How a for-profit society creates not just joblessness, productivity cults, and work anxiety, but also other forms of inequality, leading to a mental health crisis in the country. - By Sadaf Vidah

The MX Player web-series Aashram (2020) follows a similar blueprint in tackling India’s fascination with seductive, flawed godmen—mysticism, sex, violence, and masala—without daring to truly examine the deeper roots of society’s discontents. - by Harshita Murarka.

The pandemic threatens to be the last nail in the coffin for many of India’s great circus troupes. By taking their act online, Rambo Circus hopes to keep an acrobatic balance for the show to go on. - By Barkha Kumari

Writer, translator, and editor Aruni Kashyap discusses his remarkable short-story collection His Father’s Disease, building the shaky bridge from Assam to Delhi to America, and the indissoluble bond between the personal and the political in literature.- by Karan Madhok.

In recent years, journalists have been attacked, intimidated, and the likes of Gauri Lankesh and Shujat Bhakari murdered. Nikita Chatterjee explains how violence, government pressure, paid news, and more have shackled India’s press freedoms and landed a major blot upon our idea of democracy.

S.P. Balasubrahmanyam’s iconic voice and plethora of soundtracks marked the multilingual singer as one of the most essential artists of his time. Jamie Alter recalls the impact of the crossover artist in the Hindi film industry.

In his urgent and timely novel The Machine is Learning (2020), Tanuj Solanki confronts the rise of artificial intelligence with the complexities of 21st century humanity - by Kiran Bhat.

Gulmarg’s Raja’s Hut was the subject of the 2018 documentary Iron Khan. Citing the film and personal experience, Zachary Conrad recalls the guest-house and its owners, in the foreground of the Himalayas, snowboarding, and insurgency in Kashmir.

Mira Nair’s limited series, A Suitable Boy—based on Vikram Seth’s novel—reveals even with changing times, many of our approaches to arranged marriage in India have remained the same. By Nidhi Choksi Dhakan.

While India’s musicians take the show online, the unsung heroes of live shows—technicians, backstage coordinators, tentwallahs and more struggle to make their ends meet since the lockdown. Some in the events industry have united to give back. - by Barkha Kumari

Photo Essay: Lost without direction, and happy to keep moving—Varanasi’s labyrinthine old gullies and the Ganga riverside provide the glimpse of a world without time, where the ancient world collapses into the present. By Karan Madhok

In Bitter Chocolate (2000), Pinki Virani turned the spotlight on the extent of child sexual abuse in India, and the possible ways forward to address the challenges with this issue. - By Nikita Chatterjee