culture

A Hippie in a Strait Jacket

Airports and airplanes are the best places to try on different faces to masquerade your identity and experiment with your personality.

The Show Must Go On

It was all a show and these people were here because this political rally provided better, more tangible entertainment than the T.V. at home.

Colour Me Blue

A book that tells a story of loss may make you appreciate life a little more. Does grief not appear more universal than happiness?

Village Vignettes: Happiness

The secret to happiness, so intangible, and yet so familiar, remains too tantalisingly nebulous to encapsulate in words.

U-bends: Haridwar

It was a row of circling flames along the riverbank at dusk, illuminating clouds of incense and chanting pilgrims. For a moment, the postcards came to life.

Alice in Wonderland

Against the backdrop of history exists a town dripping with experimentation and modernity. Except this is not a town. This is Hauz Khas Village.

Village Vignettes: Opium for Dinner

For most of us, opium usually paints a picture of the messy tangle of the narcotics trade, undercover dealings, and sometimes, a withered Chinese lady smoking a pipe.

Animal Rights, Body Paint, and G-Strings

P.E.T.A.’s senior campaigner Ashley Fruno talks to us about her experience of campaigning for animal rights and her personal highs and lows doing the work she does.

Melodies for Tibet

A documentary screening + performances by indie musicians at F.T.I.I., Pune, on January 29. Details inside.

Walk the Walk

A city breathes because of people who explore it on foot, stand, stare, think, and marvel at its mysteries, paradoxes, and idiosyncrasies.

U-bends: Rishikesh

When the river rises, the platform is submerged and Shiva rides the current, swells of water lapping against his thighs.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

We look at 15 people from the audience at Sunburn 2011 with the most eye-catching attire, attention-grabbing paraphernalia, and a relentless need to dance.