Published and unpublished writing on art, books, cities, food, travel and other reportage.
Originally published as part of Khabar Lahariya’s long-form series “Sound Fury & 4G“ ♦ Banda railway station on May 7 appeared to be a model of Covid-19 preparedness. Health workers wearing personal protective gear, some with face shields, roamed the platform. The policemen on duty wore masks – one even had his lathi wrapped in …
India’s Unbroken Chains: Labour Migration in the Time of COVID-19 Read More »
Krishen Khanna remembers Satish Gujral, who passed away on March 26, 2020 ♦ Note: After Satish Gujral died, I spoke to his friend and my grandfather, Krishen Khanna for India Today. This is what he had to say. My friendship with Satish Gujral feels eternal, did I know him for fifty years, or a thousand? …
Originally published as part of Khabar Lahariya’s long-form series “Sound Fury & 4G“ ♦ A few years ago, a daroga, or excise officer, was investigating a local leader in Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh for bootlegging liquor. The daroga, a Dalit, sanctioned a raid on the upper-caste neta’s home. Khabar Lahariya reporter Suneeta Prajapati, who had her …
Originally published as part of Khabar Lahariya’s long-form series “Sound Fury & 4G“ ♦ On Ram Navami, it rains flowers in Banda, in the hilly Bundelkhand region of southern Uttar Pradesh. A helicopter disburses showers of petals onto the town’s streets, which are packed with a long parade of people floating on a sea of saffron …
Lockdown Life: Inside the Homes and Phones of a Covid-Shuttered Country Read More »
Aravind Adiga imagines Australia refracted through an immigrant’s eyes ♦ Originally published in India Today. We use the word apocalypse, and these days frequently, to describe the end of the world. But its literal meaning, from ancient Greek, is “uncovering”. No one can say for sure whether Covid-19 is our omega, but there’s no doubt …
Originally published as part of Khabar Lahariya’s long-form series “Sound Fury & 4G“ ♦ Around the world, social media feeds have become feasts for the eyes and spurs to the appetite, flooded with photos posted by people working from home and cooking for themselves. While professional and amateur chefs serve up lockdown recipes, writers churn out …
The Hunger Pandemic: Ash-filled Stoves and Empty Stomachs in Rural Uttar Pradesh Read More »
The Alchemy of Secrets, by Priya Balasubramanian ♦ Originally published in Biblio India. I read The Alchemy of Secrets on the first really scorching day of India’s nationwide Covid-19 lockdown, feeling dehydrated, irritable and headachy. At a time when everything else passing before of my eyes—the news, the Twitter news, the creative ferment on Instagram—seemed …
Part of the Khabar Lahariya long-form series “Sound Fury & 4G” ♦ On March 22, 2020, two petrol bombs exploding near Shaheen Bagh and Jamia Millia Islamia caused barely a ripple before sinking into a sea of COVID-19 coverage. A few days later, as Delhi went into lockdown on March 24, the police scrubbed away all …
Tea and Azadi: What We Learned from the Women-led Citizenship Protests Read More »
Part of the Khabar Lahariya long-form series “Sound Fury & 4G” ♦ On a cool day in February, on a ground strewn with rose and marigold petals, two swarthy pehelwans engage in intense combat. One is thick and solid, in a red singlet and undershirt; the other, more toned, wears a red langot. They grapple on the …
Akhil Katyal chronicles Delhi’s many moods in his new poetry collection ♦ Originally published in India Today. The last line of Agha Shahid Ali’s poem “Chandni Chowk, Delhi” gives Akhil Katyal’s new book its title, but the entire collection seems impelled by the poem’s opening command—“Swallow this summer street…” In these Delhi poems, Katyal imbibes …