CATEGORIES

THE MANGO HUNTERS

'Naadan Maavukal' started out as a Facebook group, but what it does offline has helped conserve many indigenous varieties of mangoes

BJP LEADERS, TOO, HAVE HAD ENOUGH

Farmers’ protest has taken the centre stage in Haryana, which goes to the polls on May 25. Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is confident that the Congress, which has been out of power for 10 years, will regain its hold on the state. “People who voted for the BJP are disappointed today. It is clear that they want change,” he told THE WEEK.

BITTER HARVEST

BJP is at the receiving end of the Jat ire in Haryana; Congress is cashing in on it

TRINAMOOL FORCING WOMEN IN SANDESHKHALI TO CHANGE THEIR STATEMENTS

Sukanta Majumdar is a busy man. He is leading the BJP’s charge in the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal, where the party has targeted 30 seats. Despite falling sick the previous night, Majumdar, a botany professor at the University of Gour Banga, carried on with his scheduled morning routine.

CULTS OF PERSONALITY

It seems to be a Mamata vs Modi battle in Bengal, but the left-Congress team could have its say in some seats

Divide and win

As the final phases of the general elections draw to a close, an increasingly panicky Prime Minister Narendra Modi has started upping the ante on the question of reservations for Muslims, once again attempting to rebuild his majority by forcing a Hindu-Muslim divide.

Hemant Soren cannot think beyond his family

Former Jharkhand chief minister and president of the state unit of the BJP, Babulal Marandi, exudes confidence that his party will once again dominate the Lok Sabha polls in the state.

Popular sentiment is in favour of the INDIA bloc

A member of the old guard in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Chief Minister Champai Soren has the difficult task of guiding the party and the coalition government in the state amid challenging circumstances.

My confidence comes from my adivasi DNA

A heat wave is sweeping across the rocky terrain of Giridih, situated in the North Chotanagpur region of Jharkhand. The mango trees outside the guest house where Kalpana Soren is staying are laden with unripe fruit, their branches swaying and swooshing, and some small mangoes fall to the ground, wrested by the winds.

A STAR IS BORN

Kalpana Soren makes an impressive political debut, but faces opposition from within the Soren family and from senior JMM leaders

THIS IS THE SMOOTHEST ELECTION FOR NAVEEN PATNAIK

Naveen Patnaik has been an enigma in Indian politics, consistently winning elections with ease. His bid for a record sixth term is led by his trusted aide V.K. Pandian, who left his job as an IAS officer to enter politics. The 49-year-old is originally from Tamil Nadu, but has adopted Odisha as his karmabhoomi. He is fluent in Odia, a Jagannath devotee and is even called Odisha’s son-inlaw because he married an Odia IAS officer.

EXPECTING ONE FINAL FLIP FROM NITISH

IT IS NOW too late for Nitish Kumar. When I joined him in 2013, his popularity was at its peak. The BJP was a junior partner in Bihar then and he could have aimed for prime ministership. I was very close to him and that was why I opted to join his party.

BJP NOW FORCED TO TALK ABOUT JOBS

Tejashwi Yadav had a short stint as deputy chief minister; Nitish Kumar changed course once again this January to return to the NDA, which dismantled the RJD-JD(U)left-Congress government.

THUNDER IN THE EAST

The BJP and regional parties are waging bitter battles in eastern India. The future of three longest-serving chief ministers of India is also at stake

What women want

The headline is the title of a turn-of-the-century Hollywood fantasy starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. The film was a box-office hit, but its 2019 loose remake, What Men Want, flopped. Who wants to know what men want?

Heir-Borne Battle

Modi’s acceptability remains high even where voters find the BJP’s quest for power at any cost offensive, but the Maha Vikas Aghadi clearly has its tail up. The mood and moves on the ground...

Divides And Dividends

Contrasting narratives on the scrapping of Article 370 define the elections in Jammu and Kashmir

Playing it cool

Everybody knows what 420 means in the Indian context. But in American parlance it is something very different: four-twenty or 4/20 or April 20 denotes cannabis celebration; its cultural references are rooted in the hippie culture of the 1960s and 1970s.

The heroine's new clothes

Who else but Sanjay Leela Bhansali could bring on a wardrobe reset like the one in his just-dropped period piece—an eight-part Netflix series called Heeramandi?

AI & I

Through her book Code Dependent—shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction—Madhumita Murgia gives voice to the voiceless multitudes impacted by artificial intelligence

Untold tales from war

Camouflaged is a collection of 10 deeply researched stories, ranging from the world wars to the 26/11 terror attacks

Hair force

Sheetal Mallar, in her photobook Braided, uses hair as a metaphor to tell a story that is personal yet universal

THE WHITE TIGER GAVE ME CONFIDENCE IN MY ABILITIES

The first time Adarsh Gourav made an impression was in Ramin Bahrani's 2021 film The White Tiger, a gripping adaptation of Aravind Adiga's Booker-winning novel.

The art of political protest

The past doesn’t always remain in the past. Sometimes, it emerges in the present, reminding us about the universality and repetitiveness of the human experience. Berlin’s George Grosz Museum, a tiny gem, is a startling reminder that modern political and social ills are not modern. Grosz lived through World Wars I and II, shining a torch into the heart of darkness in high-ranking men and women—who were complicit in the collapse of the world as they knew it.

REFUELLING DYING SATELLITES

A Chennai company is making waves in the world of space tech startups

DIVERSITY IN UNITY

THE SOUTH ASIAN COMMUNITY IN THE US HAS SEVERAL THINGS IN COMMON, BUT WHEN IT COMES TO THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS, THERE ARE WIDELY DIFFERING OPINIONS AND FEELINGS

RED SHOOTS RISING

CPI(M) hopes its fiery young candidates will usher in a left renaissance in West Bengal

BATTLE OF THE BRAINS

Top poll strategists are engaged in a proxy war in Andhra Pradesh

SHAKY STRONGHOLD

Rahul Gandhi faces a tough battle in Rae Bareli, where he locks horns with local strongman Dinesh Pratap Singh of the BJP

Anupamaa's whisper to Rupali Ganguly

I have been a fan of the television drama series, Anupamaa, right from the very start. The number one Hindi TV serial in the country for almost four years now, it tells the story of simple Ahmedabad housewife, Anupamaa, who loved her husband, children, and in-laws, and found her happiness exclusively in theirs.