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Doing the Ranveer

In squeamish and hypocritical Bollywood, Ranveer Singh comes as a refreshing change

The longest journey

A poignant fictional reimagining of EM Forster’s fallow years, where he is transmuted into the alienated, unhappy young Morgan

The minister’s lament

That evening, word reached us that I was now the first ever Minister for Social Media (MSM)

Outsider versus Insider

When Wanphrang Diengdoh’s first film 19/87 released in 2011, it had one screening and received one review. His second film, Where the Clouds End, ...

The highs and lows

In the big, expensive annual circus on the Everest, the true essence of mountaineering is lost

Undiscovered Country The activist

The activist

How long can we be dependent on the drive and honesty of activists like Ashraf, expecting them always to rise out of the broken systems to inspire us

Bold realities in fiction

Whether set in an invented continent or a distant past, author Jim Crace’s stories are deeply rooted in realism

MEAL TICKET Hungary pangs

Hungary pangs

Goulash, schmoulash… there is so much more to Budapest than just a stew

Whistle-stop Sentosa

From gigantic sea creatures to Hollywood stars, this modern-day ‘pleasure island’ has it all

Passion by the glass

Bordeaux’s romance with the East

Day in the aisles

Necessities, goodies and bargains

Let the games begin

With gripping matches and believable characters, Junior Premier League is as exciting as the real deal

The shocking artist

Chintan Upadhyay’s latest woollen installations highlight his politics and idiosyncrasies

Sheer vertigo

As we may soon be reliving nightmarish literary scenarios, revel in these dystopian books

Gone fishers

The Chinese nets are essential to the vistas of Kerala’s Fort Kochi, but few fishermen still use them

THE COMPASS CHRONICLES Through a lens closely

The arrival of the microscope in the subcontinent challenged long-cherished views about the Hindu cosmos and the human body

We, the mongrels

Increasingly in urban India there is a society whose permanent address is ‘here and now’

The real Sheila ki jawani

He introduced a generation of men to erotica. Yet the author of the Mastram books remains unknown. Akhilesh Jaiswal chronicles his many splendours in a forthcoming film

A BUTTERFLY BREEZE FROM MP Politics and the way of the tiger

In election season, our political parties seem to be side-stepping reality or are oblivious to the link between GDP and climate change

Anywhere office

Shared office spaces are eagerly lapped up by start-ups, entrepreneurs and multinational firms looking for ways to save on expensive real-estate and housekeeping costs

Green Humour

Catch 22

A cross-border band of good Samaritans works to free Indian and Pakistani fisherfolk who are jailed for straying into each other’s waters

IN-FAQ The Times Two quiz

Here is an election special quiz. Hoping I don’t have to do another one around this time next year! 1 Rae Bareli has been a safe seat for the Congress ...

Cornerstone

All work, all play

For toy designer Suhasini Paul, life is literally a game where she makes the rules

Rhino hide-and-seek

There’s a baby boom in Assam’s rhino-land Kaziranga, but before they can exult, the one-horned denizens have to dodge poachers’ bullets and find a safe nook in a shrinking habitat