Columns

Entomophagy is the environment-friendly gastronomic practice that everyone is discussing. Shirin Mehta, who has ingested a few insects herself, speaks to Gitika Saikia about the North-Eastern dishes that highlight locally found arthropods
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When it’s got to do with eating out, the emotional link with certain experiences has turned Kamakshi Ayyar into a creature of habit. She recounts three anecdotes about the places where she can call herself a regular
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As her terminally ill father-in-law lies starving on a hospital bed, Vandana Singh-Lal ponders the literal and metaphysical nature of sustenance
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London-based Rachael Krishna writes about Britain’s trademark curry houses and takeaway joints, thinking back on how their very distinct cuisine, despite being a largely Western innovation, deepened the connection with her father’s Burmese-Indian roots
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Two breakout books of 2019, Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy and Jia Tolentino’s Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion are lessons in what the internet generation was promised, what it got, and where to go from here
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Faced with hashtag challenges and people who seem to have discovered extra hours in the day to optimise even their leisure time, Zaral Shah tries to figure out whether this non-stop hustle mode is truly worth it
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Your New Year resolution may throw light on your thoughts of the months gone by and your goals ahead, contemplates Madhu Jain, who has resolved to go on a massive decluttering spree – of objects and people – for the coming year
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Setting new borders in a geographical or personal sense can be complicated, finds Madhu Jain. Erasing them, even more so…
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The number of mother tongues spoken in India runs into the thousands, yet in the arena of mainstream literature, where English continues to dominate, only a fraction of the significant writing being produced finds a platform. Verve highlights flash fiction in Urdu, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam, exclusively authored for us by four bilingual wordsmiths...
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Madhu Jain looks back to a time of simple games and pleasures and compares these to the multitude of on-demand diversions available to all, in the present day
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The internet, especially its various gateways to self-empowerment, has proven to be a boon for a country as diverse and socially stratified as India, but its work is far from done. Verve investigates…
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New Delhi’s buildings and thoroughfares are purposefully constructed symbols of wealth and power that dictate who’s in charge, she maintains.
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