The Times of India • 26th June 2023

Sign language is going mainstream silently as ‘hearing’ folks enrol for course

Within the noise of spoken words, there exists a silent superpower that goes largely untapped — sign language or the use of hand shapes, body movements and facial expressions as a form of non-verbal communication — which isn’t just for breaking down barriers with the deaf but can be a cheat code for the hearing population.

The Times of India • 18th June 2023

Tote bags, T-shirts & trinkets: Queer-run businesses move beyond rainbow cliches

As June rolls in, so does an influx of rainbow-themed goodies everywhere. While the queer community could do with visible support, it is also the first to remind you that Pride Month isn't just about the all-colour spectrum. A new wave of queer entrepreneurs are trying to redefine rainbow capitalism with ventures that reflect their identities beyond rainbow cliches.Last weekend a two-day showcase at BKC called 'Queer Made' amplified businesses and products owned and created by India's queer community.

The Times of India • 18th June 2023

The Mindhunters: How brain mapping detects memories of crime

In the shadowy realm of crime, the human brain isn’t merely a cunning accomplice. It can also be the ultimate snitch. Over the last two decades, ‘ Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature (BEOS) profiling’ — also referred to as ‘brain-mapping’ or ‘brain fingerprinting’— has emerged as a forensic tool meant to unlock criminal secrets within the grey matter and crack open a case when traditional investigative methods hit a wall.

The Times of India • 29th May 2023

How Chhattisgarh's 'live-in' tradition is taking a toll on Adivasi kids

In the lush forests of Surguja district in northern Chhattisgarh where the Mahabharata still resonates, live two primitive tribes — the Pando claiming lineage to the Pandavas and the Korwa to the Kauravas. However, despite their unique cultural heritage, children from these tribes have been bearing the weight of a time-honoured tradition. More and more couples are embracing the tradition of dhuku to save expense of a lavish wedding but for the children they neglect or abandon, there is a heavy price to pay

The Times of India • 28th May 2023

How Pakistan uses 'honeytraps' to gain sensitive info

The latest DRDO case shows how the game has changed. Instead of seductive temptresses in shady hotel rooms, traps are laid through social media

The Times of India • 14th May 2023

Why Indian screenwriters are watching Hollywood writers strike

While streaming has changed the way we consume content, screenwriters say some things haven’t changed — their compensation, lack of credits or the lopsided contracts. A battle is raging in America’s Tinseltown. For the first time in 15 years, the Writers Guild of America (WGA ) launched an industry-wide strike demanding fair pay and benefits rather than being treated like gig workers. In a spillover effect, writers guilds across the world united to fight back, including India’s Screenwriters Association.

The Times of India • 13th May 2023

Can India’s grandest cultural centre become its finest?

Amid the grey, glassand-steel skyscrapers of Mumbai’s BKC, there is now a jolt of colour. The Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre ( NMACC ), an arts and culture hub that opened last month, is a kaleidoscope of buildings with three overarching gold leaves and a lotus motif running through it. Just as its building has injected colour into the sterile landscape many hope Mumbai’s newest cultural playground will spark a new sense and standard of patronage for the arts.

The Times of India • 24th April 2023

Where some of India's most sexually adventurous people meet

Tired of living with shame and stigma, members of India’s growing kinkster community say they no longer want to live in the shadows

The Times of India • 17th April 2023

Look Ma, new hands

Imagine looking down at your hands and seeing a stranger’s fingers. We spoke to recipients of hand transplants about their struggles as well as the joy of doing small tasks again.

The Times of India • 26th March 2023

Decoding the fictional country of Kailasa that catfished 30 US cities

It was a usual scene at the annual meetings hosted by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) and Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in the UN Office headquarters at Geneva, last month. Conference-goers — NGOs, permanent missions, academic institutions from different countries — filed into a room inside the historic Palais Wilson building to discuss their rights.What was unusual was a delegation of about a dozen women — decked in gold jewel

The Times of India • 5th March 2023

When the selfie chase goes too far

That the photograph is the new autograph is old hat now. Celebs, too, have adapted accordingly. But the average selfie hunt — no matter which celebrity is in it — can go much further in this age of ‘Pics or it didn’t happen’.

The Times of India • 13th February 2023

'Fellowship' of social workers, lawyers helps poor undertrials navigate legal maze, get bail

Dia and Sonia (names changed), two sisters aged 20 and 21, had a troubled upbringing. Their mother, desperate to escape an alcoholic husband, remarried, but the girls never warmed up to their stepfather. They took to wandering the streets at night, falling into a life of crime that led them behind bars at the Byculla District Prison.

The Times of India • 12th February 2023

Gen Zer from genre town bagged Grammy with an old soul

It's an impersonal setting - rooftop of a five-star hotel in the heart of Mumbai's business district - but Christone ' Kingfish ' Ingram doesn't seem to mind when you try and tease the 'personal' out of him.The 24-year-old is being hailed as 'the heir to the Delta blues crown'. But blues, they say, is a dialogue, songs of the soul in pain. Ingram was only 20 when he released his first album in 2019. How did he channel those emotional depths and social insights at such a young age, we press on.

The Times of India • 11th February 2023

After belting out blues with a Gandhian string in Mumbai, Taj will trip on Mahal

When we meet Henry St Claire Fredericks , better known by his stage name Taj Mahal, at the appointed hour on a nippy Friday morning in the city, the towering blues figure is already in his chair fondling a ukulele and plucking a few chords before he leans close and tells a story.

The Times of India • 15th January 2023

Spooked by recent 'airpocalypse', some Mumbaikars pack their bags

Vivek and his wife Anusha returned to Mumbai from South Africa in 2021 after a 15-year gap. Accustomed to daily runs and outdoor workouts while living in Johannesburg, they went running in Mumbai too. Except that whenever they did that, they found themselves gasping within 15 minutes. They are now among a small number of urban dwellers who have decided to relocate to another place...

The Times of India • 14th January 2023

Listened a lot to Zakir Hussain: Imagine Dragons bassist

Expect the unexpected from Imagine Dragons, the American pop-rock sensation that emerged on the global stage with its 2012 smash hit ‘Radioactive’. Looking past the cliches of dabbawala, rickshaw or the seminal vada-pav, their bassist Ben McKee says he’d like a serving of Indian vegetables when the four-piece band comes stomping Mumbai's Mahalaxmi Racecourse as headliners for Lollapalooza on January 28. Ahead of their maiden trip to India, TOI chatted with McKee about hitting the road again, a giant album in the time of singles, teaming up with President Volodymyr Zelensky and the mystery behind their name.

The Times of India • 19th December 2022

Can ChatGPT replace humans? Experiments reveal — not yet

Is it smart enough to plan your vacations? Can it make small talk on WhatsApp? Here’s what four Indian users found after spending quality time with the AI chatbot...

The Times of India • 4th December 2022

Would you stay in a murder house? | India News - Times of India

Would you rent Aftab’s flat or the Burari ‘house of horror’? Sunday Times tracks properties with an unsavoury history to find out if there are takers

Setting up a good quality path lab in Delhi was a dream for Mohan Singh Kashyap. He managed to set up one in 2014 in Sant Nagar but five years on, it was time for him to vacate. Crestfallen at first, he lucked out soon after on a “nice and spacious” three-storey bungalow that came with an empty ground floor to set up his lab again, a five-bedroom

The Times of India • 26th November 2022

India asked to tackle FGM at UNHRC meet

Just when efforts to end FGM — also called khatna/khafz and involves partial or total removal of the clitoris as part of a well-guarded religious practise among Bohra Muslims in India — was hitting a stalemate, the issue garnered global attention earlier this month when Costa Rica asked India to tackle the issue at the 41st session of the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva when 14 UN member states, including India were having their human rights records examined.

The Times of India • 20th November 2022

Why so many Shraddhas get stuck with abusive partners

Rather than pointing fingers at the victim, experts say it’s important to understand the complexities of intimate partner violence

The news cycle this past week has been dominated by the gruesome killing of 26-year-old Shraddha Walkar by her live-in partner Aaftab Poonawala, 28, who strangled her, cut her up into 35 pieces, stored them in a refrigerator and went on with life until he fessed up over drinks with a friend.

While the killing has sparked a debate about the impact of true crime show