Buddha Purnima: Towards experiential wisdom

Vikas Bishnoi & Vipul Anekant On Buddha Purnima, when the full moon illuminates the night sky, we commemorate the birth, enlightenment, and parinirvan of Siddharth Gautam, and the radical liberation of human inquiry from the...

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The journey from attachment to inner bliss

Shri Shri Anandamurti In the constant flux of our lives, desire and detachment stand as two opposing yet deeply interconnected forces. Desire pulls the mind outward towards objects, achievements, and sensory pleasures, while detachment gently...

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Changing gears: Move at what suits you best

By Rajashree Birla Recently, one has been reading a lot about student shootings. A student running amok, gunning down innocent lives mindlessly and then ebbing out his own. Largely overseas. In India, at many institutes...

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Body language and mental health: A psychologist’s perspective

Human communication extends far beyond spoken words. As psychologists, we often observe that what remains unspoken—our gestures, posture, facial expressions, and tone—can reveal more about our inner world than verbal communication ever could. Body language...

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Is the Bengali bhadralok ready to swap his jhalmuri for dhokla?

An election like never before in Bengal. Never did the state see electoral roll revision to the extent it saw this time in the runup to the polls. Never did the country see polling in...

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We are not the last step in terrestrial evolution

By Meena Om Renunciation is required to be centred in the inner, true being, detached from all expectations, desires and aspirations, which can culminate in a feeling of separation. To experience oneness, consciousness needs to...

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Change your destiny by changing your karma

Great gurus don’t say, “Believe only what I say, follow only me!” The most evolved spiritual teacher in the world is one that says—“Don’t believe what I say, God has given you intelligence, you experiment, experience &...

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Sindoor marked big shift, but US ties cast shadow

A year after Operation Sindoor, the contours of India’s response in May 2025 appear less as a moment of rupture and more as a confident consolidation of an evolving strategic outlook. Triggered by the Pahalgam...

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From Russian twists to political poses

8am: After 20-odd years of yoga, I’ve started lifting weights. This whole personal trainer business baffles me. I invite someone home, offer him tea, and then pay him to torture me.‘Come on, give me 60...

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Post Maoist future: Chhattisgarh now needs a Sevagram and Shanti Van

Two years ago, when we set out on a three-month peace journey, people in many villages of Bastar had organised meetings in their village’s gauthans (common cattle yards). The gauthan was the flagship scheme of...

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Bengal’s big vote: Voters’ SIR anxiety raises questions on the exercise

Voters’ SIR anxiety raises questions on the exercise A turnout of almost 93%, in first phase of Bengal polls, sounds like a win for democracy. It’s a record for any poll, ever, in India. Sceptics...

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Farfetched dreams through mismatched crossroads

As the annual board results season knocks on our doors, it brings with it a familiar frenzy—a high-stakes atmosphere where dinner table conversations turn into data comparisons and percentage becomes the buzzword of the entire...

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Life is worth living only when shared

By P Raja What is man, or for that matter, woman? The human body undergoes change every minute, every second, without our knowledge. We know that the body is present on Earth for a short...

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Unselfing from the ‘relentless ego’

By Jug Suraiya In the glow of a new-born day, poetpriest Gerard Manley Hopkins saw a bird soaring high above the Earth, a vision that inspired him to write one of the most joyous poems...

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Who owns your value—Are you in the market or being represented within it? Understanding your power and positioning in the workplace

*Two decades of reporting, regulatory reviews, and worker advocacy reveal how employer-tied work visas and layered staffing arrangements have left many skilled migrants legally authorized to work abroad, yet economically insecure—raising shared questions of accountability...

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Steadying the applecart

Come Sept, Apple will have a new CEO. John Ternus is a company veteran, and as a hardware man all along, he’s been associated with most Apple products, from Macs to the very chips that...

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Species and elements living together happily

By Narayani Ganesh The similarities between South and East Asian cultures and the Earth’s natural networks, are uncanny. Among Asian people, you cannot have a standalone relationship with any one individual. And when it comes...

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Basavanna’s kayaka signifies honest manual labour

By KV Raghupathi Basaveshwara’s primary concern was not literary composition, but attainment of the highest goal of life and facilitation of the greatest good for the common man through kayaka, a concept that signifies honest...

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Strait Talk

World can’t be held to ransom for Iran’s uranium. Opening Hormuz should be Trump’s priority Last year, world economy grew 3.4%, a modest increase despite Trump’s tariffs. In Jan, IMF predicted 2026 would also be...

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Ecstasy in the love of god

“When an irrational animal like camel dances at the tune of bell, why don’t you, being the best of creation, attain absorption and ecstasy in the love of God, or go into rapture by listening...

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India’s manufacturing story can’t be built on cheap labour alone

For the past few days, Noida, UP, has been rocked by industrial workers’ protests large enough to disrupt industrial functioning and civic life. The UP govt has already agreed to one of the main demands...

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Self-praise is no recommendation, may be marketing

Sometimes, an innocent self-recommendation becomes a recommendation or marketing. I had passed Matriculation in 1966 from a remote village government school in Charkhi Dadri district of Haryana. At that time, there was an acute shortage...

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400 shades of chillies

The potato crowns Bengal’s biryani, squished some, it’s ubiquitous in political rallies, in greasy foil packets. Meanwhile, biryani makers are finding workarounds for fuel shortages. Netas, of course, spar on fish, like fishbones stuck painfully,...

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India’s best-kept culinary secret: Regional spice mixes

India’s culinary identity is inseparable from its vibrant spice blends—each one a story of region, climate, and tradition. From the nutty, fiery Podi Masala of the South to the tangy punch of Chaat Masala in...

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400 shades of chillies

India’s food is way too big and different to fit into just one box called “Indian cuisine.” Think about this: in some places in Bengal, people even put potatoes in biryani! You might see it...

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Why our children are feeling so low

By Pulkit Sharma Many of us have mixed memories of our childhood: a good portion of joyful moments, a certain number of painful memories, a few lifechanging experiences, and many routine recollections. These memories exist...

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Maachh-ing ahead

An election troubled in fishy waters Fish is the latest bait in the West Bengal elections. Mamata-di spiced up the electoral roll-jhol , by warning that Bhindi Jowar Party would ban fish, along with all...

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A formula that could work?

The government is said to have an idea: increase the number of Lok Sabha seats in every state by 50%, and then reserve one-third of the total seats for women. If this is the plan,...

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Seva, Sangat, Langar: Bonds no algorithm can simulate

By Jasjit Singh We are living through a remarkable moment in human history. Machines can now generate text, images, and ideas. They can anticipate our needs, finish our sentences, and quietly shape our choices. Artificial...

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Kaikeyi, Manthara and the grace hidden in blame

By Shambo Samrat Samajdar and Shashank Joshi Some names in our epics are spoken with reverence. Others are spoken with discomfort. Kaikeyi and Manthara belong to the second category. For generations, they have stood in...

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Hungary kya?

Orbán gets a proper shellacking – a reminder that the lovely thing about democracy is its penchant for change Greeting a massive crowd, cheering alongside River Danube, Péter Magyar said, “We did it.” He is...

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Decimation of Naxalite forces due to the Modi Government’s Firm Policies

Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently announced during a special parliamentary debate that the problem of Naxalism, a highly dangerous form of internal terrorism confronting the nation, has been brought to an end. Naxalites posed...

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India just lit a nuclear fire that could burn for a hundred years

On 6 April 2026, inside a contained steel vessel on the southern coast of Tamil Nadu, something quietly extraordinary happened. A controlled nuclear chain reaction was initiated inside India’s Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam,...

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Forty-six, or how a perfectly good day masqueraded as a disaster

Forty-six does not arrive with ceremony. It slips in quietly, like a meeting that could have been an email. But let me be honest: on the day itself, there was nothing quiet about it. This...

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No time to think anymore? That’s the real problem

Time has quietly become a luxury. And we don’t even question it anymore. We just accept it, negotiate with it, stretch it, complain about it. Kumari didi, my helping hand, often says, “Didi, do minute...

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Why China chose to stay on the sidelines of the war in West Asia

Merely because the People’s Republic of China has been peripheral to the conflict in the Gulf should not be taken to mean that it does not have the capacity to get involved. Just as the...

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Netas need compassion: Why we must oblige

By Sonal Srivastava While on a state visit to India in February, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, the youngest president in the country’s history, was seen jogging in navy-blue shorts and a T-shirt on a dusty...

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My Take 5 (Edition 65): The week that was in international affairs

After a short break, welcome back to another edition of My Take 5, your weekly round-up of top international news. This week, we are covering the scheduled Iran-US ceasefire talks in Pakistan, the Orthodox Easter...

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As long as Hezbollah belongs to Iran, our future isn’t ours

The Iranian-Israeli-American truce doesn’t apply to Lebanon. First Israel, then US, have both made this clear. Massive Israeli attacks on Lebanese soil are very much continuing. Wednesday, for example, saw multiple strikes, resulting in over...

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Cats and dogs: Stories of faith, hope, and peace

Kulbir Kaur In Mahabharat, Yudhishthir refused to enter heaven without his dog. When Indra tried to convince Yudhishthir to ascend alone, he replied that abandoning a loyal companion, a stray dog, whose only concern is...

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In the solemn silence of the cosmos, a chatbot descends with a template

I order food from that app. The food is good—there are even a few healthy options. But communication is strictly one-way: the chatbot serves up standard answers, no matter what you ask. It’s like asking...

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The unspoken gift: The first encounter

For the first time, I saw her silhouette against the dark evening before I walked away.…  2013: A busy November evening The November nights were getting colder and so was I. The relentless pressure of...

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Turkey weathers the Middle East war and comes out a winner

Turkey is navigating a complex landscape of security challenges and geopolitical transformation, as recent developments highlight both internal counterterrorism efforts and Ankara’s growing regional and international role. Foiled Attack on Israeli Consulate in Istanbul The...

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Keralam is vexed with both LDF and UDF politics of misgovernance. It is ready to consider BJP’s politics of development for Vikasita Keralam

As is mandated by Constitution, Keralam, erstwhile Kerala, is in quinquennial election mode and its electorate has enthusiastically participated in election campaign as a precursor to voting day on 9 April, 2026. The state is...

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A neutral gaze redefines spiritual experience

By Narayani Ganesh Kashmiri mystic Lalleshwari, also known as Lal Ded, wandered naked, expressing her devotion to the divine in poetic outpourings. Her presence and aura were so overpowering that no one dared stop her....

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‘How I did it’

When Apoorva Agarwal decided to study abroad, she aspired to build her already successful career in the auditing and taxation space. Having held positions with KMPG and Deloitte, her pursuit of an MBA was a...

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Donald’s dilemma

Trump, stomping around in Oval Office, pouting petulantly, and randomly kicking furniture. Trump: Ingrates! Ingrates! Ingrates! Rat fink ingrates, the whole lotta ’em! Chief of Staff: Who’re these ungrateful fellas, who’ve got you so hot under the...

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The body has to be enjoyed as much as soul

Osho You are one of the greatest marketing persons of a product that gratifies the soul. We are in the business of selling a product that gratifies the mind; Others sell products that gratify the...

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A pause you can step into

All rooms are equal, but the balcony is not a room. It’s a handshake to the outdoors or, for those so inclined, a step inward, towards quiet contemplation. That’s why balconies of all persuasions (whether...

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Swear therapy works

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No man left behind

All lives matter. So it’s good news that the US F-15 crew shot down over Iran last week has been rescued. Some people are talking about how much the rescue cost — maybe around $300...

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Pain not transformed is pain transmitted

By Christopher Mendonca The problem of pain and suffering has baffled humankind from the very beginning. In searching for an answer, we have often confused the problem of pain with the problem of suffering. The...

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Guru Padmasambhava: The lotus-born ‘2nd Buddha’

When Gautama Buddha left his physical body, it is said that he foretold that after 8 years, the ‘second Buddha’ would appear. In the 8th century, in the mystical land of Uddiyana, a fully enlightened child...

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Group tours, a personal perspective

The idea of a group tour often brings to mind a swarm of matching hats following a flag-waving guide. But if you look closer at that crowd, you’ll see a fascinating mix of personalities forced...

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Kerala: Winner will be familiar but game may change

The key question in the 2026 Kerala assembly election is whether the state will return to its predictable cycle of power alternation, or whether voters will make history by electing the incumbent for a third...

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When ‘I am exhausted’ means more than tiredness

By Sivakumar Sundaram Now that summer is here, when someone asks, ‘How are you?’, the answer comes almost by reflex: ‘Exhausted.’ We say it so casually that it has nearly become the season’s standard greeting....

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Pension: Most benevolent human dignity measure

All  retired defence  personnel await expectantly for their pension on the last day of the month . As the month is about to close a message from the CDA ( controller of defence accounts) is...

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Good Friday: Solidarity with suffering

Janina Gomes ​​Just why does the Cross of Christ evoke so many emotions and find an echo in so many hearts? It is because it speaks to us about one of our deepest experiences of...

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Crimes against women & children: Words that describe them need to change

William Shakespeare’s famous line from Romeo and Juliet, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose would smell as sweet,” has often been cited by people brushing off the importance of words. Many...

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The battered half

India’s richest civic body, BMC, has a woman boss. That is swag achievement, by far. Mumbai now has three women in the financial capital’s administrative leadership – municipal commissioner, mayor and BMC’s leader of opposition...

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