back to top

Culture

The sound of a qawwali for Bhagwan Ram’s wedding was a choice

Mangal Rang was released on 25 October, eleven days before Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana reaches theatres. It celebrates the union of Bhagwan Ram and Devi...

In Almora, Ravan never burns alone

The town’s mohallas build two dozen of Ravan’s allies, and burn them together on Dussehra

Amitav Ghosh’s sweeper-woman doesn’t need rescuing

In Amitav Ghosh's The Calcutta Chromosome, Elijah Farley visits D. D. Cunningham's laboratory in Calcutta. When Lutchman takes unusually long to return with a...

Turn it down: Badrinath is not a concert venue

There are some places where silence is not an absence of sound but itself a form of worship. Places where one does not go...

Stop searching for the West in ancient India

Among the many methods adopted to save Hindus from Hinduism – i.e., polytheistic idolatry that would lead to hellfire – is Roberto de Nobili’s...

Being Gen Z isn’t a free pass to do anything

In the high-altitude, strategically sensitive terrain of Ladakh, near the Minimarg checkpoint on the Kargil route, a viral video captured something far more disturbing...

How soft power flipped the rules of global influence

In September 2021, BTS stood before the United Nations General Assembly—not as entertainers invited to perform, but as representatives of a generation. Their appearance...

The ‘Rs 370 biryani’ remark reveals why modern relationships are failing

What is the least a man should hope for after a date? A memorable conversation? A few genuine laughs? The possibility that the girl...

Chicken mandi poster featuring Lord Krishna was not a ‘designer’s mistake’

I'm sorry that I'm late in telling you this, but this is what happens when you don't know a language. At the outset, I...

Chiraiya shows something that doesn’t exist

Sorry to the fans of Chiraiya, but what you have been told is a lie. To those who don’t know, at the end of...