For weeks, the Congress party has been blowing the trumpet on vote chori, accusing the BJP – and by implication, its silent partner, the Election Commission – of rigging democracy itself. It even launched a web portal for citizens to register their protest against this alleged grand heist. And then, in a plot twist worthy…

Fifty years ago, our sleepy little town of Bolarum was not very different from RK Narayan’s Malgudi – the kind of place where people recognised you by your walk, your cough, or your bicycle bell. As I mentioned in an earlier article, our cinematic universe then had just three planets – Sri Sai Talkies and…

A long-buried BBC interview with Dr B.R. Ambedkar has come up for air again, and it is doing what Ambedkar usually does when allowed to speak freely – spoiling the mood at the Gandhi-Godse nostalgia party. In this remarkable 1955 exchange with broadcaster Lionel Fielden, Ambedkar slices through the Mahatma’s saintly packaging with surgical disdain….

There was a time when the first signs of greying brought with them a quiet acceptance of ageing, a casual shrug of the shoulders, and a new pack of hair dye – usually ‘natural black’ that fooled no one. Today, they bring internet meltdowns. A recent photo of Virat Kohli in London did not show…

It all began, as most outrages do these days, with a WhatsApp forward. A quiet evening, a ping, and there she was – Sushma Swaraj in 2014, addressing the Lok Sabha as Leader of the Opposition, exuding grace, clarity, and a level of dignity so foreign to today’s Parliament that it felt almost fictional. She…

It is official: the iconic Sangeet Theatre has now been repurposed into Medicare Hospital, and for many Hyderabadis, the diagnosis is heartbreak. Once a landmark where cinematic culture and youthful romance bloomed, Sangeet is now a clinical, air-conditioned box promising health care in a neighborhood that already has plenty of it. Why another hospital? Social…

Last week, as I tried to glimpse the ghost of an old English film outside the illustrious, now-vanished Sangeet Theatre, I found myself staring into the reflective green glass of a new building. The old marquee, once a promise of 70mm magic, has vanished entirely. In its place stands a multispecialty hospital, its CT scan…

Once upon a simpler time, a shower meant soap, water, and getting out before your sibling started banging on the bathroom door. Today, apparently, you are a barbarian unless you follow a 10-step ritual involving scented scrubs, antibacterial potions, double cleansers, three kinds of oils, and something called ‘hydration locking,’ which sounds less like hygiene…

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…