Category: Features

Banned & Censored, selected and introduced by Devika Sethi, will take you on a journey of words and ideas that were deemed dangerous and seditious by the British colonial state in the eventful first half of the twentieth century in India. If censorship gives us an insight into the weaknesses of a state – its many Achilles’ heels, as it were – these texts collectively

Why We Eat Our motivation to eat is self-evident; we eat to live.More often than not, we observe that axiom overturned.Humanity apparently, is living just to eat, shoveling in delectables as if there’s no tomorrow. Fact, not hyperbole. If we keep swallowing delectables at this rate, there will be no tomorrow – not for individuals, not for our species.In a world where a child dies

The human eye is conditioned to observe surroundings from a perspective that is generally no more than two metres from the ground. But, Karam Puri‘s stunning aerial photographs go a step beyond in mapping Madhya Pradesh, the beating heart of India, with a lens through which it has never been seen before, grandly yet intimately. Watch the trailer to see how he captured India’s heartland entirely

We recently interviewed Kalpana Swaminathan and Ishrat Syed who write together as Kalpish Ratna and have written Gastronama: The Indian Guide to Eating Right.As practicing surgeons, they believe the end of the antibiotic era and the emergence of new diseases calls for an urgent shift of medical attention from hospital to home.Over the past two decades, they have studied the parallels between environmental assault and

In 2019 before the world had any idea of the COVID pandemic, I launched on a journey of epic proportions – to shoot and document the vast interior of India from the sky. Madhya Pradesh From Above was to be a never before seen perspective of India. Her monuments, vast landscapes, bustling cities and people from high in the air. I chose Madhya Pradesh because it represents the

Recent years have seen several innovations in the banking and finance sectors. The use of technology-based applications has revolutionized these sectors and touched the lives of millions of people. One such innovation is UPI or Universal Payment Interface. The use of UPI was recently extended to Singapore, extending the footprint of an Indian innovation to other countries. Here is how it all started: The reach

The next few days were spent looking at the enemy post from various vantage points but the pine trees blocked our view. The men had nicknamed this enemy post as ‘Badmash10 Post’ because their razakars11 used to come across to our villages across the CFL to trouble our villagers.The map did not help much except to indicate that the enemy post was on a spur

Syeda Bilgrami Imam is an award-winning writer and editor of The Making of Advertising (Macmillan), The Positive Side (Roli Books) and The Untold Charminar (Penguin). After working as Executive Creative Director at India’s three foremost advertising agencies, Syeda joined the Government of India in the Ministry of Minority Affairs and External Affairs. In Like Fine Wine, she makes short and sensitive forays into the real

Janamsakhis are stories about the life of Guru Nanak (1469–1539). They have been circulating orally, inwriting, and in paintings and illustrations. B40 is one such documented artistic expression held at the British Library in London. Its fifty-seven beautiful iconotexts narrate the life of the first Sikh Guru from his first day at school to his final moments. Along with the artwork, there is the rich

It was April 2009 and I was in Paris researching to see if there was enough material and substance for us to publish a book on the theme of how India inspired the world in terms of design, fashion, textiles and jewelry. I met with luxury brands such as Boucheron, Chaumet and Van Cleef & Arpels at their majestic, impressive offices at Place Vendome as