DID ANYONE else get the feeling that the Mayawati- Julian Assange exchange this fortnight sounded like the trailer of a romantic comedy? A trailer for the kind of film that has a raging, warring couple whose defences break down only in the last 20 minutes. The kind with a fiery Beatrice-like heroine who, when asked...

  THE THIRD World is so useful. Like that shirt you wore for 10 years and are now using to mop the kitchen floor, you can always find one last squeeze. In 2010, American giant Kraft Foods acquired old rival British confectionary Cadbury globally (including the Indian operations) for $19.6 billion. India is one of...

WHEN BRITISH journalist Sarah Harris made a documentary on dev-dasis and sex workers in India, who could have guessed the twist in the tale? She hung out with members of Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad (VAMP), a 5,000-strong collective of men, women and transgender sex workers in Sangli, Maharashtra. Duly a film was made and Harris...

IN HER memoir, Bone Black, American writer bell hooks wrote about growing up coveting the tremendous fun and sorority of black women getting together to straighten each other’s hair. As an adult she recognised that the hatred she and other black women felt for their hair was tied to their acceptance of white supremacy. Though...

One cannot ascribe to it any turn-of-the-century suspicion, the kind of narrow-eyed glare of philosophers that equated massive sports events with totalitarian rallies. That kind of tingle we can still reserve for the machine-tooled beauty of Chinese ceremonies. In Delhi, one can only smile at the slightly off-key kitsch — the Bollywood tadka, the child...

YOU’VE HEARD people say, “I thought my parents were liberal.” This is the moment when a lover is brought home. The moment when you hear parents using unfamiliar words in your mother tongue. You learn precise invective for people your family considers alien. Words that ascribe meaning to the length of legs, the size of...