On the face of it, the plot of Madhuri Vijay's The Far Field should not work: Shalini, an alienated 24-year-old from Bengaluru, uncertain what to do with her life (and financially able to do not much at all), decides to go off to Kishtwar in search o

Devendra Fadnavis's 4,232-kilometre Mahajanadesh Yatra across Maharashtra could well be a metaphor for how far he has come in his political journey. Gone is the diffident political novice who took over as the youngest chief minister of the state (aft

In her first Indian documentary, Daughters of Mother India, Vibha Bakshi looked at the public agitation that followed Nirbhaya's gang-rape and the change in laws it effected. In her latest, Son Rise, the documentary filmmaker has focused on Haryana's

Last week, when traffic constables in Delhi stopped a girl riding a two-wheeler with a broken number plate, they weren't ready for the commotion that followed. Not only did the girl refuse to pay the fine (which had gone up as another violation had b

One of the most striking things about Tanuja Chandra's first documentary, which premiered internationally last month and features her 93 and 86-year-old aunts, is her own uninhibited presence. As Chandra laughs goofily, encouraging Sudha and Radha to

The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, has been a passionate project for Nitin Gadkari, the Union minister for road transport and highways. While there is a broad consensus that India needs stricter traffic enforcement, the hefty fines under the n

In 1936, in a previous era of anti-globalisation and anti-immigration rhetoric, an Indian migrant and an eminent social scientist, Radhakamal Mukerjee, published what is arguably the world's first immigration manifesto. In a book titled Migrant Asia,

The recent announcement by the central government of its plans to redevelop the Parliament complex and Central Vista has stunned built-environment professionals across India. It appears from the published Expression of Interest document that the gove

OORJA, Bangalore www.oorja.in WHEN Light designer Jenny Pinto has always been a champion of sustainable materials and design. She launched her handmade paper studio (in 1998), which was later transformed into a light studio and now (in 2018) she has

Given that our political life has become a masterclass in Machiavellianism, it is difficult to know what to make of Amit Shah's explosively casual suggestion about Hindi being, or becoming, the national language. It could, after all, be an innocent d

What is smart lighting? "It is lighting technology designed for energy efficiency while fulfilling an aesthetic or practical effect," says Alok Hada, Director at Anusha Technovision, a home automation company. This implies that such a lighting system

As the water level of the Sardar Sarovar dam inches towards its full capacity of 138.98 metres (thanks to a plentiful monsoon), Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat are locked in yet another dispute. The MP government has acc­used Gujarat of closing the sluice

As a child, he aspired to be a pilot only to fly all over the world. But life had other plans. After his degree in architecture from MSU Baroda and a three-year stint with Hafeez Contractor, Reza Kabul started his practice from his father's Irani caf

Even as the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP continue their daily cat-and-mouse manoeuvres, another battlefront is opening up in the state. Cadre of the Left parties clashed with the police at Howrah, just a few kilometres away from the ad

1) Anu Chauhan and Prashant Chauhan Principal Architects, ZERO9, Mumbai www.zero9.in Project: Osia Villa Location: South Goa Area: 850 sq ft (indoor), 1,500 sq ft (terrace) Special Features: Indoors there's a projector with a screen to enjoy anything

Nothing seems to be going right for new chief minister B.S. Yediyur­appa. After the floods and the infighting in the BJP over appointments in the council of ministers, he now faces another major challenge placating the Vokkaligas, the second largest

A quirky India Circus footprint doormat is your first brush with Krsnaa Mehta's colourful Peddar Road home. As you step inside waiting to discover more of his creations, a riot of colours-red, blue, pink and green-and beautiful artefacts welcomes you

Indians,' the late columnist A.A. Gill once observed, 'drive with an ambivalent extempore gusto, unencumbered by the handicap of rules, training, or insurance, but bolstered by a startling belief in reincarnation.' They also, if I may add, drive on r

Sister Act Will the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly election see battle lines drawn between Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath? According to Congress party sources, Priyanka, national general secretary in-charge of east UP, is being

On September 5, on the occasion of Teachers' Day, the Gandhi auditorium at Lucknow's Raj Bhavan had turned into a sort of classroom. There was a makeshift stage and a ring of tables facing the stage. This was the first time a governor of Uttar Prades

On August 30, the West Bengal government passed a bill, after Manipur and Rajasthan, making lynching a crime punishable with a life term and Rs 5 lakh fine. Since then, two people have died in lynchings, three have survived attempted lynchings and si

For decades, the 4,265 sq. km mangrove belt, spread over the Sundarbans delta and the reserve forests of South 24 Parganas in West Bengal, has acted as a line of defence for its 2.5 million people against coastal erosion, tidal onslaughts and natural

Q. You have taken your time to do an OTT show I see a lot of OTT shows, and in the clutter of content, I realised there's unnecessary violence and sex to get eyeballs. The makers are all following a similar story template. I am not against showing in

Ghulam Mohammad Mir does not recall ever having to sit idle in the apple harvesting season, which begins mid-August in the Kashmir Valley. The 55-year-old farmer from Pattan in north Kashmir says his 19 acre orchard generates more than 25,000 boxes o

If you were to ask a group of ten people, what their favourite room in the house is, chances are that eight out of ten would say it is their bathroom. However, we often just focus on the aesthetics of the bathroom and neglect the importance of the ri

After constitutional challenges to the effective abrogation of Article 370, the focus in our courts is now on a slew of habeas corpus petitions challenging detentions in Jammu and Kashmir. The latest one, filed by Rajya Sabha MP and MDMK leader Vaiko

I have seldom read an autobiography as interesting or as honest as this. For sure, there are some that inspire respect for the life portrayed, but Gokhale's life is drawn on a grid never attempted. She maps her body parts to record all her significan

James Joseph, a media professional, had been house-hunting for over a year. He had hoped to buy a two-bedroom flat in Navi Mumbai to accommodate his family of four, who were then cramped in the single-bedroom flat he owned. He sold his old flat, look

At first, reading historian Manu S. Pillai's The Courtesan, the Mahatma & the Italian Brahmin feels like falling into a Wikipedia rabbit hole, though with better-researched and more engagingly written articles (some first appeared in a newspaper colu

A plan to set up an 'empowered wildlife advisory committee' in Madhya Pradesh has been caught up in the conservation versus tourism debate and is facing stiff resistance from the state's forest department. A proposal to create such a body was recentl