Blogs

The one enduring memory of my first trip to Singapore is of a splendid meal in one of Singapore’s many food courts. It involved chili crab, of course — this was before I became, tragically, allergic to all crustaceans — but also swamp morning glory (pui saag in Bangla) cooked in a savory broth that…

“The concerns of the people of the North-East living in other parts of the country” was the official mandate of a committee formed in 2014—and headed by retired top civil servant M P Bezbaruah— to address the racially motivated attacks on North-Easterners in the nation’s capital. That the govt chose to employ this elaborate euphemism—and…

Recently, the US House of Representatives passed a bill proposing a federal ban on gender-affirming care (GAC) such as hormones and puberty blockers for minors. Paediatric GAC is also increasingly restricted in the UK, Sweden, Finland, and other European countries, and in several states in Australia, Canada, and the US amid an intense medical debate….

WHAT’S THE HURRY? Elsewhere, fast deliveries mean 15-30 mins. Only in India is the timeline under 10 minsEvery year, as urban India ushers in the first day of January in a blur of beats and booze, thousands of invisible young men on two-wheelers quietly power the night’s merriment. This New Year’s Eve, they weren’t so…

For many in Pakistan, 2025 marked the end of a long period of its strategic isolation. The reasons are evident: an unexpected turnaround in US-Pakistan relations in the early months of the Trump presidency; a new energy in Pakistan-Saudi ties following the conclusion of a defence agreement; and a new relevance in the tangles of…

SUMIT PAUL A New Year begins with a gush of resolutions. Aren’t New Year’s resolutions like dewdrops on grass, destined to fizzle out on the very first week of a new year? They sure are. New Year resolutions are like a lover’s outlandish promises or a politician’s ambiguous assurances. Neither is ever fulfilled. They are…

AI in psychiatry is expected to deliver big – “whatever ails psychiatry, AI promises a cure” – writes Daniel Oberhaus in The Silicon Shrink, How Artificial Intelligence Made The World An Asylum. Big tech, not just startups, has been developing digital phenotypes – using AI to parse how people interact with their phones and devices…

From pantry staples reinvented to indulgences that broke the internet, 2025 proved to be a year when food trends were driven as much by curiosity as by comfort. Flavours travelled faster than ever, crossing cultures and platforms to land on everyday plates. Hot honey emerged as a quiet disruptor, drizzling its sweet heat over pizzas,…

Ennekurichu kanivarna anuvadamekoo Innathe raviliha bhakshanashalyinkal Ennekumayi nadanamonu ivaladidatte Pinne karutha mruthithan madhu njan kudikkam (Grant me your kind permission/ Here in this dining hall tonight/Let me perform one last dance forever/ Then, I shall drink the nectar of dark death)—Narthaki, Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon On a cold October morning in 1917, a 12-member firing squad…

Duncan, also known as Bob Duncan, left Los Angeles in 2015 after living there since the age of 18. What followed was a nomadic journey across continents. He travelled extensively, living in Kenya, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Mexico, the UK, the Netherlands and Portugal. Yet one place continues to…