By Monita Soni. My journey with Devdutt’s work began in 1997 with “Shiva,” a book that stirred conversations at home and laid the groundwork for a personal mythology that continued to grow with “Sita,” “Jaya,” “The Pregnant King,” “Business Sutra,” and “Shikhandi and Other Tales They Don’t Tell You.” As a fellow Mumbaikar and someone with a rational yet culturally curious upbringing, I often wondered what it would be like to meet the doctor-turned-storyteller in person.

By Arjun Janah. This poem is about spiritually surviving extreme adversity, including losses of family, limbs, health, and even the imminent loss of one's own life, as so many have to do, with faith in all that is good, recognizing all that is evil, and understanding that both are in all beings. One way to do this is by reducing oneself to the essence of being, accepting what the moment brings.

By Raktim Nandi. ‘Aamar Comrade’ isn't purely a film about rebels, rebellion, and political camaraderie. However subtle the relationship may be, it is also a queer love story concentrating on the volatility of desire, which melts into the violence of real life.

By Nargis Natarajan. ‘The Sound Of Silence’ is a powerful metaphor for loneliness and spiritual emptiness in a changing world. It is a gloomy painting displaying a desperate longing for connection, for recognition.

By Ashish Singh. To understand Alfred Hitchcock’s genius, one must look beyond suspense as a genre and recognize it as a tool he used to explore possession, control, and desire. Safety, he suggested, was never guaranteed.

By Narendra Pachkhede. Fifty years after, the blockbuster yet again tells the story of a people told back to themselves, and in that act of telling, it is a reminder that fear need not be destiny, and solidarity remains possible.

By Sarita Chouhan. Like a weaver weaving warp and weft. It's repetitive. Meditative. Mystic.

By Satya Sagar. Rafi Saab. Not out at 100: The voice that taught us not just how to fall in love — but how to live.

By Monita Soni. Love had changed. Become deep. Wistful. Shifting in shape.

By Ramsharan Joshi. The libraries in these schools are extraordinary. Public libraries offer memberships to 6-month-old babies! I saw this in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, Canada. Even 4th and 5th graders are used to ‘heavy books’. In summer, children are encouraged to read and write, and discover their independent minds.

By Narendra Pachkhede. His music was steeped in jazz and cabaret; his dialogue was in the Beiruti dialect, his wit was mordant. He wrote not of cedars but of unpaid rent, not of timeless landscapes, but of shifting alliances. He did not so much mock Lebanon’s hypocrisies as make them speak.

By Arjun Janah. But, still, be gentle with yourself.

Ayasha Kaur. People have been so afraid of educating their daughters because they would say, “If tomorrow daughters become educated, they will write letters to boys.” This exposes the inherent fears of this patriarchal society. This means that if girls become educated, they will fight for their rights, they will take their rights themselves, they will not need to become dependent on anyone.

By Binu Mathew. Yes, we are Davids facing Goliath with just a stone in our hands. At first glance, we are destined to fail. But if we act collectively, we can win.

By Ratna Raman. Mangoes breathe life and meaning into the summer season. Mango ice cream, mango shake, and kulfi remain perennial favourites. The avant garde are spoilt for choice with desserts such as mango soufflés, mango cheesecake, plain mango cakes, mango yoghurt, mango jellies, jujubes, sandwiches and more. Mango jam, mango toffee, mango burfee, mango, halwa, mango kheer, mangoes in cream, are eternally delicious household visitors. Mango is the Queen.

By Aayushi Rana. Rakhi has always been described as a thread of protection, of love, of belonging. But what happens when the ritual remains, and the emotion feels absent? This year, I found myself asking that question.

By Rakhshanda Jalil. Read this book, maybe not from cover from cover, but dip into it in no particular order, perusing the stories included here one at a time at your leisure allowing their full import to sink in. Read it for its affirmation of the ‘idea’ of India that is under threat, yes, but is not fully effaced. Read it also for its robust assertion that the Urdu language is alive and well, and yes, Urdu is not the language of the Indian Muslims, alone.

Raju Mansukhani. 60 rich years of the Museum Society of Mumbai: Knowledge, culture, aesthetics. An intense labour of love. A report.

By R Kalpana The stance on divorce, however, is slightly different, and creates curiosity. This is because I know many couples who have divorced, then got back, divorced again, and got back. These things are best left unanswered and not analysed too much, because even if you ask the questions, they really do not have any answers.

By Tathagata Chatterjee. Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt once said, nations aren’t built by borders -- they’re held together by stories. And Sholay is one of those stories.