Weekend Reads

  1. With 2.64 billion passengers every year, the Mumbai suburban railway is a trainwreck, explains Neha Kulkarni in the Indian Express.
  2. Liberals should worry when it becomes reasonable for them to cheer Hindutvavadis on in their internecine squabbles, writes Mukul Kesavan in the Hindu.
  3. Fantastically rising inequality? Piketty has got it wrong, argues SA Aiyer in the Times of India.
  4. In life, as distinct from cricket, one is still best served by playing straight. That Tom Alter always did. He is gone, but memories of him as an actor, speaker, writer, cricketer and friend endure, writes Ramchandra Guha in the Hindustan Times.
  5. From the day Narendra Modi became prime minister, there has been a concerted effort by the commissars who control political commentary to paint him as a fascistic despot who will destroy the so–called idea of India, writes Tavleen Singh in the Indian Express.
  6. Do rural migrants favour class or caste in the city? Contrary to popular belief, migrant populations neither wholly retain nor completely discard their village-based ethnic ties, explains Tariq Thachil in Mint.
  7. In Open, S Prasannarajan explains why liberals are losing the world.
  8. Kazuo Ishiguro: In the Guardian, John Mullen explains why the Nobel prize winner is a novelist for all times.
  9. “Our minds can be hijacked”: Writing in the Guardian, Paul Lewsi talks to the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia.
  10. Kundan Shah (1947-2017): In the Hindu, Namrata Joshi writes the obituary of the man who was master of capturing grace in nonsense.
  11. Did it all begin with a “Big Melt” or a “Big Bang”? Thanu Padmanabhan explores the mysteries of the creation of the universe in Nautilus.