A list of good reads
- A brilliant must-read in The Guardian: In ‘America’s Untouchables’, Isabel Wilkerson draws a thought-provoking parallel between American racism and the Indian caste system—and explains why ‘caste’ is a better descriptor of the dehumanizing of entire peoples.
- Also in The Guardian: Why negotiating with terrorists is surprisingly similar to negotiating with children, even life partners.
- Kapil Komireddi in The Critic offers a beautifully observed account of his repatriation flight from London to Hyderabad.
- Maria Teresa de Filippis was the first woman to compete in a Formula 1 race in 1958. Forty three years later, Jamie Chadwick is getting ready to follow her footsteps. Vogue profiles F1’s great female hope.
- New York Times spotlights India’s gay prince: Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil of Rajpipla, Gujarat. A man who came out back in 2006 and paid a heavy price for it.
- Sandip Roy (the “bleating heart liberal”) riffs on the tension between his revulsion for goat sacrifice—be it for Eidh or Durga Pujo—and his love for mutton. Also: the hypocrisy that often abounds in debates over meat-eating and animal cruelty.
- Indian Express profiles the matchmakers who cater exclusively to super-rich Indians in search of a rishta. And it reads like a text-only episode of ‘Indian Matchmaking’. Example: “If the boys stresses on looks, I remind them that they are not going to get film stars. Gujarati, Marwari, kitne khoobsurat honge?”