Best thing to have been home-delivered during this lockdown: toasty stacks of the US edition of "A Dominant Character." It goes on sale next month: just in time to make it into your summer reading list, America! Pre-orders:
And honestly... [1 / n]
For ~a year, I've dug into the Hindu right's impact on Bollywood, to find out how the vauntedly liberal industry - directors, platforms, writers, actors - is responding.
Nearly 50 interviews later, here's the piece. This is not a pretty picture... [1]
Not one Indian writer, cricket or otherwise, has shown the appropriate level of anger / contempt for the sickening worship of Modi at the Ahmedabad Test.
Fortunately, there's Gideon Haigh.
India in 1947 had rather less difficulty gaining its independence than we are having in 2017 leaving the Brussels empire. Time for Boris to go the full Gandhi.
Some PR guru has clearly been telling Bollywood's wealthy that, in a poor economy, they're seen as too elite, too out of touch. Do something that shows your ability to connect with the common man, they must have been urged. And so, with great unoriginality, they obeyed: (1)
There’s still no political opposition; there’re still scads of voters who want a Hindu India. But the protests in Dec. have been the most heartening moment in six years. The sapling still stands. The soil is resisting. I write for
@TheAtlantic
:
An FT analysis supports longstanding claims that Adani Group has been inflating fuel costs for billions of dollars of coal, leading to millions of Indians overpaying for electricity
Columnists are free to have opinions. But it’s disgraceful that, at a time of panic,
@livemint
will allow someone with no medical background to dispense misinformation. “Indians have the toughest immune system” is not a scientific truth. This isn’t what op-eds are meant to do.
I found:
- stacks of killed film and TV projects, at various levels of development
- absurd rules imposed by studios to keep themselves safe
- a thriving ecosystem of creators in lockstep with the BJP
- an RSS media unit that liaises with Bollywood... [2]
Shut them down. This channel is a menace, let alone a disgrace to journalism. Anyone who decides to put their advertising money into Times Now, after seeing this, should be ashamed.
#EXCLUSIVE
#Breaking
| TIMES NOW has accessed 2 videos of Sushant Singh (dated January 2020) where there is no sign of depression on his face.
Family sources: 'Does he look depressed?'
Navika Kumar with details. |
#SushantFatherAppealTape
Twenty scheduled days of play go down to the last ten minutes to decide the series? Oh, if you're human anywhere and aren't a follower of Test cricket, you're missing something.
“Out of all our 280 or so employees, they singled out one Abdul Jabbar and said: ‘Show me the expenses he has filed.’ And they would look at the vouchers of his lunch, for instance: 2 rotis and daal.”
India’s NGOs are undergoing unprecedented govt audits:
Last Aug., I went to Colombo to report on the Easter Sunday bombings, and on the Ibrahim brothers -- wealthy young men who decided to take part in the worst terrorist attack Sri Lanka has ever seen. Ten months later, that piece is in the
@NYTmag
. [1/n]
India manufactures more vaccines than any other country. So why is it running short of Covid-19 vaccines?
There's no one answer. Instead, I reconstructed the last 12 months and built a timeline of dysfunction. The dysfunction was born of... [1]
But even they admitted that a fear of political risk now determines what movies get made and what movies get killed.
"What will you do?" I asked a director known for his dark, gritty films.
"What else? I'll have to make rom-coms," he said. [end]
He's just mocking India now: its federal structure, its basis of existence, its belief that the states are all equal no matter which party is in power at the centre. And he's doing it by trying to hold lives hostage.
Here is an excellent 1993 documentary on how the Babri Masjid randomly collapsed one Dec. day, without any help from the BJP / RSS men calling for its demolition or any planning from the RSS men with sticks, hammers and pickaxes standing atop the mosque.
Back in June, I began Zooming with
@jimmy9
, cricket's most successful fast bowler. Every 2-3 days we'd get online and talk for an hour or so. Here's the result: a 6,000-word piece about Anderson, fast bowling and playing sports during a pandemic [1 / n]
The last three years of my life, in ink and paper: the first draft of my biography of J. B. S. Haldane, scientist, Communist and all-round rabble rouser. Out 2019.
I’ve tweeted this in the past, but it’s a good time to do it again. If there are any former / current VFS employees out there and want to talk to me — DM me! A story is long overdue.
(Frustrated Indians + others: RT to spread this tweet pls, so I reach a whistleblower or two.)
For Indian passport holders abroad, there is nothing worse than the uniquely archaic concept of EU Schengen Visa renewal *every 3 months* +
@VFSGlobal
(ofcourse its Indian) managing the processing end. I think 5 times about attending a European conference.
...- and systems of harassment + intimidation. (During a tax raid, a source was warned not to donate to
@scroll_in
and
@thewire_in
.)
Not everyone feels bad for these filmmakers; some described them as a privileged lot, unaccustomed to being checked: [3]
For the
@NewYorker
, I wrote a review-essay about "My Seditious Heart," a fat new collection of Arundhati Roy's non-fiction. And I wondered: "Does it feel different now to read her now and to absorb her anger, as compared to the late 1990s / early 2000s?"
For
@NewYorker
, I wrote about the violence convulsing Delhi this week, even as Donald Trump was feted and celebrated:
'At least 38 people have died: shot, beaten, burned. At the Trump banquet, the Navy band played “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.”' [1/3]
On Jan. 5, a masked, armed mob ransacked a hostel in Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University. People were beaten--a blind student, most shockingly. I spent 3 days at JNU that week & wrote about the attack. And about the Hindu right's takeover of India. (1/n)
Seven hundred days since the Indian police arrested a journalist for doing his job. He happened to be Muslim. And this is what’s been happening to him:
Today I begin a new job
@qz
, covering The Future of Capitalism, otherwise known as The Future. I'm looking forward most, I think, to charting the forces of the market and their social effects in every field under the sun... [1]
In 2014, the Election Commission conducted an inquiry when Modi spoke in front of a religious backdrop. Today, the govt dyes the state broadcaster’s logo in the BJP’s signature saffron and no one bats an eyelid. The EC has never been more comatose.
A student has used the phrase "deep-seeded roots" instead of "deep-seated roots," and now I cannot help but think that he's the only one to have ever been logical and correct about the phrase.
The Indian edition of "A Dominant Character," my biography of JBS Haldane, is now available for pre-order. Copies ship Dec. 10. Please RT / pass the word on! (And buy!)
It's also a good moment to answer the question I'm often asked: Why Haldane? [1 / n]
A reminder: at least 67 RTI activists have been murdered in India. The BJP came to power in part because of UPA corruption uncovered by RTI activists. The government knows just how dangerous the RTI can be.
Take a moment. The highest court in the land has agreed with the government that among the most pressing issues to be heard are a few one-liners and a cartoon on Twitter.
In the spring quarantine, a young man’s fancy turns to...projects.
How many of you would sign up for a newsletter: a monthly, with notes on pieces I’ve written; thoughts on things I’m reading + loving; just chat, in general? What else should it do? Tell me if you’re interested?
Recently, I spent the better part of the week hanging out with Michael Lewis, talking about...everything:
* his new book on Sam Bankman-Fried
* his daughter's death
* the fresh controversy around "The Blind Side."
Some vignettes follow: [1]
Lewis spoke about the lawsuit that Michael Oher, the young Black football player in The Blind Side, has filed against the Tuohys--Lewis's friends, and the white couple who took Oher in: [4]
For a year, I've been part of an ambitious
@HuffPost
-
@propublica
project: to record as fully as possible the deliberate erasure, degradation and corruption of public data by the Trump govt. The story is out, and it's vitally, vitally important:
[1 / n]
Outrageously thrilled that "A Dominant Character" has made it to the shortlist of the Duff Cooper Prize, a non-fiction award so venerable I can't even tag it on Twitter.
PM Modi in Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir says, “They visit a criminal's house… a convict out on bail in Sawan…to cook mutton…. They make videos to mock people, echoing the Mughal era mentality…They aim to provoke citizens and secure their vote bank… now they’ll rain bullets on…
Gobsmacked. "A Dominant Character" is one of the
@WSJ
's TEN Best Books of 2020!
"A master biographer brings this original, impulsive and politically misguided figure into sharp focus in this rare account of intellect and temperament in action."
When I fly from one south Indian city to another, I’m often annoyed that announcements are made in English and Hindi — and that sometimes the crew speaks just those languages.
Now the stubborn adherence to Hindi seems to have actually cost lives:
Saddened to hear of the passing of the architect BV Doshi, a Pritzker winner so unlike many Pritzker winners who came before him. But what a grand life he had!
I wrote this for the
@NewYorker
when he won the prize. But then I wrote more about him... [1]
The reason Indian cricket has not one Kaepernick: However good you are & however professional the sport is, it’s hard to stop thinking that you succeed at the sufferance of the govt. Gabba ‘21 is well and good. The real success lies in cricket & other sports breaking free of that
Such a bad-ass trailer for the upcoming
@netflix
doc about India’s bad-apple billionaires. I’m in 1 of the 4 episodes dissecting all of Modi’s sins.
Nirav. Nirav Modi. Not any other. Don’t come after me.
(Also feat.
@jamescrabtree
, looking dapper.)
Thrillingly, among
@WIRED
magazine’s 12 most-read pieces of 2017 is my report from Macedonia, on the fake-news factories of Veles and their contributions to Donald Trump’s win.
Full list here:
My story:
Last week, a firm named Moderna began trials on a Covid-19 vaccine, 63 days after starting work--a "world indoor record," as Anthony Fauci said. How do scientists rustle up vaccine candidates so quickly? I went inside the vaccine world to find out (1/ n)
I try not to write about myself, but
@davidedgarwolf
talked me into a
@gdnlongread
about my life spent quizzing. Here it is: 6,000 words trying to get at what it is about quizzing that I love so, so deeply: [1 / 5]
India is notoriously poor with preserving and recording its history, so S Muthiah brought a rare method and enthusiasm to his writings about the history of Madras. He mined archives, wrote to people, remained ever-alert to Madras connections when he travelled...
Columbus wrote letter to the King of Spain and said-
"That there shall he a church, and parish priests or friars to administer the sacraments, to perform divine worship, and for the conversion of the Indians."
.
I wrote a little essay about why we consider some batsmen beautiful and others not so much -- and more curiously, why there's so much unanimity on who belongs in which category.
Cameos: Steve Waugh, David Gower, Mike Brearley, and more! [1]
"A Dominant Character" is out in the US today--and on cue, this astounding
@nytimes
rave for the book!
@JonathanDWeiner
just _gets_ all the big political themes in JBS' life: "The book could be an allegory for every scientist who wants to take a stand."
Years ago,
@EllenBarryNYT
told me she was working on the sad, strange tale of Prince Cyrus. Here’s the piece, so beautifully written and doggedly reported. What an odd life Cyrus led — hinged on Partition, and ending in solitude inside a Delhi jungle.
WORLD WAR LOO!
For four months, I've been working on an utterly engrossing story: the battle between hand dryers and paper towels, in their quest to dominate the world's public restrooms. It's out today, in the
@gdnlongread
(1 / n)
India’s home minister is filling his day with campaign rallies while a pandemic is burning through the country.
How can this government make it any clearer to its public? It cares about power. It does not care about the well-being of its citizens. End of story.
Public programs of Union Home Minister Shri
@AmitShah
in West Bengal.
Date: 16th April 2021.
1) Public Meeting in Tehatta at 11:30AM
2) Roadshow in Krishnanagar Uttar at 1PM
3) Roadshow in Barrackpore at 3PM
4) Public Meeting in Khardaha 4:45PM
@anandvasu
I think this is all so egregious that writers in attendance who want to write about it should do it nonetheless. Slap it into a substack or a blog post, put the link online. It will find its readers.
We can start a daily catalog of the erosions of democracy in Modi's India.
Yesterday: Univs. have to get government approvals to host web panels and online discussions on anything "clearly related to India's internal matters."
Today:
[WTF even is a "legal demand,"
@Twitter
?]
Arundhati Roy aggregates all our anger, in a catalogue of the many ways Modi is destroying India—and of the many ways he doesn't care that he's destroying India.
"What we are witnessing is not criminal negligence, but an outright crime against humanity."
I have a Ved Mehta story.
Until 2014, I only knew Ved by reputation: the famed New Yorker writer who couldn't see, the tireless memoirist, a renowned grouch. That year,
@DalrympleWill
asked me to be in conversation with him at the Jaipur Lit Fest... [1]
Do yourself a favour: End 2020 by reading this
@Harpers
Ann Patchett essay. It has everything: Tom Hanks, covid, art, shrooms. It has life and death, courage and love. Read it, read nothing else today and tomo, and march into 2021 with it in your heart.
Beyond thrilled to win this! Many thanks to
@davidedgarwolf
for the idea.
(Also slightly daunted by the three-litre Aperol bottle they gave out last night, when I'm just halfway through the three-litre Campari bottle they gave out in 2019!)
Last Oct., I began reporting this
@gdnlongread
, about the rich members of a historic golf club being priced out of their membership's by the club's new Chinese owner.
But really, this story was ABOUT SO MANY THINGS AT ONCE. Here they are: [1]
On the eve of Delhi’s election, allow me to plug my
@NewYorker
profile of Arvind Kejriwal.
He was, in 2013, an activist learning to be a politician. Now, gloriously, he’s giving the BJP its fiercest fight in ages. Six years is a long time in politics.
The problem with this kind of incident -- and with Munawar's arrest for jokes he didn't make -- is that we'll start fixating on _whether_ these things were said.
We will miss the fundamental point that, in a free society, all this should be ABSOLUTELY PERMISSIBLE to say.
Two men were detained and questioned for eight hours through Saturday-Sunday night and three women for at least three hours by Delhi Police — all because they were heard saying “Pakistan Zindabad” as part of a cycling game near Khan Market Metro station
14 years ago, I wrote a little book, expecting it to sink out of sight. I’m perpetually amazed that people continue to love “Following Fish” — including
@yaminivijayan
and
@ChefTZac
, who excerpted it today in
@TheLocavoreIn
.
[Next year makes it 15,
@sorcerical
.]…
A month to go for the publication of the Indian edition of “A Dominant Character.” And we have a cover!
The photo is ironic, I realise now. JBS has poor lab skills. He was big and clumsy. At a lab bench, he was like a bear handling glassware. Still:
I feel
@supriyan
has basically pulled off a long con: started up a site for longform stories and bided her time _just_ so she could eventually publish an oral history of "Mundian To Bach Ke."
If so, the long con has been totally worth it.
For the
@gdnlongread
, I wrote about home delivery — about how it’s reshaped our relationship with buying, and about how it’s reshaping the very elements of our physical world (1 / n)
Thrilled to welcome
@Samanth_S
(senior reporter) and Jordan Lebeau (deputy email editor) to Quartz and to welcome *back*
@royawolverson
(senior reporter).
For the
@gdnlongread
, I wrote a piece about masks, the world's most-coveted commodity. Countries hoard them. Thieves steal them. Prada wants to make them. The stories spilling out of this sector are just bonkers... 1/
For the Guardian's LongReads, I profiled James Martin, the world's foremost forensic art detective; got a chance to nurdle around in his lab; and learned about how the art world is so worried about authenticity that Sotheby's bought Martin up wholesale.
...Madras will miss him terribly. No better way to remember him than by reading and caring about his best-beloved city. Here's the archive: Years and years of Madras Miscellany columns, just waiting to be read. Dive in.
I wrote a
@gdnlongread
about the fascinating science of element analysis—of detecting where a pinch of cotton or tea comes from, based on the levels of strontium or carbon in it.
Along the way, I found murder: the story of a boy found dead in the Thames.
British Twitter: If you (or anyone you know) are interested in longform journalism -- how it works; how, sometimes, it doesn't; how to write it -- the
@guardian
and I are offering a daylong masterclass on May 3.
Sign up / spread the word / retweet!
The photo stands for the fate of India’s minorities: to find being outnumbered a matter of life and death; to cower in perpetual fear; and to know the state will bring no relief, since it’s the state that’s choreographing the fear in the first place.
Every day, in every way, the BJP and its allies are narrowing India - narrowing the space in it for any sort of opinion at all. What a miserable, insecure party of little people; how little joy it must find in India, to be this wretched and hateful.
“In name of freedom of expression, we cannot allow anti-national & anti-religion activities in our city:”
#BajrangDal
’s Surendra Shivharay to
@ZafarAafaq
, after
@iptaindia
cancelled theatre festival in MP, instead of talking to vigilantes, as police asked
Ruchir calls it straight: in a functioning democracy, Modi would be forced to resign.
"...this government never intended to discharge what millions of us regard as its duties."