The Hindu Magazine

The news came as a surprise to Jyoti Weststrate even though she had been waiting for it for as long as she could remember. “I wasn’t expecting the Dutch government to go that far,” says Jyoti, 37, speaking from her home in Deventer in the Netherlands. On February 8, the Netherlands announced a total freeze…

Read more The story of two women, adopted by Dutch families, in search of their birth parents in India

Karimul Haque’s house in Jalpaiguri’s Dhalabari village was a flurry of activity when two men came looking for him one sunny June morning. Haque was busy overseeing breakfast preparations for some 200 people — a new normal for his family during the pandemic. The two brothers said their mother, Gyaneshwari Rai, an asthma patient, had…

Read more Rider on a storm: How Jalpaiguri’s ‘Bike Ambulance Dada’ ferries patients from the remotest areas

The courtyard outside Basana Barman’s house is a flurry of activity. A teenaged boy is atop the corrugated roof plucking mango leaves while a group of women huddle together on the verandah preparing offerings for worship. A table fan buzzes in front of a khaki-clad police constable seated at the gate. “It is going to…

Read more Swapna Barman, the first Indian woman to win an Asiad gold in heptathlon, is a star here