South India and North India are farther apart than we realise. Whether it’s education or quality of life, as the disparity grows, so does the chasm between us. This could be the next great Indian crisis. Nilakantan RS argues why –  South India: A Different Country Consider a child born in India. This child is, firstly,...

One of our novels, The Paradise of Food has been announced as a part of 2022-23 JCB Literary Prize’s Longlist! It tells the story of a middle-class Muslim joint family over a span of fifty years. As India – and Islamic culture – hardens, the narrator, whose life we follow from boyhood to old age, struggles to...

The son of a Pakistani migrant who crossed over before the Partition became the owner of a premier international art house. How? Born in 1949, Subhash had an older brother, Ramesh, and a younger sister, Sushma. Their family had moved from Lahore to Jalandhar prior to Partition when his father realised there was a...

COVID spotlighted the question that is at the back of everyone’s mind – who will be there for me when I need someone the most? Devdutt Pattanaik tells us an ancient story from the Vedas of a young boy who was abandoned by everyone he trusted.  Hinduism’s most ancient texts, the Vedas tell the story of a young boy...

Trishna was eighteen when she left Dhakara and swore never to come back. But twenty years later, as a widow with two children, she returns to the home in which her family was torn apart by a terrible secret in the basement. The basement beckons, but she resists. Nevertheless, It waits – here’s an excerpt from this...

Are you ready for the trip of a lifetime? Here are the states and stories we are visiting in the first week of #AroundIndiaIn30Days! SUN TAMIL NADU Cured of Prince by Nirupama Subramanian In this extract, P. Rajagopal, the founder of Saravana Bhavan catches a fleeing Jeevajothi and her husband Prince. He abducts them...

Sachin Tendulkar’s last Ranji Trophy game inspired little Shafali Verma to take up the game. Nobody would have expected her to break Tendulkar’s record which had remained unmatched for thirty years. Check out this excerpt from our story this week from Haryana! In the dusty, small town of Rohtak, Haryana, girls don’t...

Rajagopal, the founder of Saravana Bhavan catches a fleeing Jeevajothi and her husband Prince. He abducts them in an attempt to make Jeevajothi his third wife. Check out this incredible excerpt from ‘Cured of Prince’ in this week’s story from Karnataka! When Jeevajothi and Prince returned home from Marina Beach,...

Wed to Kasturba at the tender age of 13, Gandhiji recounts the day of his marriage and his internal turmoil at the time. Read this excerpt from A Love Imposed by Mahatma Gandhi, this week’s story from Gujarat! Let the reader make no mistake. I was married, not betrothed. For in Kathiawad there are two distinct rites...

The Nawab of Rampur is known for his fancy dinners and winsome cooks. He is also ‘secretly’ known for his interest in young boys… Check out this excerpt from Dum-cooked Desires in this week’s story from Uttar Pradesh. I am Shaukat Ali, twenty-four-year-old, henna-haired owner of the hole-in-thewall eatery Shaukat...