Features

Long Live Balasaheb

Haima Deshpande

Shiv Sainiks believe that their party’s fortunes will revive soon. Not because of the infusion of fresh blood in the party’s leadership, but because 83-year-old Bal Thackeray’s health seems to be improving.

What in God’s Name is This?

Huma Imtiaz

Aasia Bibi has been sentenced to death under Pakistan’s dubious blasphemy laws. Her case could hasten the country’s slide towards a closed society.

Real Estate Must Get Real

Ninad D. Sheth

There is hope that exposure of dodgy players will lead to a better market.

Two Journeys, One Box of HIV Medicine

Sharleet Mahal

Presenting two stories that tell another tale.

Suhaag Raat: Then and Now

Shubhangi Swarup

Some things have not changed: little or no sex. It’s just that friends now insist on making it more memorable than the newlywed would like.

Aruna’s Keepers

Priyanka Borpujari

Last Saturday, Aruna Shanbag, a former employee of KEM Hospital, Mumbai, completed 37 years as its ‘baby’. This is the story of the nurses and doctors at KEM who have taken care of one of their own ever since that fateful evening of 27 November 1973 when Aruna was raped and strangulated by a ward boy.

It Happened One Night

Dhirendra K. Jha

Ayodhya, 22-23 December, 1949. This is the untold story of that fateful night, when a small group of religious activists stole into the Babri Masjid to place an idol of Ramlalla under the main dome, the night that shaped India’s modern political history. This is the testimony of the few who survive to tell the tale.

The X-Tapes and the BJP

Jatin Gandhi

The unbridled glee in the BJP camp over the 2G scam could soon turn to gloom. The Radia tapes also expose how their own party functions.

The Accidental Landlord

Haima Deshpande

Atram led a modest life of anonymity in faraway Chandrapur, until he found himself listed as the owner of a flat in Mumbai’s Adarsh Housing Society.

“The Ones Caught Will Brazen It Out”

Arundhati Roy

As a writer-activist, Arundhati Roy has written about issues that mainstream media has largely shied away from. She has been targeted for her fiercely independent views on Kashmir, Maoists, the issue of displacement, and the nexus between politicians and corporates. In an interview with Open’s Rahul Pandita, Roy speaks her mind on the Radia tapes, calling it just “the top end of the problem”.