If you’re a fan of the Japanese thriller writer, Keigo Higashino, I would strongly recommend The Artful Murders. Like some of the standout works of the Japanese master, this depicts a gritty,
… Continue reading “A Crime Thriller That Pierces Delhi’s Pretensions”
Tu Jhoom: A Compassionate Guide Through Cancer Journeys
When Asheema (names changed) was diagnosed with 3rd Stage breast cancer, she felt besieged. She had suffered through a heart-related health issue and a broken relationship.
… Continue reading “Springing from Cancer to Forging a Wellness Enterprise”
Namita Gokhale is unafraid to break story rules. In a fleeting meta moment, she acknowledges her distaste for bow-tied endings: “My quarrel with the short story is precisely that it imposes a false order and symmetry on events,
… Continue reading “Withstanding the Ravages of Love and Life”
It might be a hard sell these days, to convince the old or the young, that the best guide to living a “good” life is an Athenian philosopher who died in 399 B.C. After all,
Neeraja Ganesh and Sneha Ganesh have carved unique niches for themselves. They are also known popularly as a mother-daughter duo that share a crackling chemistry. Often working together—at events or on projects—they have learned to draw boundaries and diffuse differences.
… Continue reading “A Sparkly Mother-Daughter Duo Who Mentor, Train, and Empower Others”
I stumbled on this book in the manner in which one stumbles on other stuff these days: partly offline, partly online. Perhaps, one could call it “hybrid”, to borrow a word that is typically used in other contexts.
… Continue reading “Re-injecting Anthropology With Fresh Purpose”
Illusions Fostered by Primates
Vivek Nityananda is an entomologist by profession. He studied katydids and their secretive communication methods, the wing rustling among leaves that eluded human ears. Somewhere along the way, his academic curiosity strayed from the natural world into a distinctly human phenomenon: overconfidence.
… Continue reading “Overconfidence Unmasked: An Entomologist Explores Human Self-Deception”
Vishal Vasanthakumar didn’t love school. Later as a teacher, he keenly observed parents’ faces. Whether they wheeled pushcarts or drove Mercedes-Benzes, their expressions radiated a similar mix of yearning and optimism. Formal schooling, they believed,
… Continue reading “The Education Mirage: Unanswered Questions in India’s Schools”
Swimming Against Tradition
Sonam Samat’s father was keen that his daughter pursue an education and acquire new-age like skills like swimming. Rather than hovering over stovetops, stirring dhals and puffing up rotis like most women in his generation.
… Continue reading “Whisking Wisdom: A Journey from Theory to Taste”
From MOOCs to Marigolds
In a marketplace ablaze with the sounds and furies of India’s most cacophonous festival – Ganesha Chaturti – a saree-clad, bespectacled woman briskly strides through. She stops at a stall that packs row upon row of Ganeshas,
… Continue reading “Vasanthi Srinivasan: Shaping the Nation’s Future Leaders”
Bridget Jones broke a certain stereotype. That romcom protagonists must be, by default, somewhat put together. Till then, they were often fiercely intelligent, sparkly with words, discerning, virtuous et al, till Jones swept into our cultural lenses with her endearingly human,
At this point, planetary problems can feel too staggering to confront. The climate clock seems to be ticking towards an apocalyptic future, wars rage in Ukraine and Gaza, social media lures soporific users into seductive reel-tunnels.
… Continue reading “Growing Up as Grown-Ups: Cultivating Leaders to Navigate Complexity”
Madhu Gupta and Seema Chaudhry have much in common. For one thing, they attend the same college. They live in old Delhi, in shabby apartments, reached by dim stairways. They stem from conservative, working class families.
Yadav’s Father: A Creative Tinkerer
Anusha Yadav was raised in a home that prized culture, creativity and hands-on tinkering. Moving across continents, from the UK – where her father studied for his PhD and taught at King’s College,
… Continue reading “Braiding Time: Journeying with Anusha Yadav Across Cultures and Memories”
There have been many attempts to both analyze and historicize the Indian middle class. Works by Pavan Varma (The Great Indian Middle Class, 1998) and Aseem Prakash (The Indian Middle Class,
… Continue reading “Everyday Reading: Uncovering Middle-Class Musings”
Navigating Disparate Worlds
MD Ramaswami, known affectionately as MD among friends and family, learned early that exceptional communication skills could reap extraordinary dividends. Belonging to an era when the nation still suffered from a colonial hangover,
… Continue reading “From Curiosity to Conquests: The Myriad Adventures of MD Ramaswami”
In a House of Few Frills
Giri’s stickiest childhood memories revolve around his grandfather. In an era sans gadgets or even a television, Aaja would teach him this and that. Even discuss passages from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice,
… Continue reading “The Man Who Multiplied Value: Giri Giridhar’s Corporate Journey”
From The King’s Table to Street Food, as Pushpesh Pant acknowledges in his Preface, is not just a history of Delhi embedded with recipes and foodies stories. Nor is it a food book,
… Continue reading “Savoring Time: A Taste of Delhi from Royal Kitchens to Street Vendors”
In her previous work, Kaikeyi, Vaishnavi Patel had dwelt on the point of view of a much maligned character in the Ramayana. Unsurprisingly, or perhaps not coincidentally, that character was a woman.
… Continue reading “Ganga Unbound: A Feminist Take on an Ancient Epic”
With the next US election a few days away, you would be hard put to find an expert who can be persuasively certain about the outcome. Despite all the data crunching and AI smarts, uncertainty shadows our lives,
Brinda S. Narayan
