Avoid entering a park where there’s a large pack of feral stray dogs or getting into a lift with a dog because small enclosed space heightens its guarding instincts

Here are some of the best reads of this week!

The film on queer and non-binary people shows us the power of acceptance and the golden rule by which life must be lived

Even after half a century since his debut, Bachchan continues to be relevant to contemporary audiences, as he represents the past, the present and the future

Bachchan has become a continuum, reminding us of the time that was, and the promise of a time to come

Never just a character, always more than a star — the quintessential Bachchan through the eyes of the director of 'Cheeni Kum' and 'Paa'

From Marilyn Monroe’s iconic white bias-cut dress to Kashmiri shawls and jodhpurs, the book raises important questions about the explicit and unconscious influences that India exerted on the global imagination

Rahul Ramagundam traces the life of the maverick politician with rigorous research, throwing up interesting facets of the charismatic political leader

The book that compresses 5,000 years of the country’s history in less than 300 pages makes nuanced observations on aspects such as how religion shaped Indian history

Set against the background of India's freedom movement, the novel translated into English from Tamil by N Kalyan Raman, serves us the ambitions of love, art, honour and the aspirations of a nation-state

Borrowing from Indian traditions and contemporary ethos, a recent Kolkata exhibition brought together over five decades of veteran artist Lalu Prasad Shaw’s works

One of Nature’s unparalleled masterpieces, dragonflies are a marvel of design and engineering

Writer-filmmaker KA Abbas’s writings showcases life in the film industry, with all its idiosyncrasies and brilliance

An ode to seasonal harvest and a deep sense of community mark the less ostentatious celebrations of the festival outside of the state capital

A new book explores the activism of community warriors in Vidarbha, who take inspiration from Gandhian values

As Unesco recognises Kolkata’s Durga Puja in its Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage, a look at where it all began in the oldest town in West Bengal, Guptipara

Durga Puja had always been a festival of homecoming, centred on the deity herself. Now, it has become a way of seeing and situating ourselves in the world

The academic who paved the way for the inclusion of Kolkata’s Durga Puja on Unesco’s list of intangible cultural heritage on what makes it such a unique sociological phenomenon

The Chitteswari Durga idol, built of wood, is more of a folk version of the Goddess

How do the animals in Africa feel about the cheetahs travelling to India? Down in Jungleland finds out

The art of compassionate curiosity in the face of adversity

Students, fresh graduates, entrepreneurs, IT professionals, gym trainers. Meet the followers of Tesla chief, space entrepreneur and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.

Being elderly doesn’t mean being feeble or without hope

The book examines how Visva-Bharati built a community of scholarship before a radical shift in its functioning in the last few years, writes Angshuman Kar