Pinarayi Vijayan’s office has become one of malfeasance, and people who believe in secularism, democracy and justice would vote out his government. People prefer strong leaders, not those who promote accumulation of illegal wealth...

POINT BLANK

Food is, perhaps, the most intimate and regular exchange between the human body and the environment. It is biochemistry, but it is also culture, memory and love. Food can create an entire cosmology—a wave of knowing the weather, the seasons, the health of the water….

Amitav Ghosh

author

Knowledge given to us by our ancient traditions is not limited to books; it is a living science, breathing. [Lord] Shiva stands at the very centre of this tradition. He has no single form, yet He is the source of all forms. When nothing existed, Shiva was there, and when nothing remains, He will still be there.

Rajnath Singh

Union minister

Vegetarian spaces now dominate India’s public institutions…. The word ‘pure’ is crucial. It implies that meat-eaters contaminate space, that their presence, smell and habits are polluting. Yet, Indians get upset when the same treatment is meted out to them by white people who do not give housing to people who “smell like curries”.

Devdutt Pattanaik

mythologist

The future of secularism depends on whether we can resist the well organised thrusting of smallness on this country.

Amartya Sen

economist

I am so grateful [to] my younger self. She was brave, she was strong, and her tenacity—her ability to set aside the tears, put on the mascara again, wipe herself up, and walk into an interview just 20 minutes later, look pulled together—is the reason I can have a different definition of success today.