Over the past fortnight or so, I watched three new films that could not have been more different—Michael, The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Project Hail Mary—and yet each was entertaining and thought-provoking in its own way, with Michael and Project Hail Mary being visually stunning as well. They were the kind of films that stay with you long after you leave the theatre. The best films—including the lesser-known but equally good ones—always offer something to think about and talk

I can never guess the culprit in Agatha Christie novels until Hercule Poirot lays it all out at the end. Likewise, I didn’t see the twists coming in The Silent Patient (2019), even if at times they might have seemed obvious. Just not to me. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention; so absorbed was I in this cleverly crafted psychological thriller. Alex Michaelides’ debut novel, to use a cliché, pulls you in from the start with an unsettling theme: thirty-three-year-old Alicia Berenson

Last month, I finally did the inevitable. I went to an optometrist—rather my wife took me to one—to get my eyes checked. I’d been squinting for a while but refusing to acknowledge the obvious. I wasn’t happy, of course. Up until that day, I’d been resisting the visit because I wanted to go without glasses till I turned sixty, which was only seven months away, and boast about it. Now, I was left with a humbling: “I was almost sixty when I got my first glasses.” I suppose I cou

Whatever we do, we hope for happy endings and new beginnings. It was a sentiment my family and I shared when we moved house for the first time in decades, from the suburbs of Mumbai to the city side. The move, late last year, was inevitable but not unanticipated: our apartment block was going to be rebuilt. We respond to most changes in the course of life with apprehension and excitement in more or less equal measure. Relocating to another home miles away from our comfort

Not everything that happens in a year is breaking news or makes headlines. That doesn’t make these other stories less interesting. They just go unnoticed if we aren’t paying attention. 2025 had plenty of the second kind—nothing newsy or heavy, just moments that didn’t trend for long, but somehow felt good, relevant and insightful. These are some of the uplifting global news stories from 2025 that you may have missed—stories that remind us that good things are still happenin

We live in a time when everyone seems to be rushing past one another, texting on their phones, chasing deadlines and targets or caught up in the rat race with little or no time to spend with family and friends, the company of people—even if they are total strangers—can be a pleasant and unexpected change. Picture this. One evening, at a restaurant in Bandra, a group of people from mixed backgrounds and probably little in common arrive one by one and share a table with so

We all want to feel happy. We want joy in our everyday lives. But we often look for it in big moments, when it can be found in simple, everyday routines. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to find joy even in small, ordinary things and to hold on to them for as long as we like. While these ideas aren’t new, they remind us how we can live a contented life and how much of our happiness is in our own hands. Make time to meet people, which means stepping out of your comfort zone

There are days when nothing feels right, when things seem a little too much or even overwhelming, and we need a gentle nudge to remind us that hope and joy still exist. At such times we either want to be left alone, waiting for the feeling to pass, perhaps taking long, brisk walks to shake off the gloom, or we reach out to close family and friends. And sometimes, we turn to books, movies and music. Books aside, movies can feel like friends too—stepping in with vivid character

None of these stories or parables are new. They have been told and retold countless times, yet they never lose their moral appeal. Inspired and adapted from Zen, Sufi and other tales of the wise, they’re simple and uplifting, carrying timeless insights passed down through the ages. Perhaps that’s why they still resonate with readers: the world keeps changing, but wisdom never loses its power to inspire humans to live ethical, meaningful and compassionate lives. Why are y

I learnt to read time back in elementary school, as I’m sure most of us did. If I remember correctly, it took me less than an hour to master the big hand, the small hand and the seconds hand, and how they worked together to tell the hours, minutes and seconds. It was only when I grew up that I realised there was more to glancing at the clock and telling the time in a split second. I soon found out that time is one of the most deceptive things in life. One moment, the second