His analysis is insightful and educative for anyone who negotiates and navigates global politics, particularly Indian diplomats. As India’s ties with Russia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan are always in churn, this is an important book to inform India’s negotiators.

Whiling away her time with nothing more consuming than baking, and choosing which colour of blazer to sport, Merkel’s life takes an exciting turn when she chances upon the murder of local aristocrat Baron von Baugenwitz.

Abhilash Pillai, one of the country's foremost theatre directors and teachers, has created a play that returns to his first love, circus. Based on the myth of samudra manthan, the play casts different gods in modern contexts and looks as what we mean by asura and why the environment is important

From climbing trees to ripping prey, from scuttling up tree trunks to using feet as hands, evolutionary engineering is at work in Nature

India’s only two-Michelin-starred woman chef, Garima Arora on launching Banng, why discipline wins over passion and why ten lifetimes aren't enough to understand Indian food

Life is an echo chamber, what we send out returns to us amplified. We can cling to the bad or make space for the good

From Bhasa to KN Panikkar, Ratan Thiyam, Dharamvir Bharti, Mahasweta Devi and Girish Karnad playwrights and theatre directors have, over generations, revisited the Mahabharata

Here's unfurling the calendar for the best of culture, fashion, food, art, books and the grand spectacle called India

That the separation of law and emotions has never held true is something that has guided social science and humanities writing on law for some time, but lawyers still seem to find this demarcation useful. This book, however, recognises that a conversation on who you are, whom you love, and with whom you want to establish one of the most important relationships of your life should not shy away from emotions

Jha argues that Golwalkar’s ideology was rooted in a deeply exclusionary conception of national identity, where religious minorities, particularly Muslims, were viewed as potential threats to Hindu cultural supremacy

Resolutions demand that we start anew each January, erasing the months before. But life isn’t meant to be wiped clean; it’s meant to be layered, like that burnt chutney, with flavours born from our mistakes and triumphs alike

When I walked through the campus designed by the same man who landscaped Central Park, New York, I could enjoy a host of young women acting winter: they stamped their shoes, they flicked snowflakes off their hair, they wrapped and unwrapped themselves with the care that we would give birthday gifts back home.

I must have been in the middle or towards the end of the ‘queue’ when I was suddenly confronted by all the pioneering leaders rushing pell-mell back urgently whispering ‘Pagal haathi! Pagal haathi!’

A round-up of our best reads this year

Is Barmer about serendipity? Or a way of life in the Thar, where sight, sound, smell, and everything else is about the art of finding water?

"Suddenly, I felt like the only person alive in an alien universe. I also felt ill and dizzy, as if the snow was simply waiting for me to die and be buried under," says author Nandini Krishnan

Conifers dusted with powdery sugar and trees plump with frosting. Snow in Sikkim may have thrown our best-laid schemes awry but we would not have had it any other way

From writers to physicians to historians, across science, policy and finance, we find out the books read by trailblazers

While not shredding the dignity of inquisitive lions and leopards, ratels hunt for smaller animals with the same degree of ferocity and are vital in keeping animals like rodents and lizards under control

Raagas like Bhairavi and Bageshri became guideposts in dark times, their melodies reminding us that light and hope are always within reach

Maria’s emotional turmoil is evident when she says, “I’ve yet to meet a child who personifies innocence, and for me, I don’t remember any feelings other than fear and hatred.”

Democracy is being unmade, the writer shows, as people’s acrimony and the state’s discriminatory programmes feed off each other

The only mammals that can maintain sustained flight, a fruit bat can give you the heebie-jeebies while flapping close past you

Husain’s paintings have spoken to audiences, both regional and global. Now, an exhibition in the Capital testifies to why he is one of India’s most-admired artists