The new public spaces
Using paper towels in a toilet at an Indian airport feels surreal to those who have grown up in another India. There is a wholly unfamiliar sense of crisp hygiene that accompanies its use and...
View ArticleThe pleasures of bargaining
Growing up, going shopping with older female relatives was always a nightmare. They took inordinately long, visiting at least a dozen shops before even thinking about buying something. They seemed most...
View ArticleRe-negotiating our freedoms?
Is WhatsApp to blame for the lynchings that have taken place in the country recently? There is no doubt that WhatsApp messages have played a key role in some of the incidents, but how valid...
View ArticleAn ecosystem of fear?
The arrest of several rights activists across the country on charges of having Maoist links has created deep disquiet among many commentators. Accompanied as it is, by a new label- ‘Urban Naxals’, it...
View ArticleAboard the Nostalgia Express
According to newspaper reports, the railway reservation chart is now history. And for generations of Indians, the meaning of rail travel has been altered. Bit by bit, railway travel as we once knew it...
View ArticleThe rise of female entrepreneurship?
Everywhere one travels in the country, one comes across a new breed of female entrepreneurs. They don’t give themselves that label, but in a variety of small ways, entrepreneurship is blossoming at the...
View ArticleThe lottery as idea
Recently, there were news report of a farmer in Punjab borrowing Rs 200 to buy a lottery ticket which went on to win him a prize of Rs 1.5 crore. We hear these kinds of...
View ArticleThe social face of business?
“In an emergency, anywhere in India, someone from our side will be with you within an hour”. This was how two Indian entrepreneurs, involved with the textile industry were trying to communicate the...
View ArticleThe pleasures of chocolate
Come festival time, and the boxes of gifted goodies start piling up. Dry fruits and various local mithais have always been the staple, but in the last few years, some new entrants have found their...
View ArticleThe technologies not invented
What if the undetectable bomb was invented? What if we could read each other’s minds? What if we could see through clothes? None of these technologies is beyond the realms of possibility. Indeed, in...
View Article#MeToo as social regulation?
There are many things remarkable about the #MeToo movement in India. That so many courageous women came out into the open and shared their trauma. That they managed to break down the defences of the...
View ArticleThe anatomy of disenchantment?
Barring the most committed supporters of this government (and this is not a small number), the general feeling, including reportedly within BJP circles, is that the party will not do as well in the...
View ArticleThe Lure of Teen Patti?
Come Diwali time, particularly in North India, the ‘taash parties’ get underway with a good degree of seriousness. For some not immediately comprehensible reason, gambling is considered auspicious at...
View ArticleThe Ayodhya dilemma?
The Ayodhya issue is now on the front burner. Statements from various Sangh parivar leaders questioning the Supreme Court’s decision to defer hearings till January are striking a combative note. Yogi...
View ArticleThe magazine in its prime
There are some pleasures that one can recall vividly but never quite recapture. Indeed, with the passage of time, the very idea that so much pleasures could possibly be derived from such actions seems...
View ArticleOn breathing, in a time of pollution
Getting a device that measures pollution makes turns nameless fears into numbers. Doubt turns into quantitative fact. Air turns certifiably into poison. Some illusions die quickly. Open green spaces do...
View ArticleA limited script?
One recurrent motif in Narendra Modi’s election speeches is a sense of being a victim of personal insults and abuse directed at him by the opposition in general and the Congress in particular. His...
View ArticleThe elections & after
The state elections are over and the countdown to 2019 has begun. The Congress has made some definite gains and the BJP’s aura of invincibility has been dented quite significantly. It squeaked through...
View ArticleThe Physical and the Political
For someone who is not really an early morning person, occasional forays into the dawn and its immediate neighbourhood are always revealing. People of all ages, sizes and genders are running, walking,...
View Article2018: The Descent of Democracy?
Democracy is running out of excuses, it seems. A report card on the health of democracy in the country makes for depressing reading. Over the years, institutions meant to provide adequate checks and...
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