WHODUNNIT?

The 14-hour blackout on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp on March 14 spelt trauma for addictive users. Most of them think there was some mischief afoot “At first I was confused. But then I went straight into panic mode,” confesses 18-year-old Batul, who’s gearing up for college. As she was scrolling through her Facebook feed on […]

The swag machines

It’s not just tycoons and celebrities who drive luxury cars — the upper middle class is buying second-hand vehicles as if to the manor born The middle class in India is driven by aspirations, not ideology. Big cars are regarded as symbols of wellbeing, the bigger the better. A car is not merely a mode […]

Treasures from the valley

For the past few weeks, Kashmiris have faced unprecedented backlash in the country. Patriot meets craftsmen in Delhi who try and continue their work amidst the cloud that hangs As someone who has been to Kashmir as a young college student on an assignment to understand and document the lives of craftsmen there, I can […]

Meeting of minds

Women who have fought their battles and arrived in life, refrain from judging and excluding people, come together to celebrate life The biggest personal battle we fight is to acknowledge ourselves as we are, and not pretend to be who we aren’t for social consumption. Coming out may therefore be traumatic as well as an […]

Group dynamics

For women, the best travel companions are often other women, as they increasingly make plans outside the family circles. They clearly don’t need men as bodyguards Maybe it was movies like Eat, Pray, Love or Sex and The City that helped women break their fear of man-less travel to find enjoyment or indulge their love […]

Dating is easier but still tricky

Apps like tinder, woo and bumble have much fewer women users than men. What holds them back? Three months ago, online dating app Woo conducted a survey of 20,000 people living in the urban parts across the country. The survey revealed – surprise, surprise — that women make up only 26% of the user base. […]

Beauty with a heart

The famous temple in Madurai is named after Meenakshi, the goddess of love and fertility – and is debatably the place where Parvati’s heart fell after Vishnu cut her into pieces Before arriving at Madurai’s famous Meenakshi Amman Temple, I googled for information about it. What I got was a string of articles describing its […]

Snow ‘n’ sunshine

A cold wave in Delhi-NCR is a sure sign of snow in the hills. Being in Srinagar when it is covered in white is an experience of paradise you can’t enjoy in the tourist season Bashir Ahmed, his wife and mother are all smiles. I am tucked into a blanket, sitting on a carpeted floor, […]