Jinit Parmar

Walking through the exhibition, that feeling becomes visible in different ways. Sculptures reflect the viewer back at themselves. Paintings move between history and present-day politics. Symbols that seem familiar begin to shift meaning when placed beside contemporary anxieties.

As metro corridors rise and bullet train tunnels bore through hardy landscape, the Mahayuti alliance is asking whether the Centre is keeping pace with the state’s infrastructure ambitions

At 38, Swara Bhasker no longer separates her life as an actor from her identity as an outspoken citizen. She moved our interview forward so she could join Friday's student-led education protest, a cause that, for her, begins at home. “This protest is very relevant to my family,” she says.

In a sunlit hall at Sulochanadevi Singhania School in Thane West, a small piece of paper captures the geopolitical fracture of 1947 better than most history books. At first glance, it appears to be a standard British Raj banknote bearing the profile of King George VI. Look closer, and the absurdity of state-building reveals itself: the header reads Reserve Bank of India, yet overprinted across the watermark in dark ink are the words Government of Pakistan.

Imagine the sight: National Anthem being used to stop lathi-carrying policemen from beating up Gen Z kids. At that moment, nationalism was revealed as a doctrine of control, that could be used by the state against its own citizens. Gen X and Y obediently stood in cinema halls when the National Anthem was played. Gen Z weaponised it, and uploaded it on Instagram.

A 22-year-old recent graduate recently sat across from me to discuss her career choices. She had three options. One promised prestige and financial security although she wasn't convinced she would enjoy the work. Another was something she enjoyed, but she had been told repeatedly that there was “no money in it.” The third was a job she already had. She felt competent in the work, liked her colleagues and was learning every day, but the salary was modest enough to make her question whether she was settling. As we explored the dilemma, we noticed she wasn't just choosing between three careers.

Harjinder Kaur, 29, returned from Glasgow last week with a Commonwealth silver, four years after winning bronze at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The daughter of a farmer from near Nabha in Punjab, she had spent the years before her first medal counting the money required simply to keep training.

There is a question we ask almost instinctively when someone describes a toxic, manipulative or abusive relationship: “Why didn't you leave?” It sounds logical. If the relationship caused such pain, why not walk away? Yet the question fails to account for what sustained manipulation does to the mind, body and capacity to make decisions. When actor Anupama Parameswaran, known for films like Premam and Karthikeya 2, recently spoke about a relationship that felt like a spider's web, she described panic attacks, blackouts, vomiting, weight loss, uncontrollable tears and an eye twitch. This is not unusual—prolonged relationship issues can activate the body's stress response repeatedly, which may contribute to panic attacks, digestive problems, sleep disturbance, appetite and weight changes, muscle tension and other physical symptoms.

I am often asked: Did the Mahabharata really happen? This question is wrong because it treats the Mahabharata as an event, rather than a record of events. Most people think that the Mahabharata starts with the story of the Pandavas and Kauravas and ends with the Great War of Kurukshetra. They are wrong.

It is 8 am in Ulwe, a quiet suburb of Navi Mumbai, and Sairaj Burkul,17, is already awake. Before he thinks about his college lectures, he checks his phone. Someone has commented on his latest track. Someone else has used one of his beats in an Instagram reel. Barkul goes by the stage name MC Sairaj, and long before he opens his textbooks, he opens FL Studio in his head and runs through basslines and cowbell patterns he wants to try on a new track. Between classes, assignments, and the ordinary chaos of college life, he is quietly building something else: a name for himself in one of the fastest-growing music genres in the world.