Long Reads News - Page 20

At the 2018 New York Pride Parade, glimpses of celebration, defiance and love

The streets of New York were awash with colour, energy and defiance, as the 49th annual Gay Pride Parade hit 5th Avenue in all its technicolour glory on 24 June 2018

Gurmehar Kaur: Can we not speak our mind?

An ordinary Friday turned out to be not so ordinary, when 20-year-old Gurmehar Kaur agreed to meet me. Peeking from behind her phone at a nondescript beauty parlour in suburban Mumbai, Gurmehar Kaur was perhaps the most wonted 20-something I had ever met.

Sri Lanka struggles with north-south divide 9 years after end of civil war

As the South struggles with debt, and the North with the effects of the three-decade-long civil war, reconciliation seems a long way off for Sri Lanka

A video game glorifies Bangladesh's Liberation War: But is that all it does?

A video game series — Heroes of 71, and its sequels — based on Bangladesh's war of liberation, has proven to be very popular with the young generation, highlighting patriotic sentiments and the historic past. But is there another side to the story?

Kolkata's pollution woes mount with its air, water quality in rapid decline

Much has been said and written about Delhi's pollution woes, but Kolkata is reeling under an onslaught on its air, water and land. Satwik Paul conducts a pollution check across the city, in this photo essay

Anatomy of a protest: Thoothukudi remains angry 18 days later

The answer to the question 'Why did the anti-Sterlite protest turn violent?' lies in the events that unfolded in Thoothukudi in the preceding two weeks

The anti-Sterlite protest of 22 May: A day of rage and death in Thoothukudi

An illustrated re-telling of the anti-Sterlite rally of May 22 in Thoothukudi, based on conversations with eyewitnesses

Stephen Hawking, and a brief history of the Big Bang

Did Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose’s work conclusively prove the Big Bang origin of the Universe?

Decades after Kashmiri Pandits fled Valley in fear, what remains?

Only 808 families comprising a total population of 2,864 of Kashmiri Pandits live across 242 towns and villages in the Valley today.

Day before Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018, business as usual in Bengaluru

With just a day to go for the Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018, the mood on the streets of Bengaluru was a mix of the everyday and the charged

Ladakh's nuns

The number of Ladakh's nuns had dwindled to 300 in the mid-1990s as they grappled with adverse factors. Thanks to the intervention of Dr Tsering Palmo, the founder of the Ladakh Nuns Association, the community is now 1200-strong.

IPL and Big Data Analytics: A Match Made in Heaven?

When it comes to Twenty20 cricket (T20), a more evolved and nuanced approach to analytics is the need of the hour — and the Indian Premier League (IPL) is a glaring example of this.

Shoojit Sircar's reel women — and their real avatars

Shoojit Sircar's onscreen universe isn't very different from ours. His poignant stories are born from intricate realities.

From Lahore Fort to Lawrence Gardens

Abeera Saleem and Abrar Ahmed’s recent artworks make one reflect on how colonial and patriarchal binaries continue to inform our ideas and policies, interminably repeating their violence

The Outsiders: Nomadic Bakkarwal tribe in focus after Kathua rape case

Bakkarwals (literally ‘goat people’) are nomadic pastoralists from Jammu and Kashmir. They move to the plains of Jammu in winter, and the high mountains of Kashmir in the summer, making way not just for their flocks of sheep and goat, but also for the entire trekking industry in the state.

Wild Hair and Mad Dalit Women

I had just been looking in all the wrong place for answers but as it turns out — Dalit women have always had answers to these questions. Women with loud and vulgar laughter who, like their hair, are mad and untameable — always do.

Kashmir's tulips bloom

Spring in Kashmir is a time when life blooms after a harsh winter. And nothing reflects this changing of the seasons better than the valley's tulips.

China: A look behind the wall

China is a 'wall-building country': It built the Great Wall to keep enemies away. In recent times, it built its 'firewall' to ban world-conquering companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter. There are numerous such ‘walls’ — real and virtual — all over China, but you rarely get to see them.

Dipa Karmakar: The quest continues

Dipa Karmakar and her coach Bishweshwar Nandi discuss processes, mindsets, and Produnova — the Vault of Death — with Firstpost.

Inside Dantewada's Phagun Madai celebrations

The nine-day celebration of this festival in Bastar's Dantewada is marked by the enactment of a story from the Ramayana, among other rituals | #FirstCulture

Kashmir's ghost theatres

Once beloved cinema halls lie in shambles in Kashmir, or have been turned into shops and other establishments

Living on the edge

By the LOC, the people of Mothul battle fear, uncertainty amid ceasefire violation

Krishna Sen case: Story of woman who pretended to be a man to swindle wives raises many questions

The case of Krishna Sen from Nainital — born biologically female, who posed as a man, married two women, and now stands accused of harassing one of them for dowry — throws up interesting questions about gender identity, male privilege and how we perceive them

Howrah Bridge turns 75

The Howrah Bridge, which recently turned 75, changed the skyline of Kolkata and became an iconic symbol of the City of Joy | #FirstCulture

Amaravati 360: Can Andhra Pradesh's new capital be an agrarian city?

There is a need to rise up over petty interests, politics behind land dealings, and adopt a generous, rather magnanimous, inclusive, and all permeating vision in the first place.

Amaravati 360: AP's capital doesn't know what it wants to be

The Andhra Pradesh government aspires to build a capital city that will amaze the world. Those who live in the city, hope that Amaravati will become a model city.

Amaravati 360: Pandalaneni Srimannarayana's lonely fight against the AP government

The fourth part of the series focuses on Pandalaneni Srimannarayana's battle against the corrupt practices in AP government's push to acquire lands near Amaravati.

Amaravati 360: AP govt's social impact assessment is a sham

The third part of the series tells you the story of five unruly villages which have resisted the AP government's land pooling scheme.

Amaravati 360: Farmers rail against AP's land pooling scheme

While the problems faced by the land owners typically range over finding better compensation and adapting to a different lifestyle, the tenant farmers and landless labourers from the region who have lived here for many generations — those who would be the worst hit — are still struggling to find a voice.

Amaravati 360: How AP's landless turn penniless in the name of development

Land is a lucrative investment in this region; these lands yield gold. Farmers typically earn a few lakh rupees per year from cultivating each acre of land, so fertile is this soil.