Shubham Bhatia
Posts by: Shubham Bhatia
When the flag flies, so do kites
Though Delhi’s amateurs only fly kites on Independence Day and traditional festivals, the pros take part in competitions and want it to be recognised as a sport with proper sponsorship In Delhi, Independence Day is a day to go out and fly a kite. Though most people don’t know why the association is with the […]
Stalkers in the cross-hairs
For a person obsessed about another, the internet and the mobile phone have become handy tools to track every movement. A bill in Parliament could be a weapon to counter this terror Around November-December last year, Antara Chatterjee was completing her post-graduation in Delhi. She had parted with her boyfriend a few days ago. Soon […]
Go climb a mountain
Living in the city, it is easy to romanticise the adventure sport of climbing mountains. Here’s some advice from those who have been there, done that “My mind is in a state of constant rebellion. I believe that will always be so,” late George Mallory, an English mountaineer, once said. He died at the early […]
Cheating the system
The road to a medical education is paved with coaching institutes and dummy schools, which enable a student to pass class 11 and 12 without compulsory attendance. This gives them an unfair advantage in NEET Every year, thousands of students across India appear for the NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) exams. Hundreds of hours […]
Where the magic is lost
Delhi’s Kalandar Colony bristles with traditional magicians who are hardly ever called to perform, and still keep monkeys as pets, though street shows are banned “Our ancestors have been doing magic and monkey shows since the 1800s,” says Nashir Khan, 61, part-time magician on the dying art of magic shows and street monkey shows of […]
Toy story
Traditional hand-crafted toys are getting little play in a market dominated by plastic factory products even as parents prefer trendy global brands The sunrays on Monday afternoon are striking hot. At Delhi Haat, under a bamboo ceiling stands Satish Kumar, a man in his 40s, hopelessly looking for customers as not even a single toy […]
En route to Mecca
The withdrawal of the Haj subsidy in January is not an issue for the 1.75 lakh pilgrims headed for Mecca this season. But for a group of 16 camping in Delhi, there are other niggling problems “We couldn’t leave on the scheduled date but now they’re setting another date,” says one of the 16 people […]
Rare Booknook
The store ‘Chapter 101’ is as rare in today’s world as the books it holds, bought from unlikely places by a collector who doesn’t mind if you don’t buy anything. Imagine going shopping in a glitzy mall, stepping into shiny glass showrooms and then suddenly coming across a heavy wooden door which says ‘Chapter 101’. […]