The Insider

Lipstick Under My Burkha’s, initial reception exposed the hypocrisy of the times we live in, where gender  parity is far from a palpable reality. This battle is not new, especially in the arts and culture scene where women were extraneous or erotic aspect of the dramatic piece.  Drama  Queens, Women Who Created History on…

A memoir is a delicate genre to choose reading, you succumb because you are interested in the author’s life, at the same time, can’t guarantee the author’s deftness at writing, to sustain you through the passage of pages. Unless of course it is of a writer, even then, can’t be…

As a working woman (is there such a thing as a working man’s issues? No right?), our issues concern me deeply and are unfortunately here to stay! Patriarchy and misogyny coupled with an unsupportive work eco-system make it a doubly hard for women to shine, stay safe and work just as any…

I like a routine on a holiday… there I said it!  Not for me the laze-all-day siesta that extends into a snooze and then a slumber. Neither for me are the watch the sea ebb and retreat (there are those moments too) frames that translate into days and nights of…

Chances are, if you Wikipedia or Google ‘Kohinoor’ you download the colourful and fanstastical history richly supplied by the market scandal and city yaks as gleaned by the junior Magistrate Theo Metcalfe, upon Lord Dalhousie’s directive 170 years ago. William Dalrymple who I consider the only last Mughal left (his…

As aspirational parents we seek that elusive ‘Good’ school that would guarantee the very best education (whatever that means!): the holy grail of a ‘good’ parent!  What do you do? You ask around, check a zillion websites and go on a sanitised guided tour to schools- scouting for that mirage…

No, don’t get me wrong, Kidzania, an indoor, interactive  theme park is for kids from 4-16- but I am writing about how a kid who is mentally 16 (or more) can also do justice to his time, considering he’ll have a lot of it this summer! So, The Insider was invited (read disclaimer) to take a taste…

The times of the Raj, since its establishment in India in the late 18th century, has been the subject of many an Indophile’s book- seminal amongst them are those of Charles Allen, Kipling, Dalrymple, Philip Mason, Forster etc. Themes for their writings, ranged from military to familial to the mutiny…

The Insider on the launch of MP Joseph’s, ‘ My Driver Tulong and Other Tall Tales from Contemporary Cambodia’ unveiled in the Capital My Driver Tulong and Other Tall Tales from a Post Pol Pot Contemporary Cambodia M P Jospeh, was launched  in the presence of Mr. Shashi Tharoor as the guest of…

If, like me, you’ve grown up on a staple diet of Nancy Drews, Hardy Boys, The Famous Five and The Five Find Outers, you are a sucker for a good whodunit for life! As an adult you would have graduated to the Doyle’s, the Brown’s and the Christie’s and many…