Book Review: Ta-Nehisi Coates’ New Book Reminds America of its Complicity in the Ongoing Massacre in Palestine
Outgoing US President Joe Biden with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York, on September 20, 2023. | Photo Credit: Susan Walsh/AP As demonstrated by Between the World and Me, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2015 and is a must-read for anyone who wants to
Epic Cop-Out: The Flawed Heroism of Rohit Shetty’s Singham Again
The rot at the heart of Rohit Shetty’s Singham Again is not what you think it is. It is not the tired plotting, the exhausted acting, the cameos that stack up like a house of cards that should have toppled tiers ago, the repetitive direction, or even the forceful, joyless retracing of
Shibpur Botanical Garden Crisis: Great Banyan Tree, Heritage Under Threat from Climate Change, Urban Sprawl
On October 25, the severe cyclonic storm Dana struck the eastern coast of India, bringing torrential rain and high-velocity winds that uprooted trees and electric poles in Odisha and West Bengal. It brought back memories of Cyclone Amphan, which caused massive damage in 2020. West Bengal’s Shibpur botanical garden, one
Actor Vijay’s TVK Party Launch: Star Power Meets Ideological Confusion in Tamil Nadu Politics
When Tamil filmstar “Thalapathy” Vijay, or General Vijay as his fans fondly call him, stepped on to the podium on October 27 to deliver a 45-minute speech, he was greeted by roars and applause in a charged and theatrical event that opened yet another exciting chapter in a State where
Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and the Golden Age of Indian English Literature
In the summer of 1997, a gathering of 10 leading Indian novelists was “herded” into a small New York studio for a group photograph. The New Yorker was putting together a special issue to celebrate India’s golden jubilee—its 50 years of Independence from British rule—and this photograph was to be the centrepiece
How Private Archives are Making Indian History More Accessible and Inclusive
It was research for my historical novel, Wanderers, All, that led me to the police headquarters in Mumbai. My enquiry about the Bombay Police Gazette from 1911, among other information, was met with a blank stare. A helpful constable then led me to the in-house library that comprised a large
Short Story | ‘No one like Appa’: A Tamil story in translation
Translated from Tamil by Prabha Sridevan. An eccentric father mentors his family, ignoring societal norms. Appa was a strange person. My thatha, my grandfather, said that his strangeness was due to the fact he had left home when he was sixteen and wandered around before returning. But that was not the only
Abu Abraham (1924–2002), the political cartoonist who bore witness
In the world of journalism, there is enough scholarship on the role of reporting as bearing witness, investigative journalism, design elements, editorial judgment, and the balance between the public interest component and another powerful component called “what the public is interested in”. If this scholarship has to be more effective,
Will the plans for a new National Museum put priceless artefacts at risk?
In his speech at the centenary celebration of the Madras Government Museum and the inauguration of the National Art Gallery, Madras, in November 1951, Jawaharlal Nehru emphasised the importance of museums as educational tools that bridge the past with the present. He said, “A museum which is really meant to
All We Imagine as Light, Malayalam-Hindi film by film FTII alumnus Payal Kapadia, makes history, wins Grand Prix award at Cannes 2024
Director Payal Kapadia poses after she won the Grand Prix for the film All We Imagine as Light during the Closing Ceremony at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 25, 2024. | Photo Credit: LOIC VENANCE Payal Kapadia has scripted history by