How runaway teens plan their escape in virtual chat rooms
Unhappy youngsters are turning to ‘runaway’ communities on Discord and Reddit for advice as well as accomplices
Mohua Das
Senior Assistant Editor at The Times of India, Mumbai | Formerly with The Telegraph, Calcutta
Couldn’t believe what the newspapers said and so I became a journalist! It's been 15 years since and what a life-coach it's been as I wake up to it’s power and value, every morning. A good story isn't always about the president or popstar but everyday people and places with compelling tales. Those are the stories I hope to tell... and find the extraordinary in the ordinary!
From emojis to crypto, tech has changed how teens shop for drugs
The action has shifted from dark alleys to the smartphone with youngsters using their own drug slang and tech smarts to score. Sunday Times takes a deep dive into D-commerce
Bella Ciao to James Bond: tunes Mumbai cops are playing
Move over Coke Studio, Khaki Studio is here. Mumbai’s khaki brigade have ‘dum diddy dum dumm-ed’ their way into the world of tuxedos, femme fatales and dirty martinis, taking their swag level up by a couple of notches with a big brassy reprise of Hollywood’s most famous movie score, the James Bond Theme.
No shelter for homeless women for whom each day is fraught with risks
The brutal rape and murder of a pavement dweller at Sakinaka has put the spotlight on Mumbai's homeless women. Whether they are living alone or with a family, every minute on the street after dusk is fraught with danger.
UK size 8 or US size 6? Why India needs its own size chart
Most of us have struggled with garments that are too snug, gape open or hang like sacks. What’s worse is that one brand’s M is another’s XL. Now, a new national sizing survey is working towards a more flattering fit
Lo & beehold! Honey harvesting at home adds new buzz to Covid-confined Mumbaikars’ lives
Tucked away in a noisy corner of south Mumbai is an unlikely sanctuary where the constant hum of everyday traffic is drowned out by the buzzing of bees. Here, on the fifth floor balcony of a dry fruit trader’s apartment in Byculla, a colony is taking shape that could transform the way one lives in cities.
Tribal influencers fight everything from Covid to child labour with cellphones
The art of showcasing talent online and influencing audiences is a common phenomenon now. But Arjun Pawara is not your typical Internet star. The 32-year-old is a founding member of Aadiwasi Janjagruti — a network of 45 tribal youths across 200 villages in the interiors of Maharashtra ’s Nandurbar district — using just their mobile phones and the power of hyperlocal news to script, enact, shoot, edit and upload sketches, short films and documentaries that enable a two-way flow of information between communities and local authorities.
Pandemic illuminates need to bridge digital divide, give access to disabled
Before the virus came along, Ninad Pawar (25)—living with severe visual impairment since birth—would spend three days a week at his favourite haunt, the National Association for the Blind at Worli Seaface where he would browse braille and talking books , check job resources and practise Excel and Powerpoint at the computer lab. The overnight shift to an all-virtual mode during the pandemic tossed out Pawar’s routine and along with that a safe space for a young person with a disability.
I am always going to speak up, even if I feel terrified inside: Disha Ravi
Perched outside her house in north Bengaluru, climate activist Disha Ravi is suddenly aware of just how many birds her neighbourhood has. “Their chirping gives me great pleasure. I enjoy watching mundane activities, there’s comfort and joy in that,” she says. Her world wasn’t as tranquil just four months ago when she was whisked away by a posse of police officers, slapped with charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy for editing and sharing a social media toolkit in support of the farmers’ movement.
Pandemic nightmares? Get help at Dutch psychoanalyst’s ‘spooky cafe’
Somewhere along the streets of Varanasi, is accosted by a big black cobra with its hood spread out, staring at him in rage. He wants to run away but the ground beneath him is teeming with angry venomous vipers. He fears that if he moves, they might bite and so he freezes.
Netas go on pre-poll ribbon cutting spree at jab centres
Wielding a pair of scissors, an MP from the city is in the middle of a weeklong jaunt across vaccine centres. One morning at Kurla, the next day in Vile Parle and the day after, in Chandivali congratulating the “corporator & all party karyakartas working hard to help people.” All the while, trailed by an army of aides, a photographer to capture the moments and an audience of vaccine aspirants queued up. There will be relief. But first, let there be a ribbon to cut.
Covid origin: ‘If nothing went wrong at Wuhan lab, then why the obfuscations?’
Under the cover of a Chhau mask, an interview with the nameless-faceless ‘The Seeker’ who is at the centre of DRASTIC, short for Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating Covid-19, begins almost like a blind date.
Is India’s Greta Thunberg a pawn in the hands of an unscrupulous father?
In the pandemic, young climate activist Licypriya Kangujam reinvented herself as oxygen messiah. Her father’s arrest for fraud has raised questions about her Covid fundraising as well as her green credentials
Watch out for the Covid rip-offs
Desperate appeals on social media can get you real help but not always. Scamsters have created fake forwards for medicines, oxygen to dupe Covid-hit of money, hope
How children brought water to a parched village in Latur
They say, it takes a village to raise a child. In a curious case, it took children to lift Vaishali Nagar, a village in Latur — that has been the face of Marathwada's acute water scarcity — out of a crisis.
Covid leaving kids orphaned, but viral adoption pleas are illegal
In the midst of cries for oxygen and emergency drugs on social media, a desperate appeal that stopped people in their thumb scrolling tracks a fortnight ago was a message urging families to adopt two girls—one aged three days and another six months—with the claim that they had lost their parents to Covid. “Please help these kids get a new life, spread the word,” urged the post that quickly went viral.
From crowded jails, prisoners walk out to isolation and hunger
When 55-year-old Amol* walked out of the gates of Taloja Central Jail in April last year, he had his priorities in place: see his wife, find a job and settle back into the landscape he hadn’t seen in almost a year. His joy was short-lived.When everyone went into ‘lockdown’ last year, things were different for people locked in prison.
India’s first openly gay actor to win a national award on his journey from insults to stardom
The voice on the other end is rapturous. Not without reason. Benjamin Daimary ’s afternoon nap had been just interrupted by a phone call telling him that his role in the Assamese film Jonaki Porua (Fireflies) had won him the jury’s special mention at this year’s National Awards for acting. “I was like, ‘What! Me? Why me?’ when Prakash-da ( Prakash Deka , director of Jonaki Porua) called. So I googled to confirm,” he says, all dressed up for his interview.
In Bollywood, women get screen time but very little talk time
The year 2020 wrapped up what you might call a good decade for women in Bollywood with many steely, witty, sharp, cute, fun and badass female characters in leading roles. It felt like the narrative was changing, and women had become more than accessories. However, research tracking speaking parts in the world’s biggest movie-making industry reveals that in the biggest pan-national box-office hits from the past five years — on an average, “women have less than a third of the dialogue". In other words, men significantly out-talk the women.
Covid funding hits other causes hard, NGOs struggle for funds
For a sector that relies heavily on public generosity to survive, the pandemic has dished out a double blow to nonprofits as donors — both individuals and corporates — diverted their funds to Covid relief and the PM Cares fund. And then came the Foreign Contribution Regulation Amendment (FCRA) bill in September that imposed stiff conditions on bigger organisations and stopped their transfer of funds to smaller ones.
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