Blogs

On this May 4, the force in Indian politics is not with the regional satraps. In Tamil Nadu, Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar – simply Vijay to his supporters – has just delivered the biggest disruption of this election cycle. It is arguably the most consequential shock in Dravidian politics since 1967, when the DMK defeated the…

“We would have been forced to Kolkata like Kashmiri pandits if Modi and Amit Shah had not deployed so many forces to de-tox the atmosphere and ensured fearless voting”- A Bengali lady voter from Bhowanipur speaking on phone to the author Nothing can explain better than this line of a voter about how Bengal felt…

Although elections were held across five states and Union Territories, the nation’s—indeed the world’s—eyes were fixated on West Bengal. Some were hopeful, some were worried, but everyone was watching. A BJP win was on the cards. A wave wasn’t. That’s what has caught everyone off guard. So what changed? To understand that, you have to…

By Partha Sinha We have long been comfortable with tools. The hammer did not disturb us. The wheel did not provoke metaphysics. Even the computer, in its early obedient years, felt like a faster clerk. Tools extended us. They did not question us. But something changes when a machine speaks in a voice that sounds…

West Asia has for decades held a special fascination for Indian films, particularly the crop from Maya Nagari, Bollywood. This has been turning concrete, with stars such as SRK and Mammootty buying palatial houses there, with gorgeous penthouses. What is more, given the insane Rs-$ exchange rate, production houses have been slowly shifting their stories…

Little Ishank Singh, all of 7, by all accounts is a water baby. He started swimming at age 3. Once his Sri Lanka to India 29km swim was chalked out, he trained up to 8 hours daily. And came good with a world record – crossing Palk Strait in 9 hours, 50 mins: the youngest…

Whether Trump’s war on Iran is over or paused, it hasn’t stopped affecting ordinary people’s lives. Americans are paying $4.4 per gallon of petrol, up from $2.9 in Feb. The increase is enough to derail budgets of poorer households. And now, for the first time in 25 years, a US airline has shut down, unable…

American men are facing a crisis of masculinity, driven by uncertainty about what it means to be a man in an era where their traditional dominance is being called into question. It’s left them flailing for a way to prove themselves, and much of Trump’s and MAGA’s popularity comes from how Trump is giving men…

The Buddha relics, on view in Ladakh now, are home in India exactly a year after they surfaced, set to go under the hammer, from a private collection. In 1898, William Claxton Peppé, a British estate manager in colonial India, excavated a large stupa at Piprahwa in what’s now UP, near India-Nepal border. Inside a…

Blockade of Hormuz is hurting world’s poor most. Collapse of a US budget airline is latest reminder Whether the war between Trump and Iran is over or just paused, it is still affecting everyday people. In the US, petrol prices have risen from $2.9 to $4.4 per gallon. For poorer families, this makes it much…