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Good News: Sustainability on Track, A Sisterhood in the Wild, and More

Heartwarming, world-shaking, awe-inspiring and straight-up happy making reasons to smile
Parsees, Attributed to William Johnson, Silver albumen print from wet collodion glass negative mounted on card; All photos courtesy of DAG, Delhi
Culturescape

How Colonial India Was Photographed, Classified and 'Typecast'

Through rare ethnographic photographs, the DAG exhibition Typecasting: Photographing the Peoples of India 1855–1920, examines how the British colonial project turned India’s immense diversity into rigid visual 'types'—and why those images continue to resonate today.

Illustration by Andy Potts
Features

A Sitcom Writer's (Reluctant) Trip to the Titanic

In 2023, the submersible Titan imploded on its way to view the famous sunken ocean liner. A year earlier, our author—a sitcom writer—took the same trip. Here’s what he saw

Photo Courtesy: Adobe Stock
Conversations

The Case for Curiosity

Two trivia enthusiasts explore how wonder fades with age—and why asking questions might be the key to finding it again

Illustration by Sarah McMenemy
Conversations

The Strange Mathematics of Speaking Six Languages

A language lover gets put through the paces.

Culturescape

Narayani Basu's 10 Favourite Books of all Time

Historian and foreign policy analyst, Narayani Basu is the author of the critically acclaimed biography V. P. Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India (2020) and Allegiance: Azaadi and the End of Empire (2022). Her most recent release is A Man For All Seasons: The Life Of K. M. Panikkar.

PHOTO: india today archive
Features

The Cult of Amitabh, A Glimpse into the Making of an Indian Icon

An early-career profile of the India’s most beloved and enduring film actor whose following still verges on the incredible. From RD's April 1981 edition

Loop Images/Contributor/Getty Images
Features

Syros: Greece's Gift to the World

The Aegean island is eager to welcome visitors—but on its own terms.

Chand Baori, a 9th century stepwell in Abhaneri, Rajasthan. Photo: Adobe Stock
True Stories

Good News: Stepwell Revivals, The World is Smoking Less, and More

Heartwarming, world-shaking, awe-inspiring and straight-up happy-making reasons to smile

Adrift On An Endless Sea
True Stories

Adrift On An Endless Sea

When the current swept Nathan and Kim Maker far from their dive boat, all they had was each other.

Old Ben Franklin and His Miserable Maxims
Features

Old Ben Franklin and His Miserable Maxims

This delightful—and virtually unknown—spoof was written by one of America’s greatest humorists. Can you guess who?

The Cat Who brought a Community Together
True Stories

The Cat Who brought a Community Together

How one friendly feline turned a street of strangers into a family

Love Amid Danger: When Villagers Protected Five Indian POWs from German Soldiers during WWII
Features

Love Amid Danger: When Villagers Protected Five Indian POWs from German Soldiers during WWII

The little-known story of five Indian soldiers who escaped from a World War II German camp, and the strangers in an Italian village who risked their lives to keep them safe

Before the Camera: How Patna Qalam Captured Everyday India
Culturescape

Before the Camera: How Patna Qalam Captured Everyday India

Once carried to Britain as souvenirs, Patna Qalam paintings captured daily 18th-century life in India with rare tenderness. An recent exhibition in Patna revived this art tradition on home ground