Vidya Balachander

We are thrilled to present Vol. 1 of Rasa! To name a couple stories to look forward to, the first issue of our new magazine offers an ode to the rich flavour of tal fruit, celebrated across cuisines in India, and a critical examination of the milk powder shortage in Sri Lanka.

In 2003, a German film crew followed a nomadic family in Mongolia's Gobi Desert. The film, The Story of the Weeping Camel, was nominated for an Oscar. A mother camel had rejected her newborn after a brutal two-day labour. Without her milk, the calf would die. The family knew one option. They sent their two young sons on a journey across the desert to find a musician who could perform a ritual called Hoos, a chanting ceremony passed down for centuries specifically for this moment. The musician came. The ritual was performed. The mother camel wept real tears and turned to her calf for the first time. The film crew had gone to document a way of life. They had no idea they would capture that. UNESCO added the Hoos ritual to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2015, alongside flamenco, the Mediterranean diet, and the art of Neapolitan pizza making.

🚨BREAKING: Scientists tracked a bird that flew 8,425 miles (13,560 km) without stopping even once — the longest non-stop flight ever recorded.

Adore you all, but please learn how to throw a dinner party. Your curation of guests must be immaculate. Every seat accounted for. Topics prepared. Venue, immaculate. Stop serving chips and salsa and guacamole from Trader Joe’s. Hire a chef. Hire a bartender.

I'm an anthropologist living and working in Beirut. In Fall 2024 Palestinian friends of mine from Tyre stayed with me during the war. I wrote about it and how it was like. My friends from Tyre are staying with me again, I'm posting this text, because imaginations of war are so...

CNN admits it was the US not Israel that killed 150 Iranian school girls on the first day of the war. It was a double tap, they also killed their parents who were trying to rescue them.

Batroun in Lebanon is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

Sri Lanka has deployed naval ships and aircraft to assist the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena after it reported distress off the coast of Galle. Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath confirmed that 30 of the approximately 180 sailors on board have been rescued so far. Rescue operations are ongoing just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters.

Speaker Mike Johnson: “We’re not at war right now. We’re four days into a very specific, clear mission…”

Our watch gets over when the Ship leaves territorial water. Not till they get home. Their country is at war. They should have stayed in shelter of India. In international waters, they had Not sought an escort from Indian Navy. And the incident is off the Sri Lankan coast...not India.

Hegseth: Flying over their capital. Death and destruction from the sky all day long. We're playing for keeps. Our warfighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly. Our rules of engagement are bold, precise, and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it. This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they're down, which is exactly how it should be.

′′The Weight of Thought′′ Sculpture by Thomas Lerooy.