She wants to be around when her daughter starts school. Her partner, she concedes and appreciates, has made sacrifices. She wants to get married. Jacinda has chosen the simple pleasures of life that are often overlooked. She has chosen herself.

For those who love reading, books can eliminate stress and increase happiness and year ends are the time to catch up with friends and exchange notes on their respective reading lists.  Here we speak to 11 authors who tell us about that one book they read this year and will stay with them. 2022 Books […]

Katherine May’s poignant, poetic memoir, ‘Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times’, explores this dark season, the consolations of nature, the power of slowing down, and the eventual promise of the light of spring.

By settling for our subordinate status as citizens, and probably intimidated by the effort required to drive a change, we have begun to perceive the achievable as a pipe dream.

My quest began with ‘The World of Trees’ by Ruskin Bond, followed by a Marathi book on trees, ‘Sobat’ by Madhu Mangesh Karnik.

Outside, there is the burst of crackers. Inside, dressed in their best finery, people walk through rows of shelves filled with Ank, greeting each other, sharing notes on which ones apart from those in the set are worth buying, which writers to look out for, and what to read without fail.

I grew up in Matunga, a suburb in Mumbai. Though there were small pinwheel flower trees and a champa tree in our building compound, rows of coconut palms and a henna tree in the neighbouring one, and a canopy of old trees on the wide streets outside, it was an urban setting. Crows abounded and […]

Over the years, I have been reading books on mental health, intrepid essays and searing personal accounts of those who have boldly shared their experiences, and helped destigmatise mental illness to some extent.  

I haven’t produced a masterpiece, but I am no longer afraid. I am setting goals, opening my old notebooks, looking at abandoned drafts, half-written stories, notes in my palm diary, poems that need revision.

Author Mridula Ramesh talks about why it is urgent for every Indian citizen to do what it takes to secure our shared future, and how pragmatic, scalable solutions can work for both India’s temperamental water and its democratic exigencies.