Saturday Feeling: Stories and art for the child in you
The cover of the print issue of 'Mint Lounge' dated 3 May 2025, with art from Ogin Nayam's 'When the Sun Sets', published by Pratham Books.
There are quite a few stories about storytelling this week. A travel writer tells a tale of nearly getting stuck in Utah's slot canyons, and we have a great read on microdramas, a new digital storytelling sensation that has spawned a multibillion-dollar industry. These vertically-shot microseries run to 50-100 episodes, each just a minute at best. They're terrible, but they're so very addictive—and they're probably not something to watchso pick from our recommendations instead.
We're all tired of ads—targeted, random, pop-up, autoplay, or whatever other form they take while we're online. As advertising creeps deeper into digital life, technology geeks, privacy enthusiasts and digital rebels are quietly fighting back. With sophisticated but free-to-use ad blockers and VPN settings, they are shaping a parallel version of the internet—one where users' attention isn't for sale at every blink. Shephali Bhatt meets the people checking out of the ad-verse by installing browser extensions, privacy guards, VPN services. As more people turn to these tech-savvy users for guidance, ad-blocking could move from the margins to the mainstream—and the future of the attention economy may no longer belong to platforms, but to individuals reclaiming control over what gets their time. Read more.
Ritu Beri was one of the earliest fashion designers from India to work in Paris—opening and shutting a store, joining a luxury house, having a ramp show—but she doesn't have a string of stores to her name in India. Instead, she's opened an experiential space in Palolem in Goa, where she sells a limited line of her clothing alongside other artists' and designers' works. She also curates meals, shows, talks and performances at her property, Escape. She talks to Pooja Singh about this new stage in her career, and about why she doesn't plan to sell her brand. Read more.
There's one smartphone brand that has flown under the radar over the past year, quietly releasing new models with low-key marketing. Going by market data, Motorola, now under the tutelage of Lenovo, is a winner with its mid-range smartphones propelling the company's market share. The Motorola Edge 60 Fusion is one of the new releases, which Sahil Bhalla used the breezy, no-frills smartphone for a few months. Priced from ₹ 22,999 onwards, it has a significantly improved OLED display (with Gorilla Glass 7 protection), a larger battery capacity, increased storage, a refreshed chipset, and faux vegan leather finishes in three colours, making it a solid choice as a good budget smartphone. Performance is good, and only gamers should look elsewhere. Read more.
Supper clubs are no longer just about serving regional specialities or homemade sourdough. Home chefs who made a name for their tables during the pandemic are now travelling the globe, mastering cuisines from all corners of the world and serving them in their homes with the touch of intimacy and care that restaurants can't match. Read more.
The Champions League final is a while away but all the semi-finalists this year were a surprising mix of teams that worked through their adversities and found their identities over the course of the season. It's been a season that Dutch football legend Ruud Gullit describes as thrilling, since he admires teams that play attacking football. Gullit, who once formed a part of the fearsome attacking trio with Marco Van Basten and Frank Rijkaard, is a staunch advocate of 'Total Football', the flowing, attack-minded, space-exploiting, mode of play. In an exclusive interview with Rudraneil Sengupta, Gullit breaks down the Champions League semifinals, celebrates club identity, attacking football, and discusses the return of football DNA. Read more.
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Mint
19-07-2025
- Mint
Saturday Feeling: Of monsoon greens, 'Indian Summers', and other stories to read this weekend
We started work on this week's cover with the simple idea of asking food specialists to name their favourite monsoon ingredient, use it in a recipe, and perhaps share a memory associated with it. But as with most Lounge stories, we discovered there's a lot more to monsoon greens. Behind the simplicity of the ingredients and recipes the writers, researchers and culinary experts shared lies a deep understanding of the interconnectedness of food habits and nature in India. News of the monsoon treats the annual weather system as an economic indicator, as a sign of prosperity to come, often overlooking its cultural connotations. During this season, an abundance of edible greens, veggies and fungi—thunder mushrooms and dragon stalk yam to name a few—becomes available, and hyperlocal cuisines make the best use of them. Many of these nutritious ingredients pop up for a short time and have to be harvested with care so that they survive the rest of the year. From the north-east to the west, what emerges is the fact that monsoon specialties are delicious, unique, and closely tied to patterns of regeneration, traditional knowledge, and sustainable water and land management. To eat seasonal is to try and understand the world we live in. And these recipes are also perfect if you're looking for new ideas for accompaniments to your spiced chai to warm you up when it rains. Cover of Mint Lounge dated 19 July 2025. Gideon Haigh, one of the game's sharpest writers, has published a new collection of essays, Indian Summers, on the storied history of cricket's biggest rivalry today, India vs Australia. The Australian writer is known for his deeply researched books and these essays provide a historical and sociopolitical look at the India-Australia game for both hardcore and casual cricket fans alike. It showcases the best of a man whose writings have described the game with wit, wisdom and humility for over three decades, writes Aditya Mani Jha. Read more. Gandhinagar-based textile design studio Morii Design has been working with women in 12 villages in Gujarat to preserve rabari embroidery as well as reimagine folk patchwork and motifs, embroidery techniques and block printing with modern flair. With the onset of machines that could master and replicate even complex handmade techniques, regional and rural thread-works unknowingly began to recede into oblivion. And efforts like these rekindle both pride and interest among the artisans, writes Radhika Iyengar. Read more. On a still May morning, as the mist rises gently from the waters of Dal Lake, a lone shikara glides across its surface. Unlike most tourists drawn by lake's beauty, 69-year-old Ellis Hubertina Spaanderman wants to clean up Kashmir's Dal Lake—one plastic bottle at a time. She first visited Kashmir 20 years ago, and wanted to do her bit to preserve its pristine beauty, she tells Yaqoob Ali and Majid Maqbool, which led to her sole initiative to pick up any trash she finds. Srinagar's Dal Lake faces severe ecological degradation due to increased urbanisation, overtourism, unchecked sewage, pollution and invasive species. Ellis' actions have moved local tour operators, houseboat owners and businesses to make an effort to address garbage and waste disposal in the city. Read more. Three Indian art galleries—Jhaveri Contemporary, Vadehra Art Gallery and Chemould Prescott Road—came together to spotlight South Asian artists in London last month as part London Gallery Weekend. 'Many international collectors are attracted to the India story,' says Amrita Jhaveri of Jhaveri Contemporary. In a city where interest in contemporary artists from the subcontinent is growing steadily, this could be a catalyst for greater interest, writes Anindo Sen. Jhaveri Contemporary hosted a group exhibition by Muhanned Cader, Seher Shah and Lubna Chowdhary, while Vadehra showed work by contemporary artist Biraaj Dodiya and Chemould Prescott Road had a solo exhibition by Rashid Rana. Read more. Sweetness is the unsung hero that brings balance and harmony to every drink. Traditionally achieved with syrups, bartenders are now experimenting with a range of sweeteners to add complexity, depth and unique character, Sayoni Bhaduri writes. There are technicalities integral to the composition of a drink—sugars (from sucrose or fructose) add structure to the drink and round off sharpness of other tastes such as acidity, bitterness or alcohol burn—and provide a smooth mouthfeel and texture. Many bars have taken to creating their own cordials, syrups and shrubs to gain flexibility, while crafting cocktails that are more precise, balanced and distinctive. Read more. Running is the easiest, most convenient and affordable activity out there is what enthusiasts will tell you—but as anyone who has ever walked, let alone run, in India knows, it is neither convenient nor easy given the state of our infrastructure. As for running being affordable, that's untrue too. Regular running shoes, on average, cost ₹ 10,000 a pair. A decent GPS watch starts at ₹ 22,000. Add to that the costs of training with a coach or running group, nutrition and hydration supplements, running accessories such as socks, sipper, sunglasses, recovery gear, ever-rising race fees… and you realise that running comes with a hefty price tag, writes Shrenik Avlani. Read more.
Mint
12-07-2025
- Mint
Best of the Week: From Primetime to Purpose
In the 2000s and early 2010s, before the internet took over our lives, television remained the dominant medium across Indian households. Nearly 48% of homes owned a TV, according to the 2011 census. From cities to villages, it was the nation's window to the world. Bollywood stars often turned to TV, usually game or reality shows, to connect with the masses. But one show stood apart: Aamir Khan's Satyameva Jayate. Unlike celebrity-led shows that revolved around prize money, this one tackled hard-hitting social issues like female infanticide, dowry, and honour killings, bringing experts and citizens together for frank, empathetic conversations. Khan used his stardom to start dialogue, not just draw eyeballs. His latest film, Sitaare Zameen Par, carries that same spirit. Dubbed a spiritual successor to Taare Zameen Par, it's an adaptation of the Spanish film Champions and features actors with developmental disorders like autism, Down syndrome, and Asperger's. The film opens space for honest conversation around disability. It avoids the 'Rain Man syndrome', a tendency to portray autistic characters as savants, and treats its characters with dignity, not pity. The syndrome is named after the 1988 film of the same name. Mental health is still not talked about enough in India, especially in adults and women. As Mint Lounge's Divya Naik reports, autism in women often goes undiagnosed because of long-standing gender biases. Art may exist to entertain, but the best of it also pushes us to reflect. In that regard, Sitaare Zameen Par succeeds. I'm no film critic, but I hope you take a moment to reflect on the issues it raises. Mental health affects children and adults alike. In rural India, ASHA workers are swapping weighing scales for smartphones. Using Shishu Mapan, an AI app that estimates a baby's weight from a short video, frontline workers can now spot early malnutrition signs without bulky tools or the internet. Built by Wadhwani AI, it's one of several new tools, like MAAP and Child Growth Monitor, helping track child growth more accurately in hard-to-reach areas. These offline-friendly innovations ease the load on health workers and improve data reliability. When integrated into public systems, they could transform child healthcare across India. India is charting an ambitious course to become a global shipbuilding powerhouse, unveiling plans to establish eight shipbuilding clusters along its vast coastline. Five will be greenfield projects in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, while three existing facilities, in Gujarat and Kerala, will be expanded. The initiative, part of the Maritime India Vision 2030 and 2047, aims to boost India's share of global shipbuilding from under 1% to 7% by 2030 and 69% by 2047. Blackstone, Kedaara, Advent, and Warburg Pincus are in talks to buy a 40–100% stake in Axis Finance, valuing it at $800 million–$1 billion. Axis Bank is selling to meet RBI rules that cap bank ownership in NBFCs at 20%. Earlier IPO and merger plans were dropped. Axis Finance had ₹ 36,962 crore in AUM as of December 2024, with 47% in retail loans. It posted ₹ 3,014 crore in revenue and ₹ 494 crore profit in nine months. UPI AutoPay is quietly reshaping the subscription economy in India. What began as a tool for easier bill payments has turned into a key growth lever for startups across edtech, wellness, fintech and entertainment. With Indians spending over 7 hours online daily, and mobile internet driving 58% of that time, recurring payments are becoming the norm, and AutoPay is making it seamless, even for ₹ 99-a-month services in tier-2 towns. But as millions sign up, concerns are emerging over tricky cancellations and auto-debits gone wrong. Can India's subscription surge stay user-friendly as it scales? From ghost hamlets turning livable to districts shedding decades-old social biases, Tamil Nadu's industrial strategy is quietly rewriting its rural future. Factories from the likes of Tata, Ola, and VinFast aren't just bringing jobs, they're bringing back peace, delaying child marriages, and flipping old preferences for a boy child. Behind this shift is a deliberate push by the state to take industries away from Chennai and into the hinterlands. But convincing investors hasn't been easy, as some deals were almost lost. And while this model has opened up new frontiers, it's also bumping up against old challenges. So, what's Tamil Nadu doing right, and what still holds it back? Is the index options craze finally forcing Sebi to tighten the screws? After several attempts to cool down the F&O frenzy, including higher lot sizes and stricter position limits, the regulator may now rethink the weekly expiry format altogether. A shift to fortnightly expiries and just one expiry per fortnight is being considered if volumes don't fall meaningfully soon. This comes amid fears of fallout from the Jane Street episode, which rocked capital market stocks. But is this just a speed bump or the start of a structural reset? Retail participation remains strong, will that be enough to keep the options momentum going? 'What's the price of a song if no one's paying?' That's the existential crisis hitting India's audio streaming world. Big players like Wynk and Resso have bowed out, while Spotify slashes per-stream payouts. Why? Because Indians still love free music. Out of 192 million streamers, just 12 million are actually paying! The ad-supported model? It's crumbling under poor monetisation and rising content costs. AI bots, cluttered indie scenes, and short-form content fads are adding fuel to the fire. But can this be a turning point? Could a unified push towards paid models save the tune? If we truly value music, maybe it's time we stop freeloading and start subscribing. What if the forecast you saw yesterday is no longer true today? That's the new reality, says IMD chief Mrutyunjay Mohapatra. Thanks to climate change, predicting India's weather is becoming a race against time, lead times have halved, and extreme, hyper-local weather is rewriting the rulebook. From freak heatwaves to flash floods, lightning storms to disappearing western disturbances, the chaos is real, and it's hurting lives, crops, and the economy. In just the first 9 months of 2024, extreme weather struck 93% of the time. Still, Mohapatra remains hopeful, citing a 40–50% rise in forecast accuracy. But the big question remains: in a warming world, how long before prediction becomes pure guesswork? Is India's tech bellwether losing steam? TCS kicked off the Q1 earnings season with a rare miss, marking its third straight quarter of declining revenue. Global jitters, cautious clients, and a cooling India business, especially the BSNL slowdown, hit hard. Revenue dropped to $7.42 billion, trailing analyst expectations, with local revenues plunging 31%. CEO Krithivasan flagged delays in project starts and decision-making. While net profit rose 5.3%, aided by tax perks, wage hike plans remain uncertain, hinting at margin management over employee morale. With GenAI creeping in and global demand cloudy, is this the new normal for India's IT giants, or a temporary tech timeout? And what does this mean for peers reporting next week? Is IndusInd Bank rebuilding, or firefighting? After a ₹ 1,959 crore derivatives fiasco and CEO exit, the bank has tapped headhunters to fill key mid-to-senior roles, including CFO and heads of risk, retail, and corporate lending. But here's the twist—many are joining for the paycheck, not passion. With a 30% hike in demand and uncertain retention, is this a quick fix or a long-term strategy? Interestingly, the bank is also quietly building a CEO-ready succession bench, hinting at deeper leadership gaps. Will this shake-up steady the ship or stir more churn? And with RBI keeping a watch, will IndusInd's next chapter be one of redemption or repeat risks? That's all for this week, I hope you have a pleasant weekend! If you have feedback, want to talk about food, or have anything else to say about our journalism, write to me at or reply to this mail. You can also write to feedback@ Subscriber Experience Team
Hindustan Times
27-06-2025
- Hindustan Times
Behind the scenes of Deepa Bhasthi's new book
Deepa Bhasthi — who won the International Booker Prize this year along with Banu Mushtaq whose short stories she translated from Kannada into English — has a new book out. Titled Champi and the Fig Tree, it is a picture book for children that celebrates what human beings share with various other species through the story of a girl named Champi who loves figs. A page from Champi and the Fig Tree (Courtesy Pratham Books) 14pp, ₹70; Pratham Books The protagonist is awe-struck when she discovers that her favourite fruit has many other fans, including squirrels, hornbills, porcupines and civet cats. Without being didactic, the author signals a gentle shift from an anthropocentric view of the universe to a more holistic and inclusive vision that respects the place of all sentient beings in the vast web of life. Anna, Champi's elder brother, is a storehouse of knowledge about animal behaviour. He joins her in all her adventures. 'Porcupines cannot climb trees, Champi,' he tells her. 'This must be a civet cat's droppings. Both eat figs. But they are both very shy animals, and come out only at night.' He encourages her curiosity, and answers all her questions patiently. 'Champi, in fact, is the name of one of my dogs, and the fig tree is my best non- human friend on the farm I live on,' says Bhasthi. 'Of course, we also have all those animals that I mention on the farm. They are a big menace, but I wouldn't have it any other way,' she adds. Bhasthi lives with her husband and her dogs in a 'small, sustainable open brick cottage' built on a former coffee plantation in Kodagu, Karnataka. This land, which has belonged to her family for close to a century, has jackfruit, mango, fig, bakul, mahogany, 'and loads of other shade-giving trees'. Alongside, they have mongooses, porcupines, wild boars, and 'some 50-odd kinds of birds that live in and around'. Her parents live on the other side of the farm. The author's intimate connection with nature comes through in the way she has envisioned the protagonist and plot but she is also embarrassed about how her 'Instagram-y' her life sounds. While her husband has recently turned into an avid beekeeper, she does not work on the farm as much as she would like to. 'The idea was to slow down and be a farmer when we moved back here but the writing career kind of blew up, not that I am complaining at all!' she says. 'I don't find the time to do much. It is mostly my husband who works on things.' The story was originally written in Kannada as Anjoora, Anjoora, Yaara Anjoora and published in 2024 on StoryWeaver, a multilingual digital library of children's stories, created by Pratham Books. Since the platform is geared towards development of reading skills, stories are published using a Creative Commons license and they can be downloaded free of cost as well as translated into numerous languages. While other translators have worked on the Marathi, Gujarati, Odia, Hindi, Tamil, French and Bahasa Indonesia translations, Bhasthi translated it herself into English. It came into being as a printed book in English this year. Bijal Vachharajani, Commissioning Editor at Pratham Books, says, 'I met Deepa during the British Council Art X International Publishing Fellowship 2022 in Jaipur. It was just so wonderful listening to her talk about all the work that she has done in translation.' When Pratham Books got a grant from Parag — an initiative of Tata Trusts — to develop and publish 'Kannada-first books', the editorial team at Pratham Books reached out to Bhasthi. Radhika Shenoy from Pratham Books, who edited the book, says, 'Working with Deepa Bhasthi was a great experience. This is her first picture book and she was very enthusiastic about the process. She had clear ideas about how she wanted to write and translate the story, and at the same time she was open to conversations so it was a very smooth process.' The publisher also brought in Thejaswi Shivanand as a guest editor to work on the Kannada story with Bhasthi. With his wealth of experience as a librarian and educator, and his immersion in the world of picture books, he was able to help Bhasthi think more clearly about the possibilities of the format that she was working with and the target audience. He says, 'The initial draft was text-heavy. Over time, Deepa was able to figure out what was absolutely essential to say in words, and what could be conveyed through images. These are parallel forms of storytelling. Deepa was new to it but she embraced it.' He wanted to ensure that his feedback was not overwhelming and her voice came through. Working on this title was a special joy because of his familiarity with the flora and fauna of the Western ghats. A page from Champi and the Fig Tree (Courtesy Pratham Books) The book is illustrated by Joanna Mendes, who says she was delighted to take on the assignment as her son had just begun to learn Kannada at school. She hoped that he would be 'thrilled to read a Kannada language book illustrated by his mum'. In order to get into the spirit of wonder and playfulness embodied by the protagonist, Mendes 'tuned out the noise of city life in Bangalore and delve into the memories of childhood holidays in Goa'. The strong visual appeal of the book comes from the illustrator's use of the stippling technique, which involves 'meticulously marking dots with a pen on paper to create shading and texture'. She drew inspiration from the diverse colours and textures that exist in nature. Mendes explains, 'I vary the technique—sometimes the dots are large or small, densely packed or sparse, forming gradients or flat areas. This kind of variation adds depth… The art is coloured using digitally composited watercolour textures, which are then overlaid with stippled layers.' She prefers to stipple by hand as 'digital stippling lacks the tactile quality, which is better achieved by using pen on paper'. Deepa Bhasthi An integral part of the book, the illustrations transport readers into Champi's bright, colourful and dreamy world. It is a place where humans can coexist with other beings. There is enough here for all to derive what Vachharajani describes as 'sustenance and joy'. This book might seem like a small achievement in comparison to the £50,000 bestowed by the International Booker Prize, and shared equally between the author and the translator. However, the satisfaction that comes from putting a smile on a child's face is priceless. Chintan Girish Modi is a journalist, educator and literary critic. He can be reached @chintanwriting on Instagram and X.
