Butchers of Sopore and Birmingham

Nine years of calm before icy storm

Kashmir turns crimson with blood of Pandits

AN UN-ISLAMIC KIDNAPPING AND CHAOS IN THE VALLEY

The illusion of azaadi and Kashmir’s historic deception

How Pak's terror policy evolved in Kashmir

Birth of social media jihadists, death of Article-370

Operation Sindoor: When Indian missiles rained on Pak terror parade

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<p><strong>ANUJA CHAUHAN</strong></p><p>Self-isolation is my natural state. I was an early believer in JOMO (the joy of missing out) and I love being alone with my thoughts. As a writer, I alternate between two states, writing and lying fallow. Fallow times are more social, when you go out into the larger world and mingle with other folk to gather life&rsquo;, as Vikram Seth once said, and writing times are when you hunker down in your cave and hammer away with all your heart and soul. Both phases are equally important to keep the writing rich, informed and free-flowing.</p><p><strong>MEENA KANDASAMY</strong></p><p>To be honest and frank, I&rsquo;ve not written a single line since the lockdown happened here. Even more shameful, I cannot find the headspace to finish reading 10 pages. Part of it is the anxiety of the news cycle, this quarantine, this virus, these limitless deaths, these will leave a lasting impact on our generation. Part of my own inability to be productive is the self-introspection that accompanies writing. Is this relevant at all? What&rsquo;s the point? I think this current period is different from, say, being on a residency, or a writing break, because those are situations you have planned and are hence welcome. Right now, navigating the everyday (children, food) is much more problematic and urgent, and requires my attention more than writing.</p><div class="itemcenter"><amp-iframe height="62" title="" width="320" sandbox="allow-forms allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-top-navigation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" allowfullscreen src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Findiatoday%2Fbanner%2Fpreferred-source-new.html%3Fv%3D1.014%5Cu0026native%3D1" class="mrBt15 preferred-source-banner"> </amp-iframe></div></p><p><strong>SHOBHAA DE</strong></p><p>I love chaos and mayhem. Isolation disorients me. I need people and madness around me. I don&rsquo;t get isolation. I am a social animal. My writing thrives on noise, conversations, interactions. During this lockdown, I am reconciling myself to the eerie stillness. I am unaccustomed to the quiet. I long for bedlam. But deadlines are deadlines and I am coping somehow. I&rsquo;m writing at my usual frenzied pace, despite the silence outside. I would like to tell people who are in isolation: Listen to your inner music. Create your own opera. Sing an aria. Dance!</p><p><strong>SHEHAN KARUNATILAKA</strong></p><p>Both my wife and I work from home, so this is nothing new. I work mornings, she does afternoons, and we share the kid-related chores. I&rsquo;ve actually been quite productive these past few weeks of the lockdown. Not having to leave the house means more time for reading, movies, playing with the kids and getting writing done. But we&rsquo;re all suffering from cabin fever, so some days are better than others. Sealing off from the world is the easy part, though. Silencing the voices in your head proves more challenging. Meditation helps. As does wine.</p><p><strong>AMIT CHAUDHURI</strong></p><p>I&rsquo;m an anti-isolation kind of person. I live in England part of the year, but the relative silence there is uncongenial to me on a fundamental level. When I need to really focus, I shut myself in a room. But I prefer to be distracted by sounds and presences. Ordinarily, complete solitude isn&rsquo;t, for me, conducive to creativity, because I like being caught unawares by what&rsquo;s around me. Having said that, the mind can find new thoughts and ways of thinking in response to the unprecedented. No one has ever seen a universal lockdown before. I&rsquo;ve been thinking about what touching and proximity and the desire for these things mean. These thoughts might be the beginning of a creative response. I&rsquo;m also reminded, quite sharply, that there are diseases in the world other than Covid-19, many of them more dangerous. Threats are a constant, they continue to take life and cause pain. Our exclusive focus on the coronavirus shouldn&rsquo;t suddenly numb us to the various forms of suffering, death and disease that exist around us at this moment. It&rsquo;s important today to follow the regime but keep a sense of distance intact: to let our powers of observation and humour remain.</p><p><strong>MAHESH RAO</strong></p><p>Isolation is important for me under normal circumstances, both while writing and during the muddled, meandering periods that precede it. I live on my own, so it has never been a problem. Now, I may be better prepared than others who, perhaps, have never worked from home and am certainly luckier than anyone who has the added pressure of looking after children or other dependants. But this extraordinary situation makes you want to walk for miles, linger over any mundane outside chore, regain some small modicum of your former freedom. In terms of writing, there may be a strange compulsion to make sense of all this immediately and to write about it. But often it&rsquo;s better to wait.</p><p><strong>K.R. MEERA</strong></p><p>I don&rsquo;t like people around me when I write. Whenever I have to write a long piece, I will run away from home. The current isolation doesn&rsquo;t make any difference, as I am in the last lap of a novel and in the middle of another one, which means I am more occupied than ever. If I were not a lover of solitude, I would use this time to work out with my family members and fall asleep reading a book or watching a film. It is a wonderful time to clean the house, filter out the old and non-usable things.</p><p><strong>AMISH</strong></p><p>I used to take writing breaks where I would travel to a place to be by myself and write full-time. But that&rsquo;s not something that is a necessary&rsquo; condition to write. I can write anywhere. I&rsquo;m not the most social person around. I didn&rsquo;t really party much in India. In fact, one of the challenges of my present diplomatic role in London is that I am expected to socialise. So no, I am not really complaining about the isolation.</p><div class="itgimage"><amp-img src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fimages%2Fbodyeditor%2F202004%2FLeisure-Apr13-2_770x433-x433.jpg%3FtBjHdMBDWVxC5n4.0X0T92YxUtZZ2ecM%3Fsize%3D750:*" alt="" height="433" width="770" class="" layout="responsive"></amp-img>
<div class="body_caption"> </div>
</div><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Iram Ara Ibrahim</div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Apr 4, 2020</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div>

leisure

Leisure

<p><strong>ANUJA CHAUHAN</strong></p><p>Self-isolation is my natural state. I was an early believer in JOMO (the joy of missing out) and I love being alone with my thoughts. As a writer, I alternate between two states, writing and lying fallow. Fallow times are more social, when you go out into the larger world and mingle with other folk to gather life&rsquo;, as Vikram Seth once said, and writing times are when you hunker down in your cave and hammer away with all your heart and soul. Both phases are equally important to keep the writing rich, informed and free-flowing.</p><p><strong>MEENA KANDASAMY</strong></p><p>To be honest and frank, I&rsquo;ve not written a single line since the lockdown happened here. Even more shameful, I cannot find the headspace to finish reading 10 pages. Part of it is the anxiety of the news cycle, this quarantine, this virus, these limitless deaths, these will leave a lasting impact on our generation. Part of my own inability to be productive is the self-introspection that accompanies writing. Is this relevant at all? What&rsquo;s the point? I think this current period is different from, say, being on a residency, or a writing break, because those are situations you have planned and are hence welcome. Right now, navigating the everyday (children, food) is much more problematic and urgent, and requires my attention more than writing.</p><div class="itemcenter"><iframe scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="62" awidth="320" aheight="62" amplayout="fixed" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Findiatoday%2Fbanner%2Fpreferred-source-new.html%3Fv%3D1.014" class="preferred-source-banner" loading="lazy"></iframe></div><style>.preferred-source-banner{  margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}</style></p><p><strong>SHOBHAA DE</strong></p><p>I love chaos and mayhem. Isolation disorients me. I need people and madness around me. I don&rsquo;t get isolation. I am a social animal. My writing thrives on noise, conversations, interactions. During this lockdown, I am reconciling myself to the eerie stillness. I am unaccustomed to the quiet. I long for bedlam. But deadlines are deadlines and I am coping somehow. I&rsquo;m writing at my usual frenzied pace, despite the silence outside. I would like to tell people who are in isolation: Listen to your inner music. Create your own opera. Sing an aria. Dance!</p><p><strong>SHEHAN KARUNATILAKA</strong></p><p>Both my wife and I work from home, so this is nothing new. I work mornings, she does afternoons, and we share the kid-related chores. I&rsquo;ve actually been quite productive these past few weeks of the lockdown. Not having to leave the house means more time for reading, movies, playing with the kids and getting writing done. But we&rsquo;re all suffering from cabin fever, so some days are better than others. Sealing off from the world is the easy part, though. Silencing the voices in your head proves more challenging. Meditation helps. As does wine.</p><p><strong>AMIT CHAUDHURI</strong></p><p>I&rsquo;m an anti-isolation kind of person. I live in England part of the year, but the relative silence there is uncongenial to me on a fundamental level. When I need to really focus, I shut myself in a room. But I prefer to be distracted by sounds and presences. Ordinarily, complete solitude isn&rsquo;t, for me, conducive to creativity, because I like being caught unawares by what&rsquo;s around me. Having said that, the mind can find new thoughts and ways of thinking in response to the unprecedented. No one has ever seen a universal lockdown before. I&rsquo;ve been thinking about what touching and proximity and the desire for these things mean. These thoughts might be the beginning of a creative response. I&rsquo;m also reminded, quite sharply, that there are diseases in the world other than Covid-19, many of them more dangerous. Threats are a constant, they continue to take life and cause pain. Our exclusive focus on the coronavirus shouldn&rsquo;t suddenly numb us to the various forms of suffering, death and disease that exist around us at this moment. It&rsquo;s important today to follow the regime but keep a sense of distance intact: to let our powers of observation and humour remain.</p><p><strong>MAHESH RAO</strong></p><p>Isolation is important for me under normal circumstances, both while writing and during the muddled, meandering periods that precede it. I live on my own, so it has never been a problem. Now, I may be better prepared than others who, perhaps, have never worked from home and am certainly luckier than anyone who has the added pressure of looking after children or other dependants. But this extraordinary situation makes you want to walk for miles, linger over any mundane outside chore, regain some small modicum of your former freedom. In terms of writing, there may be a strange compulsion to make sense of all this immediately and to write about it. But often it&rsquo;s better to wait.</p><p><strong>K.R. MEERA</strong></p><p>I don&rsquo;t like people around me when I write. Whenever I have to write a long piece, I will run away from home. The current isolation doesn&rsquo;t make any difference, as I am in the last lap of a novel and in the middle of another one, which means I am more occupied than ever. If I were not a lover of solitude, I would use this time to work out with my family members and fall asleep reading a book or watching a film. It is a wonderful time to clean the house, filter out the old and non-usable things.</p><p><strong>AMISH</strong></p><p>I used to take writing breaks where I would travel to a place to be by myself and write full-time. But that&rsquo;s not something that is a necessary&rsquo; condition to write. I can write anywhere. I&rsquo;m not the most social person around. I didn&rsquo;t really party much in India. In fact, one of the challenges of my present diplomatic role in London is that I am expected to socialise. So no, I am not really complaining about the isolation.</p><div class="itgimage"><div class="itgimage"><img  height="433"  title=""  width="770"  class="" alt="" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Findiatoday%2Fimages%2Fbodyeditor%2F202004%2FLeisure-Apr13-2_770x433-x433.jpg%3FtBjHdMBDWVxC5n4.0X0T92YxUtZZ2ecM%3Fsize%3D750:*" loading="lazy" /></div>
<div class="body_caption"> </div>
</div><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Iram Ara Ibrahim</div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Apr 4, 2020</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div>

Writers are used to solitude. In these unprecedented times, these isolation experts offer advice, telling us how they are coping with the lockdown.

India Today

Writing in isolation - India Today

Writing in isolation

DMK MP Kanimozhi shared a photo of Chennai Park Town railway station signage, accusing the Centre of replacing English boards with Hindi and reiterating the party’s opposition to what it calls language imposition.

Karur tragedy: DMK MP Kanimozhi urges political parties to prioritise safety, support grieving families, and ensure accountability for lives lost

Kanimozhi

Won't stop opposing: Kanimozhi flags Hindi signage at Chennai railway station

After creating waves globally, Ranveer Singh's 'Dhurandhar' is streaming on OTT. However, fans are quite disappointed with Netflix as the platform muted and censored certain scenes of the 'A' rated film.

Ranveer Singh's 'Dhurandhar' scenes muted, censored on OTT

Ranveer Singh

Dhurandhar on OTT: Fans upset as Netflix censors, mutes scenes of Ranveer's film

Apple has released its latest quarterly earnings, revealing that the company hit record profits after the launch of the iPhone 17 series. CEO Tim Cook has revealed that the company now has over 2.5 billion active devices globally. Here are all the details from the company’s latest earnings call.

apple-184627749-16x9.jpg

Apple posts record revenue before AI Siri launch, driven by iPhone 17 sales

Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman will join international and political figures at the Kennedy Center for the premiere of Melania, a documentary on Melania Trump.

AR Rahman

AR Rahman among global guests at Melania Trump documentary premiere in the US

Border 2 delivers the emotional certainty that audiences expect from a war film. But when the dust settles, it raises a larger question about what Hindi war cinema chooses to explore and what it leaves untouched.

Ahaan Shetty, Varun Dhawan, Sunny Deol

Border 2 beyond emotional weight: When familiar tropes fight the war

Play Time!

Donald Trump

Ajit Pawar

Arijit Singh

PM Modi

Budget 2026

Border 2

Dhurandhar

Sunetra Pawar

Tariffs

Iran

WPL 2026

T20 World Cup

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would win 352 seats if the Lok Sabha elections were held today, INDIA bloc 182 seats and others nine seats, according to the India Today-CVoter Mood of the Nation survey.

NDA would win 352 seats if Lok Sabha polls were held today: Mood of the Nation poll

Bands of the Army, Navy, and Air Force and paramilitary enthralled the audiences with an array of foot-tapping melodies, including 'Vande Mataram', 'Kadam Kadam Badhaye Ja', 'Vijay Bharat', 'Sitare Hind' and 'Brave Warrior', at the Beating Retreat ceremony at Delhi's Vijay Chowk on Thursday.

Beating Retreat ceremony: Military bands regale audience with foot-tapping melodies

In this report, the focus is on the high-level meeting between Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi. The meeting aimed to address speculations regarding a rebellion and internal friction within the Kerala Congress unit. Speaking after the marathon session, Shashi Tharoor stated, 'The discussion with my two party leaders, the LOP and the Congress President and we had a very good, constructive, positive discussion.' He emphasized that the party is moving forward on the same page, dismissing rumors of a fallout. Tharoor, the MP from Thiruvananthapuram, confirmed he would continue to campaign for the party alongside the state leadership. The Congress leadership has reportedly stepped in to ensure unity ahead of upcoming elections, describing Tharoor as an asset to the party. The discussion follows Tharoor's recent absence from party meetings and reported differences with the state leadership in Kerala.

sashi

Shashi Tharoor meets Rahul Gandhi, Kharge to resolve Kerala Congress rift

In this Special Report, the focus is on the tabling of the Economic Survey 2025-26 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address at the start of the Budget Session. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the survey in the Lok Sabha, projecting a robust GDP growth of 7.4% for FY26. Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the India-EU Free Trade Agreement, stating, 'In the beginning of this quarter, the free trade agreement between India and the European Union is a glimpse of how bright the future of the youth of India is.' The Prime Minister emphasized that the next 25 years are crucial for achieving the vision of 'Viksit Bharat 2047' and noted that India is now on the 'reform express.' The bulletin also covers the political friction in Parliament, with the opposition demanding a rollback of the G. Ramji law while the BJP accused them of disrespecting constitutional traditions. The survey highlights fiscal prudence, with the deficit met at 4.8% of GDP.

PM Modi: India-EU FTA Is A Glimpse Of A Bright Future For Youth

PM Modi hails India-EU FTA as 'key to unlocking vast markets' for Indian goods

This special report covers the final rites of Ajit Pawar being conducted at Vidya Pratishthan in Baramati. The transcript highlights the emotional scenes as the Pawar family, including Sunetra Pawar, Parth Pawar, and Jai Pawar, pay their last respects. A significant moment is noted between Supriya Sule and Sunetra Pawar, who stood together despite their past political face-off in the Lok Sabha elections. The speaker notes, 'The family, the political divide blurred by what has been deep love within the family and that void today is filled by the outpouring of grief.' The programme reflects on Ajit Pawar's legacy as a 'mercurial leader' who transformed Baramati into a model constituency. The report details the public nature of the bereavement, with a three-day mourning period announced in the region as the community gathers to say goodbye to the leader they affectionately called 'Dada'.

Final Rites: Baramati Bids Farewell To Ajit Pawar

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Writing in isolation

Writers are used to solitude. In these unprecedented times, these isolation experts offer advice, telling us how they are coping with the lockdown.

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