The Fractured Image

What is the price of fame? Incessant travel, for one. Constant tension over the fickle media, for another. Smiling all the time in public, posing for photos with strangers, suffering autograph hunters, being surrounded, squeezed out of breathing space. Does all this bother A. Hariharan, the south Indian singer who’s made it big in the […]

Ghazal singers have become the new cultural celebrities in India. They sing to packed houses, their programmes are very popular on television, and their records sell better than many Hindi film records. Why have they suddenly become so popular? ROHINI SOMAN investigates.

In these dark times, there is no harm in easing up with some sharp humour. Like the coronavirus, humour is infectious, but can spread much needed joy. The world over, social media is lighting up with witty memes around the pandemic. Bumbling politicians have been prime targets, and especially President Donald Trump. “Calm down, everyone,” […]

Born Godavari Ketkar, at the turn of the 20th century, she spent her childhood in the sylvan surroundings of the Gwalior palace, as her father was an ambassador to the maharaja’s court. She spoke of going to the little local school in deer carriages. The beautiful young Goda came to Belgaum at the age of […]