Namita Bhandare

Caught in a shadowy time between tradition and globalisation, post liberalised India’s fascination for godmen continues. Namita Bhandare writes. My first instinct was to laugh. Only in India would a seer dream of a long dead king telling him about buried gold. Only in India would this be taken seriously enough to send the Archaeological […]

The national conversation, dominated by temples, toilets, has no patience for stories of Dalit women who face humiliation daily. Given the measly media coverage, their stories cause no outrage. Namita Bhandare writes. HT Image The national conversation, dominated by temples, toilets, has no patience for stories of Dalit women who face humiliation daily. Given the

Now that Rahul Gandhi has termed the ordinance on convicted lawmakers ‘nonsense’, it is pretty much dead in the water. What remains to be seen is whether the government will follow through by also withdrawing the Bill, writes Namita Bhandare. A few days from now we will witness that annual ritual known as Gandhi Jayanti

So what changes now? Now that four convicts in the Delhi gang rape case have been sentenced to death will your daughter be able to take a bus from a late evening film show without worrying about making it safely home? Namita Bhandare writes. So what changes now? Now that four convicts in the Delhi

The digital age of photography is empowers us to capture moments our memory might find hard to contain. It is an experience captured and is democratic, writes Namita Bhandare. HT Image A shaft of sunlight falls on the girl asleep on my bed. Her father lies next to her and I can’t help smiling as

Hours after I return from Bhutan’s Mountain Echoes literature festival, I find myself rather appropriately elbow-deep in books. Lit fests open windows to this closed world. Namita Bhandare writes. HT Image Hours after I return from Bhutan’s Mountain Echoes literature festival, I find myself rather appropriately elbow-deep in books. The house-painters had moved in. I

The most basic human act of one person telling another ‘I feel your pain,’ seems singularly absent in the landscape of Indian political-speak across parties and ideology. Namita Bhandare writes. HT Image Nine days after 23 school children died and another 24 were hospitalised after eating a school lunch contaminated with pesticide, Bihar chief minister

The juvenile justice system needs many changes to reflect social reality. Namita Bhandare writes. This is what worries me. Three years or two years or how so ever many months from now, the juvenile who at 17 years and six months of age gang-raped, brutalised and eventually killed a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in December will

A State can make it mandatory to look after the elderly. But what about emotional care? Namita Bhandare writes. In the sepia-tinted narrative, the parents grow old, earn their place of respect and have hordes of dutiful, loving children and grandchildren worship at their feet. The Grand Indian Family is alive, well and happy. The

In India, we’re leap years away from giving women a just work environment. Namita Bhandare writes. The unlamentable fall of Phaneesh Murthy should have been a clear signal of zero tolerance by managements towards sexual harassment. The collective tut-tutting by the IT industry — ‘message to all leaders in business’, ‘right decision’ etc — should

On Mother’s Day, spare a thought for the sufferings of millions of women. Namita Bhandare writes. HT Image Tomorrow I will not be gifting my mother either flowers or a card. No spa treatment. No manicure-pedicure. Like all the other 364 days this year, I will call her, perhaps pop in to fill her medicine

Elections in India are not decided by Twitter trends or ‘likes’ on Facebook. Namita Bhandare writes. Thanks to Twitter, I’ve now learned a new word: Feku. Even as Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi addressed meetings in New Delhi, the first at the FICCI Ladies Organisation and the second at CNN-IBN’s Think India festival, the hashtag,