Articles

Why an Ordinance is Not the Right Approach to Amending the Aadhaar Act

The furore at the border meant that there was neither the time nor the mental space for people or the media to truly examine the significance of the ordinance amending the rules around the Aadhaar Act. It isn’t just the timing that’s problematic, it’s the fact that the Cabinet has used the ordinance to bypass normal legislative process.

Sreemoyee Mukherjee June 16, 2016

POV

PhD in “National Priority”: Why Does Every Indian Government Have a Beef with Academics?

Meena T Pillai’s resignation is only the latest fallout in a series of persistent attacks on India’s academic institutions. A great number of teachers, scholars, and students whose work and livelihood depend on the state’s funds have had their freedoms cut short by an idealistic pursuit of both intelligence and agenda.

Manik Sharma June 16, 2016

POV

From Hoarder to Nurturer, How Gardening helped Me Grow

I used to be the fancy plant hoarder without ever really caring after them but it wasn’t until I started to nurture some less exotic saplings, did I feel the therapeutic effects of gardening.

Anisha Ralhan June 16, 2016

Sports

This World Cup Taught Us to Appreciate the Slower Ball More

The slower ball, once a gimmicky duplicate of spin, has now emerged as a newly conceived weapon of choice. Delightfully unnatural and unpredictable, the slow ball has bamboozled more batsmen in this World Cup than perhaps all the others combined.

Manik Sharma June 16, 2016

POV

The 3 Mistakes of Chetan Bhagat

Dear Chetan Bhagat, you don’t get to play the victim card at a time when women are coming forward to share their stories of real oppression. To whine about how the controversy about your “wooing” chats has prevented you from promoting your latest book only makes you look like a self-serving schmuck.

Dushyant Shekhawat June 16, 2016

Bollywood

Class of 83 Review: Netflix Film Offers the Dangerous Idea of a Police Force Answerable to No One

Despite the disclaimer at the beginning of the Bobby Deol-starrer Class of 83, the message that the film unwittingly “endorses” is this: The police force can only live up to its fullest potential when they have no one to answer to, which is an altogether scary proposition even in the realms of fiction.

Poulomi Das June 16, 2016

Sports

Japan Vs Belgium: The Best Football is Played in Under 90 Minutes

It’s impossible to feel uninterrupted joy for Belgium without feeling devastated for Japan. That’s the power of good football — no number of penalty shootouts can even get close to that feeling.

Arré Bench June 16, 2016

First Person

How Delhi Power Cuts Shaped Our Childhoods

Anyone who has lived in Delhi of the 1980s and ’90s, will remember the legendary load-shedding power cut that used to be a way of life – and how it characterised our adolescent days. Power cuts were to Delhi what traffic was to Mumbai.

Anurag Bakhshi June 16, 2016

Pop Culture

Rashmi Rocket, despite its predictability, asks the right questions

Rashmi Rocket, despite its predictability is shouldered by excellent performances and a crucial question that applies not just to the world of sport but more so, outside it – the question, what constitutes a woman?

Manik Sharma June 15, 2016

Love and Sex

Why the Dancing Tinder Girl Should Be All of Us

In our desperation to look for tangible happy endings wherever possible, we forgot to look at dating and relationships as distinct facets of romance. Tinder reminded us that dating is an evocative dance.

Ananya N June 15, 2016