Known Turf

I’ve been thinking about what Gandhiji would do about our Public Distribution System (PDS). At the heart of this programme is the idea th...

Shyamal Chaudhary, a 65-year-old farmer was running around, trying to get the block office to sanction an irrigation project in his villa...

I wonder if you travel by cycle-rickshaw. I wonder because recently, some friends mentioned that they suffer too much guilt on account of ...

Surveys can be very confusing, of course. Last year (2011), the Gallup poll found that only 11% Indians were ‘thriving’, Pakistan was appar...

What surprised me was the newspapers’ howling. Then, I realised that most journalists — especially editors — ride in cars or taxis or autos...

Part of the problem is that the author gravitates towards spaces of leisure—house parties, nightlife, music, TV, concerts, restaurants, sho...

The story about Dalits in Karnataka pouring cow-dung over their bodies to protest against the encroachment of their land by upper castes. O...

Once, a good citizen fell down the stairs of his home. His back was hurt and he was rushed to a hospital. Then the medical insurance com...

I was trying not to choke on my coffee. As if bad roads, corrupt officials, indecent hospitals and unaffordable housing weren’t enough, one...

There have been far too many novels that simper over samosas —the desire to find, or fight, one’s roots. This novel seems to sneeze into the...

There was nothing sexy about me. I didn’t know what it meant to be sexy. But at 17, I began to write. And when I looked up from my books, I ...

Some years ago, I’d been shoveled up on stage to discuss women’s literature and romance. The head of Mills&Boon, India, was also on the ...

A democracy is a system whereby all citizens have a vote, and a majority vote decides who will make decisions for the rest of us for a given...

Sometimes, I lie awake at night wondering what I might do if I was just walking along somewhere —maybe on a deserted road running parallel t...

I got off lightly. I mostly suffered communal slaps. When I say ‘communal’, I mean it was a community experience. The whole class would be l...

The Other Country is a collation of Mrinal Pande’s recent columns for newspapers like the Mint, Telegraph and The Hindu. What makes the ent...

A young journalist recently asked me some questions for an article about women characters in Bollywood films. I spent several hours going o...

One of life’s minor joys is finding someone to admire. Not many heroes are left to us, thanks to the mainstream press ignoring instances o...

She wanted money for a shroud for her dead husband. I glanced across the road. Indeed, somebody lay on the pavement. I didn’t know if he wa...

A couple of months ago, I undertook an arduous but very interesting train journey. It happened like this: I was booked on a night train betw...