CATEGORIES

BOYISH MAN

Irish singer and former Boyzone vocalist Ronan Keating is on a whirlwind India tour this month

CELEBRATING COMMUNITY

The inaugural edition of the month-long Manam Theatre Festival in Hyderabad promises a window into a diversity of performing arts

Playing by the Book

THERE'S A SLEW OF NEW BOOKS ON CRICKET

An Insider's VIEW

Amrit Mathur illuminates key moments in Indian cricket in his unassuming and incisive memoir, Pitchside

Stranger Than Truth

Manjula Padmanabhan's Stolen Hours and Other Curiosities brings all her science fiction stories together in one place

Family Un-Ties

Vivek Shanbhag's latest novel, Sakina's Kiss, is a complex yet subtle critique of middleclass mores

SMALL SECTOR BLUES

The MSME sector contributes 30 per cent to India's GDP but delayed payments-courtesy public and private enterprises have been its bane, impeding efforts to raise capital and scale up

CAUGHT IN A MUDDLE

Ajit Pawar is yet to find his feet after joining the BJP-led alliance government in Maharashtra. His NCP faction bagged crucial portfolios, but the deputy CM is still No. 3 in the pecking order

Azza Pads Up

Stance, style, flick...everything was intact when he won from UP's Moradabad in 2009 wearing Congress colours.

OMG!

It's an almighty coalition between spiritual and temporal. Yagnas, chanting purohits, mahants, fakirs, bhajan singers-like always in India, all the beadyeyed shades of the divine can be spotted in the electoral arena. The other day, Telangana CM K.

DIYAS FOR DIYA KUMARI

Diya Kumari has taken to Vidyadhar Nagar constituency in Jaipur like fish to water.

So Who's Soorma Bhopali?

Vast, open prairies overrun by dacoits with bad teeth, a scriptwriter from Indore in Salim Khan, a teenager getting ajob in a bidi factory in Jabalpur.....though it was never mentioned explicitly, Madhya Pradesh is writ all over the 1975 blockbuster Sholay.

THE PATIENT CRUSADER

WILL FORTUNE FINALLY TURN FOR SURGUJA'S EX-MAHARAJA, T.S. SINGH DEO, WHO CONTINUES TO BE A CM HOPEFUL?

FALLING OVER BACKWARDS

THE SAFFRON PARTY IS RELYING HEAVILY ON THE OBC VOTE AS A POTENTIAL GAME-CHANGER

'WE'RE WAY AHEAD IN THE RACE'

UNION MINISTER GAJENDRA SHEKHAWAT GIVES THE OPPOSITION BJP'S TAKE IN WHAT IS PROVING TO BE A CLOSELY FOUGHT CAMPAIGN. EXCERPTS:

"Our voters will see the difference we have made"

In an interview with Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa and Deputy Editor Rohit Parihar, the incumbent chief minister Ashok Gehlot seems confident that there is no significant anti-incumbency against his government and that his bid to win the assembly polls is on track. In a companion interview, BJP leader and Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat expresses equal confidence that his party will form a majority government. Excerpts from the interviews:

CULTIVATING THE FARMER

IT'S ELECTORAL HARVEST TIME, AND BOTH BJP AND CONGRESS ARE OUT IN THE FIELD WITH A BUSHEL OF PROMISES. WHY IS THE FARM VOTE THE KEY DETERMINANT IN THE FOUR BIG STATES VOTING THIS MONTH?

MAHOBA WAITS FOR WATER

At the beginning of November, the Jal Jeevan Mission dashboard indicated glad tidings for Uttar Pradesh's Bundelkhand region.

THE PLAGUE OF FALLING BRIDGES

Celebration turned to tragedy this Dussehra in Palanpur town of Banaskantha district in north Gujarat.

A WRONG BOX GETS TICKED

In a 48-minute-long speech that he intended as momentous, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar took a 27-second wrong turn that had the Opposition crying \"crass\" and \"vulgar\" and asking for his resignation, the National Commission for Women weighing in too, and Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav offering a qualified justification.

THE MARATHA MAZE

The popular mood for caste-based surveys seems to have infected Maharashtra too, but with a twist.

The New Goldies

The New Goldieshome To Homecare, Travel To Consumables, A Whole Economy Is Springing Up Around The Needs Of India's Senior Citizenry, Helping Them Live Life On Their Own Terms

BRUSH WITH SUFISM

Muzaffar Ali's upcoming exhibition fuses his passion for painting and cinema

LOOKING FOR WOMEN

Janina Ramirez's Femina tries to right the wrongs of history by resurrecting the medieval women who were erased from it

Bonds That Matter

Two women-centric books-Mauli and The Woman Who Climbed Trees-explore Nepali society and how women navigate it

In the Fast Lane

True to his name, rapper Raftaar maintains a heady pace-juggling rapping with entrepreneurship and, now, acting in a web series

PAINTING THE BLUES

An ongoing show at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Noida-Prussian Blue-focuses on an iconic pigment that was discovered by accident but changed the course of art

CASTING CHARACTERS

At 99, sculptor Ram Sutar is busier than ever-and has just unveiled a statue of B.R. Ambedkar in the US

BRAVE NEW WORLD

FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF INDIA'S MBA GRADUATES, THE CHOICES THEY MAKE WILL MATTER AS MUCH AS THEIR CAPABILITIES. FIVE PIECES OF ADVICE TO NAVIGATE THIS EXCITING NEW LANDSCAPE

TURNING THREAT INTO OPPORTUNITY

SPJIMR, MUMBAI, SHOWS HOW TO PUT THIS WISDOM INTO PRACTICE WHILE TEACHING MANAGERIAL SKILLS TO BUSINESS LEADERS OF THE FUTURE