Once in a Blue Moon Academia (OBMA)

  Schrödinger’s Dilemma and Ajay Piramal: The Mystery Behind “Oxford Talks” — Where Prestige Meets PR Posted on 23rd October, 2025 (GMT 05:49 hrs) ABSTRACT Ajay Piramal’s 2025 appearance at the Oxford India Forum, widely promoted as an “Oxford Talk,” illustrates the modern commodification of academic prestige. While held at Oxford’s Saïd Business School, the event was business-led, not university-sanctioned, blurring the line between genuine scholarly engagement and curated corporate spectacle. Piramal’s speech echoed government slogans on India’s so-called development, emphasizing optimism and digital progress while ignoring structural inequalities, institutional failures, and empirical critiques. This case exemplifies how elite actors leverage the symbolic authority of Oxford to perform legitimacy, transforming proximity to knowledge into a marketable status symbol rather than a pursuit of wisdom and truth. 0. Prologue In an era defined by curated prestige, social media ampl...

  Defending Dissent, Protecting Ladakh: OBMA Stands with Climate Activist Sonam Wangchuk Posted on 23rd October, 2025 (GMT 08:12 hrs) ABSTRACT The Once in a Blue Moon Academia (OBMA) stands in unwavering solidarity with Sonam Wangchuk and the Ladakh Movement, recognizing their struggle as a fight for environmental justice, climate action, cultural autonomy, and democratic dissent. Highlighting Ladakh’s vulnerability as the “Third Pole” of the world, the statement critiques the abrogation of Article 370 and the selective, contradictory application of Article 371, exposing the central government’s sidelining of local governance and ecological concerns. OBMA condemns Wangchuk’s arbitrary NSA detention and the violent suppression of peaceful protests, emphasizing that the movement’s constitutional demands for statehood, Sixth Schedule inclusion, and ecological protection are lawful, ethical, and globally aligned. The statement affirms that safeguarding communities, ecological inte...