Author: xorance@gmail.com

One of Kerala’s enduring gifts to the world is banana chips or kaya varuthathu or upperi as it is known in different parts of the State. It tops the list which has appam, avial and fish curry. Today, there are also tapioca, beetroot, potato, sweet potato, and colocasia, but it is banana chips that most people ask that friend, family or colleague to bring back from Kerala. These make for the best sort of edible souvenirs!  One chips, many varieties Unlike in the past when there was just the plain, salted variety, today there are several options: sweet (made from ripe…

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived at the Munich Security Conference to calm a room that had spent a year bracing for rupture. He spoke warmly of shared heritage, of battlefields from Kapyong to Kandahar, of America as a “child of Europe”, and he was rewarded with applause that sounded more like relief than conviction. But if one strips away the sentiment, the speech was a restatement.The message was simple and hard-edged. The post-Cold War rules-based order is over. Liberal universalism was a delusion. Borders, sovereignty and national interest are back. Europe may join the American project of renewal,…

Four wins out of four, all achieved with a fair degree of comfort. Several tight spots, negotiated with common sense and intelligence, if not panache and outright flair. Numerous batters stepping up, several bowlers weighing in.If that alone was what India’s progress card said at the end of their league campaign in the T20 World Cup, everything would have gone swimmingly. But even though Suryakumar Yadav’s men have taken their appointed place in the Super Eight, they haven’t been the dominant force of the last several months, which in a way is understandable. Read | I really worked hard on…

Fetterman on ICE, Israel and identifying as a Democrat | The Conversation lead image Source link

Last year, I found myself back in South India. Not as a tourist, nor as a chef chasing the next big idea, but as someone reconnecting with my past and the food of my childhood. Hoppers has always carried the flavours and memories of Sri Lanka and South India in its bones, but with our new restaurant in Shoreditch (London) that will open its doors on February 4, I felt an instinctive pull to go deeper, to peel back the layers and rediscover the food, people, and places that first sparked the journey a decade ago.  Karan Gokani | Photo…

They say a leopard never changes its spots. But political parties do. Take India’s Congress Party, that once had a cow and a calf as election symbol. Now it frequently calls for reservation for Muslims.The BNP, that has come to power with a supermajority in Bangladesh, is not an unknown entity for India. Therein lies the rub. For now, ‘Dark Prince’ Tarique Rahman, who descended to Dhaka after 17 years of self-exile in London and has taken over as the prime minister, is making all the right noises.STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS ADThe time is opportune. The ‘Yunus curse’ that befell…

Skipper Radha Yadav produced an excellent all-round effort to power India A into the final of the Women’s Rising Stars T20 Asia Cup with a five-wicket victory over Sri Lanka A here on Friday (February 20, 2026). Sri Lanka elected to bat after winning the toss, but the decision backfired spectacularly. The Indian bowlers, led by Radha, ran through the line-up to bowl them out for a paltry 118. The left-arm spinner returned with fine figures of 4 for 19. She was ably supported by another left-arm spinner Tanuja Kanwar (2/20) and leg-spinner Prema Rawat (2/9). For Sri Lanka, opener…

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is using his book tour and 2026 reelection campaign to further build out a national fundraising network that could prove quite useful in a potential 2028 run. The governor held a fundraising event over lunch while visiting Massachusetts for his book tour last month, two people familiar with the planning for it confirmed — making it at least the third fundraiser he attended in the last year in the deep-blue state with deep-pocketed donors who have long bankrolled presidential contenders. One of the others was held at the home of Jewish philanthropist and New England Patriots…

Representative image | Photo Credit: Getty Images A visa is an official authorisation that allows a foreign national to enter, stay in, or leave a country for a specific purpose and period. The stamp, sticker, document, or electronic record is issued by a country’s authorities and permits a non-citizen to travel to and request entry into that country. It usually includes the following details: The purpose of the individual’s visit (tourism, work, study, transit, etc.) The duration of the individual’s stay in the country Number of times (single/multiple entries) that the individual can travel in and out of the country. HistoryVisa,…

Bharat stands at an inflection point. The atmosphere in 2026 carries an uncanny echo of 1947: a moment with immense civilisational possibilities yet shadowed by the risk of Nehruvian drift.To understand 2026, one must revisit 1947. Contrary to what Left-‘liberal’ intellectuals and eminent “distorians” suggest, when Bharat attained its independence, it behaved like a Hindu state with deep civilisational mooring. As I write in my book, Eminent Distorians: Twists and Truths in Bharat’s History, it was the “Nehruvian conspiracy” in the 1950s that pushed the country away from its Sanatana core towards a socialist, secular order, “much against the civilisational…