It’s fortunate for us that Indian cities are spawning enthusiastic guides whose knowledge about these spaces can deepen our own engagement as inhabitants or visitors. Swapna Liddle is the kind of expert you would be fortunate to walk around with in Delhi.
… Continue reading “Walking Through Delhi’s Heritage With A Historian”
I have often wondered about the lives of street vendors. Not just about how much they make or what they sell, but about the makeup of their everyday lives – displaying a kind of toughness or resilience,
… Continue reading “Bazaars and Backstories in Delhi’s Electronic Trade”
Teaching history has perhaps always been fraught. Given the contemporary recognition of subjectivity embedded in any account of the past or present, lingering questions about whose story or version approaches the ‘truth’ makes the content of any prescribed textbook iffy.
On a Saturday in January 2023, Shruti Sah and Harsh Snehanshu had what felt like a whimsical idea. To carry a mat, a few books and cycle over to Cubbon Park to read. Both craved a book club that didn’t center around discussions – after all,
… Continue reading “Cubbon Reads: A Silent Reading Revolution Spreads Across Parks”
Sebastien Tutenges, currently an Associate Professor of Sociology at Lund University, had been planning to embark on a study at a Buddhist monastery. Instead, by somewhat serendipitous means, he became curious about why so many young people seek intoxicating escapes.
… Continue reading “Journeying Into Intoxicating Experiences”
Carolyn Chen was surprised by Silicon Valley. She expected it to be one of the least religious places. Instead, she found that among the tech executives she interviewed, that “it is one of the most religious places in America.” She argues in Work Pray Code that the “Gods” have merely been supplanted.
Tejo Tungabhadra, written originally in Kannada by the versatile Vasudhendra, and translated deftly by Maithreyi Karnoor, brings to life a glittering panoply of 15th and 16th Century characters. Yanking readers into times when Sati was not just thrust upon Indian widows but fiercely celebrated,
Surviving India with Imodium
India hardly feels like a nation that would be easy for anyone, inbred veteran or fleeting visitor, to digest. So it’s apt that a book titled Digesting India starts with the author recounting experiences of the opposite: of loose motions,
… Continue reading “Feasting, Writing and Roaming Across India”
A Teen’s Bold Charter School Support
Vivek Ramakrishnan was only 16 years old, and a high-school student at West High School, in Madison, Wisconsin, when the school board held a televised meeting. To discuss a proposal for a new charter school.
… Continue reading “Bridging Literacy Gaps with AI: A Young Founder’s Journey”
Russian Writers Probe Existential Depths
In Wonder Confronts Certainty, Gary Saul Morson, one of the most eminent Slavic scholars in the US, suggests that Russian writers were a distinct breed.
… Continue reading “Celebrating the Wonders of Russian Literature”
Amma’s Daughters: Evoking Nostalgia
Reading Amma’s Daughters by Meenal Shrivastava evokes the bittersweetness of listening to Kishore Kumar’s hit songs. It’s a book that yanks you – like the legendary singer’s tenor and baritone – into earlier times,
… Continue reading “Struggles, Choices and Wisdom Across Generations”
Flipping Pans and Pages
Suraj Moraje cooks every day. Sometimes, pasta made from scratch, the flour and salt combined with eggs, the dough kneaded and patted aside, partitioned, thinned out, and scissored into strips.
… Continue reading “Cooking, Consulting and Change-Making: A Life Story”
Remember Shankar Mahadevan’s Breathless? The Booker-winning Girl, Woman, Other has that quality of indefatigability to it. It’s like the author has all these tales packed into her, and she narrates them in a gush,
… Continue reading “Contemporary Britain Through the Lens of Twelve Black Women”
When it feels like we’re flailing in briny tides of content – to use that much-bandied, landscape-flattening term – it’s unsurprising to encounter self-help material to cultivate our eroding capacities for attention. So when I spotted Mindwandering at a local bookstore,
Globally, rising numbers of people are choosing to stay single. So much so, that Bella DePaulo, currently an academic affiliate with U.C., Santa Barbara, advocates for a “single studies discipline.” At a time when many long-held human beliefs are being rightfully questioned,
In earlier eras, those who crossed oceans to ‘discover’ new continents or forge trade linkages were exalted as adventurers and risk-takers. It takes, however, a different kind of courage to journey into one’s own consciousness,
Occupying the Last Bench
Sriram recalls growing up with a strong, independent streak. Even as a toddler in Bhopal, where he lived for the first six years of his life, he was fetched from school by an auto driver,
… Continue reading “Journeying to One’s Ikigai: A Founder’s Story”
Yellowface might represent a striving author’s fantasy. Especially in the contemporary era, when there seem to be more writers than readers; when only a lucky few climb to bestselling lists or are feted at literary festivals,
… Continue reading “Satirizing Publishing and American Race Relations”
A recent Instagram post claimed that many writers or readers have, at some point or the other, harbored a certain dream: of running a bookstore-cum-cafe. After all, the enterprise is imbued with a romantic whimsy,
Many readers might be understandably turned off by any book title that contains words like “existential” or “post-modern” or “post-structural.” After all these terms summon certain stereotypical images: of smoky cafes filled with garrulous intellectuals,
Brinda S. Narayan
