Roshni Nair

They walk in beauty: A peek at India’s lesser-known pageants

Did you know there was a Mr & Miss Wheelchair India, a Mrs India Home Makers, and a Miss Himalaya? Meet the winners and organisers of beauty contests you didn’t know existed.

#Bollywood: The Hindi family film is finally being honest about sex

From sperm donors to erectile dysfunction and women with raw desire, there’s less hypocrisy and more real romance on-screen.

Meet the extreme SRK, Salman, Vijay, Ajith fans behind rabid tweets and hashtags

Why do they turn so viciously on ’haters’, launch personal attacks on critics? One troll puts it like this: ‘Twitter is a jungle, animals everywhere. To survive, you have to hunt them.’

‘Indecent obsessions’: A peek into life as a kleptomaniac, compulsive liar

As friends desert you and family stays away, it can be a lonely battle for those compelled to take things, tell lies.

Don’t ignore the silent killer. Find ways to beat the stress you’re feeling

An eight-city study has found that most people suffer from some degree of stress, and how they deal with it makes all the difference.

In The End: This weekend, catch a tribute to Linkin Park

Anthracite will perform songs from six of the band’s albums, in memory of Chester Bennington.

I was in jail for 12 years for nothing: A graphic retelling of prison horror

This is the story of Aparajita Basu who was arrested in 2000 on charges of murdering her husband.

Tales from former inmates: What life is like in a women’s jail in India

Most jails for women are just a room or two in a men’s prison. Food rations are smaller, infrastructure is poorer. A recent riot following a custodial death was triggered by five missing pieces of bread and two eggs.

Mumbai, exercise is good for getting fitter, but excess is bad

Different diets to lose weight faster, going that extra mile to get fitter or following someone else’s methods are all things you must not do

Pealing laughter, healing hands: How volunteers bring cheer to patients

From ‘Clownseling’ to palliative care, hospital helpers are giving the sick and despairing something to look forward to.

All that jazz: Bringing the swinging Sixties back to Mumbai

In its first edition, the Zizieland Jazz Festival pays tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and The Rat Pack.

Where are you really from? An art show traces the history of migration

Explore the ‘loop’ between Mumbai and villages in the Konkan through photographs, installations and renderings, at an exhibition titled Mumbai Return.

Heard that song before? Meet some of India’s coolest tribute bands

They tend to be looked down upon by makers of ‘original music’. But it takes a certain kind of dedication to forever play a playlist that’s not your own.

Shalom, Bollywood: Resurrecting the Jewish heritage of Hindi cinema

An Australian professor, Danny Ben-Moshe, is working on a documentary on the forgotten Indian Jews who left their mark on the world’s largest film industry

I lived for two weeks in a rainforest in the Western Ghats. Here’s what it was like

An HT writer signed up as a volunteer at India’s only rainforest research station, situated deep within the Western Ghats in a region called Agumbe. It was like nothing she had ever done before.

YouTube sensation Penn Masala will perform in Mumbai on May 20

Penn Masala will sing at a mall in Mumbai as part of their India tour, celebrating a new album and 10 years since they debuted as the world’s first south Asian A capella group.

Hoppipola? PapaCream? Why do some Mumbai eateries have such quirky names?

Seven restaurateurs reveal the secrets and coded messages behind their name plates.

The truth is out there: Tales from India’s UFO investigators

Lights in the sky, levitating beings, hard science vs conjecture: Meet the guys trying to sift the crazies from the true witnesses in their search for unidentified flying objects.

Bogie men: Meet the foot soldiers of the Indian Railways

Track maintainers or gangmen walk miles, often carrying heavy equipment, and risk their lives to keep your trains on track. These are their stories.

Going, going, gone…Christie’s backs out of live auctions in India

The decision to end the live auctions in Mumbai is part of a bigger and broader decision taken for Christie’s worldwide

Yale, Juilliard musicians to perform in Mumbai for the first time

The Yale Schola Cantorum will perform choral music from as far back as the 15th century, while the New York-based Juilliard415 will perform on 400-year-old Baroque-era instruments.

SRK’s back in Darr 2, Kahaani’s Bob Biswas has a mom: How fans are rewriting film endings

In the world of Bollywood fan fiction, anything is possible. Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone can get together again, you can merge Lord of the Rings with Dil. Meet the fans who are rewriting the endings of their favourite films.

Food for thought: Restaurant trends that need to go

From ridiculous plating to unimaginative interiors, four food lovers call out the Indian restaurant scene on trends they want done away with.

What are you doing on Valentine’s Day? Bet you can’t beat the mosquito

There’s a lot of fancy wooing in the animal kingdom. Fireflies flash their lights in code, mosquitoes sing ‘songs’, and male balloon flies even offer gift-wrapped tokens to their lady love

HT Kala Ghoda Arts Festival: Experiencing music that transcends God, religion

The event was organised as part of the LIC Music Festival co-powered by Fox Life, and hosted by Fever 104 FM RJ Karan Singh.

Chances are, a child you know is using drugs...

A first-ever nationwide survey on drug abuse in children has found that the average age of initiation is 12.

New podcast to highlight India’s political issues

A Brit is offering a guided walk through Indian history, via podcast

Kit Patrick’s ‘bumbling historian’ persona and intriguing snapshots of guilds and battles has a cult following.

Take the plunge: Bring in the new year with new adventure sports

Be a daredevil or a (very low-slung) rope, try bubble soccer, or take a ride on a swoop swing.

Planning a detox diet in the new year? Beware of the side-effects

Quite a few fad diets have been trending in 2016, but do you know what they’re really doing to your health?