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Saturday, November 22, 2025
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Book Excerpts

The underground Congress radio during freedom struggle and 22-yr-old woman behind its voice

In an essay in ‘Our Freedoms’, Aanchal Malhotra writes about Usha Mehta and the Congress Radio set up in 1942 to counter the British-controlled AIR.

They’re not all bad — A former police officer writes on how to deal with Indian politicians

In ‘Stepping Beyond Khaki’, former police officer K. Annamalai writes about the one hour with an MLA that changed his view of politicians and public service.

Calcutta changed Ghalib forever — from humiliation and grammar errors to his pension plea

In ‘Ghalib’, Mehr Afshan Farooqi writes that the Calcutta chapter in Ghalib’s life planted the seeds for his prolonged clashes with critics.

Sindhis are not a caste-free society. My interviews show it is just a false claim

A new collection of 60 essays on the Sindhis, edited by Saaz Aggarwal, traces the complex Sindhi identity.

Better than a ‘proper’ ambulance — how Karimul Hak’s free bike service won him a Padma Shri

In ‘Bike Ambulance Dada’, Biswajit Jha writes about how Karimul Hak saved 4,000 lives with his free bike-ambulance service.

India’s diplomatic corps is understaffed, busy with bureaucratic work. That’s a problem

In ‘Flying Blind’, Mohamed Zeeshan writes on how foreign policy is considered a 'luxury' & why India needs a coherent strategy for its relations with the world.

How Tamil Nadu aced board exam scores for years by manipulating results

In ‘Despite the State’, M. Rajshekhar writes on democratic failures in India, as part of a thirty-three month reporting project across six states.

How ‘Muslim zones’ and ‘mini-Pakistans’ came about in Delhi

In ‘Contested Homelands’, Nazima Parveen chronicles how Patel and Nehru disagreed on Delhi’s post-Partition areas with ‘Hamare log’ and Muslims.

India’s native horses disappeared by 8000 BC. But Rig Veda mentions them more than the cow

In ‘The Tale Of The Horse’, Yashaswini Chandra writes the story of horses in India — from the Vedas to wars.

When Soumitra Chatterjee punched director Ritwik Ghatak in the face

Authors Arjun Sengupta and Partha Mukherjee write Soumitra Chatterjee regretted not being able to work with Ritwik Ghatak even once.

On Camera

Trump’s 28 points for Ukraine add up to a no-go at peace

Two questions are pertinent: Why does the Trump administration keep making the same mistakes on the peace proposal? And what does a hurried peace plan mean on the ground?

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.

INDIA has a Congress-sized hole. And the fix begins with a little humility

Without a Congress revival, there can be no challenge to the BJP pan-nationally. Modi’s party is growing, and almost entirely at the cost of the Congress.