Priyanka Bhadani


Good Food Movement •

Basanti Devi’s boots are made for walking

Editor’s Note: To work in ecology science and biodiversity conservation in India is to undertake the work of a lifetime. For many, but especially women, this work is as much a career as it is a calling, with challenges that pertain to the job itself—such as reasoning with authorities—as well as their personal journeys and identities. In this series, the Good Food Movement highlights female scientists, activists and community builders whose visions and labour have ensured forests, wetlands, and s...
Good Food Movement •

In Uttarakhand’s Shama, kiwi cultivation has restored faith in agriculture

Kiwi arrived in Shama almost by chance. In 2004, under the central government’s Integrated Development of Horticulture project, farmers from three villages, Shama-Dana, Liti and Badi Paniyaali, travelled to Himachal Pradesh to study horticulture practices. The fruit has now become both a commercial crop and a marker of economic change, one that neighbouring villages in Bageshwar, Pithoragarh and Nainital have been eager to emulate.
The Locavore •

“There’s a stark difference in how people live here”

Ram Nivas is astounded when I tell him I live beyond south Delhi’s periphery. “Woh toh Jamuna-paar hai,” he says, in disbelief, upon learning that I came to Green Park all the way from Noida to meet him.Not yet noon, Nivas is already setting up his makeshift bhelpuri-sevpuri-jhaalmuri stall. After lighting dhoop-batti, he packs boiled potatoes and stores them in a fridge at a shop nearby. Then begins the peeling, cleaning, and chopping of onions. His hands move like clockwork, a rhythm perfected...
The Locavore •

“Every homestay has a cook now. Tourists rarely come to eat here”

Aunty Ka Dhaba, a roadside eatery and convenience store, run by 60-year-old Sushila Panwar, sits snugly between three villages in Uttarakhand’s Mukteshwar: Gehna, Letibunga, and Sasbani. Sushila belongs to Letibunga, a short walk uphill from her shop.Sushila has just returned from the neighbouring jungle with fodder for her two cows. Vegetable crates have arrived from Haldwani, the largest city in the Kumaon region. “In winter, we buy from there. It’s hard to grow anything here in the hills. But...
Good Food Movement •

Babulal Dahiya Makes Every Grain of Rice Count

When Dahiya speaks, he blends personal memory with documented and undocumented fact, offering a perspective shaped by decades of working in fields, writing, and collecting grassroots knowledge. His home and life reflect a vision where culture, ecology, and rural identity continue to inform each other. As a writer who nurtured a long association with the Adivasi Lok Kala Academy—an MP state initiative to promote tribal culture—Dahiya has published detailed studies on the Kol and Khairwar communities backed by extensive research.
Good Food Movement •

Sasbani’s 'fruits' of labour: Reviving hope in rural Uttarakhand

Sasbani, a small Kumaoni village tucked into Uttarakhand’s Dhari tehsil, is no stranger to encounters with the wild. Monkeys raid farms in broad daylight; wild boars dig up fields overnight. In 2023, the forest department even proposed increasing the fox population to keep their numbers in check. “They ruin so much,” says Mamta Nayal, 52, who moved back to Sasbani, her native village, in 2017 after nearly two decades in Delhi. “It wasn’t like this before.”
Article-14.com •

As Modi Govt Fast-Tracks Controversial Project To Link Rivers, Thousands Of Anxious, Angry Adivasis Set To Lose Homes

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone in December 2024 for a dam that will destroy over 4 million trees in a key tiger reserve and displace thousands, mostly Adivasis, anger spread across affected Madhya Pradesh villages. Locals complained of broken promises and violations of India’s compensation and forest laws, as a controversial Rs 44,000-crore project first conceived 30 years ago to link the Ken and Betwa rivers to address the region's water scarcities nears fruition.
The Locavore •

A thousand kilometres from Gaya, I learned to love the taste of its baskarel

The plant that eventually matures into the woody bamboo plant is consumed as a seasonal vegetable in its young form. In India, 50 per cent of the bamboo resources are found in the Northeast and in West Bengal, others in the Western Ghats, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, as per the State of Forest Report, 2021. In Bihar, they are largely harvested in the northern part of the state. In the southern part, unfavourable weather conditions and scarce cultivation efforts meant a lower yield of bamboo.
The Week •

Brilliance, like a breeze

It is all very unusual for Fahadh Faasil: To give back-to-back interviews, to talk about his film when the world has not watched it yet, and to get on the hyperactive promotional bandwagon for every release. Part of his discomfort could be attributed to the Malayalam film industry’s more subtle film promotions. But most of it is because he is too reserved with his own thought process, and takes time to analyse whether he has achieved what he had intended to in a film.

“Half the time, I am not e...
The Week •

Madame Spunk

At the age of four, Kiran Gandhi remembers watching the Disney movie Aladdin (1992) and wondering why the impoverished Aladdin was the one on the magic carpet, saving everyone and living the best life. What about Jasmine? She was the princess who had everything going for her. Why was the focus not on her story? “Problematically, we always tell boys’ stories with three-dimensionality,” she says. “We tell girls’ stories in a very limited way where she either has to be saved, or is secondary to the...
The Week •

A complex equation

Balan’s journey of getting into the skin of the character was slow. “What I knew [initially] of Shakuntala Devi was that she was a human computer,” she says. “Slowly, I started discovering so many layers. At one point, I turned to Anu and asked, ‘Ok tell me, what has she not done?’” Balan says what attracted her was how Devi embraced her flaws and limitations as well as her gifts and her genius. “I think that is what makes her so inspiring."
The Week •

There is much more to UP or Bihar than crimes shown in films: Juhi Chaturvedi

In her fourth collaboration as a screenplay writer with director Shoojit Sircar, Juhi Chaturvedi goes back to her roots—to Lucknow where she grew up, studied fine arts and worked for a daily newspaper before moving to Delhi and then to Mumbai.

Gulabo Sitabo, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana, with Chaturvedi’s hometown as the backdrop, revolves around an old landlord, Mirza, and his young tenant Baankey, who bicker and banter for the former’s haveli.
The Week •

Creativity, unlocked

At a time when almost everyone is boxed in, artistes, especially of the celebrity kind, are in a quandary like never before. They are used to juggling schedules, managing meetings and in between posing for photos and selfies at airports and gyms, but with shoots halted and auditoriums and theatres shut, they have found themselves with a void that is difficult to fill. But they are opening up bits and pieces of their lives for their followers online.
The Week •

Acid attack survivors are funny, spirited, and cocky at times

Meghna Gulzar said that the hardest part for you about Chhapaak was knowing that you would lead a normal life after the prosthetic was removed, but the survivors would not. How did you deal with that?

I was dealing with that emotion on a daily basis during my 9am to 9pm shift. For me, the painful part was knowing that I could go back to my life and revisit theirs when it was convenient for me or when I was required to. That is not the case with them, which is the reason for the kind of emotiona...
The Week •

Beauty queen

During the promotions of Zero and Bharat, Katrina Kaif spoke about discovering her process of getting into a character, something she had not explored much for a large part of her career. Like finding out how important it was to do workshops to prepare for your role. The insights certainly seem to have helped, considering the plaudits she got for her recent performances, especially in Zero. A little late in the day perhaps, but she is nevertheless improving her acting by “learning and unlearning...
The Week •

The Aarey struggle: A metro wakes up to protect its trees

A girl stands alone in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Churchgate Station, Mumbai, holding a placard with a message on saving trees. Kilometres away, near the western express highway, in a viral Brut India video that is being screened, two girls from a tribal community make a plea to not cut down trees.

Last week, 1500 people formed a 3km long human chain. Despite the continuous downpour in the city that lasted a week, people gathered in large numbers at Marine Drive, Goregaon East and a
Load More