[
Books
]Of bookish music
Published on Dec 09, 2024 10:57 AM IST
On The Bookshop Band that performs original songs inspired by ghost stories, fantasy, crime literature and books about love.
Teja Lele
Rainbow Lit Fest: Authors, artistes assemble in Delhi for queer, inclusive fest
Talks, films, music acts and drag shows will highlighting the issues of LGBTQ. Filmmakers Hansal Mehta, Faraz Ansari, and actor Sandhya Mridul will join too.
Published on Dec 08, 2024 10:25 AM IST
HT Picks; New Reads
On the reading list this week is an intimate and objective picture of a nation that has managed to withstand American sanctions for over six decades, a story of how a publisher and editor loses himself trying to find Kabir, and a memoir about a life spent studying India’s birds and landscapes and fighting for endangered species
Updated on Dec 07, 2024 05:30 AM IST
HT Team
Inside India’s ‘secret Cold War’
Paul McGarr, lecturer in Intelligence Studies at King’s College, London, and author, ‘Spying in South Asia’ talks about the extent of the involvement of MI6, CIA and others in post-colonial India and why the considerable contribution of Indian agencies during the Cold War has been largely overlooked
Updated on Dec 07, 2024 05:26 AM IST
Majid Maqbool
Review: Dalithan by KK Kochu
The literary critic and activist KK Kochu’s memoir, translated from the original Malayalam, shows that, despite the communist revolution in Kerala
Updated on Dec 07, 2024 05:16 AM IST
Review: The Golden Road by William Dalrymple
Written engagingly and often drawing from new finds in archaeology, this book is rich in historical detail
Updated on Dec 07, 2024 05:04 AM IST
Review: Out There Screaming; An Anthology of New Black Horror
A collection of stories that include some that send a shiver down your spine and others that focus on the systemic oppression of Black Americans.
Published on Dec 06, 2024 02:08 PM IST
Chittajit Mitra
Review: A Slight Angle by Ruth Vanita
Set in the 1920s against the backdrop of a nation increasingly intent on getting rid of British rule, A Slight Angle focuses on the desires, ambition and queerness of a group of people who just want to be themselves
Updated on Dec 05, 2024 03:12 PM IST
Chittajit Mitra
Report: Bhutan Innovation Forum
The three-day event, that featured everyone from members of the Himalayan nation’s royal family and Nobel laureates to CEOs, artists and monks, showed that the world has much to learn from Bhutan about harmonizing tradition and modernity
Updated on Dec 04, 2024 06:56 PM IST
Futuristic technology from the ancient past
On the Vaimanika Shastra, a Sanskrit manual that surfaced in the early 20th century, that described ancient aircraft that seem akin to UFOs
Published on Dec 03, 2024 09:14 PM IST
Garth Greenwell: “The book is structured like nesting dolls of brokenness”
The author of ‘Small Rain’ talks about what it means to care for things and to be cared for, and how all his books are interested in asymmetrical relationships
Published on Dec 02, 2024 07:06 PM IST
Sharmistha Jha
Book Box: The Secrets of Winter Reading
How you can use winter to change the way you read
Published on Nov 30, 2024 10:23 AM IST
Looking back at MAMI 2024
Though the festival was shorter and the venues and screenings fewer, this year’s edition underlined how events like these give oxygen to smaller and braver films
Published on Nov 29, 2024 09:16 PM IST
HT Picks; New Reads
On the reading list this week is a study of cannabis in India that is both entertaining and enlightening, a book on the new print culture in the north Indian Hindi sphere of the 1950s and 1960s, and a six-book set of Sanskrit shlokas for children
Published on Nov 29, 2024 08:59 PM IST
HT Team
Lavanya Lakshminarayan: “Sci-fi is a reflection of what makes us human”
Interstellar Megachef, the latest novel from a nominee of the Arthur C Clarke Award for science fiction, features Saraswati Kaveri, a refugee from Earth, and Serenity Ko, who work together to change the way people experience food in a futuristic universe
Updated on Nov 29, 2024 08:58 PM IST
Huzan Tata
Review: Go Wild edited by Bijal Vachharajani
With central themes of speciesism and the human-animal relationship, this compilation of essays, short stories and comics celebrates the earth in all its glorious bounty
Published on Nov 29, 2024 08:57 PM IST
Deepansh Duggal
Review: Islands in Flux; The Andaman and Nicobar Story
First published in 2017 and updated this year in the context of the Indian government’s push to build a shipping terminal, airport, and power plant in the ecologically sensitive region, Pankaj Sekhsaria’s Islands in Flux: The Andaman and Nicobar Story, comprising essays, academic papers, obituaries, court orders and a historical timeline, highlights misguided government policies and their deleterious impact on the archipelago’s indigenous communities, forests, and wildlife
Published on Nov 29, 2024 08:54 PM IST
Syed Saad Ahmed
Review: The Black Orphan by S Hussain Zaidi
A riveting tale of love, terror and revenge featuring a super cop and a human rights lawyer, this thriller is a tribute to Indian spies
Published on Nov 28, 2024 06:27 PM IST
Lamat R Hasan
Review: Chikkamma Tours (Pvt) Ltd by Unmana
Set in Bengaluru, this cosy murder mystery follows three women who work at a small tour company as they try to solve the murder of the owner of the bookshop above their office
Published on Nov 27, 2024 09:46 PM IST
Areeb Ahmad
Maharaja Gaj Singh II: “Folk musicians are custodians of heritage”
The chief patron of Jodhpur RIFF talks about the exposure and opportunities that the event presents to Rajasthan’s folk musicians.
Updated on Nov 27, 2024 06:49 PM IST
Review: Entitlement by Rumaan Alam
A book that’s part of the slim canon of contemporary fiction and takes a direct look at the nature and effects of money.
Updated on Nov 25, 2024 05:10 PM IST
Sanjay Sipahimalani
Book Box: Are You in a Reading Race?
How Goodreads stats, TBRs, and prize lists are turning reading into a competitive sport—here’s how we can slow down and savour the pages.
Updated on Nov 23, 2024 10:24 AM IST
Review: My World Without Jehan by Liana Mistry
Told with great depth of feeling and a wry wit, this is the story of an unconventional Parsi family marred by a terrible tragedy
Published on Nov 22, 2024 08:29 PM IST
Percy Bharucha
Review: The Rout of Prabhakaran by MR Narayan Swamy
The veteran journalist’s fourth book on the Sri Lankan civil war provides fresh insights into the chief of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and the roles played in the conflict by India, the West, former Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa and the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora
Published on Nov 22, 2024 08:23 PM IST
Padma Rao Sundarji
HT Picks; New Reads
On the reading list this week is a Nobel laureate’s new book that’s part memoir, part cookbook,a collection of stories from the work of Sanskrit playwrights like Kalidasa, Vishakhadatta and Shudraka, and a diary to commemorate the birth centenary of one of India’s most celebrated film-makers
Updated on Nov 22, 2024 08:12 PM IST
HT Team
Rohin Bhatt – “Emotions play a big role in how cases are decided”
At the Dehradun Literature Festival, the lawyer and author of ‘The Urban Elite v Union of India: The Unfulfilled Constitutional Promise of Marriage (In) Equality’ spoke about queer liberation and the importance of marriage equality
Published on Nov 22, 2024 08:08 PM IST
Review: His Miracle, Not His Sin; The Rubaiyat of Sarmad
This collection of Sufi saint Shaikh Sarmad’s Persian quatrains translated by Syeda Saiyidain Hameed and Reyaz Ahmad is a rich introduction to the totality of Sufi intellectual and literary traditions
Published on Nov 22, 2024 08:06 PM IST
Rushnae Kabir
Report: The 16th IDSFFK
The International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala recognised some interesting Indian and international work
Published on Nov 21, 2024 08:06 PM IST
KV Vasudevan
Review: Cultural Encyclopedia of the Dard Tribe by Suheel Rasool Mir
A rigorously researched volume that captures the socio-historical essence of the Dard-Brokpa tribe of Gurez and Ladakh.
Published on Nov 20, 2024 05:16 PM IST
Bilal Wagay
Review: Melania by Melania Trump
While Melania Trump’s memoir reveals that she doesn’t agree with her husband, US President elect, Donald Trump’s stance on abortion and immigration, it chooses to ignore many other contentious topics
Published on Nov 20, 2024 02:50 PM IST
Deepansh Duggal