Weekend Reads

  1. The Bharatiya Janata Party started off on a winning wicket in Uttar Pradesh, but now seems down to its tail-enders, says Prashant Jha in the Hindustan Times.
  2. Mohammed Thaver in the Indian Express looks into the story of the Mira Road call centre scams that looted millions of dollars from American citizens.
  3. It isn’t just shady criminals involved in running brothels in India’s big cities. The authorities play a central role in the game, find Anoo Bhuyan, Prachi Pinglay-Plumber and Dola Mitra in Outlook.
  4. “RK Laxman would never stop being disappointed by India,” writes Nakul Krishna in the Caravan. “In a sense, disappointment was his day job.”
  5. Prashant Pandey in the Indian Express gives us a glimpse of a day in the life of an open-cast mine worker in Jharkhand.
  6. Annie Zaidi and Kaveri Gopalakrishnan in Mint offer an illustrated look at what life is like for India’s real wrestlers.
  7. Everyone loves Kerala’s house boats, writes SR Praveen in Blink, but aggressive tourism is endangering the ecosystem.
  8. Maya Palit in the Ladies Finger looks at just how cringe-inducing Kaabil’s storyline is when it comes to treating women. (Spoiler alert).
  9. “You probably know a family that has been wedded to the Armed Forces, where generation after generation unhesitatingly opts for the uniform,” writes Priya Raman in Mint, introducing us to the ”Olive Green” blood group.
  10. “Impetuous and instinctive, convinced of broad but hidden plots to undermine him, eager to fight and prone to what an aide called ‘alternative facts’, President Trump has shown in just days in office that he is like few if any occupants of the White House before him,” writes Peter Baker in the New York Times.