Blogs

Halwas are among India’s most original and enduring desserts, deeply rooted in the country’s culinary and cultural history. Long before elaborate confectionery and modern sweets became common, halwa was made in Indian homes using simple, locally available ingredients—grains, lentils, vegetables, milk, ghee, and jaggery. From atta halwa offered during prayers to gajar halwa prepared in…

Indicatively, yesterday the PM 2.5 level in Delhi was 1000% higher than in both Denmark and Singapore. This extreme winter pollution, unmitigated year after year, is not a matter of opinion. Every official and institution acting like this data is disputable, only worsens the problem. Others have a chalta hai attitude. Against this tide, those…

I just posted a bunch of photos to Instagram. They are pictures of my friends and I at a big fat Indian engagement party. We are in full make-up, hair and wardrobe – all of which were carefully planned (or curated, if I thought we were more important than we are). Gazing at the photos…

School bullying is neither a new nor a recent phenomenon. It has been recorded as early as medieval Greece and Rome schools dealing with physical bullying. Even children’s literature has stories, like in Tom Brown’s school days and Enid Blyton’s school series, depicting bullies and the bullied. In our schools too, bullying according to the…

Politically assertive Mumbai’s voters benefited the Thackerays for decades. Not only did it help them install their mayors from 1970s onwards, it gave them complete control of India’s richest civic body for 25 years straight from 1997. Those same voters have now asserted themselves against the politics of fear and multi-community bashing. As well as…

As a pediatrician who has cared for children in Delhi for decades, I have seen how modern medicine has transformed childhood health. Infections that once claimed young lives can now be treated effectively. Vaccination programmes, sanitation, and modern medicines have helped millions of children survive and thrive. Antibiotics have played a crucial role in this…

The term constitutional morality was first used by Dr B R Ambedkar in the Constituent Assembly while responding to criticism that India’s Constitution contained unnecessary administrative details that should have been left to Parliament or the government.  Dr Ambedkar remarked that ‘Democracy in India is only a top-dressing on an Indian soil, which is essentially…

“Wisdom is a light. When its ray shines upon you, it adorns the tongue with right remembrance, the heart with right thought, and the bodily members with right activity,” said Persian Sufi master Hazrat Rashīd al-Dīn Maybudī of the early 12th century. Spiritual wisdom is the grace and blessing of the Divine Beloved. When God shines…

Good conversations start with good boundaries. On the surface, the sentence seems harmless and even flattering. It floats across social media timelines, comment sections, and inboxes every single day. Sometimes it’s sent by someone familiar, sometimes by a stranger. And most of the time, it’s ignored—not because it’s welcomed, but because responding feels more burdensome…

In conversation, M Mukundan keeps circling back to the same question—not about his new novel, but about where he now stands as a writer. The discussion moves restlessly across decades: from communism to existentialism, from Albert Camus to love, from language to desire, from belief systems that once promised change to a present where such…