
France
descriptions of [ch. 12]
Freuchen, Peter: Danish explorer, author, journalist and anthropologist [ch. 8]
G
Gaddis, John Lewis
on the patterns of history [ch. 13]
Gandhara [ch. 3]
Gandhi, Anand: Indian filmmaker,
Ship of Theseus (film) [ch. 12]
Gandhi, Supriya: historian of Mughal India [ch. 2]
Gender Inequality
in the Indian labour force [ch. 1]
Ghazals
Gilgamesh, Epic of [ch. 11]
Glass, Philip: American composer and pianist
and Akhnaten [ch. 11]
Godard, Jean-Luc: Franco-Swiss film director, screenwriter, film critic, and radical
on ‘What is to be done?’ [ch. 4]
Gorakhnath: Indian mystic saint [ch. 6]
Great Man Theory
and the Shahnameh [ch. 13]
Guha, Ramachandra: Indian historian, environmentalist, and writer
H
Hasan Mehdi, British-American journalist [ch. 13]
Heti, Sheila: Canadian writer [ch. 5]
Heyerdahl, Thor: Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer [ch. 8]
Hikmet, Nâzım [ch. 14]
Hill Stations [ch. 14]
Hillary, Edmund: New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist [ch. 8]
Holub, Miroslav: Czech poet and immunologist [ch. 5]
Hope, Laurence: English poet [ch. 13]
Hugo, Victor: French Romantic poet, novelist, and dramatist
and eccentric habits [ch. 2]
I
Index: [ch. 16]
Internationale
the song [ch. 18]
Inspiration
Iqbal, Mohammad: South Asian writer, philosopher, poet and politician
J
Jóhannsson, Jóhann: Icelandic composer [ch. 5]
K
Kabir: Indian mystic poet and saint
Kissinger, Henry [ch. 13]
Kelen, Emery: Hungarian artist and caricaturist [ch. 9]
Kennan, George: American diplomat and historian
on writing history [ch. 2]
Khan, Agha III: 48th Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims [ch. 9]
Khandala [ch. 14]
Khusrau, Amir: Poet, Mystic, and Philosopher [ch. 17]
L
Languages: [ch. 18]
Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich: Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist
London:
R. Parthasarathy on [ch. 10]
Loops, endless: [ch. 16]
Lucknow
in photographs [ch. 3]
Luttwak, Edward: writer and grand strategist
On the Ghanian coup of 1966 [ch. 1]
M
MacNeice, Louis: Irish poet and playwright [ch. 1]
Malaysia
and anthems [ch. 18]
Malaria: [ch. 14]
Mallory, George: British explorer and mountaineer [ch. 8]
Manuscripts:
Marx, Karl: philosopher, political economist, historian, sociologist, journalist, and revolutionary.
on youth [ch. 4]
Merchant-Ivory [ch. 15]
Mexico:
and anthems [ch. 18]
Microcosmographia Academica [ch. 13]
Micronations [ch. 18]
Mody, Homi: Parsi lawyer, businessman, and administrator [ch. 9]
Moustaches
and Nietzsche [ch. 5]
Mughal
Mumbai: see Bombay
N
Naidu, Sarojini: Indian poet, writer, and political activist
Nasreddin, Mullah: satirical character of Persian folklore [ch. 10]
New Zealand
reflections on travel [ch. 14]
Nietzsche, Friedrich: German philosopher, poet, critic, philologist, and composer
Nkrumah, Kwame: Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary [ch. 1]
Nostalgia
Notebooks [ch. 2]
O
Opera:
Philip Glass’ Akhnaten [ch. 11]
Opium
and literature [ch. 12]
Oppenheimer, Robert J.: American theoretical physicist and director of Los Alamos [ch. 12]
Orwell, George
and Animal Farm [ch. 18]
P
Paanwallahs [ch. 7]
Pamuk, Orhan: Turkish novelist, screenwriter, and academic
Pauli, Wolfgang: Austrian theoretical physicist [ch. 12]
Pannirselvam, A. T: Indian attorney, landlord, and politician [ch. 9]
Parthasarathy, R: Indian poet, translator, critic, professor, and editor [ch. 10]
Patwardhan, Anand: Indian documentary filmmaker [ch. 5]
Physician-Writers [ch. 15]
Perec, Georges: French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist
on arranging books [ch. 6]
Plums [ch. 8]
Population Control
and policy-making [ch. 4]
Pragmatism [ch. 13]
Pringle, Peter: Canadian musician [ch. 11]
Public Service Broadcasting: London-based musical group [ch. 8]
Q
Qawaali [ch. 17]
R
Ray, Monk: British biographer and philosopher [ch. 12]
Ray, Satyajit: Indian filmmaker, writer, lyricist, editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and composer
Rehage, Christoph: writer, adventurer, and film-maker [ch. 8]
Realpolitik [ch. 13]
Religion
Round Table Conference
of 1930 - 1932 [ch. 9]
S
Saidi, Mo H: writer, poet, obstetrician, and gynecologist [ch. 15]
Sartre, Jean-Paul: French philosopher, playwright, novelist, activist, biographer, and literary critic
and daily rituals [ch. 12]
Sarstedt, Peter: British singer-songwriter and instrumentalist [ch. 9]
Satire
Saudi Arabia
Scams
Schopenhauer, Arthur: German philosopher
on suffering [ch. 3]
Shahnameh, the
as a historical compass [ch. 13]
Shostakovich, Dmitri : Soviet-Russian composer and pianist
and the Theramin [ch. 18]
Shukla, Vinay: Indian filmmaker
Shukoh, Dara: heir-apparent of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan [ch. 10]
Sigmund, Freud: Austrian neurologist and psychoanalyst
on drugs [ch. 12]
Simeon, Dilip: Indian writer and labour historian [ch. 18]
Singh, Dayanita: Indian photographer
Singh, Ganga: Maharaja of the princely state of Bikaner [ch. 9]
Solitude [ch. 3]
Soviet Union
Spitzwerg, Carl: German Painter [ch. 2]
Stalin, Joseph: Soviet revolutionary and leader
Sufism
Suntzeff, Nicholas: American astronomer and cosmologist
on the eternal question [ch. 4]
Süskind, Patrick: German writer [ch. 12]
Syllabus, the: algorithmic, curated, newsletter [ch. 5]
T
Tamhane, Chaitanya: Indian filmmaker [ch. 15]
Timepass [ch. 11]
Temur, Amir: Turco-Mongol conqueror
and his tomb [ch. 3]
Tetlock, Philip: Canadian-American political scientist and writer [ch. 13]
Tintin
and opium [ch. 12]
Tolstoy, Leo Nikolayevich: Russian novelist and moral philosopher
Tonic Water [ch. 14]
Toscanini, Arturo: Italian conductor [ch. 18]
Tutankhamun: antepenultimate pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of ancient Egypt [ch. 11]
Tuva:
and throat-singing [ch. 18]
Tyrannosaurus
skulls [ch. 3]
U
V
Vegetable carving [ch. 4]
W
War crimes
and Henry Kissinger [ch. 13]
William, Carlos Williams [ch. 18]
Wittgenstein, Ludwig
and biographies [ch. 12]
Wolfram, Stephan: computer scientist, physicist, businessman, and self-professed prodigy
on productivity [ch. 4]
X
Y
Yang, Edward: Taiwanese film-maker
Yi-Yi (film) [ch. 3]
Yes Minister: British political satire sitcom
Z
Zaheen Shah Taji: Sufi Poet and Philosopher [ch. 17]
cheers! BM
(All errors are my own and a by-product of editing this during a talk by C. C. Wei, the jocular CEO of TSMC)