Mohua Das

“There is a God,” stuttered Sandhya Chakraborty as she let out a hushed cry, overcome with emotion when she learnt her daughter Rhea had finally been allowed to walk out of Byculla jail on Wednesday evening, after almost a month in judicial custody.

In a strongly-worded open online letter, around 60 human rights advocacy groups and more than 2,500 individuals from diverse fields have castigated “News Media of India” for allegedly conducting a misogynistic media trial of actor Rhea Chakraborty. “We write to ask you to do the right and responsible thing. Your jobs. Hunt news, not women,” the letter said.

“Oh red-shirt-waley, jo cricket khel rahe ho! Ghar jao warna police aapke khilaaf karwaai shuru karegi,” a voice booms in the air above Dharavi. The boy in red looks up wide-eyed at a flying machine buzzing above his head, and scurries off. “Aur ghar jaake haath dhona mat bhul na!” the voice trails off. A synthesised boom bap beat-led voice courses through the sky a little later in the day, rapping. For over a month, Mumbai’s skies have been dotted with swarms of light and small, unmanned aerial vehicles popularly known as drones.

Chaitanya Khanapure, a computer engineer, was having a decade-long run in Mumbai’s swelling realm of tech innovation but an idea for a switchover kept gnawing at him. When he quit everything to study and brew beer for a living two years ago, it was about concocting his own unique flavours of ale and the sweet spot that locally brewed craft beer had hit in 2018 — a far cry from 2009, when he was a student and tasted the first kick of hops, malt and wheat at Doolally, India’s first microbrewery in Pune.

Apart from the ravages of time, weather and apathy, a critical challenge that the architectural legacy in the country is often faced with is resistance to change, even if that involves actual efforts to restore the remains of its past.That is what happened when Maharashtra decided to lease out 25 forts identified as Class-II category of lesser historical significance to private players for conversion into heritage hotels.

There is never a shortage of ways in which Indians toss out their trash anytime, anywhere. In a curious case of rampant trash disposal, a tranquil patch of the 47-acre Raj Bhavan complex on the southern tip of the Malabar Point—despite being sheltered by a cliff and enshrined by the sea—has become the target of an aerial barrage of trash, allegedly dropping out of posh highrises that fringe the bhavan’s Lower Gates and landing with a splat on the western side of the compound.

In January 2016, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had responded to the #OscarsSoWhite outrage by announcing a diversity committee and a fixed goal: To widen its membership and double the number of women and people of colour by 2020. Now, almost three and a half years later, India finds itself in the middle of the revolution with the Oscar granting body trying to broaden its reach in a country that is home to the world’s largest film industry.

No matter who wins the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the one who takes the hot seat in Delhi will have a number of promises to keep to the country’s LGBT voters given the “commitment” that each political party has pledged towards the rights and beliefs of sexual and gender minorities in their manifesto.

With a manifesto promising to build a ‘new and inclusive India’, the present government may be trying to mend fences with its detractors in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, but in cultural and literary circles, things look like a tough sell.

One year ago, a 17-year-old girl from Mumbra had looked her father and grandmother in the eye as well as a shaman from Dombivli and his agent, before calling them out and narrating to the court the horror of being forced as a 15 year old to perform sexual 'rituals' by all four who were convinced that if she could satisfy a Jinn or spirit with perverse acts, the family would receive a shower of gold coins and hidden treasures.

Following TOI’s report on a 13-year-old boy being whipped by the caretaker of Anand Kendra, a private shelter home for boys on Annie Besant Road, Worli police invited the boy, Riyaz (name changed), and his brother Sameer to the police station on Thursday, took down their statements and converted an NC based on their complaint into an FIR.

While the scale of horrors at shelter homes in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and a nationwide survey of over 2,000 such places are gradually lifting the lid on atrocities within care institutions, the brutal beating of a 13-year-old boy at a private shelter home in Worli last week reflects how the rot runs deep in the heart of Mumbai.Last Friday, Riyaz (name changed) was whipped by the caretaker of Anand Kendra, a home for orphaned and destitute boys, for being “too naughty”.

“Why does popcorn cost so much at the movies?” The answer to this big looming question that has baffled cinema lovers for years and sparked many tempers (and even threats and lawsuits in more recent times) – it turns out is one that is fascinatingly economics-driven and suggests that there is method to the multiplex madness, after all.Multiplexes say they rely on concession stands to make their businesses sustainable. It keeps ticket prices lower, which opens up the plush plex experience to more price-sensitive people while the premium on frills translates into better profit from those willing to fork out extra for corn and cola.

In an attempt to crack down on false stories secretly roving people’s handheld devices like chain mail spam from yesteryears of the internet, WhatsApp has come up with an alert that reads “forwarded” complemented by a curved arrow to indicate that the message which just popped up on your screen was a copy-paste post, and might not be entirely trustworthy.

The Supreme Court 's stance on Monday rejecting an impleadment by the Dawoodi Bohra Women's Association For Religious Freedom (DBWRF) in support of female genital mutilation , also known as female circumcision, by stating that bodily integrity of a woman cannot be infringed without her consent has brought some relief to women from the Bohra Muslim community who have been rallying against the centuries-old practice over the past three years.

Gender rights activist Harrish Iyer filed an impleadment application on IPC section 377 in the Supreme Court on Saturday citing Hindu and Jain temple relics and religious texts to legends and myths to establish the liberal stance of ancient and medieval Indian society towards non-procreative sexual practices even among same sex partners.

It was yet another day in the backstreets of the Colaba bazaar for 11-year-old Moshe who spent many more hours at the Chabad House on Wednesday saying his morning prayers, chatting with guests including Rabbi Eliezer Ashkenazi from the Chabad in Thailand and returning to the House again for his evening meal, notwithstanding the ghastly terror strike that had killed his parents, nine years ago.

When Sandra Samuel grabbed two-year-old Baby Moshe sitting in a pool of blood and escaped with him at the height of the Nariman House siege, she also risked a few extra seconds to pick up his doll from a pile of rubble. The toddler clung on to his Indian nanny and clutched his doll over the next few days as the city mourned the loss of 166 lives, including Moshe’s rabbi father and pregnant mother.

Nine years ago, India wept for a cherubic two-year-old who was orphaned after terrorists stormed the Jewish religious centre on a late November evening in 2008 and gunned down his parents. On Tuesday, Moshe -- now a bespectacled boy, about four feet tall and with a toothy grin -- returned to Chabad House.

Almost five months after Egyptian national Eman Ahmed left Mumbai after shedding 330 -kg from her once 500kg, 5-foot-wide frame, she died at 4.35am on Monday at Burjeel Hospital in Abu Dhabi due to cardiac arrest. Burjeel's doctors told TOI she was fine until Saturday, but rapidly deteriorated due to an infection in her bloodstream.