Long Reads News - Page 17
Hornbill Festival: How Nagaland's vibrant celebration of its tribes, traditions became a global event
During the Hornbill Festival, one can get a taste of the local cuisine and hear stories about the Nagaland tribes at the morungs
Love in the City: In no-nonsense Mumbai, couples steal quiet moments of togetherness
Mumbai is not always kind to its lovers; perhaps it doesn't intend to be cruel, but romance must navigate tricky terrain here nonetheless. Intimacy in public places — exalted in Bollywood movies but frequently frowned upon in real life — requires some delicate maneuvering on the part of couples.
In the northern Himalayas, climate change is wreaking havoc on farmers' businesses
Climate change is estranging mountain farmers from their lands, driving youth away from agriculture. There is a major need to amplify farmers' demands for monetary compensation and crop insurance
Doubling tiger population by 2022 unrealistic; experts cite scarce prey, rampant poaching
Tigers are not specimens on a petri dish, just waiting to multiply on command. Tigers, for that matter any species in the wild, are subject to several drivers of growth and depletion
Go, Goa, Gone: Stories from a changing paradise — and a look at what the future portends
When you speak to long-term residents of the state, you'll hear phrases like “Oh, but it’s not like it was in the old days…” It seems, however, that everyone has a different take on the evolution of Goa
Dhanushkodi's residents battled nature's fury; but will they survive government apathy?
Dhanushkodi, lying just 20 km west of the pilgrimage town of Rameswaram, is a long strip of land at the southern tip of India. Flanked by the Bay of Bengal on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other, it is one of the most beautiful coastal stretches of India.
Spain, beyond the Sagrada Familia: Travels through Seville, Barcelona, Madrid and Malaga
I chose to travel to Spain to visit a culturally, artistically rich country in its off-season, to be lost in a sea of people who speak a language I don't know, to be surrounded by more World UNESCO Heritage sites that I could imagine, and eat all the paella and seafood I could stomach. I wanted to take long siestas, and walk in and around museums all day, hoping to soak in some creative inspiration for myself.
After the March: Farmers on their way home from Delhi speak of anger, hope, and bleak futures
On 30 November, Delhi saw one of its largest congregations of farmers with over 35,000 of them from across the country marching from Ramlila Maidan to Parliament street, protesting a wide range of issues that have plagued the agricultural community for decades.
On Babri Masjid demolition anniversary, photojournalist Praveen Jain revisits the fateful day
On the morning of the 6 December, 1992, two days after Praveen Jain had stepped on the soil in Ayodhya, the Babri Masjid was demolished and perhaps with it the idea of a secular India.
Farmers protest in Delhi: Portraits from the Kisan Mukti March's vigil at Ramlila Maidan
Thousands of farmers camped overnight in the open cold at Ramlila Maidan, preparing to march towards Parliament Street on Friday
From Manipur's trans community, stories of hope, despair, triumph and rebellion
Five stories of transgender individuals from Manipur, and how they navigate personal conflict and societal strife
Dalit shahirs of Maharashtra: Sambhaji Bhagat takes Ambedkar to the world
At a time when technology has enabled the propagation of Brahminical values at a mass scale, Sambhaji Bhagat continues to perform in slums and neglected neighbourhoods across Maharashtra
In a Bengal village, a school set up by constable Arup Mukherjee is helping a Dalit tribe
Using limited resources and a small patch of land, police constable Arup Mukherjee has set up a school meant solely for the children of the Sabar tribe
In rural Belgaum, one man traded his flute and shehnai to make toys
Narayan Desai had to give up his caste-based profession of being a flute and shehnai player to take up a more lucrative job — making toys
The Relli community fights back: Sewage workers protest against apathy, discrimination
The Relli community, like other marginalised communities in India, face structural and occupational discrimination even today
#MeToo: Understanding consent and sex-positivity in a patriarchal society
Patriarchal hookup culture treats consent like a game, something to be secured so that technically what follows isn’t rape. Many of the narratives that have emerged during #MeToo have revealed the hollowness of the distinction between illegal rape and unethical sex.
Dalit shahirs of Maharashtra: In Suresh Bhat's ghazals, a fight against oppression
Suresh Bhat, who had failed his exams and faced humiliation because of a deformed leg, found the strength to fight because of the Ambedkarite literature he read
Lens on history: Praveen Jain on capturing milestone events in India through a 37-year career
“I still hear the voices of the victims in my head,” says photojournalist Praveen Jain, of shooting photographs of the Hashimpura massacre
Calcutta then, Kolkata now: Portraits of a city's past, juxtaposed against its present
Much water has flown down the Hooghly since the time Calcutta was modern India’s first capital, from 1772-1931, to its transition into the 21st-century mahanagar that is present-day Kolkata
Loved, hated but never ignored, Lewis Hamilton is the spectacle F1 needs
For a sport at the crossroads, Lewis Hamilton is the perfect metaphor
Red Dead Redemption 2: The symbology, morality and philosophy of Rockstar Games' latest
Red Dead Redemption 2 reminds you that those who choose to live by the sword, run a good chance of dying by the sword
The Hashimpura massacre: A short oral history, told by survivors
Thirty years after the 1987 massacre in Hashimpura not much has changed for the survivors and the relatives of the people killed.
Who shot the parrot? How the Asthana-Verma war broke out in the CBI
A caged parrot, is how Justice AK Patnaik, now supervising the investigation into the charges Verma and Asthana have levelled at each other, had once described the CBI
Dalit shahirs of Maharashtra: Vilas Ghogare sang of Ambedkar with his iktara
Vilas Ghogare portrayed the dreadful life of the workers that he observed up close, since he was a worker himself in Mumbai. He also spoke of his life as a Dalit — a life that he had inherited.
Finding Durga: As Pujo ends, a Kolkata photographer seeks the goddess in the everyday
Sourodip Ghosh searches for the goddess Durga amid the bustle of North Kolkata in his photo essay
At Delhi's Yashwant Place Market — the fur and leather goods haven for Russian shoppers
For the last 50 years, the Yashwant Place Market (also known as the Russian Market), has been catering to the shopping needs of a mainly Russian-speaking clientele.
The elephant in the room: A graphic narrative on coal mining in the Hasdeo forest
Can the Hasdeo forest be saved from the consequences of indiscriminate coal mining? | Satwick Gade travels to Chhattisgarh
Monsoon Music: Maharashtra sings of farmers and fruitful harvests
Maharashtra's folk music is deeply inspired by the monsoon and agriculture, and the songs speak of sowing, harvest and the farmers' plight and prayers
Kargil: Beyond the war, a look at the region, its culture, and people
Kargil has a lot more to offer than war tourism.
Monsoon Music: In Assam, prayers for the arrival of rain — and its departure
The genres of folk music created by tribes in Assam address the monsoon in varied ways, depending on their relationship with this destructive and nourishing season