They grow your food

For the fourth time this year, lakhs of farmers marched to the capital. This time they demanded a special Parliament session to discuss agrarian crisis and the passage of Kisan Mukti bills In October, protesting farmers were not allowed to enter Delhi and were dispelled using tear gas and water cannons. But it was different […]

Drained of life

An old couple, who lost their sons to manual scavenging, now cling onto their only source of happiness — their grandchildren Patriot’s series on manual scavenging continues with a visit to yet another family bereaved by this barbaric practice “I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn […]

Odd couples

Old white men and women find love in much younger Indians, the age of their children from previous marriages. A vindication of the fact that they are still virile Delhi is an incredible city, complex and vibrant. It has a great capacity to absorb all sorts of people with all sorts of whims and fancies. […]

African students are angry

They feel racism is a two-way street: what if they went back and treated Indians the same way in their continent? The anger is palpable. Not sadness, not shock, just plain anger. The two office-bearers of the Association of African Students Union in India (AASI) that Patriot met, talk about two objectives. One of creating […]

A rainbow of surprises

The first Pride Parade post the SC judgement on Article 377 had a different enthusiasm that leaves many of us hopeful for a lot more positive changes in the future Sans fear, I felt like a free bird whose wings no one could clip. There was not even an iota of tension in my mind. […]

10.2 years choked off

An index developed by the university of Chicago predicts the number of years cut off from your life depending on the city you live in. No prizes for guessing the worst The University of Chicago launched a new tool called Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) which quantifies air quality data as the number of years […]

The master of spin speaks

Shane Warne’s autobiography is a delight for cricket lovers On a January night during the 11 pm slot in 1992, cricket followers in India watched a young, overweight and blonde-haired Shane Warne for the first time in action on Doordarshan’s Test Match highlights. It used to be a 30-minute package in times when cable television […]

One bird, two heads

You saw the wedding pictures. Now read the mythical story of the two-headed bird on Deepika Padukone’s wedding sari India’s architectural history is rife with innovative and ornate decorative motifs. The spillover of such motifs on to the subcontinent’s textiles was a happy happenstance. So the lotus medallion, amalaka (decorative stone disc on top of […]