STORIES

Make in India, Gain in America

The Piyush Goyal Story: Brain Gain, Family Gain

How the Establishment Is Instigating the Protest

One Law for the Protestors, Another for the Goons

Anatomy of a Protester

The youth won't go home. They, the Gen Z, think the government is the one that’s scared.

Jeffrey Archer Died Yesterday

He wrote the bestsellers. Life wrote the better draft.Photo: SAGHEER SHAHEEN

BJP, Mind the Junkyard: Defector Is Not a Treasure

Defectors are unreliable allies. Ants flock to sweetness and leave when it runs out. Worse, they are termites: they hollow out from within, quietly and invisibly, just as they did to the parties they left.

Two Editors, Two Systems

Tarun Tejpal and M J Akbar: Two of India's most prominent editors, both accused of preying on junior colleagues — and yet almost nothing about the police action, or the outcomes looks the same.

Democracy's Discomfort with Dynasty: The Case of Jyotiraditya Scindia

After two decades of being one of the Congress's loudest anti-BJP voices vanished the moment Jyotiraditya Scindia switched sides — condemnation became praise. Three generations of switching sides, a family history entangled with 1857, and a politician who still hasn't gotten the memo that Bharat has no maharajas.

Narendra Modi Is the Most Photographed Enigma

The paradoxes keep piling up, and global commentators keep failing to file him neatly away. He champions aggressive cultural nationalism in one breath and global climate action in the next, mixing high-tech financial inclusion with old-school majoritarian politics. Whatever the verdict, his top-down style keeps absorbing political shocks that would sink lesser leaders — and somehow the electoral momentum never quite stops.Pictures by SAGHEER SHAHEEN.

Sonia Gandhi: will she deal with real issues in her memoir?

Sonia Gandhi's memoir, I hope, is not merely a well-written treatise thrown as a party with no explanations on the invitation. Will she shed light on some real issues like: why she didn't become the prime minister, her snapping ties with Maneka Gandhi, Ottavio Quattrocchi, her rapport with Manmohan Singh and PV Narasimha Rao, the National Herald case, and that she, perhaps, is a bigger dynast than her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi.

The Immortality Trap

World leaders don't live by ikigai. Power is stressful and demanding; it makes them glow even as it ages them, concealed by top-tier healthcare. Vanity and ambition outlast the person, driving leaders to write histories that cement their legacy. But God doesn't discriminate. Death comes for everyone. It remains the great leveler.

The CJP Paradox: Youth Power, Divided by Ideology and Amplified by Social Media"

The CJP doesn't speak for all of Gen Z. There's a growing political and gender divide: women lean progressive while young men increasingly gravitate toward conservatism. Post-pandemic economic strain and a tough job market have pushed many youths toward right-wing populism, rejecting mainstream social norms.

Arundhati Roy, Ideologically Captured

Arundhati Roy's Blind Spot: A Thief Sees Thieves Everywhere. Compromised writers write their most convincing copy when they're describing someone else's compromises. They'd say this applies to me too, since I'm critical of Arundhati. Okay!

PENGUIN CHICKENS OUT, AGAIN!

The collapsed deal for Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's highly anticipated memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, is part of a trend, Standard fact-checking and editorial review, it seems, have become a convenient pretext for pre-emptive censorship — a way to dodge costly court battles or avoid government ire. Dispensing with moral courage, after all, costs nothing. Any other mainstream publisher would be willing to publish the book as it is, unlike Penguin Random House India .

ANIL ANTONY ASSERTS ‘ADVANTAGE INDIA’

Anil Antony is a man with a vision for the future, he wrote Advantage India: Reshaping the Future for an Equitable World Order — a comprehensive book about the technology-driven world, and its challenges and opportunities for India.

HORSE TRADING IS AN INSULT TO THE HORSES

Horses nurture deep, predictable bonds with humans and have been consistent, trustworthy, devoted companions throughout history. They have nothing to do with horse trading — the clandestine, intense wheeling and dealing between members of political parties to secure support for a bill, split an opposition party, or facilitate cross-voting. Horses are horrified their name is being used for such shady, opportunistic politics.

ARUNDHATI ROY IS HER BEST CAUSE

Arundhati Roy may be the best example of what she has spent her career criticising in others.Pictures by SAGHEER SHAHEEN (AN ARTISTE IN EXILE)

BROTHER-IN-ARMS IN A MUDSLINGING GAME

Sandeep Dikshit’s best moment in life came when Rahul Gandhi hugged him in public

RAHUL GANDHI: TO KEEP FIT IS PART OF HIS WORK LIFE

Rahul’s daily hour of exercise — dedicated to building strength, aerobic capacity, and flexibility — is, in his words, part of "my work life," not a leisure activity.

LOOKS HAS BECOME A PROFESSIONAL REQUIREMENT FOR POLITICIANS LIKE ACTORS

In the day and age of social media, looks matter in politics as it’s becoming a digital performance — one where garnering visibility and chasing viral moments through curated aesthetics more often than not outweighs policy debate.

HARSH SANGH-AVI: THE NEXT BIG THING IN THE BJP

Harsh Sanghavi is one of the fastest-rising figures in Indian politics. When I look at him, I see the future of the BJP.

Unkept Promises: Tea, Tarps, and the Wait for Citizenship

This is the unofficial camp of Pakistani Hindu refugees near Majnu ka Tilla, Delhi. They escaped to India because they were persecuted in the name of faith in their homeland. Their life remains a struggle.

BENEATH THE BANNERS

An eyewitness account from Jantar Mantar, where a shared cause outweighed inherited identities.

LAWRENCE BISHNOI: THE HINDU DON

Lawrence Bishnoi has cultivated the image of a "nationalist" — the Hindu Don. Is this a carefully curated social media persona, or is there truth to it?

IS THE PHENOMEONAL SUCCESS OF THE CJP MOVEMENT AN EXAMPLE OF HYPER-POLITICS?

CJP fits Anton Jäger's hyper-politics framework quite well, though it remains to be seen: will CJP replicate Jäger's hyper-politics pattern (explosive impact, then dissipation without lasting political structure), or will it follow the AAP trajectory (movement → institutionalised party → governance)?

Your Marriage Is Not a Content Calendar

The Real Story Behind Public Displays of Affection: If You Have to Post It, Do You Have It?

Devotion and Deals

At the Rangapanchami fair in Kareila, the Rai is a prayer, a performance and a livelihood.

India Had Its Own Edison. We Didn't Teach You His Name

Everyone knows Edison. Why don't we know Gopalaswamy Doraiswamy Naidu (1893-1974)? A school dropout, he taught himself engineering and went on to drive over a hundred innovations across transportation, electrical engineering, photography, and agriculture. India built a modern nation on the kind of ingenuity he embodied, then forgot the man himself. Only the Bharat Ratna can do justice to his legacy.

Deaf Gain

I visited the Noida Deaf Society (NDS), a not-for-profit founded by Ruma Roka and witnessed "Deaf gain" or deafness not as a medical problem to be fixed but as a form of cognitive, cultural, and human diversity that offers strengths to individuals and to society. Spending time with the people who live this, and documenting their resolve, taught me a great deal.

Parul Sharma: The Space She Kept

Art, objects, furniture — wood, metal — interspersed into a symphony playing her quintessential tune. The contrast of distinct objects, some with bold colours and textures, blends beautifully in the space. Table, chair, a set of armchairs, a candle burning for its aroma on a table in front of a glass window, daylight filtering in through the bamboo chick. Procured from all over the world, these objects, books, seem to be in conversation in her space.

IS AI SAFE FOR HUMANITY?

I asked an AI whether AI is safe for humanity. It replied, with the emotional warmth yet in a matter-of-fact way, like a legal disclaimer:"As an AI, I do not have personal opinions, fears, or beliefs, but I can give you an objective breakdown of how the scientific and tech communities view this question. The short answer is: we don't know yet. Whether AI is safe for humanity depends entirely on how fast capabilities advance versus how fast we build the safety frameworks to control them."

THE TRAGEDY OF A LEGENDARY ELEPHANT: RAMACHANDRAN

Raman is working for humans for nearly five decades, blind in one eye, with the other failing. He displays neurotic behaviours, repetitive in nature — pacing, head-bobbing, body-swaying — patterns rarely seen in their wild counterparts, indicative of deep mental trauma. This has to end before Raman dies, he deserves sometime of resting and doing things that's natural to him.

RISHABH SINGH SAMBYAL: AN ARMY OFFICER WHO BECAME AN ONLINE ICON WITHOUT UTTERING A WORD

Social media is a strange kind of powerful—it can make you a household name overnight, and there's little logic to it beyond the fact that it tends to happen to good-looking men. In this "Hook Era," governed by the "3-second rule," the human brain processes images roughly 60,000 times faster than text. Bad news for a print journalist like me.

GOOFY’S MESSAGE FOR HUMANITY: I’M HAPPY BEING A DOG

LOVE KNOWS NO LEASH

Abhishek loves tending to animals because he feels it's so much easier to love them, to deal with them — there are no complex psychological layers. They are exactly what they appear to be, forthright about how they feel, open to kindness, and they show gratitude in their own way.

MANZOOR ANZWAL: FINDING THE FAQEERA

Manzoor never got a formal education, yet, in sync with music, he writes, composes and sings in many languages — Kashmiri, Urdu, Persian, and Arabic. (Photos: Arshad Hussain Dar)

VAIBHAV NAGORI HAS MADE VEGETARIANISM SEXY!

The cofounder of the Greenr Café chain. Vaibhav Nagori. wears many hats.

WELCOME TO THE FAIRYLAND OF THE DESI DRAG QUEENS

The roots lie in queer culture, an offshoot of LGBTQ+ nightlife, and is most anticipated event at gay bars and ballroom culture.

CHILDREN OF THE ILLEGITIMATE FATHERS

Many prostitutes bear a child or two. They are the children of the illegitimate fathers.

IN PRAISE OF IDLENESS IN THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Over the years, I have practiced stillness — I won't call it meditation, but it does involve ridding the mind of the clutter of thoughts. There is a bright emptiness in it. My experience is that idleness is not the opposite of a meaningful life, but its condition.

SEX TOYS TO BRIDGE THE ORGASM GAP IN INDIA

A man and a woman talk about their experiences with sex toys. In India, the broader trend seems to be that sex toys serve as a substitute; in the West, they're, at best, a supplement.

A Subaltern Gigolo in Rich Delhi

Pursuit of happiness. "I seek personal pleasure in professional service," he says.

We Never Met

An online friend who does drugs in real life and shares to his community of friends everything that's meant to be hidden.

ASEXUAL DARSHAN LOVES EROTICA, HAS ELABORATE AND VIVID FANTASIES

Asexuality is a distinct sexual orientation that entails experiencing little to no sexual attraction to others. Darshan is a textbook case, but doesn't mean being devoid of desire. He seeks emotional intimacy —platonic, deep, non-romantic and, yet, has a high libido.

TANGLED BONDS BETWEEN BROTHER AND LOVER

One of two gay partners enters into a relationship with the other's older sister. They come to know it, but don't know how to get out of the mess.

A YOUNG 'LOUNGE LIZARD' LOVES BEING INTIMATE WITH THE AGED

A young man who's a British national lived in Delhi for more than a year ten years ago, and among other things he did to keep himself engaged, also operated as a gigolo and slept with older people with a sense of responsibility. He is odd and bizarre make perfect sense to him.

The Art of Invisible Leadership

The Institutionalisation of the Individual: Ravi Kant—former CEO and vice chairman of Tata Motors—offers a leadership model where, instead of command-and-control from the top, it's distributed leadership built on humility—one that lets every team member bring their best to the table. There are various ways to describe this paradox: The Loudest Leaders Say the Least; Leadership You Can't See, Results You Can; The Ego-Free Org Chart; Absent, Yet Everywhere.

India's Chip Problem — And Why It Might Also Be Its Biggest Opportunity

If, a big if, India can close the manufacturing gap and cut its dependence on imports, there's a genuine shot at joining the US, China, and Taiwan as a serious chip-making power.

SUBHASH CHANDRA’S PROPOSED BAILOUT: IS IT NOT A SANCTIONED LOOT?

Subhash Chandra's bailout raises a pointed question: if a prominent promoter like him can walk away from a personal guarantee this easily, what does the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code's personal insolvency framework actually protect? It looks less like resolution and more like sanctioned loot.

BABA HARIDAS TYAGI: TEMPTATIONS ARE NOT TEMPTING

Faith has become a way of life for Baba ji. Things simply happen. If he decides to travel, he finds co-travellers — not just for pilgrimages, but for globe-trotting. He has no documents, yet he has been to a dozen countries across five continents. He speaks many languages, and is famed for organising a rainbow gathering, where hippies nirvana-seekers from across the world congregated in the forest to celebrate their communion with God. A shared intention of peace, harmony, freedom, and respect bound them together, birds of the same flock.

JENSEN MARTIN IS COMMITTED TO MAKING THE KNOWN UNKNOWN KNOWN TO HIS COUNTRYMEN, AMERICANS.

Jensen Martin is a lone traveller unto himself, and that has taken him to places across the globe. He's sure-footed on the path of uncertainty; spiritual journeys are amorphous, and yet they give him something concrete — a direction.