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Sunday, December 14, 2025
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Around Town

Untouchability to social jealousy—Understanding 21st century Dalit in the emerging scholarship

Sudha Pai’s Dalits in the New Millennium, which she’s edited along with D. Shyam Babu and Rahul Verma, explores the Dalit identity in Modi’s India.

How to train elephants to cross Coimbatore rail line safely? Building underpass isn’t enough

Coimbatore forest officials’ two-month vigil paid off when an elephant crossed an underpass that cost Rs 7.5 crore to build. But it’s just the start in the journey of stopping train killings.

Lalbaugcha Raja had a VIP-sized problem this year. SRK to Amit Shah edged out common devotees

Lalbaugcha Raja received about Rs 3 crore in donations this year in just five days. Over 50 lakh devotees visit here every year.

You Know I Can’t Say More—letters from the death row humanises prisoners in an exhibition

The letters are part of a new online exhibition curated by Project 39A and ReFrame. It is an attempt to bridge some of the differences between ‘ordinary people’ and ‘prisoners’.

Mewar-style Mahabharata painted by Muslim—what 2 art enthusiasts found buried in Udaipur fort

A trunk in a dingy room in Udaipur’s City Palace had been sheltering thousands of miniature paintings of the Mahabharata, painted by Allah Baksh between 1680 and 1698.

Maharashtra’s Deccan Odyssey luxury train gets whole new look. Carpets, cutlery, colours

Deccan Odyssey 2.0 has 21 coaches, 40 deluxe cabins and four presidential suites.

26/11, Sri Lanka insurgency, Gulf War—this Oberoi hotelier recounts his adventures in memoir

The title of Rattan Keswani's maiden book Check In Never Check Out was inspired by the 'only one hoteliers know' — The Eagles' Hotel California.

Akbar’s Persian Mahabharata—foreign languages took Indian manuscripts around the world

Thirty-forty printed versions of these now-digitised manuscripts can be seen till 28 September at Delhi’s ‘Evam Vadati Pustakam’ exhibition.

Kathak, Odissi meets academia and India’s courtesan history is rescued from footnotes

Courtesans were more than objects of desire — one donated all her wealth to a Buddhist sangha, another commanded an army, and one more composed music for several Bollywood films.

Naveen Patnaik is greening Odisha. And it has nothing to do with the environment

In March this year, BJP’s Jayanarayan Mishra said that many schools in Odisha do not have adequate teachers & students can't identify Odia alphabets, but the govt is busy painting school buildings in Pakistani colours.

On Camera

I’ve been driving an EV for 2 years—Indian roads are ready to switch to electric

Driving an electric vehicle for months, the Hyundai IONIQ5, BMW iX and now the Kia Carens Clavis electric, has convinced me of the viability of EVs for city and mid-range commutes.

Rupee’s turmoil has echoes of 2013

With the US-India trade deal yet to get done, rupee depreciation may be helping to mitigate India’s loss of competitiveness. The other problem is extreme despondence among overseas equity investors.

US clears $686-mn package to breathe fresh life into Pakistani F-16s

Of the total package, $649 million will be utilised for additional hardware, software, and support services, and the remaining for Major Defence Equipment (MDE).

India’s top airline just handed sarkar the keys. That’s IndiGo’s real ‘crime’

Don’t blame misfortune. This is colossal incompetence and insensitivity. So bad, heads would have rolled even in the old PSU-era Indian Airlines and Air India.