Thu, May 07, 2026 | UPDATED 10:57 AM IST
Voices from author
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Everybody’s making hay while India shines
May 1, 2026, 4:37 PM IST
Old age has seeped into my parents’ lives like damp on a monsoon wall, gradually spreading until one day we realised everything smells faintly of fear and pain balm. These days, every unscheduled phone call…
May 1, 2026, 4:37 PM IST
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The curious shades of rich and poor
April 21, 2026, 3:05 PM IST
“Rich” can have a host of meanings. My earliest association with the word is Richie Rich, the comic character. Of course, it means different things to different people. Minal, my neighbour, believes, “It is wealth….
April 21, 2026, 3:05 PM IST
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A ‘phishy’ tale of being hacked, attacked and temporarily unplugged
April 2, 2026, 12:26 PM IST
I never thought that this was going to be the longest ever flight, from Kolkata to Delhi. As I sat messaging my husband that I was all boarded and good, a message on X popped…
April 2, 2026, 12:26 PM IST
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When empathy is swept under the carpet
March 26, 2026, 1:36 PM IST
Empathy and sympathy, those elegant words we casually toss around between a motivational quote and a cup of tea, are supposed to be natural. Like breathing. Or judging relatives at weddings. But here’s the uncomfortable…
March 26, 2026, 1:36 PM IST
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If John Steinbeck read the Epstein Files, would he sigh?
February 26, 2026, 3:36 PM IST
I am well into the third year of my research based on the life and works of John Steinbeck (1902-1968), an American author and Nobel prize winner; and at this point, he has ensconced himself…
February 26, 2026, 3:36 PM IST
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Why children ask the questions that adults edit out?
February 15, 2026, 2:51 PM IST
Children come up with the strangest ideas. Not weird in the alien-abduction sense, but strange in the manner a mirror suddenly starts talking back to you. Their thoughts arrive unfiltered, unedited, without the soft cushioning adults add…
February 15, 2026, 2:51 PM IST
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Harassment: A rite of passage that’s a given
February 8, 2026, 3:21 PM IST
Can we normalise harassment and toxic behaviour under any circumstances? I began to ponder this deeply, the way one ponders existential questions, while chopping onions and crying for reasons unrelated to the onions. Normalisation is…
February 8, 2026, 3:21 PM IST
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“AI-ta” in the Cloud: Is it time for digital grannies?
February 1, 2026, 2:17 PM IST
During my childhood days we would wait eagerly for the vacations so that we could go to my maternal grandmother’s house in Assam. In Assamese we call my granny, “Aita”. Aita would regale us with…
February 1, 2026, 2:17 PM IST
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GenZ named it, we perfected it: An ode to ‘bathroom camping’
January 23, 2026, 9:13 PM IST
I did not go into the bathroom to bathe, or answer nature’s call, or check my reflection. I went in to disappear. For five stolen minutes, I wanted to be a ghost; unreachable, unneeded, blissfully…
January 23, 2026, 9:13 PM IST
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Tea, scones, and the radical power of Jane Austen- celebrating her 250th birthday
December 15, 2025, 3:27 PM IST
That was the day I nearly disowned my one and only brother. Yes, the same man who once borrowed my first edition-worthy set of Austen paperbacks and returned them looking like they had survived a…
December 15, 2025, 3:27 PM IST
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When teachers turn bully: The trauma that we don’t speak about
November 22, 2025, 11:26 PM IST
If childhood is supposed to be a garden filled with colourful flowers, then let me tell you, I had a weed in mine. A towering, thorny, poison-ivy kind of weed that answered to the name…
November 22, 2025, 11:26 PM IST
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Of portals, mirrors and the month of ghosts
October 28, 2025, 7:37 PM IST
People often ask me two questions. One: “Have you actually read all those books?” when they see the shelves in my living room. Two: “Do you believe in ghosts?” The first one, I laugh off. The second one,…
October 28, 2025, 7:37 PM IST
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When neighbours kept us sane
October 7, 2025, 4:13 PM IST
We don’t speak to our neighbours these days, sadly so. In the days of yore, when we didn’t feel the need for so much “space” we had people around us and we weren’t lonely, nor…
October 7, 2025, 4:13 PM IST
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Lessons from Tom Sawyer- How we’re all painting someone else’s fence
September 8, 2025, 3:50 PM IST
I remember reading a story about how Tom Sawyer painted a fence. He was a naughty and intelligent boy, created by Mark Twain, when he wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in the 1870’s. Tom…
September 8, 2025, 3:50 PM IST
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Apron strings attached: Why my kitchen isn’t a trap but a trapdoor
August 17, 2025, 5:04 PM IST
Let me begin by announcing that I, a full-grown, sentient, educated woman with Wi-Fi, Spotify, and the right to vote, am not, repeat “not” trapped in a kitchen. Unless, of course, you count the time…
August 17, 2025, 5:04 PM IST
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Monsoon Diaries: Messy yet Romantic
July 31, 2025, 5:06 PM IST
It begins with thunder. Not the dramatic, movie kind with windblown hair and a candle fluttering in an old haveli. No. This is the upgraded Gurgaon variety, thunder, followed by one apologetic drizzle, followed by…
July 31, 2025, 5:06 PM IST
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Of bullies, bravado and the myth of strength
July 18, 2025, 9:56 PM IST
Anahita, my colleague from school (where I also juggled the title of SEN coordinator), was losing sleep over a 9-year-old classroom tyrant. The child bullied everyone like it was a full-time job, and guess what?…
July 18, 2025, 9:56 PM IST
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Dangling madness- The curious case of the Labubu mania
June 26, 2025, 3:20 PM IST
The first doll I ever truly craved was a plastic cherub who could blink. As I crooned her to sleep in my off-key, babyish lullaby, she’d flutter her lashes and close her eyes. Magic! The…
June 26, 2025, 3:20 PM IST
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Strategic stillness – A rebellion in recline
June 16, 2025, 6:21 PM IST
I’m currently slouched on my sofa, staring at a teacup stain on the side table that looks, depending on my mood, either like Sri Lanka or a chubby penguin with commitment issues. Overhead, the fan…
June 16, 2025, 6:21 PM IST
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‘What’s in a name?’: Daak Naam confidential
June 6, 2025, 3:24 PM IST
“What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” opines Juliet in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It’s a lovely line, terribly overused, and I do beg to differ. My…
June 6, 2025, 3:24 PM IST
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