Nothing exemplifies the moral slide from Dadri to Alwar as much as the indifference on display Anguri Begum, mother of Pehlu Khan sitting on dharna at Jatnar Mantar in New Delhi.(Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO) A family counts itself blessed that the 85-year-old mother is blind and is ,therefore, spared from having to watch the video of her son being told to escape – then chased and lynched. We shrug at a bride’s disappointment at a curtailed wedding feast because her family is too scared to serve buffalo biryani (legal but risky), opting for chicken korma (expensive but safe). You can understand…

Nothing exemplifies the moral slide from Dadri to Alwar as much as the indifference on display. A family counts itself blessed that the 85-year-old mother is blind and is ,therefore, spared from having to watch the video of her son being told to escape – then chased and lynched. We shrug at a bride’s disappointment at a curtailed wedding feast because her family is too scared to serve buffalo biryani (legal but risky), opting for chicken korma (expensive but safe). You can understand the caution. The bride’s hometown, Dadri is a landmark in India’s recent lynching history. Young Hindu men…

Doctors can be super-heroes in white coats. Last year they wrote about their working conditions — long shifts, short sleep, bad food – to the state Human Rights Commission. Shifts in a stressful job can stretch to 48 straight hours. But when you’re short of five lakh doctors in the country, what choice do you have? Here’s what they don’t teach you in medical school: Self-defence. Perhaps they should. After all patients, or more accurately their relatives, are known to beat up doctors who bear bad news. Think I’m exaggerating? Watch the YouTube video of the assault that landed Dr…

Doctors can be super-heroes in white coats. Last year they wrote about their working conditions — long shifts, short sleep, bad food – to the state Human Rights Commission. Shifts in a stressful job can stretch to 48 straight hours. But when you’re short of five lakh doctors in the country, what choice do you have? Resident doctors at KEM hospital protest at KEM hospital, Mumbai, March 23, 2017(Bhushan Koyande/HT) Here’s what they don’t teach you in medical school: Self-defence. Perhaps they should. After all patients, or more accurately their relatives, are known to beat up doctors who bear bad…

When a significant proportion of women say they want to stay home, the message is clear: Gender stereotypes about unpaid care work and a woman’s place in it remain prevalent A woman makes fresh spices for her family of seven at a slum, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India(Burhaan Kinu/HT) Fifty-nine years ago when my mother, a full-fledged lawyer with a fledging practice, got married, she declared that she would no longer work. In her worldview, careers and marriages were simply incompatible. Just how much has changed — or not — became clear with a new survey that finds that while many…

When a significant proportion of women say they want to stay home, the message is clear: Gender stereotypes about unpaid care work and a woman’s place in it remain prevalent. Fifty-nine years ago when my mother, a full-fledged lawyer with a fledgling practice, got married, she declared that she would no longer work. In her worldview, careers and marriages were simply incompatible. Just how much has changed — or not — became clear with a new survey that finds that while many women want both careers and time at home, a significant number only want to stay home. The first…

Like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela represented the best version of who we are as human beings: People who could be imprisoned but never diminished. People who never allowed themselves to become caricatures of how they were viewed by their oppressors. People who retained dignity despite systemic attempts to belittle them Fired with idealism and passion, I had chanted Free Mandela, Nelson Mandela along with hundreds of other students. The Rev Jesse Jackson was leading the protest at the American university where I was then studying. We sang We shall overcome. Because, of course, we knew we would. We are young…

Like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela represented the best version of who we are as human beings: People who could be imprisoned but never diminished. People who never allowed themselves to become caricatures of how they were viewed by their oppressors. People who retained dignity despite systemic attempts to belittle them. Fired with idealism and passion, I had chanted Free Mandela, Nelson Mandela along with hundreds of other students. The Rev Jesse Jackson was leading the protest at the American university where I was then studying. We sang We shall overcome. Because, of course, we knew we would. We are young…

How the urban local bodies qualify as “customary” institutions is anybody’s guess. But in the past 16 years there has been no election to them. The women’s groups insist on reservation. But the tribal bodies remain adamant about not sharing power. Without reservation, women will simply not be given the opportunity to compete The Kohima Municipal Council office was set ablaze by Naga tribals during their protest, Kohima, February 3.(PTI) For a state that prides itself as amongst the safest for women, Nagaland’s record in electing them to office is an embarrassment. There has never, in the 53 years since…

How the urban local bodies qualify as “customary” institutions is anybody’s guess. But in the past 16 years there has been no election to them. The women’s groups insist on reservation. But the tribal bodies remain adamant about not sharing power. Without reservation, women will simply not be given the opportunity to compete. For a state that prides itself as amongst the safest for women, Nagaland’s record in electing them to office is an embarrassment. There has never, in the 53 years since it became a state, been a woman MLA and only one woman, the late Rano Mese Shaiza,…

The price of annoying the establishment is steep, as Khan knows, it’s perhaps easier to compromise — a simple answer to the question of why we don’t have our Meryl Streep. A sure way of knowing when a superstar is about to release a film is by seeing how accessible he becomes. Voila, suddenly, there he (or she) is, popping up on television, in newspapers, on social media and, if you happen to be Shah Rukh Khan, at railway stations too. But Khan’s edit page piece in The Indian Express, excerpted from an interview to Alaka Sahani , goes beyond…

The price of annoying the establishment is steep, as Khan knows, it’s perhaps easier to compromise — a simple answer to the question of why we don’t have our Meryl Streep People gather at the Nizamuddin railway station to meet actor Shah Rukh Khan, New Delhi, January 24(PTI) A sure way of knowing when a superstar is about to release a film is by seeing how accessible he becomes. Voila, suddenly, there he (or she) is, popping up on television, in newspapers, on social media and, if you happen to be Shah Rukh Khan, at railway stations too. But Khan’s…