scorecardresearch
Add as a preferred source on Google
Saturday, November 22, 2025
HomePageTurnerBook Excerpts

Book Excerpts

A leopard walked into Delhi’s Yamuna Park. Then an AAP minister illegally took it out

In ‘Wild and Wilful’, Neha Sinha writes that the re-wilding of the barren Yamuna Biodiversity Park was so successful that an apex predator walked in — only to be removed for ‘its own safety’.

No Mujib, armed ‘mukti juddhas’ and tension —The year after Bangladesh’s liberation

In ‘Untranquil Recollections’, economist and freedom fighter Rehman Sobhan writes about the challenges faced by the newly independent Bangladesh in the early years.

Bhagat Singh wasn’t just hanged, but was chopped and stuffed in sacks

In ‘The Execution of Bhagat Singh’, Satvinder Singh Juss writes how Bhagat Singh’s hanging was ‘one of the bloodiest deeds ever undertaken by the British Labour Government’.

Ramps to reservations — Karunanidhi’s political legacy includes infrastructure for disabled

In ‘Karunanidhi: A Life’, A.S. Panneerselvan writes about Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the man who became a metaphor for modern Tamil Nadu.

Why China has pinned its South Asia hopes on this train from Tibet to Nepal

In ‘All Roads Lead North’, Amish Raj Mulmi writes that the Gyirong–Kathmandu train has been in China-Nepal talks for over a decade. But who will it really help?

A police surgeon writes about his first exhumation and post mortem — of a Malayali actress

In ‘Dead Men Tell Tales’, Dr B. Umadathan — also known as Kerala’s Sherlock Holmes —wrote about his years as a forensic surgeon uncovering the most interesting cases.

What analysts and opposition don’t realise — A new RSS is emerging on the ground

In ‘The Republic Of Hindutva’, Badri Narayan writes that the RSS is like the tip of an iceberg, exerting its influence much beyond what is visible.

In India, violence is no longer politics by other means. It’s political life itself

In ‘The Law of Force’, Thomas Hansen writes that violence has now become a completely routinised part of political life in India.

Chinese coaches inspired Gopichand to use heavy weight training to beat foreign players

In ‘The Gopichand Factor’, Abhijeet Kulkarni takes a deep dive into the coaching techniques & strategies that have aided the transformation of Indian badminton.

How this little-known ‘control room’ in Delhi tracked the coronavirus like a detective

In ‘Billions Under Lockdown’, Abantika Ghosh writes about the men and women quietly tracking the novel coronavirus with state-of-the-art equipment in Delhi.

On Camera

Royals to Republicans—Epstein files have exposed fault lines across power circles

Donald Trump, who has nurtured the MAGA movement for the last decade, has been perceived to have lost control over the movement, particularly with the release of Epstein’s records.

At Charcha 2025: Local entrepreneurship, not just big IT, will drive next wave of distributed AI work

While global corporations setting up GCCs in India continue to express confidence in availability of skilled AI engineers, the panel argued that India’s real challenge lies elsewhere.

Tejas fighter aircraft crashes at Dubai Air Show, IAF confirms pilot’s death

This is the second such incident after a Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas had crashed into a hostel on the outskirts of Jaisalmer in March last year.

A tribute to Tejas. India’s delay culture is the real enemy in the skies

It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.