Essays

Writer’s Bloc

Indrajit Hazra

Hanif Kureishi’s sharp new novel is not only a riff on the Naipaul-French saga, but also an exploration of his own fascination for writers and their habits

Love in the Time of HIV

Sohini Chattopadhyay

When Najaraus met Maitri, she was an HIV-positive widow, and he an AIDS awareness worker. Nine years later, with a little grit and a little fib, they are married, living together, still in love—and Najaraus is still HIV-negative

That Girl in the Well of Death

Pooja Rathod

Twenty-year-old biker stuntwoman Pooja Rathod talks about riding on a wall and risking her neck for her independence

Drink in Peace

Michael Edison Hayden

On the dive bar as a haven for the trend-bucking citydweller

Mrs Sen and I

Gouri Chatterjee

Suchitra Sen signified the acme of modernity to the Bengali middle-class of the 1950s and 1960s playing characters who speak English with apparent ease, wear chic clothes, and have careers which they usually choose to put on hold. She was not an actress; her greatest performance was in playing herself: Suchitra Sen, the luminous superstar. And with her reclusiveness, she cannily created a legend of herself

The Elusive Tagore

Philip Nikolayev

Searching for the poet’s genius amid the mediocrity of his English translations

The Woman Who Took on an Institution

Rina Mukherji

Rina Mukherji fought a sexual harassment case against her erstwhile employer The Statesman for ten years, facing delays and defamation suits, until she finally saw a favourable judgment last year

Pallu, Pleat, Power

Sohini Chattopadhyay

On the sari as a message of competence, maturity, professionalism and a new cosmopolitanism

Rugby on a Wheelchair

Riya Gupta

Six years ago, school swimming champ Riya Gupta dived into the shallow end of the pool by mistake, fractured her neck and was paralysed neck down. She had no control over her bowels, her fingers were limp, she lost touch with her friends. During sessions of physiotherapy and relearning how to write, she was introduced to Quad Rugby played on wheelchairs. A dozen even got together to form the Indian team, on which she is the only woman. And she made new friends

Fathers, Brothers and Other Demons

Neha Dixit

Priya was raped by her father and brother for nine years—and her mother knew all along—till she saw on television the protests against the 16 December gang-rape