BL Ink

The Czech novelist looms large over the city he barely ever mentioned in his writings

Edited by poet Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, ‘The Book of Indian Essays’ is an ambitious attempt to bring together 200 years of Indian prose, and succeeds delightfully in its lofty aspirations

A employee, working remotely since lockdown, can’t unsee the private lives of her colleagues on video calls

“It’s time!” says Muriel, as I get into her car. We’re both wearing masks. “For what?” I ask. “Aren’t we going grocery shopping?” “Yes, of course,” ...

An ode to a friend who kept relationships and magic alive

It’s Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, or Rajinikanth’s, 70th birthday. The perfect occasion for a quiz on superstars. Here comes the superstar1 Rajinikanth always ...

They may not be performing in restaurants, but are humming online

Every year, Delhi’s oldest burning ghat hosts thousands of gulls — in search of namkeen and respite from brutal winters back home

While medical staff at hospitals nurse India back to health, an army of delivery agents continues to bring food, medicines, clothing and other goods to the consumer’s doorstep. The rewards for this surge in online business, however, hasn’t filtered down to the level of the delivery boys. They are still out in the open

The Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay New India Foundation Book Prize 2020 for the best non-fiction on modern India has been awarded to Amit Ahuja’s ‘Mobilizing the Marginalized: Ethnic Parties without Ethnic Movements’ and Jairam Ramesh’s ‘A Chequered Brilliance: The Many Lives of VK Krishna Menon’. In this BLink interview, conducted earlier this year, Ramesh talks about Menon and his relationship with his ideological soulmate — Jawaharlal Nehru

Writer, translator, producer and director Sai Paranjpye wears her many hats with ease and pride. In her latest role as a memoirist, the 82-year-old Mumbai resident sparkles with the wit and candour that has seen her through a life unordinary. A BLink interview

Handouts and largesse filled some empty stomachs during the pandemic. But it’s work and wages that the poor need

The BJP’s success in the recent GHMC polls has been scripted by its top brass, but helped in no small measure by the Telangana chief minister

Recovering from a stroke, a businessman rekindles his childhood passion for coins and stamps and builds up a multi-million-dollar collection now on display in a tiny museum in Dubai

Memory is a trolley bag that we have to drag behind us for the rest of our lives

Provocatively written and deftly argued, Kristen Ghodsee’s ‘Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism’ is based on her extensive research on the status of women in eastern European countries

‘Middle Class, Media and Modi’ unravels the rise of the BJP and Prime Minister Modi from the middle-class perspective avoiding adulation or virulent attacks

Protection from the virus is central to what we now call life; but what’s stopping us from being creative?

On the way to the hairdresser all I can think is, “I DON’T want a haircut!” The clouds hanging low in the sky overhead mirror my mood: Dark and ...

A bookshop on Paris’s Left Bank has nurtured literature and its followers in every possible way

On December 5, 1945, Flight 19, a group of US TBF Avenger torpedo bombers, disappeared in an area that soon came to be known as the Bermuda Triangle.

A Maradona admirer pays tribute to his hero — by playing a football match

With as many iterations as components, this Burmese dish is a well-travelled one

Thirteen Carnatic musicians get together for a virtual concert set to stream from December 4