Essays

An Outsider in Bollywood

Neelesh Misra

From a meeting with Mahesh Bhatt at his fourth floor office that led him to write the song Jaadu Hai Nasha Hai to another meeting at a fourth-floor office, this time with Aditya Chopra, about writing the film Ek Tha Tiger, journalist Neelesh Misra speaks of his first ten years in Bollywood

‘You Are My Illegitimate Father’

Rohit Shekhar

For six years, he has fought in court to be recognised as ND Tiwari’s son. Any day now, Rohit Shekhar will learn the results of the DNA test

The Undefeated

Payel Bhattacharya

She is India’s only known patient of Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, and has undergone eight surgeries so far. She couldn’t complete college because she was always waiting in doctors’ chambers. She lost her father as he couldn’t afford a bypass surgery. Payel Bhattacharya on the loneliness and anger of being the only one of her kind

The Revenge of the Mithun Fan

Anuvab Pal

After his book on Disco Dancer described Mithun Chakraborty’s acting the ‘worst ever’ in Hindi cinema, Anuvab Pal got a letter from a certain Mimoh. Who took revenge in a way that can only be called ingenious

Pakistan’s TV Warriors

Rajendra Bajpai

Pakistan’s new media is fearlessly taking on India bashers and those distorting history in ways that would have been seen as unpatriotic a few years ago.

The Metro Magnet

Amrita Tripathi

Delhi’s upper middle-class has never cared to be seen rubbing shoulders with the city’s plebeians who use public transport. Which is why it’s so surprising to see how well they have taken to the Metro

How My Conscience Was Abducted in Dantewada

Akshay Pathak

In the garb of social responsibility, the Essar Group recently organised a storytelling festival for the ‘benefit’ of children in this Maoist-dense area. Apart from the organisers’ poorly disguised disdain for local artistes, what emerged most starkly was the stench of corporate propaganda

The Man Who Aced CAT Six Times

Patrick D’Souza

The founder of Mumbai’s Quoin Academy, which helps business school aspirants prepare for entrance exams, has aced the Common Admission Test six times in as many years. He is also the topper of Maharashtra’s MBA-CET. But Patrick D’Souza neither prepares for these tests nor wants to join a B-school

Reading in Sin

Arpita Das

If sexual explicitness caused the most outrage in the early phase of book bans in India, there was a point after which it became almost entirely about religion