BOOKS
William Dalrymple: ‘It’s a very good thing that people are discussing history’
Historian and author William Dalrymple on writing and reading good Indian history, and why he sometimes turns to Google Gemini for book recommendations.
LIFESTYLE
‘Direction came from honorable Prime Minister’: Secretary Vivek Aggarwal on first India Pavilion at Venice Biennale in seven years
Exclusive interview: Culture Secretary Vivek Aggarwal says, ‘We want to project India as a rising force. In all aspects of civilization’
LIFESTYLE
Made in Mexico, for Indian promoters: Ex-cricketer Yuvraj Singh, South actor Rana Daggubati and Globus Spirits bet on tequila
Rana Daggubati, Anirudh Ravichander and Harsha Vadlamudi brought their Loca Loka tequila to India in November 2025. Yuvraj Singh-backed FINO Tequila launched in India, alongside the US and UK launches, in December 2025. NSE-listed Globus Spirits is launching tequila at a price point of Rs 3,500-4,000 (in Gurugram) over the next three months.
BOOKS
Does the world need to read more (mostly bad) poems (mostly on social media)? The Poetry Pharmacy's William Sieghart weighs in
Every year, Unesco observes World Poetry Day in March (on March 21). We asked ex-entrepreneur William Sieghart, who anthologized poems by writers from Rumi to JRR Tolkien in 'The Poetry Pharmacy', how to read poetry without getting overwhelmed or drowning in cringe. Exclusive interview.
LIFESTYLE
Amrut Distilleries' new COO Ashok Chokalingam: Indian alcobev space is 'highly competitive yet collaborative' right now
Amrut Distilleries is doubling down on its Indian whiskys and premium rum portfolios under new chief operating officer Ashok Chokalingam, who took over as COO and master distiller of the privately held company in late March 2026. Exclusive interview.
BOOKS
Book review: In ‘Breakpoint’, Saurabh Mukherjea writes what the Indian middle class has been thinking for some time now
In 'Breakpoint', Saurabh Mukherjea et al define the Indian middle class as those who report earnings between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 1 crore in their tax returns, and argue that this set of the Indian population is at a crossroads today.
LIFESTYLE
‘Ustad Zakir Hussain led me to the Green Room Gharana of photography’: artist Dayanita Singh
How to photograph a celebrity: Dayanita Singh first photographed feted Hindustani Classical musician Zakir Hussain when she was 18. Over the next 43 years, her archive of pictures of the Ustad – laughing, practising, teaching, sleeping, touring – grew into the 100s. For an upcoming photo exhibition in Delhi, Singh has culled 72 pictures that marked her initiation into what she now calls the ‘Green Room Gharana’ of photography.
LIFESTYLE
Bharatanatyam | Why Malavika Sarukkai still dances after 50 years: ‘My own question of my dancing body…’
As the world pivots — on the fulcrum of artificial intelligence or AI this time — Malavika Sarrukai explains why some things are worth doing for decades on end.
LIFESTYLE
At 75, Triveni Kala Sangam celebrates its multi-arts non-profit DNA with talks, exhibitions
Triveni Kala Sangam turns 75: Exhibitions, performances, talks, and arts and crafts shows marking its 75th anniversary started on 27 February and will go on till 15 March 2026.
LIFESTYLE
Satish Gujral retrospective at NGMA Delhi: From 1947 Partition paintings to neo-tantric art, how Gujral's legacy straddles multitudes
Satish Gujral 100: If you find it hard to pin down the art of Padma Vibhushan Satish Gujral (March 1925 - March 2020), a large retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern Art on India Gate C Hexagon can help to understand some of his ideas and experiments in drawing, painting, sculpture, murals and working with a variety of materials - some of them quite unconventional.
BOOKS
How civilizational thinking is still hurting the world more than 200 years after Europeans introduced it to the world
Cambridge University Professor Josephine Quinn on why the 'West' was a hard-won idea, and why the idea of great civilizations of the world is so attractive and so harmful to the practice of history today.
LIFESTYLE
What is design syncretism, the theme of 2026 India Design ID? Vitra Design Museum Director Mateo Kries explains
India Design ID 2026: Mateo Kries on the importance of Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi; Doshi Retreat at the Vitra Design Museum in Germany; how global design vocabulary is responding to the rise in market power of countries like India and China; and takeaways from designers who were active 60-70 years ago.
LIFESTYLE
Business of photos: An archive of images from the 1970s - 1980s offers glimpses of Indian industry before liberalization
Photos don't just capture people and places; they freeze a moment in time. To those who know how to read them, photo archives can thus be fertile ground for research. Research on companies and promoters, of course. But also on processes and technologies. In the 1970s and 1980, Mahatta & Co shot images for MMTC, Maruti, handloom exports council, BHEL and Escorts, among other companies. Seeing photos from their archive now can be an exercise in nostalgia. But it can also an exercise in appreciating Indian industry before liberalization.
LIFESTYLE
Exhibition at Delhi's Bikaner House unpacks how British Raj photographed the people of India, urges new readings
How the 1857 Revolt affected British colonizers: A photography project to understand, categorize and rule Indians better drove the British Raj to create an archive that is rich with information today about power structures in colonial India and pockets of resistance to them.
LIFESTYLE
Fabric and feminism at India Art Fair 2026: East African photographer Thandiwe Muriu on embracing wax fabric and oral histories
At India Art Fair 2026: Nairobi-born photographer Thandiwe Muriu on coming to love East African wax textile prints, how women can perhaps come ‘to love ourselves more’, and coming to love her own Black hair and how it can do its own beautiful thing.
LIFESTYLE
How to grow and maintain bonsai plants in Indian homes? Harsha Ashok Hinduja shares
Ahead of Bonsai Blossoms 2026, Harsha Ashok Hinduja explains how bonsai and Ikebana took root in India, which bonsai plant varieties tend to thrive in India, how to start building your bonsai collection, and her own experience of caring for bonsai plants in Mumbai.
BOOKS
Harvard Professor Stephen Greenblatt: 'You are in a historical situation. The writer is in a historical situation. And these worlds are meeting'
New Historicism theorist Stephen Greenblatt says he wrote his first few books for academics, and then began looking for ways to write for a wider audience, to communicate ideas in a way that produces pleasure and the desire to continue reading. Exclusive interview.
BOOKS
2006 Booker Prize winner Kiran Desai: Artists are thieves, they are magpies. They can be ruthless...
Kiran Desai on the loneliness of elderly single women in India in the 1990s and 2000s, her Booker Prize shortlisted novel 'The Loneliness of Sunny and Sonia' and visiting the bank locker to try on family heirlooms that fit just right.
BOOKS
Ever read Sanskrit ghazals and Sanskrit haiku? Prof Radhavallabh Tripathi explains how modern Sanskrit literature is both vibrant and inclusive
Jaipur Literature Festival 2026: Prof. Radhavallabh Tripathi, Sanskrit scholar and ex-Vice Chancellor of the premier Central Sanskrit University in Delhi, explains how modern Sanskrit literature is open and evolving — just not as a language for computers or artificial intelligence.
LIFESTYLE
Reading ‘Chacha Chaudhry’ in a museum: The art - history - heritage quotient of comics, zines and posters
Museums have always been places for collecting, curating, contextualizing and displaying curiosities. A three-part exhibition in Delhi shows why comics, zines, posters and other ephemera must have a place in them.
LIFESTYLE
MasterChef India 9 judge Kunal Kapur: Regional Indian cuisine will be king in 2026, matcha shakes and cakes fad will fade out
Chef Kunal Kapur on Indian food in 2026: There is so much more to Indian cuisine than dal makhani, garlic naan, chicken tikka and biryani. We'll see vegetarian and nonvegetarian dishes from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat... highlighted in good restaurants this year.
LIFESTYLE
Forget ChatGPT and Instagram, Indian artists are revisiting text and how it makes meaning
Even as social media and ChatGPT change the way we speak and write, artists are pulling text in different directions in their practice. Some examples from recent shows across Goa and New Delhi.
LIFESTYLE
'That's not me. That's not my aesthetic. So why should I do it?' Shubha Mudgal on making music, breaking barriers, sharing stories
Hindustani vocalist Shubha Mudgal on why she won't call any form of art 'low art', and tabla player Dr Aneesh Pradhan on why there is ideally an element of risk in any intelligent performance.
BOOKS
'A very important learning from Ratan Tata's life is to lead a life of integrity': ex Tata Group executive Harish Bhat
Ratan Tata took over the reins of Tata Group in 1991, just as economic liberalization was set to open Indian firms up to foreign competition. Author Harish Bhat, who worked with Tata Group companies between 1987 and 2023, culls lessons from Tata's life and work for how to ride out systemic changes, among other things.
