Latest news with #Delhiite
Time of India
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Exclusive: Kahani Pehle Pyar Ki actress Nidhi Singh on initial days in Mumbai, says ‘I did struggle at first and faced many rejections'
Actress Nidhi Singh , currently seen in Kahani Pehle Pyar Ki as the negative lead, opened up about her early days in Mumbai, her struggles, and her experience portraying a victim of domestic violence on-screen. Reflecting on her initial days in Mumbai, Nidhi shared, 'I came here in 2019 and I got my first show Baawle Utaawle. When I came here, I fit in instantly because fortunately I met with some really helpful people who made it easy for me. Mumbai was very welcoming.' However, her journey wasn't entirely smooth. Talking about her struggles, Nidhi said, 'Yes, I did struggle at first and faced many rejections. Everyone had different opinions on my looks and my voice. But fortunately, I did many ads, web shows, and short films, so it was quite a struggle in the beginning.' When asked what inspired her to pursue acting, she explained, 'Being a Delhiite, I always loved the idea of going to Mumbai and trying my luck in acting. I gave myself a year to try that, and luckily, I got a few acting jobs that boosted my confidence. The more I worked, the more I learned, and I am still learning. What inspired me to get into this field is the fact that I can play hundreds of different characters in one life, and this is something I find very exciting. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Đây có thể là thời điểm tốt nhất để giao dịch vàng trong 5 năm qua IC Markets Tìm hiểu thêm Undo ' Nidhi, who previously appeared in Baawle Utaawle and several short films, ads, and web shows, is now making waves with her current role. Speaking about portraying a domestic violence victim in Kahani Pehle Pyar Ki, she said, 'Yes, my character goes through domestic violence in the show, and honestly, playing her made me feel a lot. It's not just acting; it made me think about how many people might be going through this in real life. It's the sad reality of the world. Playing this character is challenging, and I hope no woman experiences something like that in her life.' Interestingly, her character's journey won't stop there. 'But later my role is going to turn negative with a lot of twists and turns,' Nidhi revealed, promising an engaging storyline ahead.
Hindustan Times
12-07-2025
- Lifestyle
- Hindustan Times
Kanwar Yatra 2025: Spiritual swag takes over as young turn on the fashion metre while shopping at Delhi-NCR markets
'I've been taking up Kanwar Yatra for 11 years now. Is saal T-shirts mein naye designs dekh ke achha laga, I like the ones with trishul and one-liner statement. So far I've shopped at Sadar, and bought one for myself and one for my younger brother for ₹100 each,' says Pritam, a resident of north Delhi. Delhiites are heading to markets to scout for clothes and accessories that can elevate the spiritual vibe this kanwar season.(Photos: Isha Yadav/HT) Delhiite Pritam, who is taking up Kanwar Yatra this year, has opted for a statement T-shirt with one liner.(Photo: Isha Yadav/HT) 'I've been taking up Kanwar Yatra for 11 years now. Is saal T-shirts mein naye designs dekh ke achha laga, I like the ones with trishul and one-liner statement. So far I've shopped at Sadar, and bought one for myself and one for my younger brother for ₹100 each,' says Pritam, a resident of north Delhi. Keep your keys safe with Shivlinga and trishul-themed keychains! Where: Pratap Market, Sadar Bazar; Price: ₹10 each.(Photo: Isha Yadav/HT) Wall tapestries with God Shiva's imagery are gaining popularity for those wanting to deck-up the kanwar trucks or just want to bring the kanwar spirit to their homes. Where: Nehru Bazar, Paharganj Price: ₹200 to ₹550(Photo: Isha Yadav/HT) 'I've been going on Kanwar Yatra since I was 10, and have very fond memories of accompanying my father. This year, I'm going with my friends, but wearing the dhoti from my father's wardrobe and pairing it with a chic T-shirt,' says Rahul Chaudhary, a south Delhi-based entrepreneur. Rahul Chaudhary, a south Delhi-based entrepreneur, opts for dhoti instead of shorts while taking up Kanwar Yatra. Rudraksha bracelets and malas are a cool option to accessorise the kanwar look.(Photo: Isha Yadav/HT) 'During the kanwar yatra season, a lot of buyers, especially youngsters, come looking for rudraksha accessories and opt to buy and wear different things ranging from bracelets (price: ₹100 each) to malas ( ₹450- ₹1,300) as these go with the look and look stylish,' Madhu, a shopkeeper at Janpath market. Ananyashree Rathore, recent DU graduate, prefers pairing saffron and maroon coloured clothes during the kanwar season.(Photo: Isha Yadav/HT) 'Come Kanwar Yatra and and my go-to choice in clothes is to pair saffron skirt and top with maroon dupatta to add a touch of grace to devotion. I accessorise the look with rudraksha mala. It feels so amazing to dress up in the spiritual theme while chanting 'Bol Bam',' says Ananyashree Rathore, a recent graduate of Delhi University (DU). Story by Isha Yadav For more, follow HT City Delhi Junction
New Indian Express
28-06-2025
- New Indian Express
Aizawl: No beggars, no spit, no chaos - Inside India's most "un-Indian" city
There's a wry joke in Mizoram about the rest of India: Everyone there is in such a terrible hurry, but somehow always manage to arrive late. When I heard it for the first time, I was on the edge of a mountain—to my right was one of Aizawl's busiest roads with bumper-to-bumper traffic, yet it was quiet enough to hear the flapping of a bird diving into the valley on my right, buildings dotting the slopes on the other side of the mountain. During my week in Aizawl, I never heard an unnecessary honk (the necessary honk will surprise you for its purpose). The understanding traffic, the quietness of busy roads gave me a culture shock. The first time I had encountered something similar was in 2002 in Germany, where in two weeks, the only horn I heard was fired at me when I was crossing the road on a red pedestrian light. To experience that same culture shock right here in India, amidst a people so quiet, so polite they can give the Japanese a run for their decency, that's a shock of a different kind. To truly understand Aizawl, forget everything you think you know about Indian cities. Tuck away the cacophony, the frantic urgency, the visible tension that often hangs thick in the air. And journey instead to the capital of Mizoram, the capital city of the Mizo people in the far eastern folds of the Himalayas, a city cradled by hilltops that are kissed by drowsy clouds that sensuously touch it as they pass by. It is a city that pulses with a different rhythm through its streets, feeling less like a chapter from the familiar Indian story and more like a vibrant, unexpected postcard slipped in from somewhere else entirely; somewhere remarkably like Japan, perhaps, nestled improbably within the Indian subcontinent. The Mizo people, guardians of this emerald paradise, seem to operate under a profoundly simple, yet radically different, philosophy: why make mess messier? Why turn misfortune into fury? It's a mindset that instantly strikes visitors, like it did me, accustomed as we are to the high-decibel stress of mainland Indian metros. Europe taught me the rarity of the unnecessary honk. Returning to India, I resigned myself to its constant presence. Until Aizawl. My friend Shashwati, my host in Aizawl, shared an incident she witnessed from her balcony, demonstrating the local culture. Two scooters collided head-on. Riders tumbled, and scrapes were sustained on their bodies. Now, picture this happening in mainland India: a volcanic eruption of curses involving mothers, sisters, ancestors would have followed; a flailing, shouting spectacle threatening to escalate into blows on both sides as a crowd gathered to watch. Shashwati, a Delhiite, braced for this familiar drama. Instead, she watched in stunned silence as both men picked themselves up, dusted off, straightened their bikes, exchanged a quiet nod, and rode away. Shit happens, seemed to be their unsaid principle, but why compound it by shittier behaviour? Her shock echoed my recollection of Western observers after the Fukushima earthquake. Despite the unimaginable loss and scarcity, the world watched in awe as the Japanese in Fukushima displayed no panic, no looting, only quiet dignity, and mutual aid that shocked experienced Western aid workers. Aizawl, it struck me, embodies that same spirit in its daily rhythms. Traffic jams occur, naturally, on narrow mountain roads. But the soundtrack to the jam is not provided by impatient honks and abuses, but by a near-silent, zen-like patience. Cars wait for their turn. At unmarked intersections, drivers consistently yield, stopping well back to allow cross-traffic to flow smoothly. Multiple times, I saw people backing away when there was no need to. In Mumbai or Delhi, the instinct is often to jam oneself forward, blocking everything, and then to hold one's ground, creating gridlock out of mere congestion. Here, the instinct is to prevent the mess. Joel, a driver who had often driven vehicles as far as UP, confirmed this ethos. "Elsewhere," he mused, "police are often seen controlling, sometimes beating people and traffic. Here, they seem genuinely focused on helping people." While I've seen delivery riders on electric bikes in Mumbai, weave dangerously through traffic in a desperate ten-minute dash, people in Aizawl are more likely to be engaged in ten-minute, utterly unhurried conversations, punctuated by gentle, respectful nods. I found myself speculating: perhaps the only significant difference between Japan and Mizoram is the depth of the bows and language? The composure, the understated manners, the inherent orderliness —it felt strikingly similar. And the honk. Yes, it's not like Mizos on Aizawl's streets don't honk. They do: 'honk honk' two quick, gentle dabs on the button. However, this occurs when the opposing vehicle is passing parallel to theirs. This gentle double honk is to say Thank You. Then there's the cleanliness. Oh, the cleanliness! Countless Indian cities trumpet claims of being the cleanest, often amidst visible evidence to the contrary. Yet, after two decades traversing this vast nation, I can confidently say Aizawl stands apart. Rubbish simply doesn't exist on the streets in any noticeable quantity. This puzzled me because people here chew tuibur (a local tobacco water). And like the rest of the Northeast, chewing a paan, betelnut, lime, and tobacco mixture is common. Where, then, are the tell-tale red stains that deface walls and pavements across the country? In a week of wandering, I saw no one spit publicly. The few instances I noticed seemed to be from those outside the Northeast. It rains a lot, yet there are no plastic bottles choking drains or empty packets drifting like urban tumbleweeds. Aizawl could be the poster city for Swachh Bharat, with zero banners for the 'Abhiyan' that failed to teach India cleanliness. Instead, it stems from a collective discipline, a shared respect for their shared space that seems ingrained.
Scroll.in
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
‘Basti and Durbar': This fiction anthology paints a comprehensive picture of Delhi and its people
Edited by Rakhshanda Jalil, 'an unapologetic Delhiite', Basti & Durbar: Delhi-New Delhi is a collection of 32 stories about the city. Through stories from five different languages – those written originally in English as well as those translated into English from Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Malayalam – and featuring a generous number of excerpts from novels, Basti & Durbar is an anthology that gives its readers a fairly comprehensive picture of the city and its inhabitants, capturing the spirit of Delhi/New Delhi through the ages. Jalil has included voices from different eras in the anthology that help the reader navigate through Delhi as it was during certain points in history, and also be a witness to those gradual waves of change that have turned the city into its present avatar. In fact, in one of the latter tales, readers even get a glimpse of Delhi as it might be in the future. In and out of Delhi Basti & Durbar opens with The City that Was, an excerpt from the Hindi novel Basharat Manzil, which is set in the late 19th and early 20th century and presents Delhi through the eyes of a character who has left it behind. The story describes the glory of a city which now remains only in the memories of its central character and his (ultimately) futile efforts to recreate his beloved city by creating a similar atmosphere in Bhopal – from chess to hookah to pigeon rearing. But then, migration is a recurring theme in many stories in the anthology. This is particularly true of migration to Delhi, be it by virtue of need, choice or chance; and the experiences of these outsiders, these immigrants who are an integral part of Delhi, are at the core of several stories. For instance, 'Amritsar to Kingsway Camp' (an excerpt from Priya Hajela's novel Ladies' Tailor) and 'The Parade' by MS Sarna depict and document the experiences of individuals who have arrived from across the border in the aftermath of the tragedy of partition. While on the surface, the situation of characters in these two stories might seem very different, in truth, they are all part of the same exodus and have faced similar traumas as thousands of their contemporaries. Then there are stories that present before their readers the plight and the condition of the economic migrants who have been driven to the city in search of better opportunities, and the way the city has the potential to swallow one whole within the span of a few minutes. This is exemplified in Bhisham Sahni's story 'Gango's Child', which shows the difficult and miserable lives of those living in those locales of the city that fall in the category of 'basti', while 'Winter of Fear' captures the atmosphere of fear that pervaded the city during the emergency years in harrowing detail, turning the city into a monster that unleashes its fury on its arbitrarily chosen victims. Echoes of the basti's narrative are also found in the extract from Mohan Rakesh's novel Andhere Band Kamre (translated as Ibadat Ali's Haveli in Qassabpura), which gives a glimpse of Ibadat Ali's haveli nine years apart with the stagnation as well as the change in the fortunes of its inhabitants. Delhi comes alive in these stories through the description of its narrow lanes, crumbling havelis, dim corners and dingy dwellings. At the same time, they also make the reader realise that the fortune of the city, including its rise and its fall, is intricately related to the making and breaking of the fortunes of its people. And this is true not just of the stories that describe the dirt and the squalor of the city, but also the Delhi of the affluent hotels, clubs and the upper- and middle-class lives. Stories set in this affluent part of Delhi make the reader a witness to things as they seem from the Durbar's corner. Stories like 'Priya', 'Diamonds are Forever', and 'Trap' are set amongst the shiny buildings, gymkhana clubs and five-star hotels and give the readers a sneak-peek into this world, while stories like 'Yes, Sir' and the tongue in cheek 'Cheng-Chui' are set in the world of the bureaucracy, the sarkari, without which no portrait of Delhi can ever be complete. A story like 'The Secret Garden' finds itself somewhere in between – it shows a completely different side of the city, one that comes alive after dark, and in a certain way becomes a great leveller as it crumbles the boundaries of the basti and the durbar, however temporarily, forcing them to merge even as power plays its role here as well. Delhi is everyone's The extract from Usha Priyamvada's Fifty-Five Pillars, Red Walls gives one the idea of the city in a different way. It doesn't necessarily take one on a Dilli ki Sair but presents another, subtler but equally powerful facet of the city – a Delhi where the life and the decisions of a grown woman are circumscribed by the red walls of the hostel where she lives. Delhi, in a story like this, becomes a symbolic prison which does its best to keep one from living the life one desires. Stories like Fifty-Five Pillars and Keki N Daruwalla's 'Daughter' feel more invested in providing readers a snapshot not of the roads of Delhi, but its psyche. A story like 'Cake', on the other hand, merges the physical and the psychological aspects of the city beautifully in its descriptions of the city as well the impact it has on people in describing how the metropolis works on you, making you less sensitive and more thick skinned the longer you spend time here, looking at and dreaming of the affluence that seems ever elusive. Another aspect which makes this anthology appealing is that readers get to read these stories narrated from multiple points of view. The narrators here include, but are not limited to, a bored wife in the gymkhana club looking to gossip; a man displaced from his hometown, struggling to cross the road; a writer-bureaucrat; a tangawallah; a student from Shillong; a man who has visions of the past and future; and a woman who is the centre of attention for having 'travelled: to Delhi. All these narrators present the many sides of the same city, a city with personalities as varied as its inhabitants, a city that gives a different welcome to different people. Power is closely associated with the very idea of Delhi and power, the lack of it, and the tussle over it become key themes in many stories in both overt and covert ways. Basti & Durbar is wide in scope and covers a large span of time, giving glimpses of Dilli and Delhi both. These are the stories of the dilliwallahs as well as the Delhiites, and then everyone else in between and on the margins. There are stories of those who have left Delhi and miss it, those who love it, those who have been forced to it, those who are trying hard to survive it, and those who are on the verge of giving up. Delhi comes alive in the pages of the anthology not (just) through the descriptions or name-dropping places that are quintessentially Delhi, but through the tiny – sometimes minuscule – day-to-day actions and interactions as well as those life-altering moments that happen in the city and take one completely by surprise. At the same time, these stories allow their reader a peek into the various layers that have gone into the making of both Delhi and New Delhi. These might be layers of time that have deposited one over the other with the progression of history, or these might be cohabitating layers – both squalid and splendid. Basti & Durbar makes space for a large number of authors, including contemporary authors and genres of writing such as speculative fiction. As is bound to happen in any anthology, one might find certain stories more appealing than others. Overall, though, Basti & Durbar is a collectible. It's an admirable anthology of stories of and about the city which takes its readers on a tour of the city's nooks and corners both hidden and exposed, shining and dirty, in an unapologetic fashion.
Hindustan Times
23-06-2025
- Sport
- Hindustan Times
International Olympic Day 2025: Let's move, Delhi! Play at these five spots in NCR without worrying about your budget
Swim or Smash @ Siri Fort Sports Complex Check out the sports complexes across Delhi-NCR where anyone can turn up to play various sports without burning a hole in your pocket. (Photos: Instagram and Facebook (For representational purposes only)) Siri Fort Sports Complex, New Delhi. A Delhiite's favourite, Siri Fort Sports Complex offers everything from swimming and squash to table tennis and badminton. Non-members can access many of the facilities at highly subsidised rates. 'Swimming sessions here cost just ₹ 190 an hour, which is rare in Delhi,' says Shreya Bindra, a marketing professional. Siri Fort Sports Complex, Siri Fort, New Delhi Tuesday to Sunday; 6am–9pm Volleyball, Football & Basketball @Yamuna Sports Complex Yamuna Sports Complex, East Delhi. Looking for something more structured? For a one-time entry fee of just Rs. 100/day, you can access volleyball, basketball, and football courts at Yamuna Sports Complex. It operates on a first-come-first-serve basis, so plan. 'Weekends get busy. If you want a better shot at getting a court, come on weekday evenings or early mornings,' advises Naveen, who manages the facilities. Yamuna Sports Complex, Surajmal Vihar, East Delhi Tuesday to Sunday; 6am–9pm Badminton and Cricket @ Noida Stadium Noida Stadium. Following a recent revamp, Noida Stadium has become a buzzing hub for casual sports. Its open grounds are perfect for spontaneous games of badminton and cricket — no bookings or payments required. 'We play badminton a few times a week, and booking indoor courts elsewhere is expensive. Here, we just walk in and start playing in the open area,' says Vandit Madan, a first-year student at Delhi University. Noida Stadium, Sector 21A, Noida Monday to Saturday; 9.30am–6.30pm Ball It Out @ Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex, Gurugram. Gurugram folks, this one's for you. Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex offers free access to basketball and volleyball courts that feel pro-level, minus the cost. 'My brother plays basketball, I play volleyball, free of charge,' says Aman Gupta, a college student. Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex, Sector 38, Gurugram Monday to Sunday; 4am–9pm Run Like a Pro @ JLN Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi. If running's your jam, head to Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium for its nine synthetic tracks. A quarterly pass costs just Rs. 400 — a steal for world-class infrastructure. Plus, lockers are available. JLN Stadium, Pragati Vihar, New Delhi Monday to Sunday; 9.30am–6pm Boxer Amit Panghal.(Photo: Amit Panghal/IG) Wrestler Ravi Dahiya.(Photo: Ravi Dahiya/IG) For more, follow HT City Delhi Junction
