A list of good reads
- Vir Sanghvi in The Print offers a controversial take on how Rajiv Gandhi ought to have handled the Ram Mandir issue—which opened the door to the rebirth of the BJP.
- BBC Future profiles 13-year-old Willis Gibson who managed the impossible—to beat Tetris—and looks at what it reveals about the limits of human performance.
- Pallavi Pundit in Eater pens a very good essay on how the simple rice dish ‘kanji’ became a symbol of Tamil resistance in Sri Lanka.
- Speaking of food, Philadelphia Magazine has a fascinating feature on how philly cheesesteaks became a smash hit in Lahore.
- New York Times (splainer gift link) explores why the Indian economy is still struggling to catch up with China.
- Also in the New York Times: a profile of the next queen of Denmark who is a “progressive, common-born former Australian”.
- Vanity Fair offers an interesting look at how the New York Times has used games—think Crossword, Wordle, Connections—to win in a dismal media landscape.
- Reasons to be Cheerful looks at how community and traditional farming has helped villages in drought-hit North India. (h/t founding member Kush Shah)
- Undark offers a fascinating and disturbing look at the advances in mind-decoding technologies—and the threat they pose to privacy.
- Bloomberg News reports on a new branch of economic research that links national wealth to psychological therapy.
