columns

Let the Guwahati molestation case be the tipping point for change. Namita Bhandare writes. Forget for a minute the visuals on television, the faces of those men, the girl in the middle, trying to escape, being grabbed by her hair and dragged back to be groped and slapped some more. Forget for a minute the […]

Hosanagara Nagaraje Gowda Girisha is praying for gold in 2016. If you’re asking, ‘Hosanagara who?’ then you’re probably not alone. Namita Bhandare writes. HT Image Hosanagara Nagaraje Gowda Girisha is praying for gold in 2016. If you’re asking, ‘Hosanagara who?’ then you’re probably not alone. India’s only silver medallist at the 2012 Paralympics is used

Women want rape to be treated as an awful crime, minus the added sting of honour. Namita Bhandare writes. HT Image This we know: On September 9, a 16-year-old Dalit schoolgirl in Dabra village, Hisar was kidnapped, raped and photographed allegedly by a group of upper caste Jat boys. This we know: The girl complains

For value education to succeed, the first lessons must begin at home. Namita Bhandare writes. HT Image It’s ok to be dishonest in order to succeed, believe an astounding 70% of kids aged 13-18. I don’t know what’s more shocking: The revelation that our future leaders, in business, in politics, in administration, as parents, are

Manu Ghosh has told her story many times and now she is exhausted. “You will write and go away, but for me, nothing changes,” she says, sitting on her hard wooden bed at the Meera Sahbhagini Mahila Ashray Sadan in Vrindavan. HT Image Manu Ghosh has told her story many times and now she is

There’s a message for women in the victories of Mary Kom and Saina Nehwal. Namita Bhandare writes. While we hail Mary Kom, spare a thought for the unsung women athletes in India struggling for two minutes of fame. While we shower petals on Saina Nehwal, spare a thought for the girls at sport camps powerless

The Sixties were the defining years of the West. But India began its search for self-definition in the Seventies, a decade that is today almost synonymous with the word ‘retro.’ What made it so special? HT Image The toothpaste was Binaca, The Radio A Murphy Miniboy and the detergent Det. Flares were wide, sideburns long

The fuel hike shows that our political leaders are not in touch with us. Namita Bhandare writes. HT Image India’s desperate housewives know a thing or two about austerity. We know how to stretch a rupee: adding potatoes to meat curry, saving leftovers for future meals, storing used textbooks and uniforms for younger children and

The poor quality of social discourse is blurring the lines between public and private, Namita Bhandare writes. What would Twitter have made of Jawaharlal Nehru’s relationship with Edwina Mountbatten or Gandhiji’s sleeping arrangement with his nieces? And how would judgement have been pronounced in 140 characters on Ram Manohar Lohia’s live-in relationship with professor Rama

As the final bell goes off in my daughter’s school, a ripple of anticipation runs through a group of children waiting at the gate. Tiny hands stretch through eager to touch those on the other side. HT Image As the final bell goes off in my daughter’s school, a ripple of anticipation runs through a

Satyamev Jayate endorses the opening up of traditional sources of information. Namita Bhandare writes. HT Image That Satyamev Jayate, Aamir Khan’s reality show, is rocking TV panel discussions and newspaper headlines a week after its debut, says something about its impact. A ‘movement for social change’, an ‘exquisite piece of journalism’ and ‘television history’ are

In the din of the unseemly skirmish between the army chief and the defence minister, a little Bill that could have big implications on marriage slipped by relatively unnoticed and unsung. HT Image In the din of the unseemly skirmish between the army chief and the defence minister, a little Bill that could have big