“What's your price?” It is an uncomfortable question because we are used to putting prices on almost everything. A house has a price. A car has a price. A company has a valuation. Even our time is increasingly measured in money. But what happens when the question is directed at a human being? That discomfort is precisely where Dr. Manjit Hans begins in What's Your Price? Understanding Your Worth. The title initially sounds transactional, almost provocative. Yet the book

Why do intelligent people make simple problems complicated? Sometimes because the problem really is complicated. But sometimes because complexity makes us feel that we are doing serious thinking. That distinction stayed with me while reading Mukesh Sud's Simple Thinking. The book begins with an idea that sounds almost obvious: when we are surrounded by information, opinions and noise, finding a simple way forward can be more useful than adding another layer of complexit

We thought we knew the result. The pollsters thought they knew. The television studios thought they knew. The political class thought they knew. Then the voters spoke. And suddenly, almost everyone had to explain why they had been wrong. That is where Rajdeep Sardesai’s 2024: The Election That Surprised India becomes fascinating. Because this isn't merely a book about an election. It is a book about how narratives are created, amplified—and sometimes shattered

A crown is supposed to be a symbol of power. But what if it is actually a debt? That was the thought I kept returning to while reading Rajesh Mehta’s Bleeding Crown: Protector of Sivi. Set in 726 BC, long before the familiar chapters of Indian history that most of us encounter in school, the novel takes us into the kingdom of Sivi, where a young prince is expected to inherit not merely a throne, but everything that comes with it—promises made by those before him, politi

Some love stories end. Some simply learn to exist differently. That is what stayed with me after reading Ashritta Saran’s Parallel Heartbeats. Ash and Aaryan find each other when they are young enough to believe that loving someone deeply should be enough. But growing up has a way of complicating even the purest emotions. Ambition enters. Distance enters. Circumstances enter. And eventually, two people who once felt like each other’s entire world have to discover who they

We often imagine that the most dangerous secrets in a relationship are the ones someone tells us. Perhaps they aren't. Perhaps the more dangerous ones are the secrets someone successfully keeps from us. That thought stayed with me while reading Anubha Gupta's The Almost Perfect Wife. Because beneath the murder mystery, the twists and the ancestral house in Mashobra, this is really a story about something much more uncomfortable: how little we may actually know about the

When a Border Separates Two People, What Exactly Does It Fail to Separate? Some love stories are about two people trying to find each other. Dear Zahira, With Love by Sachin NG is about something more difficult: two people trying to remain connected when history has decided they belong on opposite sides of a border. That distinction stayed with me. Because we often talk about Partition through numbers—millions displaced, families separated, lives destroyed, borders re

I remember the first time I walked through Dharavi — not as a tourist, not as a spectator, but as a quiet observer trying to make sense of its heartbeat. The lanes were alive with motion — children darting between tin roofs, the hum of machines from leather workshops, the scent of wet earth mingling with chai and sweat. Amid that pulse, there was something else too — an invisible current of resilience, a kind of defiant grace. Reading The Awakening of Dharavi by Atul Arjun

There are some books you don’t just read — you inhabit them. They unfold like an old photograph album, where every page carries a scent, a story, a heartbeat. I Came Upon a Lighthouse by Shantanu Naidu, with illustrations by Sanjana Desai, is one such book. It’s not a biography, not exactly a memoir, but a feeling — warm, humane, and quietly luminous — much like the man at its center: Ratan Tata. I still remember the first time I turned its pages on a quiet Sunday morning,

There’s a peculiar kind of madness that only Mumbai can offer — the kind that smells like rain on asphalt, sounds like a thousand horns arguing at once, and feels like hope stubbornly pushing through chaos. Vrushali Samant’s Madness in Mumbai: When Forty Gets Naughty bottles that madness, shakes it up with heartbreak, humour, and heat — and hands it to you with a wink. It’s fizzy, messy, and utterly intoxicating. Vrushali Samant, who’s known for her sharp wit and eye for em

Imagine walking into a college where there are no classrooms, no exams, no professors with tweed jackets and tired eyes. Instead, you’re...

The first time I saw Sanjay Dutt on screen, I remember thinking: this man is either acting or simply being himself. The swagger felt too...

When was the last time a children’s book made you cry? Not the quiet sting-in-the-eye cry but the kind that makes you stop, put the book...

Last night, I found myself grinning at a plate of hot chapatis on the dinner table, and I’ll tell you why. I had just finished Tales...

Imagine this: it’s late at night, the world outside is quiet, and I promise myself, “Just one more chapter.” You know where this is...

There’s a certain thrill in picking up a book by an author you already trust to mess with your mind — in the best way possible. For me,...

You know that moment when you close a book and just…sit there, staring into nothing, because your mind hasn’t caught up with your heart?...

The other night, I found myself lying awake long after I had turned the last page of Misunderstood: A Guide to Mental Wellness by Sree...

There are some books that don’t just whisper stories—they wrap you in their silence until you feel it pressing against your skin. Aparna...

Have you ever paused mid-read and wondered—what would I do in their place? That was me, more than once, while reading The Mother I Never...