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The Idle Trophy Wife
I have been a vegetarian my entire life, and lately, I’ve been contemplating going vegan. However, the thought of life without paneer...

Dr. Indrani Misra
Apr 83 min read


The Machinery of Memory
In the annals of Indian industry, the name Kirloskar carries undeniable weight. It conjures up images of mechanical ingenuity and the...

Gautam E. Thakur
Mar 173 min read


A Grand Folly Worth Fighting For: Sergei Bondarchuk’s ‘Waterloo’
There was a time when war films aspired to something greater than the blood-spattered grit of today or tightly choreographed mayhem. They...

Shoumojit Banerjee
Mar 143 min read


The Architecture of Prosperity: Why Some Nations Rise and Others Crumble
I remember the first time I encountered the idea that geography determines destiny. It was in Jared Diamond’s ‘Guns, Germs, and Steel’...

Smitha Balachandran
Mar 93 min read


Tolstoy, Garnett and My Tryst with ‘War and Peace’
Many years ago, I left a bag full of books at Dubai International Airport - a book-lover’s nightmare. Among the casualties were two...

Shoumojit Banerjee
Feb 243 min read


The Historian Who Saw Through Augustus
At a time when strongmen strut the global stage and democracy so often finds itself in retreat, a book published in the autumn of 1939...

Shoumojit Banerjee
Feb 103 min read


A Paragon of Judicial Integrity
In the 18th century, when Montesquieu, the French philosopher, argued for the separation of powers in his groundbreaking work De L'Esprit...

Hemant Shetye
Feb 33 min read


A Literary ‘French Connection’
Every so often, amidst the deluge of World War II literature, some books emerge that feel like a revelation. The year 2024 proved...

Simon Dalton
Jan 283 min read


When India’s Empire of Ideas Bridged the Ancient World
William Dalrymple’s The Golden Road is a luminous tapestry that dazzles the intellect and the imagination alike. With his trademark...

Smitha Balachandran
Jan 203 min read
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