GRIST Media

12 Breeds Of Indian Cows: A Set Of 12 Trading Cards

Why is the Cow a Political Animal?

If you want to understand some of the confusions of modern India, check out the many things the beef debate is today – and how it’s only sometimes about the poor Indian cow.

Why is the Cow a Political Animal?

If you want to understand some of the confusions of modern India, check out the many things the beef debate is today – and how it’s only sometimes about the poor Indian cow.

By Sopan Joshi / On Yahoo! Originals

Why is the Cow a Political Animal?

If you want to understand some of the confusions of modern India, check out the many things the beef debate is today – and how it’s only sometimes about the poor Indian cow.

By Sopan Joshi / On Yahoo! Originals

Why is the Cow a Political Animal?

If you want to understand some of the confusions of modern India, check out the many things the beef debate is today – and how it’s only sometimes about the poor Indian cow.

By Sopan Joshi / On Yahoo! Originals

Why is the Cow a Political Animal?

If you want to understand some of the confusions of modern India, check out the many things the beef debate is today – and how it’s only sometimes about the poor Indian cow.

By Sopan Joshi / On Yahoo! Originals

Everyone has their Pashto cinema story

But only some of us have the deep reserves of courage to tell that story. By Aneela Z Babar

Monty Python was right, no one expects the Spanish Inquisition. But then no one expects to defend Pashtun identity while the camera is zooming in on a woman’s lycra-clad crotch. Such are the travails of our lot. We do fine with a critical analysis of Pashtunwali (the code of “doing” Pashto); it is a state of mind, we explain, a way of life.  Some of us are quite passionate about narrating Badshah Khan’s nuanced reading of political Islam, Pashtunwali and non-violence; also the ties that can bind the three, and how it is such a shame to remember Badshah Khan as Best Runner Up Gandhi-Frontier/Khyber Pakhtunkwa Division. We will debate till the cows (and the Coalition troops) come home over how certain political misadventures on the part of the Pakistani government and Cold War politics are responsible for the bloodshed that plagues the region.

Kushinagar: The place where Buddha died

The town in Uttar Pradesh where the Buddha died is of great significance, but remains relatively unknown. A new graphic book recounts a journey to the historical sites associated with the life of the Buddha, and how in the midst of India’s spiritual collisions the author came face to face with his mortality in Kushinagar.

Who decides how much my Crocin will cost?

A month ago, the government raised the price of 500-odd essential drugs by 3.84 percent. Is it a fair rise, and does it ultimately benefit the consumer? Is controlling the prices of all drugs sold in India – which the government is considering – a good plan? A manufacturer of low-cost drugs explains.

You’d probably make more money in a fixed deposit than a news channel

Wait. No one watches the news? Then why are there so many news channels. The writer of a new book on the industry explains the real reason these channels are launched.

We’ve just heard of another RedInk award coming up for Grist Media, and in the spirit of looking ahead we’d like to announce that we will discontinue Originals on Yahoo India after mid May and explore new avenues of publishing. Things are changing fast in the Indian digital media space, stay tuned!

Grist’s Originals has been a grand run of nearly 400 stories across two years, a space where readers could find mid- to long-form journalism that was not just long but also clear, relevant and stylish. We’re proud to have published on-ground reportage from across the subcontinent and beyond, from Bhubaneswar to Jakarta, from Kabul to Istanbul, from Warsaw to Chennai, from Chhattisgarh to the Andamans, from Manipur to Jharkhand. Alongside, we’ve also published a thick clutch of experiential personal essays, specially commissioned photography, artwork and fiction, lightly embroidered non-fiction, and even produced a short film. We’re particularly proud of our immersive and investigative reports in the areas of gender and sexual violence.

Our clutch of honours so far have included several RedInk awards, a Laadli award, two Kurt Schork Awards in International Journalism, and a finalist for the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist from the Developing World Award. Our writers have charged across the country, the culture and sometimes themselves (sometimes with juice). Their work has also slayed us with happy-happy when it’s got them book deals, newspaper columns, invitations to public forums and soulful emails from readers.

We’d like to again thank Yahoo India’s former Managing Editor Prem Panicker (who started this whole thing rolling), Executive Editor Shishir Bhate and their whole team for being such sharp and cheerful collaborators. And we will continue working with our restless troupe of independent reporters, writers and photographers on The Ladies Finger and other upcoming initiatives.

Looking forward to more storytelling, more grist.

How Reliable is the World’s Most Influential Business Consultant?

Ram Charan has worked ascetically for almost half a century consulting with top CEOs and businesses across the world. He claims to live in planes and hotels and own a house only for tax reasons. But as a writer of case studies, Charan has left the historical record poorer without a sense of how businesses deal with corruption and politics. His public analyses are usually simplistic, reducing complex corporate stories to tales of thrilling heroes who succeeded because they did something.

The Extraordinary Network Across India That’s Helping Restore Our Film Heritage, One Trashed Reel At A Time

From Alam Ara to Black Friday, from Paanch to Thalapathi, the list of Indian films whose prints have been lost is long. Not only have we lost almost 80 percent of our films made before 1964, we continue to lose recent ones too. But there are some extraordinary efforts now underway to hunt and restore these films, some of which involve the very people who used to destroy these prints for profit.

Kamila Shamsie’s 10 Favourite Books

Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino

Jazz, Toni Morrison

In the Skin of a Lion, Michael Ondaatje

The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje

Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie

To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf

War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson

Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

Meatless Days, Sara Suleri

From the essay How I Began To Read – My discovery of reading and the books that inspired me, By Kamila Shamsie