Where do you go to (my lovely)?
So next time you are busy lambasting your face in the mirror for being less than perfect, do think about what a burden it would have been if you were a beauty queen.
New novels in conversation with America
Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar, and Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam compellingly bring out what it means to live in America – and elsewhere -- during this fractured era.
Documentary Review | All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur is an intimate portrait of the club, behind-the-scenes action
For lovers of the Beautiful Game, the nine-episode TV series shot using sweeping artistic freedom is a ringside view of a major football club and for Spurs fans, it is a treasured family album.
Seeking love, fuelled by fame, freedom and drugs: Bollywood icon Parveen Babi
In a new biography of 1970s' Bollywood star Parveen Babi, author Karishma Upadhyay uncovers issues that are just as relevant today: mental health, drugs and the fast life.
A book that will make you think about your groceries
“The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket” by Benjamin Lorr exposes facts about the food industry that nauseate and startle, even when you are not expecting anything to the contrary.
Some sentences about sentences
Sentences, more than words, are the basic building blocks of all we write. They are containers to organise thoughts and describe the world. Beautiful sentences, as William H. Gass said, are “rare as eclipses”.
Around the world in eight days
As COVID continues to tap-dance on our heads and Christmas seems to be a couple of years away, here are some of the intrigues that kept the globe going since last Sunday.
Kashmir Pashmina: Handcrafted cashmere industry struggles to stay afloat amid India-China standoff, climate change
The Changthangi goat herds, which provide the finest cashmere, will face innumerable hurdles if their movement to warmer grasslands during the winter of 2020 is restricted because of the military stand-off.
A suitable film festival in Toronto
The 45th Toronto film festival adapts to the times with a hybrid edition to help a debilitated movie industry.
The joys of being a madcap
If head is permanently crystal-clear and breath never speeding or slowing, if the heartbeat is always rock-solid and steady, then we are sure to live long and healthy but, oh, what a tall mountain of dullness we climb….
You can never be too famous
It is only now, after the 1990s turned into the 2000s, that fame became famous for itself and lost its ‘infamous’ tag. Any publicity is good publicity, as any savagely critiqued artist or actor will tell you.
The ‘ginaissance’: How Hendrick's becomes a talking point among gin aficionados
What would you get than roses and cucumbers from a bottle of Hendrick's? A lot. Your taste buds would be busy teasing out other botanicals like juniper, coriander, orange, lemon, angelic, orris root, cubeb berries, caraway seeds, chamomile, elderflower, etc.
The Byomkesh Bakshi in all of us
This is not about a film star’s death; it is about us coming of age. We have woken up to the happenings around us; no more sweeping doubts under the carpet. Sushant Singh Rajput is not just a beloved late actor. He stands for the common man’s dissatisfaction with his country.
Udaipur’s US-born ‘Photowallah’ digs deep into statue-toppling politics for his new body of miniatures
Waswo X. Waswo, who has called India home for almost 19 years now —13 of which he has spent in Rajasthan’s lake city — blends miniature traditions, photography, documentary and painting in his art. In the process, he has helped revive miniature as an art form.
How India’s conservators and restorers give a new lease of life to art works stamped by life and time
The work undertaken at the Museum of Art & Photography’s Conservation Centre in Bengaluru draws attention to what goes on behind the scenes to keep an art treasury up and running.
When it's not love...
They are not The Man or The Woman we talk about to family and friends; they are just people who turn up mysteriously when we are stood up or ghosted. It takes time and effort to fully appreciate these underrated co-stars. Who gift you equality – never running you down.
Art connect: India's major art events prepare to 'celebrate life'
Kochi biennale and international film festivals in the country are getting ready to engage with community.
If Romeo and Juliet grew old...
The truth is there is nothing calm and mature about love at any age; it is an inbuilt flaw in that feeling, that it heaves the breast and dials up the breathing.
James Bond movies revisited: All 26 superspy flicks ranked
The release date of No Time To Die, the latest James Bond film, has been postponed, tentatively, to November 11 due to COVID-19. Here is a ranking of the Bond movies in the reverse order of how much I liked them. Happy watching!
What we talk about when we talk about talking
In her timely new book, Katherine D. Kinzler stresses that there is no inherently good or bad language and way of speaking. Language reflects social life, and there is no right or wrong way for it to evolve.
How violence at home traumatises children and sprouts a dysfunctional society
Growing up in a violent home is a traumatic experience that affects every aspect of a child’s life and development, writes psychologist Dr Prerna Kohli.
Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain...
There is something about the word ‘rain’ that brings out our inner Romeo or Juliet. The sound of even the lightest drizzle glues us to the window, or sends us rushing in to make a cup of steaming tea. It is like a signal from the sky to go slow, take it easy.
Nelson Mandela Day: A virtual footprint of Madiba in South Africa
July 18 is International Nelson Mandela Day. On this day, let’s find his footprints virtually.
I, me, myself
We are so busy monitoring the Princess Complex in others that we miss the invisible crown on our own heads.
Novel coronavirus novels that have remained unwritten
But what if writers of earlier generations had written their works during the spread of COVID-19? How would it have affected their novels? Here, in no particular order, are some ruminations.
