Aziz Ansari’s Dev Shah- A Gandhi for Our Age?
Could American popular culture achieve what even Gandhi couldn’t? I’m taking of course about unity in the Subcontinent.
Grobalization
The Jungle
An Elephant Named Indira
Before panda diplomacy, there was elephant diplomacy.
The Jungle
The Sacred Grove
Whatever Thoreauvian notions you might harbor about nature in the tropics, the truth is that the impact of human intervention is everywhere, and what you encounter is not quite natural.
Immaterial Culture
The Scientific Indian
In the year 1887, Srinivas Ramanujan was born in the temple town of Kumbakonam, the last redoubt of orthodox Brahminism against the onslaught of…
Material Culture
Cows: It’s Not Just the Hindoos
Phooka is the practice of blowing air into a cow’s vagina or anus with either a pipe or the mouth in order to induce…
The Jungle
Mountain Report: Kargil
The boughs of the apricot trees in Fayaz Shabir Hussain’s peaceful little orchard in Kargil are heavy with fruit, and the ground beneath them…
The Jungle
Trop Picks: Lantana Camara
The first time the lantana flower came on my radar was when the Australian film by the same name made the rounds at the film festivals, some fifteen…
The Jungle
Mountain Report: The Southwestern Ghats
September is cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) season in the southern reaches of the Indian subcontinent. The eastern hemisphere’s answer to the vanilla bean is endemic…
International Relations
The Problem with Diaspora Diplomacy
Diaspora diplomacy has become a thing in recent years. First used to such spectacular effect by the Chinese Communist Party, it has now become…
The City
The New Romantic Hero
Drive through any Indian metropolis today and a strange sight might greet you as you look out your car window: spindly legs clad in…