Essays

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

The Final Frontier

Open

If 30 years of foreign policy could be rewound, Pakistan’s ‘jihad factory’ would not exist, says Alice Albinia

Silence, Please

Elizabeth Kuruvilla

The story of an artist who has lived most of his life in deafness but still can’t afford to listen.

Vertical Limit

Rahul Chandawarkar

Pune teenager Krushnaa Patil climbed Mt Everest recently and spent half an hour on top of the world. But strangely, it wasn’t quite the whoohoo moment she thought it would be. Her Everest moment had come a little before the summit...