Danish Raza

Life in the times of lockdown: Is your new routine hurting you?

Is the anxiety getting to you? Limit the time you spend worrying and scrolling through social media feeds. Make healthy meals and time with loved ones the focus of your day. Spend less time alone.

Let us make you a celebrity: Agencies are tapping into the talent of your favourite social media stars

Social media influencer platforms guide content creators through brand promotion, digital culture and legal contracts

Cricket: The men in blue you don’t know

A documentary film, The Other Men in Blue, tracks the raw grit and talent that has seen India’s blind cricket team bring home four World Cups

If Romeo and Juliet did the bhangra

After Mughal-e-Azam, Feroz Abbas Khan is back with a folksy Punjabi retelling of the Shakespeare play

Truck tales: Rajat Ubhaykar’s travelogue records his unique on-road experiences

The author travelled the country in trucks and discovered a new, different world

How crowdsourced archives are making Indian history personal and accessible

Half-remembered anecdotes, photos from fading family albums, treasured tales and half-preserved keepsakes. In India, personal memory is finally becoming part of public record with crowdsourced archives, oral-history projects and online initiatives

Hindu Raksha Dal claims responsibility for JNU violence, police launch probe

Abracadbra is history: Meet the new-age magicians

Unlike traditional wizards, they use smartphones and tablets as props

The dying art of color painting black-and-white photos

The color painting of black-and-white photos reveals the link between the two art forms

Punjabi by birth, Bhojpuri by nature

Bhojpuri rappers are getting massive hits on YouTube. The surprise is that not all of them are from Bihar! Leading the pack is a boy from Punjab

The last show: The mujra dancers at Delhi’s GB Road struggle to keep alive the once thriving form of entertainment

Once they danced for royalty and were known for their lavish lifestyles. But dwindling patronage and a changing cultural market have pushed mujra performers to the margins

They aim to save: Meet India’s authorised hunters

They rein in man-eaters and pull the trigger as a last option. This tough job has earned them admirers and critics.

‘Accountability is a must in democracy’

First time voter, Binish Humayun says she will opt for the party that lays stress on education, women’s issues.

Pishaach Sundari Ka Badla: Enter the dark, secret world of India’s horror writers

Horror was a steady seller in the world of Hindi pulp fiction, traditionally dominated by crime stories. Now, e-books & online sales are giving the subgenre new life

30 yrs after Safdar Hashmi’s death, his legacy lives on

Janam —founded in 1973 by a group of youngsters including actor, writer and activist Safdar Hashmi — became popular for its plays on inflation, the public distribution system, workers’ rights, women’s empowerment, communalism and corruption.

The long and short of storytelling in India

With professional storytellers taking centre stage at literary festivals, private gatherings and other events, narrating stories to an audience has moved beyond being a bedtime activity for children

The story of theatre’s coming-of-age in small town India

A quiet revolution is sweeping the hinterland—more and more theatre enthusiasts are coming together in group and performing plays regularly

Duty and loyalty on display in the First World War

According to the note on the bayonet, Singh got all the respect in the hospital that a senior officer in the British Indian Army was entitled to including private room and dedicated staff.

Journey of music: How members of Dilli gharana are keeping up with changing times

Even today, the custodians of the centuries-old Dilli Gharana of music, known for its Khayal gayaki, live and practice their art in the old, romantically named Mausiqi Manzil in the Walled City. But with changing times and commercialisation, they are experimenting with their craft to stay relevant

Nowhere’s child: A year after Sherin Mathews case, are Indian adoptees in foreign countries any safer?

HT finds out that inter-country adoption is still a work in progress

The book keepers: How an Old Delhi neighbourhood rallied to save a library of rare reads

Hazrat Shah Waliullah Public Library is home to about 20,000 books, including rare works in Urdu, Persian and Arabic

Report: The Mountain Echoes Literature Festival in Bhutan

The Beatles and the Yeti, among others, livened up things at the ninth edition of the Mountain Echoes Literary Festival in Bhutan

Search for salvation: In Varanasi, establishments offer moksha-seekers a place to await death

It is said that if you die in Kashi, you are liberated from the cycle of birth and rebirth. For centuries, this is what has motivated the devout to go to Varanasi in their last days. Or last years, in many cases

In small towns, web and word of mouth help infertile couples

Rising incomes, changing attitudes, and a virtuous cycle of successful outcomes at regional clinics are making IVF popular outside the metros.

Wake up, Delhi: Town crier gives voice to a fading Ramzan tradition

Nawabuddin, the oldest town crier of Delhi’s Walled City, roams the streets at night during Ramzan to wake devotees for the pre-dawn meal and to reconnect with his neighbours and the community

How Muslim voices are breaking stereotypes online

A look at the expanding group of alternative media platforms founded on the premise that the Indian mainstream media narrative tends to reinforce stereotypes around Muslims.

Meet the Dalits who are using online platforms to tell stories of their community

Rather than feeling ignored by the mainstream media or disgruntled by the ‘biased’ coverage, Dalits are using digital space to publish news and opinions.

Meet the IITians who quit jobs, businesses to enter politics for the Dalit cause

More than 50 IIT alumni have formed a political party to work for the Dalit cause. Without any grassroots experience and support of a mainstream political outfit, how far can they go?

Manto on a poster, Tagore on a lamp: When literature meets pop-art

Pop-art: Making popular literature and literary figures part of daily life

In the time of dating apps, meet the ‘love gurus’ who claim to have all the answers

In the time of dating apps, there are still enough confused men out there who need help with relationships. Enter the ‘experts’ who claim to have all the answers, from love to breakups. For a price, of course