Essays

What Do You Call Picture Books for Adults?

Sumant Srivathsan

The ‘graphic novel’ is a great marketing gimmick. So grown-ups can buy comics about men in flashy briefs, unabashedly.

Surviving Child Abuse

Harish Iyer

Harish Iyer recounts his journey of self-discovery through years of pain and trauma

Blood in the River

Inder Salim

The Yamuna is dying. Restless and troubled, artist Inder Salim cut off his finger and threw it into the river. Call it art, call it angst, but he forged a link with the river.

Bollywood Dreams

Khatera Hakimi

Khatera Hakimi is an Afghan settled in New York. Her obsession is to make it as a heroine in Hindi movies, and time is running out on her.

Last Train from WTC

Shazia Omar

Shazia Omar shares the shock of watching 9/11 unfold in front of her eyes and how it brought perspective in her life.

We Are What You Are

Omair Ahmad

Being Muslim means something to others. It is also much more than stifling labels

Why is it that since 1992, despite umpteen changes of government in India and several different Prime Ministers of every ilk—left, right and centre—it feels as if we have had the same government in power for 17 years?

Listening to a Silent Audience

Mahesh Dattani

A life on stage is absolutely magical, especially when you sense the power to hold your audience captive

A la Carré

Shashi Warrier

It’s not always that a spy thriller is the inspiration for a piece of literary fiction

Truth Is My Religion

Rajendra Pratap Balwan

In India, says former forest officer Rajendra Pratap Balwan, who was victimised for trying to save the Aravali forests, you are a rebel if you go by the book