Ajanta Krishnamurthy

Diwali, more flash than fireworks and more bang for the borrowed buck?

From picture-perfect pujas to prosperity parades, Diwali has become a festival of faith, flexing and financial overreach

Rock Machine: The renegades who changed Indian rock's frequency forever

Formed in 1984 in what was then Bombay, Rock Machine began as a covers band before betting on originals. Its first overseas tour came in 1988, when it travelled to Soviet Union for Festival of India

The great premiumisation of everything: When ordinary isn't enough

Biscuits need terroir, detergent needs botanical cred and water needs provenance. Even the mundane must now arrive with an origin story

Failure, but please call it something else: The new language of losing

Startups pivot, companies rightsize, politicians introspect, and relationships evolve. We still fail; we've simply learnt to hide the wreckage behind respectable euphemisms

The Great Indian Waiting Game: Buffering… Please wait, patiently

India once waited for Doordarshan to wake up, photographs to develop, letters to arrive and telephones to ring. Today, 3 seconds of buffering is treated like the collapse of civilisation

Before time caught the train, every window seat was front-row to India

Back when India moved slowly, every window seat came with a view, and every rail journey came with excess baggage - food, fears, family drama

Breast cancer among men slowly on the rise & usually detected late: Doctors

The disease is now being diagnosed in relatively younger men

What's the human cost of Covid-19?

Ask a daughter who lost her father and has to grieve in isolation. Why? Because the pandemic upended grief as we know it