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1 week ago | 
theweek.in | Philip Mathew
LASTING CHANGE OFTEN comes without fanfare. Like a running stream cutting into rock, like a sliver of water becoming a river. This week’s cover marks a historic moment for us as a nation, as the first batch of women officers graduate from the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla. To be recognised as a barrister, Cornelia Sorabji had to wait 26 years after passing the exam. She became India’s first female lawyer in 1923.
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2 weeks ago | 
theweek.in | Philip Mathew
HAVE YOU RECEIVED calls or emails about being the winner of a lottery or the beneficiary in some unknown person’s will? I know of a lady who got a call about a windfall. She rang up her son, an editor with THE WEEK, to tell him the good news. His answer: “Amma, in a world where no one gives us a cup of coffee for free, who would bequeath millions to you or me?” Simple logic. With lakhs of Indians being swindled of their hard-earned money, this cover story was waiting to be done.
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3 weeks ago | 
theweek.in | Philip Mathew
RECIPES AND DIPLOMATIC notes often confuse me. The language is only for practitioners and not for the public. And when you understand the language, you realise that some things are not as grand as they sound. Mulligatawny soup is an example. Nine times out of ten, it has tasted like the humble and wholesome pepper rasam to me. Gourmets may haul me over the coals for saying this. Diplomatese does the same.
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4 weeks ago | 
theweek.in | Philip Mathew
FOR TODAY’S YOUTH, war seems like a distant event. But some of us remember well the horrors of 1962, 1971 and 1999. The moment the Union government announced safety drills, my mind wandered to those days of blackouts and black paper over window panes. In the cover story, we look at Operation Sindoor, the thought that went into it and what could follow. The optics were beautifully managed, and I believe that it is as important as the operation itself.
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1 month ago | 
theweek.in | Philip Mathew
IN THIS AGE, wars will not happen. And if they do occur, they will not be long. And if they are long, they will not have conventional or set-piece scenarios. Tanks are obsolete. Aircraft carriers became obsolete yesterday. Who needs planes when we have drones? Drones on land. In the water. In the air. Cardboard drones, didn’t you hear? I am just telling you all the predictions about the modern battlefield that I have heard in the recent past.
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1 month ago | 
theweek.in | Philip Mathew
THE SKY OUTSIDE MY WINDOW is overcast at the height of a muggy Kochi summer. But the rain has been playing coy. All colours are washed out thanks to the glowering sky, leaving pale imitations behind. I feel like I am at a house that death has visited. And I am standing at the door with a heavy heart and an empty mouth, with no words to console anyone or even to describe the grief that sits heavy on us all. Only water separates me from the horror that defiled Baisaran, near Pahalgam, yesterday.
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1 month ago | 
theweek.in | Philip Mathew
THE WORD XENNIAL HAS COMPLETED one decade of existence. The credit for birthing the word goes to journalist Susan Stankorb. The word is defined as “a micro-generation that serves as a bridge between the disaffection of Gen X and the blithe optimism of millennials”. One of the places where this generation and the generational shift are seen is in newsrooms. I remember a period of transition when THE WEEK’s desk did not have a computer per subeditor.
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1 month ago | 
theweek.in | Philip Mathew
HOW CAN ONE NOT WEEP after reading Souri Raju’s statement? The fifth-generation gravedigger and state secretary of the graveyard workers’ association in Karnataka told Senior Special Correspondent Prathima Nandakumar, “We grew up eating rice sprinkled on cemeteries and have come to realise that we carry nothing with us when we leave this world.”In that statement, he unintentionally points a finger at policy makers, and you and me, dear reader.
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2 months ago | 
theweek.in | Philip Mathew
THE IMAGE SERVICES of wire agencies like AP, AFP and Reuters give journalists a window into unseen worlds. Only a minuscule sampling of their daily offering reaches you, dear reader. While some images are stunning or unexpected, an equal number are predictable and pedestrian. For example, think of natural water bodies in metros, and I can right away predict two series that will come up in June and in October-November.
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2 months ago | 
theweek.in | Philip Mathew
MORE THAN ABOUT THE ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha’s article spoke to me about the interconnectedness of the world. And how everyone gets hurt in some way or another when the world becomes unquiet. The ‘butterfly effect’ speaks of one small change in an area triggering drastic changes in another, despite the sectors being unconnected. An example cited by Sybiha is about how Ukraine played a crucial part in helping develop ISRO’s semi-cryogenic engine, the SCE-200.
