TALK OF TROUT FISHING and one thinks of unspoilt streams in North American woods. There is the classic image of a lone man standing in thigh-deep water, casting and waiting for a strike. People who do not, will not or cannot fish, read about it. Fishing and writing about the sport are both so popular in the US.
A colleague told me that last August, The New York Times published the obituary of A.K. Best, who was famous for tying dry flies that mimic real insects. With bits of fur, feathers and other material, he would conjure up a dry fly realistic enough to fool trout. In India, I have fished with flour balls and earthworms, with kite-string lashed to bamboo poles. But then those waters were far, far away from trout streams.
Special Correspondent K. Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy found trout in large numbers in hot Hyderabad. Aditya Ritvik Narra, 31, is the man behind the commercial farm, and the article appears on page 58.
Let us swim from trout streams to the home of the hilsa. We are capping our Bangladesh coverage with a look at how India can engage with the new government in Dhaka, and why it should. While Chief of Bureau (Delhi) Namrata Biji Ahuja writes the main article, we also feature expert voices. Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju reassures that the Chicken’s Neck land bridge to the northeast is under no threat, despite chief adviser Muhammad Yunus’s veiled and repeated comments about the area.
Former national security adviser M.K. Narayanan says that it is in India’s interest to ensure that Bangladesh is not drawn into the Islamist revolution. Dr Ziauddin Hyder, adviser to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, says that the new government’s foreign policy will be pragmatic. Former Indian minister of state M.J. Akbar sees hope in the current mandate. He says it is against theocracy and affirms the legacy of 1971. Lt Gen D.S. Hooda says respect for each other’s core concerns could lead to stabilisation in relations.
Senior Assistant News Editor K. Sunil Thomas looks at Nvidia president Jensen Huang’s vision for AI in India. THE WEEK was invited to the Dassault Systèmes 3DExperience World event in Houston, where Huang met select media professionals.
This article comes against the backdrop of the India AI Impact Summit 2026. The official podcaster for the summit, author Anirudh Suri, is contributing to this issue. Keep an eye on theweek.in for his podcast in interview format; for short videos, check out THE WEEK’s YouTube channel.
Member of Parliament Mahua Moitra joins THE WEEK as a Last Word columnist, and this issue carries her voice on Page 74.
Principal Correspondent Pooja Biraia interviewed philanthropist Neerja Birla, founder and chairperson of the Aditya Birla Education Trust. Through Mpower, a unit of the trust, Neerja is providing visibility and support for mental health issues. “Hospitals were built to treat episodic physical illness, not long-term emotional distress,” she told Pooja. “Schools had no way to respond to student anxiety without labelling it as failure.” THE WEEK is supporting the Mpowering Minds Summit 2026, which will be held in Bengaluru on February 27.
While AI is in the air, Photographer Kritajna Naik brings you people who love typewriters. The article brought back memories of oil cans, ribbons, the familiar clack of keys and the whirr of the carriage being pushed back. My executive secretary, V.V. Poulose, still finds comfort in shorthand.
While reading Kritajna’s article, I was reminded of something that Shashi Tharoor said tongue-in-cheek: “An old joke suggests that so many Keralite typists flocked to stenographic work in Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi that ‘Remington’ became the name of a new Malayali subcaste.”