Essays

To Catch a Flying Snake

arindam

Intrigued by the question of how a limbless, rope-like animal can ‘fly’, Dr Jake Socha films snakes in mid-air motion for his lab. Sometimes, it all goes well; at others, it takes, a ball-point pen to rescue his staffers from fierce snakes

Why Shillong Flips for WWII Jeeps

Janice Pariat

The Second World War years linger in this hill town in strange ways, and none more unusual than in its abiding fondness for Willys jeeps

93

Shefali Chowdhury

At 93, she looks after her 72-year-old daughter, an Alzheimer’s patient. Shefali Chowdhury on the slipping away of memory, and her daughter

Shooting Stars in Leh

TCA Sharad Raghavan

Bollywood loves shooting in Ladakh, and Odpal George makes it possible. He shares all about the crazy demands directors make, and the life-and-death crisis that befell the shooting of 3 Idiots in this cold desert

Trunk Call

B Ramakrishnan

Shy lovemaking, illicit liquor consumption, and other elephant habits that this researcher has noted in his 15 years on their tail

The Girl with the Front Row Invite

Namrata Zakaria

Taking notes alongside Anna Wintour, trying to place a familiar face that turns out to be Kylie Minogue's, chatting backstage with John Galliano on matters unsemitic, Namrata Zakaria likes her life

Where’s the Great Indian Novel?

Arunava Sinha

A novel written in English can never really become a ‘Great Indian Novel’. Such a book in English can only be a translation of an Indian novel, rather than one originally written even in His Salmanness’ sparkling prose

Battle of Bhadu

Mimlu Sen

In a prison in Calcutta, Mimlu Sen learns the meaning of ‘bhadu’, the season of scarcity. But Bhadu is also a deity of hope, one that gives uneducated, imprisoned women the strength to carry on. And one that her rebel comrades could not comprehend

Voices from Colonial India

Sohini Chattopadhyay

The records of India’s first and only Linguistic Survey, conducted by the British Raj over 1914-29, are now up on the net, thanks to an impatient history professor

The American with a Marathi Aai

Amanda

She had heard chilling tales of the Indian monster-in-law even in the US. So she practised her Marathi diligently when it was time to meet hers. They got laughing in the first three minutes, and they still are, says Amanda