If Tollywood were a religion, its actors would be gods, and the cinema hall their temple. In Andhra and Telangana, this faith comes with rituals: sky-high cutouts of heroes anointed with milk, garlanded with crane-lifted gaja malas, and serenaded by teen maar beats hammered out on steel plates. For decades, fans have treated first-day-first-show tickets…
Until some 12 years ago, my wife and I were regulars at Parent-Teacher Meetings in Sharjah, UAE. Like most expatriates, then, we lived in Sharjah, not for the sea breeze or cultural charm, but because rents were lower than in Dubai. I worked at Gulf News in Dubai, which meant a daily 27 km commute…
If you happened to be on the Dubai Tram last week and thought you saw a man who looked a lot like Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum standing quietly on the platform, chatting with officials, you weren’t hallucinating. That was the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, casually…
If the buzz is to be believed, Dr Shashi Tharoor might soon ascend to that most ceremonial of constitutional peaks, the Vice Presidency. A promotion, yes. A betrayal, perhaps. A linguistic hazard? Most definitely. Point of order lost in translation Picture this: Tharoor, resplendent in his trademark bandhgala and vocabulary, takes the Rajya Sabha Chair….
Click on one news story, just one, and suddenly the internet knows everything – not just who you are, but where you live, what you fear, and which part of your body might be failing next. Welcome to the delightful digital stalker that is Recommended for You, powered by AI, spyware cookies, and a wicked…
A Kolhapur man’s posthumous comeback after a jolt on the road is now a viral lesson in unexpected motivation. Sometimes, the only life coach you need is a civic engineering oversight. A curious old news snippet from last year has taken new life on social media, quite like its subject. The story, now doing the…
Devyn Aiken of Philadelphia recently did what countless philosophers, therapists, and marriage counsellors have failed to inspire in generations of dissatisfied spouses: she got a nose job – and left her husband. Yes, the $11,000 rhinoplasty wasn’t just cosmetic. It was cosmic. Her nose got reshaped, and so did her future. Aiken says the procedure…
It started quietly, like many things Oprah does. Not with a big announcement or a viral video, but with a quiet inner voice – one that Oprah Winfrey began listening to. That voice led her to Hinduism, not through temples or rituals, but through a deep spiritual journey. In recent months, the world’s most famous…
The face is the index of the mind, they say. Which is exactly why rulers across history made it their life’s mission to ensure their portraits showed nothing of the sort. From the glowering grandeur of Mughal emperors to the permanently serene smugness of British viceroys, India’s art galleries are filled with royal faces that…
The Nobel Peace Prize committee may soon have to open a new category: ‘Most Oppressed Elected Leader Who Achieved Absolutely Nothing But Claimed Everything.’ Arvind Kejriwal would walk away with it – perhaps ahead of even Donald Trump, who has already been proposed for the Peace Prize by both Pakistan’s army chief Asif Munir and…
