Zara Murao

Before Lord Curzon razed the overgrown gardens of the Taj Mahal to create the ‘English-style’ lawns, this engraving by French traveller Louis Rousselet gives an idea of the lush orchards and flowers that would have surrounded the Taj Rousselet, 1865-75, in The French and Delhi

"To make it to India's top 10% income earners, one must earn just Rs. 2.9 lakh a year. To enter the top 1%, Rs. 20.7 lakh will suffice. Wealth paints a similar picture. Accumulate Rs. 21 lakh in net assets, and one is now a 10-percenter. Accumulate Rs. 82 lakh and one is in the 1%. There's a reason the 1%ers and 10%ers do not view themselves as belonging to the upper echelons. Many have no generational wealth to fall back on. Most know they are one bad mishap away from an entirely different bracket".

The relative plausibility of impossible beings tells you a lot about how the mind works. nyer.cm/w0aLOnf

On the @htTweets Books page today, HT editors pick their favourite reads of the year. Click to read: epaper.hindustantimes.com/delhi?eddate=2… @HT_Ed Dhrubo Jyoti @Roshanjnu @LalitaPanicker @vishalmathur85 Amrith Lal @writemeenal @zee_talk @GreaterBombay @ziahaq @RamblingBrook @ParomaMukherjee

I debated whether to share this. I did apologize on the air. But I invite you to read my introspection on @BulletinAtomic of how extreme weather 📈 driven by global warming has changed me. Frankly, YOU should be shaken too, and demand #ClimateActionNow. #post-heading" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">thebulletin.org/2024/09/hurric…

#HTat100 | For 100 years, we've been the voice that echoes truth. Through times of hope, change, and challenge, truth has been our constant. Hindustan Times@100 – Voice of the Nation. Since 1924🎙️ #HindustanTimes #VoiceoftheNation

Comics, what data tells us about anyone who has been a minister in India, the ternary system, Counting Crows’ ongoing tour, the trouble with e-commerce, and the best of @virsanghvi and @c_assisi . This week’s newsletter hindustantimes.com/ht-newsletter/…

"Not all victories look alike. Some end up as a glittering souvenir in a cabinet, but the ones that matter more find their way into the stories we tell our children."

‘This was a song that Piaf first sang in 1950, in another France. Algeria was a colony and Maghrebi Muslims had yet to settle in numbers in Paris’s banlieues. It was a world where a white French metropolis didn’t have to reckon with the demographic consequences of empire.’

50% votes counted. NDA at 301 so there will clearly be a third Nodi government but BJP is below 250 which is a big fall. INDIA at 225. Vote shares at 45.1 and 41.4 respectively, which itself tells the story.

Time once again for my occasional series "Women with great hair fleeing gothic houses!" And today a few tips if you're thinking of taking this up as a hobby...

The moment we stopped watching Bridgerton Let us explain ... Things were going great and we were really getting into Season 3. That is until we watched this scene unfold before our eyes ....

Slavoj Žižek considers how otherwise "normal" people in modern, affluent societies can be brought to the point that they enjoy public spectacles of wanton cruelty. bit.ly/4cKM5Y3

Crazy story of the week: The tragic incident surrounding the Netflix adaptation of the "Three Body Problem" series is not widely known among its fans. Lin Qi, a visionary and brilliant young billionaire, acquired the rights to the "Three Body Problem" with the ambition of creating various products from it. He enlisted the expertise of Xu Yao, a distinguished lawyer, appointing him CEO to spearhead the business operations, including securing a deal with Netflix—a feat for which Lin compensated Xu with a salary of nearly $3 million. However, Xu's performance did not meet expectations beyond the Netflix agreement, leading Lin to reduce his salary to $750,000 and bring in additional executives to enhance business operations. Xu, retaining his CEO title, was reportedly infuriated by this demotion and further aggravated by not being credited as a producer on the Netflix project. Driven by revenge and inspired by the TV show "Breaking Bad," Xu meticulously planned Lin's murder. He purchased 160 phones and established a company in Japan to acquire the necessary chemicals for his scheme, testing them on animals. Xu then poisoned Lin and his colleagues, disguising the lethal substances as an advanced probiotic. Lin unsuspectingly consumed it and soon after was hospitalized, where it was immediately apparent he had been poisoned, though the specific toxins were unknown. The police quickly suspected Xu, who, had he disclosed the nature of the poisons (later found to have included exotic substances such as pufferfish poison and mercury and at least three other poisons), could have saved Lin's life. However, he chose not to, ensuring Lin's demise. Just a few days ago, as the show was premiering globally, Xu was finally sentenced to death for the murder of Lin and attempted murder of two other colleagues, who survived but with lifelong injuries. Lin Qi, credited as an executive producer on the Netflix project posthumously, passed away at the age of 39. RIP 🕯️

#ReadOfTheDay! A beautiful, nuanced piece. Sometimes, there is no one answer. Sometimes, two things can be true. Shoba Narayan writes on the Sangeetha Kalanidhi row -with lessons for life, for art, and for the insanely complicated business of being human hindustantimes.com/opinion/the-co…

Here is another glorious collaboration: Tracy Chapman and Pavarotti for her song “Baby Can I Hold You Tonight”: youtu.be/qQdnl0_IuRg?si…

11. When I used to write my daily column on Covid I kept emphasising that India needed a Covid commissioner. Delhi desperately needs an air commissioner n/n

A thread on the bad air in Delhi, which will soon exceed the level beyond which AQI can’t be measured — 500. 1. Delhi’s air is unhealthy (150-200 AQI) through the year 2. Temperature, wind speed and direction play a role — in winter, the three combine to make things worse. 1/n

@kavitadevgan @Asma_KhanLDN @htTweets So glad to hear it, Kavita ❤️ Here's to many more!

Such a lovely cover story. So many life lessons in there… @Asma_KhanLDN you are an inspiration & such a wonderful human too (will never forget our brief twitter messaging & how graceful you are ♥️) @htTweets #HTWeekend have been savouring todays edition since 🌞 @zee_talk