|
Pavan K VarmaThe Times of India |
Recent controversies over politicians' food choices highlight the nuanced relationship between dietary preferences and religious beliefs within...
Indian art is yet to get its due. That will happen when our artists shun mimicry and have far more patrons, if only for investment.
Sadhguru's successful recovery from brain surgery using allopathic methods underscores the importance of choosing the right treatment based on...
Behind Khushwant Singh's image of an iconoclast was a disciplined scholar who left a lasting impact on literature and journalism.
There is a spiritual connection between the beauty and the divine, embodied by the resplendent Semal tree as it heralds the arrival of spring in New...
Decorum, etiquette, elegance and intimacy symbolised baithaks, something possible only in smaller gatherings, sans the small-talk noise of bigger...
The BJP has been the fastest in announcing the first list of candidates for the upcoming Parliamentary elections. This is typical of its working...
Indian women are emerging as powerful forces, wielding influence in elections and society, challenging traditional norms
The reason is that Gulzar is, at his core, a poet, and by extension, a writer and film-maker. Writing has been his passion since he was a child
The 19th C. Hindu reformist and religious scholar sought to abolish Sati and rid society of fanatic orthodoxy. British colonialism would enlighten us,...
In the bad old days of jungle raj in Bihar, elections were calculated not on the basis of who got more votes, but on which party was able to capture...
Hindu temple architecture mirrors the human form; from the entrance to the sanctum sanctorum, it leads away from the material world to commune with...
Shrikant Verma was a great Hindi poet, one of the pioneers of new Hindi kavya, and a powerful politician
The closing debate of the iconic Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) is hugely popular, and is, in a sense, the finale of the five-day event, with an...
Associated with the behemoth lit fest since its inception, author Pavan K Varma tells us about this edition's book releases and idea exchanges
Loneliness is a negative state of mind, solitude is a positive desire. The first is a problem that needs greater attention, the second is increasingly...
For weeks now, the dominant—even all-pervasive—subject among the people, the media and politics has been the Pran Pratishtha of the grand new...
The choice to portray deities with varying attributes reflects Hinduism's nature. The incarnations represent both stability and playful divine energy
Dr Murli Manohar Joshi is the kind of political leader — rare to find these days — with whom one can talk on a range of issues apart from...
My first visit to the Maldives was in 1988 in rather dramatic circumstances. A coup d’etat had been made against the government of the President of...
The superstar status of all three Khans — Aamir, Shahrukh and Salman — remains unchanged to this day. In their popularity we see the true nature...
If cosmology tells us that the universe could be infinite, or certainly as close to infinity as can be imagined, what is the significance of our New...
My first interaction with Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar was both pleasant and surprising. He was then the Governor of West...
In a land with 122 major languages, over 1500 dialects, and six classical languages, to assert one's dominance over the rest is a futile exercise
Former President Pranab Mukherjee's daughter releases a book revealing Pranab's opinions of Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi
Earlier this week, I was in conversation with Sharmishtha Mukherjee, at the launch of her much-discussed and best-selling book, ‘Pranab: My Father:...
From Lal Ded in Kashmir to Chaitanya in Bengal, female devotees challenged gender orthodoxies through poetry and devotion
Unearthed in 1905 after centuries of obscurity, Chanakya's Arthashastra stands as one of the world's most insightful treatises on statecraft
I cannot but begin this column by mentioning the happiness and relief felt by the nation at the successful rescue of the 41 workers trapped for 17...
A dialogue between Yudhishthira and the mysterious Yaksha in the epic's Yaksha Prashna explores timeless questions on life, death, happiness, and duty
Amjad Ali Khan's story is an unstoppable journey to the summit of our great musical heritage
On Wednesday, November 8 this year, Punjab witnessed 2,003 parali or stubble burning fires. Two days earlier, on November 5, that figure was as high...
A receptivity to interconnectedness comes naturally to us. Philosophy teaches us that even at the smallest atom, matter is part of an indivisible...
Is there a profound connection between scholars like Aryabhata and Brahmagupta and our contemporary aptitude for logic and mathematics?
Last month, the Karnataka government allowed Muslim women candidates to wear the hijab for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Exam (NEET) in the...
The remarkable rise of over three dozen Indian-origin CEOs in top global corporate industries prompts questions about the underlying reasons for their...
Madan Mohan Malviya was a stalwart in the Congress who had the courage of conviction to take a radically different stand.
Bahadur Shah Zafar left an indelible mark on Delhi's cultural landscape, from poetic soirees at the Red Fort to his patronage of the arts and love for...
Gulzar Saheb's 'Suspected Poems' are a powerful blend of tanz, sarcasm, and irony on politics.
With regard to the current fracas with Canada, for which the reasons are very serious, two things stare us in the face: one is an incontrovertible...
The intriguing and lesser-known stories in the life of Waheeda Rehman, an actor par excellence
Former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee was, indeed, a statesman who was also a great human being, far above the coarseness of politics.
For watchers—and participants—of Indian democracy, the last few days have been momentous. Parliament held its final session in the old building,...