Worldviews, Belief Systems and Value Judgements [Why this Blog? Part 3, V. 1.0]

It is reasonable to expect the reader to ask the following questions: why have I decided to write through this blog and why have I chosen medium.com as its host.

Short answers are fluidity and freedom [1] that can help me to contribute to ‘knowledge commons’.[2] Responses to my ‘posts’ on Facebook and LinkedIn by members of one of my ‘communities’ helped me to select this platform. But most of my readers [3] will find this explanation ‘shallow’. Let me dive a little deeper on the first part, keeping ‘knowledge commons’ part for the later.

[1] My understanding on the worth of this ‘value’ originates from my experiences in JNU. I hold it to be most responsible for what JNU students spanning several decades could achieve, earn and fulfill — I enjoyed this freedom like many others. I owe much to this aspect of JNU ‘culture’ for what I am today; more later.

[2] Information, data and knowledge made available through this form, mode and access helped me to customize, maintain and update OJS, an open course journal management software, apparently used by more than 25,000 journals worldwide; more on my experience later

[3] This will be predominantly my students, for a while at least. For a teacher who can be a better ‘ally’ than one’s own students! There is no term called ‘former student’ in my dictionary. And whoever has learnt anything from me is my student. Vice versa is true — both Leonardo da Vinci and Sahomoni (and numerous ones in between) have been my teachers, as I have learnt from them.

Choice-set: it’s my choice, but whose set?

Consider a prospective author who has already shortlisted a few journals — irrespective of whether it has ISSN, DOI, included in Scopus, Web of Science, UGC-CARE, peer reviewed or not, IF > 1 or not, Open Access or not, zero or positive Author Processing Charges and other such attributes in this market for ‘homogeneous but differentiated avenues’ — as a venue to express her/his thoughts (many of the readers have experienced this already). The next question for her/him will be to identify the most appropriate ‘class’ and category within each shortlisted journal (say, commentary, essay, and article).[1] Even then, the descriptions or requirements against each category vary in terms of word count, section headings, and citation style among others.

What if an author decides not to follow or is not comfortable with these categories and/or is not even be ‘clear’ whether the work in question falls under any? Will the reader of this ‘release’ [2] consider this very work to be a section from my autobiography, auto-ethnography or a memoir (they are not the same) titled Harry Potter and I: reflections from a magical journey (not a joke), selective reminiscences, a political non-fiction or semi-fiction, a ‘teaser’ for this blog, or a handout for classes in Methods of Research in Economics course or even ‘Relationships and Affinities’ (this is a joke)?.

Conceptually this ‘fluidity’ is identical to the use of this term in the last para here. In fact, this ‘fluid’ has many dimensions — length, depth, breadth, intensity, form, objective, purpose, to mention just a few. Each offers a set of quite unconnected ‘degrees of freedom’, providing much more maneuverability. This is different from what economics students know through ‘putty-clay’ (more later). [3]

Second, I am simply tired of following the diktats of (and the delays at the desk of) editors across journals and newspapers. Contrarily, in journals where I have been and could be a part of decision making, for ethical reasons I did not and shall not publish anything unless it is an Editorial Note of a Special Section organized or co-organized by me or a commissioned Book Review.

Third, finding a journal to reflect my expressions has never been easy (not that I have tried very hard; more below) — they were most often beyond economics. Notwithstanding the stress on inter-disciplinarity in the New Education Policy 2020, I am not sure if it exists beyond a few pockets in India. Ramprasad Sengupta, my teacher warned me of ‘in-disciplinarity’ in the name of inter-disciplinarity, while discussing my Ph.D. thesis in late 2010. I see it more often than not.

I am yet to acquire the ‘stature’ (read, acceptability and not pedigree [4]) for supposedly interdisciplinary journals to even consider my works, leave alone publishing (see below). Nor have I acquired the ‘social capital’ to enjoy the privileges that many in the Indian academia do, with sources such as ‘parentage’, ‘grand-parentage’, ‘patronage’ and ‘reflected glories’.[5]

Yet, I need alternative forms of expression to connect to my potential ‘allies’. As I do not know them ex ante most cases, ‘playing’ along the flexibilities and freedoms offered by this blog can be quite useful — as any trans-disciplinary endeavor requires.[6] In fact I don’t have to spend the labour-time to locate the discipline or the set of disciplines in case I was to look for a journal, [7] as most of the readers who have walked in the inter-disciplinary spaces have experienced already.

The demanding reader may still ask: if through this blog I decide to write, what about the past publications and other expressions through presentations, panel discussions, and other such that helped me to earn Academic Performance Indicators or Academic/Research Scores necessary for promotion to a Professor position under the CAS Policy at one of my workplaces on 09.09.21 (but w.e.f. 04.04.18.)? My CV after all contains ample evidence. Were they not write-ing?

Well, ‘it’s complicated’ as one of the options that Facebook offers under ‘Status’: they were, and they were not at the same time. Except (at most) two, I never submitted any of works ‘anonymously’ — they were demanded by someone else, be it students or Associate Editors, Book Review Editors, Section Editors, Lead Authors, Editors, or they were a tribute to some of my ‘Dumbledores’ or I was merely following the decision made by others (more later). Someone who joined academia recently — who has been a part of 4255 household for a few weeks and was subjected to Abhimanyu’s ‘teachings’ — asked me the same question a few years back as at the end of last paragraph: my answer then was I was plain lucky or there were coincidences or I was present at the right place at the right time. In fact, attentive readers of Harry Potter saga will recollect a similar conversation where HP was explaining to Ron or Hermione that it was not just magic that helped him to save himself from the you-know-who (I like it this way!) so many times but many other things including love from many and sacrifices made by some (more later).

To be fair, publishing and attaining a decent h-index has been prompted by a friend of mine. He is arguably one of the finest thinkers of my generation. He taught me that ‘greatest fear that human mind has is that of feeling irrelevant’. Having a mind of one’s own is a necessary condition here and ‘bounded rationality’ is the only assumption. I have experimented with it and achieved cent per cent success so far. It is him who made me to create Google Scholar profile, and getting an ORCID. We discussed how we get the ‘kick’ out of the increase in the ‘score’ on ResearchGate. I don’t deny that. There are many ‘sinful’ pleasures that I enjoy. My many ‘pursuits’ do yield nasha of all kinds.

In short, this mode enables me to choose the form to share my thoughts with my readers, the potential allies in my journey (see, soon to be released ‘What is to be Done?’). Meri marjee, in short!

[1] Attribution: many prospective authors have asked this question to my (former) Managing Editor avatar.

[2] The term release here is same as in ‘release notes’ here or ‘release date’ here.

[3] This is what Amit Bhaduri referred to as a ‘handle’ in the presentation by one of the M.Phil. students of CESP in 1999 or 2000, who teaches now in one of the IITs. Handles help one to be ‘free’, a necessary condition for creative pursuits.

[4] To me, Pedigree is just the name of a brand of commercially available prepared food loved by seven members of 4255. It is akin to considering ‘normal’ just as a button in a hairdryer by some feminists.

[5] I am a first generation migrant to Delhi from Kolkata like Rukmini. Only one of my second cousins studied beyond Masters before me, in Sanskrit. There are just too many with ‘reflected glories’ from JNU or Fulbright. Further, none of my ‘Dumbledores’ showed any inclination to even consider intervening in the ‘semi-feudal, semi capitalist’ Indian academia, be it jobs or publications.

[6] I am aware of the differences between inter- and trans-. I am moving toward the latter. Evidence will be presented soon before the reader.

[7] Even supposedly interdisciplinary journals do have some in-built rigidities. For example, within economics of Nature, the paper that may be accepted by EDE or EE, EARE or JEEM may not even consider. What may be considered by EES may not be considered by Ambio or Ecology and Society.

Freedom, Flexibility, Fluidity but not Finality

Consider the following possibility: What may be a short work with just text of 300 words at ti, it can be a long one with text of 1000 words with or without visuals and sounds at tj (j>i). I can always claim both (and stages in between) to be finished works and not drafts, pre-prints and other such terms. After all, it’s impossible to find the particular moment at which a garden or a field or a farm (among others) can be considered as the ‘final one’. Of course, ripe crop, blossomed flowers, and other such provide many such ‘final moments’ vis-à-vis certain attributes but not of the system per se.

In the ‘canonical’ view, the labour process stops as soon as a product reaches its ‘final form’. In it, labour is seen only vis-a-vis the production process.[1] This route does not see the need to be concerned about sustainability of the labour power — after all there are too many labourers willing to offer their labour time.

But no labourer can ever stop labouring. Be it caring, eating, reproducing or even loving (self, near and dear ones, within and outside kinships — covered within Rukmini’s definition of Relationships and Affinities), the labour processes goes on and on.[2] Similarly, Nature never stops putting its own labour. Yet it remains invisible unless one develops her/his own vision to see it (akin to ‘I see You’ at the final scene in Avatar).[3]

It follows that there is no surprise in finding economy and ecology sharing common etymological roots — oikos (household). There is hardly any difference between ‘economizing spirit’ a la Arthur P Lewis [4] and ‘Law of the Minimum’ a la Justus von Liebig (Wikipedia entry). Anyone interested in sustainability of systems would be careful about all labours and not just what is being paid for. Mainstream economics hardly recognizes either kind of these labours (just like capitalist economic system) that sustain both humans’ and Nature’s households. In fact, mainstream economics studies (mostly) sustainability of a capitalist economic system, at least in India.[5]

In short, this blog has in-built flexibilities that allow me to share my thinking at any ‘stage’ with my readers, and not just when I feel the expressions have reached a ‘final state’. I do expect to follow my own standards of meticulousness and clarity in all stages (see below).

It follows that anyone using idea(s) or expression(s) from this blog (well, day dreaming is not an offense, still) may download the ‘version’ (say, V. 1.0) accessed and add ‘accessed on date and time(!)’ just to be safe, as demanded by all citation styles. After all, I am the author, reviewer, typesetter and designer,[6] besides being the ‘publicist’ of my own work (and not a publisher; though these two terms are close; see, here and footnote).[7] These are not publications but releases (see fn 4), in the strict sense (more later).

I quite liked the domain name medium.com (and what is written here under “What We’re Looking For: Quality”). It is after all a medium to express oneself, with all possible flexibilities and fluidities. Commerce and commercialization need not always be seen with negative connotations. It is the traders in ancient world who brought knowledge, culture and products from faraway places (depicted well in many Asterix books — that has been a source of information for me, of many kinds) as it is today, impacting the life at the destinations (it is not a normative statement).

Deepak Nayyar taught us why globalization is not a new phenomenon, contrary to the received wisdom. Its reflection I have seen in many students who put liberalization, privatization and globalization synonymously.[8] When asked the meaning of these words, none could offer a reasonable explanation so far. I do not hold them responsible, but their teachers (more later on the abysmal quality of teaching in Economics UG level in India but may see footnote).[9] I also see so many who passionately oppose GATT and WTO — the two organizations that epitomize unrestricted commerce across geographical boundaries — and facilitate ‘import’ of ‘educational service’ for their near and dear ones at the same time. If something one is passionate about, shouldn’t one be consistent? Shouldn’t passion too be based on a principle?

Internet, the most democratic platform ever imagined by humans, today provides unprecedented and boundless opportunities to reach out to those whom one did not and may not have the chance to engage with, in either physical or virtual worlds. Covid 19 induced disruptions have showed it in a rather ‘on your face’ manner. I intend to release my works through this mode primarily. My aim is to initiate multiple conversations (more later) without any intermediary except medium.com.

The additional advantage of writing through this mode is being able to retain my own ‘moral right’ as an author (see here for an excellent summary).[10] This right, unlike copyright, does not ask for any ‘final form’; copyright freezes the form. Hence, Capitalism, cannot recognize (leave alone consider) ‘moral rights’. It can only recognize copyright — all matters of plagiarism and in particular ‘self-plagiarism’ follows from it.[11] A blog of my own makes me free from these possibilities!

[1] This is an example of ‘Commodity Fetishism’; more later, but those interested can see sections on Energetics of Human Labour in my Ph.D. thesis or JOAC paper.

[2] “Labor is not the source of all wealth. Nature is just as much the source of use values (and it is surely of such that material wealth consists!) as labor, which itself is only the manifestation of a force of nature, human labor power.” [K H Marx, 1875, Critique of the Gotha Programme; link]

“Capitalist production, therefore, develops technology, and the combining together of various processes into a social whole, only by sapping the original sources of all wealth — the soil and the labourer.” [K H Marx, 1867, Capital, volume 1, chapter 15 titled ‘Machinery and Modern Industry’; link]

[3] ‘Gardening, then, is a practice of sustained noticing’ says the blurb of ‘In the Garden’ in the book form.

[4] See, Appendix titled ‘Is Economic Growth Desirable?’ in The Theory of Economic Growth (link to read on Internet Archive)

[5] It’s quite easy to find evidence. Interested reader may inquire from her/his own university or any for that matter on the percentage of credits and core courses assigned to courses on agriculture (and allied sectors), labour and Nature in Economics programmes at any level. Government of India data informs the share of workforce in agriculture, percentage of unemployment and degradation of Nature. None of these realities are reflected in the Economics programmes (barring a really handful exceptions).

All students of economics read a (faulty) diagram that shows it is only the ‘factor inputs’ and ‘factor payments’ that sustains an economic system, perpetually. As late as in 2014, United Nations has recognized Nature’s labour in the Environmental-Economic Accounting — a matter on which ecological economists have been shouting about for the last half a century at least (more later). But ‘hysteresis’ in mainstream economics is acutely strong!

[6] I am still working on my copyediting abilities.

[7] Technically I am not a publisher of this blog, as I do not have the registration number from Registrar of Newspapers of India, a legal requirement.

[8] The supposedly infamous LPG, and not the one that is found in almost in every kitchen in Urban India.

[9] In the last seven years I have been asking one common question in the interview of M.Sc. Economics admission: give an example of monopoly. 90 per cent cases the answer is Indian Railways. I ask then to define the product and the market in question; after all monopoly is an example of imperfect competition, a term that can only be defined in the context of a market. The most common response is travel by rail. I then ask whether they are aware of substitutes. Most by then get to see the fault in their answer. Some don’t. I ask them whether they are aware of lakhs of Indians traveling hundreds of kilometers by foot to reach their native places once Indian Railways suspended its operations in the wake of Covid 19 induced disruptions since March 2020.

[10] Even the Indian judiciary has recognized these (see, here).

[11] Latter term is an oxymoron except under a ‘pure’ system of ‘commodity production’ a la Kautsky (more later).

Practicing Flexibilities, Fluidities and ‘Fixations’

Fluidities and flexibilities are indeed a part of members of 4255 ‘household’, tweaking the NSSO definition.[1] Its human members are not connected by blood, marriage or adoption. Of course, all the seven dog members are connected by blood.[2] But the strongest (from human eyes) are between (a) the aunt and her niece and two nephews and (b) the grandmother-granddaughter duo (more later). In both, the youngest woman is at the receiving end almost all times as happens in most households with only human members (?).

Since late March 2020, both humans and (usually) four dogs spend almost the entire day inside 4255 and interacting variously. One of my friends, privy to some of these interactions, thinks dogs have a better life than humans here (I agree!). Rukmini and I plan to write a collection of interconnected essays ‘A few Dog’s Lives’ capturing these.

Admittedly, for the humans of 4255 fluidity has been a part of their everyday — in the sense of absence of and not being compelled to follow conventional social norms (thanks to their University Professor ‘stature’, among others), and re-imagining and re-writing the social norms for 4255 every day (with the human male having the least agency as many visitors to 4255 may attest to!). It is the dogs which helped them to connect with many of their neighbors. There have been occasions when they suggested to visitors to mention ‘doghouse’ to any passerby after entering gate no. 2, B 5&6, Vasant Kunj, in case s/he forgets the flat no.[3]

Yes, there are certain matters on which I am quite conventional. They include (not in any order) jhinge posto of a particular consistency, self-made mutton stew, Narasu ‘Instant Strong’ Coffee from Rama Market. Munirka, Delhi,[4] Chanachur and Jhuribhaja from Ujjwala’s, Kalighat, Kolkata, himsagar mango, Tea leaves and Fannings from Dhruba’s, Kolkata, my pashbalish made of shimul variety of cotton brought from Kolkata,[5] sweetened mouri/ saunf/ fenugreek seeds from a particular shop in CA market, Salt Lake, Kolkata — among others.[6] They can be called habit, cultivated tastes, ‘optimum’ choices made under ‘bounded rationality’ or even idiosyncrasies — I leave this decision to the reader.

[1] ‘A group of persons normally living together and taking food from a common kitchen constitutes a household’ from section 2.2.10 here.

[2] Popularly known as Mahabharata gang/clan/jhund, constituting of Kunti (grandmother), Krishna (Kunti’s daughter), Nokul (Kunti’s son), Sahomoni (Kunti’s daughter), Abhimanyu (Krishna’s son and possibly Karna’s), Sutanu (Krishna’s daughter) and Ghatokach (Krishna’s son and possibly Nokul’s), all names given by the resident name-maker of 4255 in consultation with me.

[3] The idea is borrowed from one of their common friends who experienced this; more later.

[4] Thanks to M P Rammohan.

[5] No, the term side-pillow does not capture what a pashbalish is. This it too Bengali, of feudal origin and found its rightful place in the post-colonial Bengal, with many other things: “Some of the brightest moments in the history of human invention have been attributed to restful moments. The principle of buoyancy, for example, would have remained unknown had Archimedes not decided to contemplate in his bath. A balish instead of soap and mug, Bengalis are certain, would have made the picture quite perfect.” (link) Someone teaching at the University of Hyderabad received a pashbalish identical to mine after she received her Ph.D. degree from JNU (more later on rest-ing, practice of thinking and JNU).

[6] One of my friends tasted this mouri over many years — after every lunch — at our then common workplace. Being a theoretician, he had a theory of course on the costs that two of us will have to bear in absence of this mouri. According to him, without this mouri research will be stopped. His defense was a story involving Jewish Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős and amphetamines (see here).

Expectations from the Reader

I expect the reader to reflect and respond in a manner that s/he considers as apt. This is different from ‘educate, organize and agitate’. I have no intention to educate anyone. I am in a constant conversation with my students, expressed through conversations, lectures, dialogues, multi-logues, communications face-to-face, over email, comments and feedback (more later). Having spent considerable time in one student mass organisation and a Society of professionals, I have realized that organizing or collectivizing in any predefined form is not my cup of tea. I am rather ‘immature’ and ‘impatient’ to take on ‘leadership roles’ and have too strong a spine to ‘follow’ others, unless convinced (my formal students know that it’s not easy).

Rather than agitating others, I would prefer the transformations to take place in a slow pace, silently,[1] like changes in colour, taste and temperature of hot water that take place during the tea brewing process. Every maker-connoisseur of tea is aware of the methodical requirements that each variety, type, and granularity of raw tea leaves demands in terms of proportions and duration of each stage, yet the recipe or steps remain the same. It is akin to academic rigour, logical consistency and expositional clarity for testing the quality of any academic work, including blogs.

Yes, there can situations that demand ‘educate, organize and agitate’ but such a political stance or position requires enormous sacrifices which every ‘true’ politician commits to knowingly or unknowingly (but realizes sooner or later) — again, this is not my mug of coffee. My self-reflections have helped me to identify what I am good at, what I cannot do,[2] what is unconscionable to me (see the interpretations by the hon’ble Supreme Court here), and what I ‘aspire’ to be.

This medium also helps anyone who is in the process of ‘switching’ modes of expressing oneself like Ritwik Ghatak (Wikipedia entry on list of his works) one of the finest filmmakers from Bengal. When someone asked him about the reasons behind his decision to move away from theaters and towards cinema, his response was as follows: one show through the first medium could make him reaching out to a few hundred people at most but through the latter it is much more.[3] Of course, theaters do give the flexibility of making alternative versions over time while in case of cinema, it is frozen once the Director approves the shot and Editor approves it. Till I find another more appropriate medium to reach my goals, it will be this blog.[4]

Indeed, at present, I am at the ‘cusp’ (to borrow a term often used by Anup) between ‘classroom teaching’ and writing. Having said some on writing let me put together my thoughts on alternative modes for ‘classroom teaching’. I am not leaving classroom teaching — rather tweaking the ‘mode’ through which it takes place.[5] Online teaching mode has provided an unprecedented opportunity to ‘exploit’.[6] Lectures can be recorded and uploaded online, before sharing through social media platforms and other means.[7] It’s a different matter that I earn my papaya and golden cela rice through teaching, still.

One of my friends alerted me over possible ‘unauthorized’ uses of recorded lectures — I wonder if conceptually, such lectures would be any different from the more famous ‘bosenotes’ in our PG days or even different kunjis or notebois that helped generations of students in Delhi and Kolkata (I am familiar with academia in these two cities only). Admittedly, all these could serve at best as ingredients — ranging from platinum orbs and rare pink pearls to earthen beads and oxidized carvings — to weave a necklace. But no student howsoever informed, brilliant or knowledgeable s/he may not know the craft of this weaving.

It requires a ‘Master’ who must have invested a lot towards learning-by-doing, and experience ‘heartbreaks’ and jubilation. There is of course a variety here: consider “Master-da” in this judgment circa 1933, the position of Master of Trinity College held by one from Bengal, or even ‘Masters of the Universe’. Not many can be called a Master; at least I cannot call myself. I am a mere teacher in the academic space. The positions held by me so far (Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor) do not reflect my ‘mastery’ in any way. Most of my ‘mastery’ belongs to spaces that cannot be captured by API points.

Blogs provide an opportunity to reach out to those who could have been my ‘student’, but not in a conventional way. Imagined in this way, I have a long list of my teachers starting from van Gogh to Sahomoni (chronologically speaking). Viewers of Loving Vincent must have realized that only a great teacher can ‘command’ such labour of love from her/his students several generations away (I have borrowed the idea of ‘grandstudent’ from Utsa Patnaik). It is Sahomoni who taught me how to be resilient amidst hip-breaking adversities for no fault of her own except being oblivious to the world outside while with her playmate (more later).

For the reasons explained earlier, this blog will be the first venue for expressing my thoughts in the form demanded by my thinking process (prompted by my worldviews, belief systems and value judgments). Any reader can join me in furthering these thoughts and explore other avenues for expressing them with co-authorship. But it is absolutely essential to follow the ethical requirements of authorship. Every such endeavor will also follow this Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement. They can be re-released in its ‘mashup’, ‘reprise’, ‘unplugged’, ‘chill’ or any other versions (or even published) but preferably in a manner that is accessible to all.

In case someone just wants to review and comment and is not in a position to be contribute in any other manner, I/we will surely acknowledge them. Ensuring dignity of labour and recording due credit to all forms of labour is something that I believe in.[8]

I have not revealed the identity of most so far, except a few humans and seven dogs. I am yet to figure out how to seek consent from the dogs, but I recognize that it’s an ethical matter and need some explorations (more later). In case anyone wants a more direct attribution, in the form of revealing their identity, I will do it, but ‘prior informed consent’ is necessary.

[1] Conceptually, it is similar to ‘slow moving’ variables such as climatic ones as one of my contemporary stalwarts in economics of Nature said in one lecture.

[2] The list is long, but two will suffice. Even basic dance steps I cannot follow, much to dismay of Rukmini, a trained danseuse. I may be a decent and innovative cook who can make tasty goat khichudi, but cannot make delicious himsagar jam (quality certified by Rukmini and my mother; more on her sense of standards later) and inside-wet-outside-crusty brownie (certified by a friend of ours who herself is a very good and innovative cook, as many of my colleagues at one of the workplaces can vouch) like Ekka, my son, who is a self-taught cook, studying in class XI and wants to pursue culinary arts.

[3] This trajectory — one favourite term of a younger Rukmini — and his struggles with it are beautifully captured here; this is one film that I can watch any number of times, like Forrest Gump, Life is Beautiful and Modern Times.

[4] “I am not in love with the film, my friend! I am ready to kick out the film form as a medium of my artistic expressions if I find another better and suitable medium” said Ghatak on multiple occasions as narrated by Bhupati Nandi (quoted in Surama Ghatak, 2010, Ritwik Padma theke Titas: a biographical documentation on famous film director Ritwik Ghatak, Kolkata, Anushtup, p. 37)

[5] It is similar to asynchronous teaching but beyond it. Here, there can be students whom I may not know, like in a non-supervised MOOC.

[6] Admittedly, I have been teaching Ekka online for many years on a regular basis. Teaching of M.Sc. Economics and Ph.D. students online since 23.03.2020. made me acquire new ‘capabilities’. Earlier I had to read the ‘eyes’ to gauge if I could reach the majority, but with most students opting to keep the video off, I had to interpret silence (not in the manner in which Rukmini interpreted it in her Ph.D. thesis). Nowadays I am more of a ‘split’ personality during the classes: a teacher and also a student who will inform the teacher if he has to repeat the explanation!

[7] Lectures in Methods of Research in Economics course will be uploaded soon.

[8] I expect my future co-authors to do so — its violation is within the list of things that I consider unconscionable.

‘Pamphlets, Pamphleteers and Lectures’ and ‘Aspirations, Idols and Ideologies’ (with a section titled ‘Some Last Words: To Follow or Not to Follow’) will be the remaining releases under ‘Why this Blog? V. 1.0’.