True Life
The Final Sin
The Church refused to let Jolly Thomas bury her husband till she gave them 25 cents of land. Forty years later, she recalls her lonely court battle against the institution, which she won only to find her husband’s grave now lying outside church premises. This is the story of how Jolly built a chapel, her own Taj Mahal, for her beloved husband Thampi
06 August 2011
True Life
The Curious Case of Elfriede Maria Schmidt
A 77-year-old German lady who’d made a Kochi hotel her home for the past eight years died last month. Her body has been lying unclaimed since. We went in search of her past and found four threads unspooling a lonely and wounded life
20 July 2011
India
The Long Arm of the Lawless
Balakrishna Pillai of the ruling UDF in Kerala is supposedly serving a one-year rigorous imprisonment sentence for corruption. Yet, he gets home food, an air-cooler in his cell and has been out of jail for 53 of the 144 days served. And now the government plans to set him free
14 July 2011
Living
The Sex Worker as Storyteller
Nalini Jameela has already written a bestselling autobiography of her life in this shadowy industry. With her second book, due soon, she shares her insights not only into the behaviour of men, but also the art of storytelling as honed by her professional skills
16 June 2011
Living
The Terror of Wedding Raggers
It has unified political parties in Kerala’s Malabar region, but to no effect. Newlywed couples continue to suffer humiliating pranks played by friends of the groom
25 May 2011