Somak Ghoshal

Mint Lounge • 31st January 2021

The Good Girls by Sonia Faleiro: Anatomy of two deaths

Sonia Faleiro’s gripping new book, The Good Girls, was triggered by a singularly horrific image which went viral on the internet in 2014. In the sweltering days of May that year, two girls (Faleiro gives them the monikers Padma and Lalli to protect...

Mintlounge • 31st January 2021

The problem is not out there, it is within us: Harsh Mander

Early on in his new book, Locking Down The Poor, social activist Harsh Mander vividly recalls the “human-made flood of hunger” he witnessed in Delhi after Prime Minister Narendra Modi locked down the country at a few hours’ notice in March to control...

Mintlounge • 31st January 2021

Kaun Banega LGBTQ+ ally?

Mintlounge • 31st January 2021

Amanda Gorman owes her inheritance to these icons of black poetry

On Tuesday, 23-year-old Amanda Gorman captured the heart of the internet with her spirited recitation of her poem, The Hill We Climb, at the inauguration ceremony of the new US president, Joe Biden.

Mintlounge • 31st January 2021

Go for a working wellness retreat, not digital detox

For the last four years, Protima Tiwary, an influencer and entrepreneur, has embraced the life of a digital nomad. Whether she is at a yoga retreat or wellness hub, work never stops for her. As a freelancer keeping her own hours, she cannot disconnect...

Mintlounge • 31st January 2021

A Kolkata winter without the book fair

Earlier this month, when the Publishers & Booksellers Guild, which organises the International Kolkata Book Fair (KBF), announced that the annual event would be postponed due to the covid-19 pandemic, the decision probably registered as a blip on the...

Mintlounge • 31st January 2021

Are women free to loiter on the streets of India in 2021?

Ten years ago, when writers Sameera Khan, Shilpa Phadke and Shilpa Ranade wrote Why Loiter?: Women & Risk On Mumbai Streets, India was yet to experience one of its most horrific crimes against a woman in public—the 2012 gang rape and murder of a...

Mint Lounge • 8th January 2021

Will we sleep better in 2021?

Neha Tiwari, a 35-year-old bookstore-café owner in Pune, was already suffering from insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder when the covid-19 pandemic broke out and her sleep routine went out of whack. “The pandemic has been rough for a lot of...

Mint Lounge • 8th January 2021

How pets helped Indians get through the pandemic

The last time Job Koshy had a pet was when he was eight or 10 years old. “We had a Dobermann puppy who lived with my family for five years,” says the Bengaluru-based edutech professional, now 33 and a father of two. “He was my best friend and died...

Mint Lounge • 8th January 2021

'The government will use the pandemic as a pretext for economic collapse'

To those of us following the course of the pandemic via hourly news updates, Vinay Lal affords a unique lens to look at covid-19. His excellent new book, The Fury Of COVID-19: The Politics, Histories, And Unrequited Love Of The Coronavirus , provides...

Mint Lounge • 8th January 2021

Can the Indian state save itself from satirists?

Over a century ago, when Bengali writer, illustrator and publisher Sukumar Ray wrote his satirical poem , he lampooned the administrative excesses of the British Raj. In the topsy-turvy world of his lyric, poets are held in cages, presumably for...

Mint Lounge • 8th January 2021

Celebrations, uninterrupted

Milestones have a special place in our lives. Cutting the 13th birthday cake, throwing the graduation hat on commencement day, buying gifts for parents with the first salary, deciding the colour of the wedding dress, holding your newborn—these moments...

Mintlounge • 19th November 2020

From Godhra to Shaheen Bagh, there are many 1984s: Sarbpreet Singh

On 31 October 1984, as the Tinsukhia Mail was about to reach Kanpur station, the news of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards reached the passengers aboard the train. It’s not hard to imagine the consternation...

Mintlounge • 19th November 2020

Whose Durga Puja is it anyway?

Durga Puja has arrived in unusual circumstances this year due to the covid-19 pandemic, but not without its share of controversies. Whereas in the past the self-proclaimed custodians of Hindu religion have routinely flown into a rage, offended by...

Mintlounge • 19th November 2020

I am willing to fight and pay a price: Swara Bhasker

Swara Bhasker recounts a formative moment from her childhood in the “Foreword” to , a new book that maps the evolution of democracy in India and its culture of protests in the last decade. At the age of 10, the actor writes, shortly after watching...

Mint Lounge • 19th October 2020

World Mental Health Day | Is online therapy a boon for mental health in India?

The covid-19 pandemic has pushed many of our physical life experiences into the virtual realm. Seeing a mental health professional is no exception. In the days of yore, a session with the therapist would involve commuting to their clinic, whiling away...

Mint Lounge • 19th October 2020

World Mental Health Day | How to make sure the kids are alright

In the last quarter of her new book, C Is For Cat D Is For Depression (Scholastic India, 495), Kairavi Bharat Ram hurls a couple of riders at the reader: “But is anyone really normal? Is anyone really fine?”

Livemint • 10th September 2020

Chef Ranveer Brar is #MakingMillionCount by helping Indian street food vendors

Ranveer Brar has crossed many milestones as a celebrity chef, but the recent addition to his multi-feathered cap was hitting the 1-millionth-follower count on Instagram. To mark the occasion, he launched a new project this week, in association with...

Livemint • 22nd August 2020

Opinion | Bloomsbury India cares neither for freedom of speech nor for society

Opinion | Bloomsbury India cares neither for freedom of speech nor for society Faced with a controversy the company has swiftly distanced itself from a book on the Delhi violence in February. But it’s too little, too late

Livemint • 19th August 2020

Pankaj Mishra on liberals, Hindu supremacists, and the future of Left politics

Pankaj Mishra on liberals, Hindu supremacists, and the future of Left politics The writer speaks to Lounge about his new book 'Bland Fanatics', the covid-19 pandemic, and its impact on geopolitics