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Nishtha Gautam

Nishtha Gautam

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New Year’s Eve, Hope, and Some Rose Petals

New Year’s Eve, Hope, and Some Rose Petals

Like all transitions, the New Year’s Eve is a curious in-betweenness of time and space. The heartbeat of a dream and prayer and hopes, not quite...

yesterday 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Bangladesh: A Lynching, Nationalism, And Blood Sacrifice

24.12.2025 10

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

The anxieties of the soft-parenting club

The anxieties of the soft-parenting club

We seem to be following the soft-parenting rulebook like an annoying front-bencher, yet we are scared and struggling. What are we doing wrong?

21.12.2025 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

The timeless magic of Umrao Jaan

The timeless magic of Umrao Jaan

Rekha's iconic role in "Umrao Jaan" remains relevant, exploring love, loss, and societal status of courtesans through emotional depth and cinematic...

15.12.2025 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Pakistan's Push For An India-Less 'SAARC' Is Pure Delusion

12.12.2025 10

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Ambedkar is dead. Long live Ambedkar!

Ambedkar is dead. Long live Ambedkar!

In the age of constant virtue signalling, Ambedkar is often reduced to a mere totem — a relic of the collective conscience that could never be

08.12.2025 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

From qawwali to jazz: When staying silent is disrespectful

Qawwali thrives on abandon. The audience comes undone with the performers, making the boundaries between the stage and congregation porous

01.12.2025 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Yet another man-woman problem with no end in sight

A contest in San Francisco raises questions about "performative males," as they try to project sensitivity while potentially undermining women's...

25.11.2025 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | With Sheikh Hasina's Death Sentence, It's 1975 Again In Bangladesh

18.11.2025 10

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

India’s war films: Of nationalism and the stories we tell

Why do films based on wars become a big deal in countries like India? A simple answer is because wars are a big deal. Everywhere and across time

16.11.2025 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

The true meaning of politeness, and its limits

Politeness is a one-way street, often masking hypocrisy and violence; true civility can only exist between equals, not as a tool for oppression.

11.11.2025 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Why Do NRIs Hate Mamdani? Because He Threatens Their 'American' Dream

05.11.2025 10

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Truth to power, told through cinema

The most important thing about A House of Dynamite is not the cinematic competence or realism of the film. It is the film’s very existence

03.11.2025 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Does India Control The Taliban?

30.10.2025 10

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Stairway to enhancing social privilege, prestige

The authority of a degree is derived less from what was learned than from what it signals. Provocatively speaking, it’s the same as being “married...

26.10.2025 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Instagram and the paradox of illusory truth

Instagram serves as a modern diary, revealing curated identities that blend authenticity with performance, exposing deeper truths behind...

20.10.2025 20

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Being Indian, and being seen as one

“Indianness” in anything survives precisely because it is unfaithful to itself, constantly retranslated, mispronounced, misidentified, reimagined

12.10.2025 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | This Is Really Why Machado 'Dedicated' Her Nobel To Trump

11.10.2025 40

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

The death of politeness: An obituary for civil behaviour

Politeness and empathy are declining, replaced by a self-centered culture that disregards dignity and humanity, reflecting a broader ethical crisis.

07.10.2025 9

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Are we the most health-conscious unhealthy generation?

We are surrounded by our health toolkits. We are spoilt for choice. It could be the choice overload that’s weighing down our shoulders and causing...

29.09.2025 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Our roads as mirrors of our lack of civic sense

Our roads are blessed year-round with a variety of divine benedictions. Yet, there is no deliverance in sight for them

21.09.2025 40

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Is charity the opium of the privileged?

The simple moral lesson that the joy of giving is supreme is now wrapped in the gift of capitalist consumerism. But some instances show it doesn’t...

15.09.2025 7

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Giorgio Armani’s secret code of Fashion

His most subversive contribution was fashion not as fantasy, but as realism. Not as disguise, but as disclosure

08.09.2025 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | To Survive Trump, India Needs More Than Just Handshakes With Xi And Putin

02.09.2025 20

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

How the wedding market perpetuates dowry culture

India's wedding industry, worth $130 billion, masks serious issues like dowry and financial strain, perpetuating gender inequality and societal harm.

31.08.2025 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

A crisis of artifice: Makeup, body image, and choice

If a pre-teen won't face the world because of skin/hair imperfections, the gains of feminist movements been squandered, and there's a much bigger...

19.08.2025 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Asim Munir, And Why Trump Must Be A Little Careful With Flatterers

12.08.2025 10

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

India’s fashion industry is starved for innovation

The need for acceptance and accolades is design’s Achilles heel. At its core, fashion is transgressive, and cannot exist in the arena of clap-clap,...

10.08.2025 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Trump, Tughlaq, Tariffs: The Dangers Of Strength Without Sense

08.08.2025 10

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | China, Now Trump: Pakistan And The Art Of Somehow Finding Patrons

01.08.2025 10

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | How Many Dead Babies Does A War Need?

29.07.2025 5

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | India's Classroom Crisis: Why Your Teacher Is So Clueless About Everything

23.07.2025 7

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Of Prada, Dior, And Manufactured Meanings Of Luxury

07.07.2025 10

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Who Wants Peace, Anyway? On War And The People Who Fuel It

30.06.2025 10

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | How Zohran Mamdani Has Given Indian-Americans An Identity Crisis

25.06.2025 20

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Whose Friend Is The US Anyway?

24.06.2025 10

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Iran, Israel, And The Ghosts Of A Relationship Gone Bad

20.06.2025 10

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Is This How India Will 'Dehyphenate' Itself From Pakistan?

12.06.2025 7

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Musk-Trump Saga is Not A Biblical Or Pop Culture Event. It's Dangerous

06.06.2025 7

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Free speech, democracy, and the epidemic of hurt feelings

Politics, or the relationship between the governing and the governed, is the central point of Indian philosophy — classical to modern

31.05.2025 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | What Quick (De)Escalation Between India-Pak Teaches Us About War And Peace

12.05.2025 10

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Op Sindoor, India-Pak, And What Sahir Or Faiz Can Tell Us About Wars

08.05.2025 6

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Ground Zero, Pahalgam, And A Conundrum Of Pain In Kashmir

25.04.2025 10

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion: What Has JD Vance's India Visit Achieved?

22.04.2025 10

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | What Ambedkar's Raised Finger Is Really Trying To Tell You

14.04.2025 40

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Why Is Trump Invoking JFK? Hint: Russia

21.03.2025 6

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Can India And China Ever Really 'Dance' Together?

10.03.2025 10

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Customising treatment for those with mental illnesses

The undue emphasis on the role of family/community in dealing with mental health crisis that individuals may be facing has had severe ramifications

05.03.2025 10

hindustantimes

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Trump-Zelensky Face-Off: Boys, Uninterrupted

03.03.2025 10

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam

Opinion | Mo, Diversity, And The Indian Immigrant In The US

19.02.2025 4

NDTV

Nishtha Gautam