Essays
The MGR of Chepauk
Akshay Sawai
The eccentricities of MGR devotees are many. Ask TR Kailasam, who has been playing his lookalike since 1996, black wraparound sunglasses and fur cap included. When he dresses like MGR, says Kailasam, he ‘sees’ him
How I Became India’s Only Wildlife Taxidermist
Veterinarian Dr Santosh Gaikwad is the country’s only taxidermist who preserves wild animals. Completely self-taught, he has stuffed several animals over the years, including lions, tigers and snakes. An elephant head too
How Life Happens
Twelve years ago, Anuvab Pal’s home was invaded by a mouse named Arthur. This made him write a play about two people throwing a cricket ball at each other. A year later, a drunken impulse made him check the voicemail of a job he had quit six months earlier. Then all these dots connected, and he became a stand-up comedian
My Name is Gandhi
For Amrita Gandhi, being Mahatma Gandhi’s great-granddaughter is as casual a fact of life as the Rs 30,000 she’s not entirely sure of spending on redoing her couch. She admires Bapu’s frugality, but it so happens that her calling in life turned out to be tracking the lifestyles of India’s erstwhile royals
The Crumbling Ground
Ananya Vajpeyi’s book Righteous Republic is a reminder of the moral quest that set the tone of the freedom movement, of leaders whose lifelong aim was to deny violence legitimacy. Sadly, our political parties have seceded from this moral realm
First Home: Prison
Pushpa Basnet on bringing up children who have spent time in jail with their mothers
Growing Up in Sonagachi
Nilayan Dutta’s childhood was spent in easy familiarity with one of the most famous red light districts of India. Like a recurring dream, his memories keep drawing him back there
The Killing Fields of Falcons
Last October, Ramki Sreenivasan was among a group of conservationists who went to investigate the illegal hunting and sale of migratory Amur falcons in Nagaland. What they saw was a mind-numbing massacre of the species
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