STORIES

SOCIETY

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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.

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.

BHANU-MATI: WOMAN IN A MAN’S BODY COULD BE INDIA’S FIRST TRANSGENDER SUPERMODEL

A native of Agra who grew up in Bangalore, Bhanu-mati now works as head of security at a five-star hotel in Delhi.  There's no ambiguity here, no confusion — Bhanu-mati is sure of who they are and what they want from life.

STOP! OR MY GRANDMOM WILL SHOOT

The 'Bandook Wali Dadi 'or grandmother with a gun, she is now 89-year-old. That makes her, in all likelihood, the oldest rifle shooter in the country.

IN THE 'SECRET GARDEN' THEY BECAME VISIBLE TO OTHERS LIKE THEMSELVES

A vivid description of gay cruising in 1960s and '70s in New Delhi: required courage, had to be clandestine, the queer community were forced to navigate a landscape of high risk, constant surveillance, and social stigma. An excerpt from The Secret City published by Speaking Tiger.

VEIL-IFIED

I’m a Muslim man who has an opinion on hijab.

EVERY CITY IN INDIA HAS A BARBER FROM BIJNOR

An intimate account of a haircut

A CENTARIAN WHO RAN MARATHONS

The 113-year-old Dharam Pal Gudha is a veteran marathon runner

A POOR MAN’S TAJ MAHAL

A retired postmaster, Saidul Hasan Qadri, build a Taj Mahal, like Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, to celebrate the memory of his beloved.

THE OLDEST FATHER

Ramajit Raghav became a father at the age of 94 years.

THE OLDEST NAUTCH GIRL

Rakhi would now be well in her 70s, and that makes her, perhaps, the oldest nautch girl not just in Meerut, but also the whole country. I shot her some ten years ago and got a glimpse of her life.

LIFE OF A TRUCKER: JOURNEY IS THE DESTINATION

Truckers lead an interesting life. It's race against time, and the motion gives their life a certain dynamic stability.

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER MAKE FORMIDABLE TRAVEL PARTNERS

Deepa Gopinath is a single parent to the Bharatnatyam dancer of repute Sheyasi. Mother-daughter forms a formidable duo, are a great travel partner–transverse the world together. I wish them many more journeys together.

I’M A PONY OF PAHALGAM

Our fate, like a slave, is intertwined with the fate of our human masters.

DIFFERENT WAYS OF LOOKING AT THE SAME THING: EGOTISTICAL OBJECTIVITY

My sketches present a starker picture. Same phenomenon, different interpretations. The story is effectively told, either way. We in Gonzoom consider the story and the storyteller as equal stakeholders. This is what we mean by egotistical objectivity.

FREE HUNTING GROUNDS FOR
DARLING AUNTIES

Winters can get very lonely in Scandinavia, especially for older women. Some come to India, warmer climes, for a companion, a young Indian man, who is more than eager to experience sexual bliss.

JEANS IS PART OF THE HUMAN GENE

Denim is the most sought after attire in the world. Jeans became a cult clothing for so many groups, almost an identifying factor.

THE YOUTHFUL OLD

The Youthful Old is a series on elderly people who remained eternally young

POLITICS

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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)?

OCCULT

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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.

THE PAST BECKONED ME IN THE PRESENT

I was hosted in a commune in Tübingen by a friend. There a bust of a long dead soldier stirred my subconscious. The experience not just stayed with me in the last ten years or so, and it visits me often as a nightmare.

THE GHOST OF NICHOLAS ROERICH

Perhaps a room is not a mere witness. It has memory.

Anonymous

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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.