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Jan 13, 2025 | 
hindustantimes.com | Chintan Girish Modi
Thoughtful programming and warm hospitality marked the event that was held over two bracing November days at the Abbotsford Estate in Nainital Literature festivals often do a good job of feeding the mind but they can leave the heart famished. This happens especially when there is a lot of input but too little time to process it all. It then seems like everyone wants to deliver their spiel without taking a breath to just listen, feel, soak in, and let things unfold.
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Jan 10, 2025 | 
hindustantimes.com | Chintan Girish Modi
Delhi may have been declared unlivable by those who can afford to escape, but, for those who have to stay on, respite comes in the form of the city’s gardens. A new coffee table book titled Gardens of Delhi, written by sisters Swapna Liddle and Madhulika Liddle, chronicles 14 of them. Swapna is a historian who leads heritage walks in Delhi and volunteers with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage to advocate for the urgent need to preserve the city’s historic sites.
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Dec 10, 2024 | 
hindustantimes.com | Chintan Girish Modi
How did you feel when you were announced as the winner of this year’s Shakti Bhatt Prize? What did you do to celebrate this special moment? I truly feel humbled and honoured to be chosen from among so many renowned writers in India. I understand that the distinguished writers at the Shakti Bhatt Foundation do their own research and selection. The honour is all the sweeter for that reason.
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Dec 4, 2024 | 
hindustantimes.com | Chintan Girish Modi
That Bhutan is eager to present itself as a forward-looking country that embraces modernity even as it retains a sense of pride in its unique cultural traditions was evident at the Bhutan Innovation Forum held at Dungkar Dzong in Pangbisa, Paro, in early October.
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Nov 27, 2024 | 
hindustantimes.com | Chintan Girish Modi
Jodhpur RIFF coincides with Sharad Poornima every year. Could you talk about the importance of this festival in Rajasthan, and for the royal family in particular? The tradition of celebrating Sharad Poornima has been in existence for a long time now. We also have miniature paintings of Sharad Poornima being celebrated at the Mehrangarh Fort, with men wearing white and ladies dressed up in pink.
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Nov 22, 2024 | 
hindustantimes.com | Chintan Girish Modi
What made you write a book that blends your experiences as a queer, non-binary person with Supreme Court proceedings in the marriage equality case (also known as Supriyo Chakraborty v Union of India), for which you were part of the legal team? The underlying presumption is that the law operates in a neutral fashion, as lofty ideals or formulaic principles that have to be applied to a given set of facts. But much of the law is hardly that.
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Nov 15, 2024 | 
hindustantimes.com | Chintan Girish Modi
If you are in the mood for a children’s picture book that talks about poverty in a thoughtful and direct manner and through the lens of social justice, Poor Economics for Kids deserves to be at the top of your to-be-read pile. Sensitively written by Nobel laureate Esther Duflo and joyfully illustrated by Cheyenne Olivier, it breaks down complex concepts without ever talking down to the reader. It is engaging at various levels – intellectual, emotional and visual.
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Nov 7, 2024 | 
thehindu.com | Chintan Girish Modi
It’s not often that you walk into an art exhibition and are greeted with tasting stations of ker ka achaar, rabodi and mangodi — instead of the usual wine and cheese. Ker, guests found out, is a desert berry, the papad-like rabodi is made with maize flour, yoghurt and spices (often cooked as a sabzi when fresh vegetables are in short supply), and mangodi is a condiment made of sun-dried ground lentils. Researcher Dipali Khandelwal’s pop-up museum at the Jodhpur Arts Week was immersive.
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Nov 7, 2024 | 
thehindu.com | Chintan Girish Modi
Three years after legendary architect Didi Contractor passed away, her student Lakshmi Swaminathan offers guru dakshina in the form of A Call to Return, a book celebrating her mentor who built with mud, stone, bamboo, slate, rice husk, cow dung and wood from deodar trees. Didi, who was raised as Delia by a German father and an American mother, had no formal training in architecture but she studied art and worked in theatre.
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Nov 4, 2024 | 
hindustantimes.com | Chintan Girish Modi
What was your earliest exposure to music like? Before becoming a musician, I was a dancer. To be a good musician, you have to be a good dancer. I think that these things go hand in hand. It was around the age of seven that I started dancing. I started performing on stage when I was 14. By this time, my brother was already deeply into music. In fact, everybody in my family likes to sing so I too have been singing since I was a child. But nobody at home pursued it as a professional career. I did.
