Politics & Society
Pratiti Ganatra

The Trump Card

The various definitions of a trump card include: a valuable resource that may be used, especially as a surprise, in order to gain an advantage; something used to gain an advantage, sometimes a dishonest one; or an advantage that makes

Politics & Society
Amit Sengupta

Society is not a Carnivorous Flower

In the epical and revolutionary ‘One-Dimensional Man’, and in his liberating, lyrical, long piece called ‘An Essay on Liberation’, Herbert Marcuse predicted that since the class society has been effectively eliminated in advanced capitalism, and since the communist and progressive

Politics & Society
Koli Mitra

Trumped at their own game

It’s easy to understand why liberals or libertarians may be alarmed by Donald Trump, but why do Republican party bigwigs hate him so much? They claim it’s because he is not a real conservative. Yet, there is nothing in Trump’s official

Arts & Culture
Ajachi Chakrabarti

‘It doesn’t matter what you think!’

  “Wrestling is a sum of spectacles, of which no single one is a function: each moment imposes the total knowledge of a passion which rises erect and alone without ever extending to the crowning moment of a result.” —Roland Barthes,

Politics & Society
Debashree Dattaray

A Passage to America

  Route I Every step we took was one away from the songs, old dances, memories, some of us dark and not speaking English, some of us white, or married to the dark, or children of translators the half-white, all

Arts & Culture
Soumabrata Chatterjee

The PTSD Generation

As a kid right out of high school, I became a sworn fan of America and everything related to it. I loved its food, its geography, and most importantly, I believed in the cultural topographies that spoke of a certain

Politics & Society
Paramita Banerjee

Uncle Sam the Ambivalent

I was a teenager in the 1970s, when Indo-US relations reached a nadir following President Nixon’s open support to Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. India supported East Pakistan’s struggle for independence, probably as a consequence of Mrs Gandhi’s

Cinema
Ajachi Chakrabarti

The Sixth River

Udta Punjab Director: Abhishek Chaubey Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Alia Bhatt, Diljit Dhosanj Rating: 4/5 “Human resources ki baat ki, Europe ka ambassador keh raha hai, ‘Bhaiya, Hindustan mein human resources ki kami nahin hai.’ Aur Punjab mein

Politics & Society
Binit Priyaranjan

Whatever Happened to Zimbabwe Cricket?

On 18 June 1983, India and Zimbabwe met in the 20th game of the Prudential World Cup in the affluent Kentish town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, the only international match ever played at the ground. It was a clash of

Politics & Society
Gautam Bhimani

Indian Platform League

Even in the month of February, Rajasthan can get unbearably warm. That day was no exception. The hot afternoon desert sun beat relentlessly down on the crumbling walls of the factory outhouse. Bharat Singh was going about his daily routine,