Fear, lies and skulduggery. Twists, turns and histrionics. THE WEEK brings you inside details of a high political drama that is still in search of a perfect denouement
Eighty kilometres south of Chennai, along the scenic East Coast Road, lies Golden Bay, the city’s first luxury backwater resort. The drive to the place can be an enjoyable experience. Traffic is light, the shore is spread out before you, and dotting the road are coconut trees and palm groves. Roll down the windows, and the sea breeze would greet you.
The resort lies beyond the historic town of Mahabalipuram and the Kalpakkam nuclear power plant. Spread across five acres and surrounded by shallow backwaters on three sides, the resort and its serene environs are the last thing you would associate with the word turbulence. But turbulence, of the political kind, is what Golden Bay has come to symbolise in the past few days.
It all began on the afternoon of February 9, when the owner of the resort got a call from an AIADMK leader, who wanted to book rooms in bulk—that, too, immediately. The management, however, was hesitant, as some tourists had already made reservations. But since most of the rooms were unoccupied, they made arrangements to accommodate the leader’s request.
Sometime later, though, the staff at the resort were informed that the 100-odd legislators, for whom the rooms were booked, would be taken to Delhi and that the booking stood cancelled. Then, at 10.30pm, the rooms were rebooked. Around an hour later, a bus carrying around 100 men clad in white shirts and dhotis and a few women clad in saris arrived. By midnight, all rooms were occupied and the kitchen went into overdrive. Special non-vegetarian dishes were prepared for the guests.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 26, 2017 من THE WEEK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 26, 2017 من THE WEEK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Angry, Young America
Campus protests against the Gaza war continue to linger as students demand a realignment of US ties with Israel
We need to engage more with communities
Designer Aratrik Dev Varman of the label Tilla has long been a lover of history. One could comfortably call him part-aesthete, part-archeologist, for his clothes dip into vintage styles of the Kutch, Sindh, Balochistan and Afghanistan, bringing alive antique styles and crafts. Tilla, the store and atelier, are situated on a tree-lined avenue in Ahmedabad.
The great luxury slowdown
A year or so ago, if anyone had told me that Tommy Hilfiger would have stolen the show at New York’s Met Gala, I would have laughed. But it seems the end of giant luxury labels is upon us even before we expected it. The American ready-to-wear designer Tommy Hilfiger seems to have created the maximum media buzz at the 2024 Met Gala, according to several data analytics firms.
RAP BRINGS RAPTURE
How indie artistes, especially hip-hoppers, are driving the phenomenal rise of Malayalam music
Employability issues are a narrative created by the corporate world
Prof Yogesh Singh is the 23rd vice chancellor of the century-old University of Delhi (DU). An engineer with a PhD in computer engineering, Singh has an impressive track record of teaching, innovation and research in the area of software engineering. He has more than 250 publications and his book, Software Testing, published by the Cambridge University Press, is well-received internationally. In an interview with THE WEEK, Singh talks about trends in higher education in India, the challenges faced by big universities, and how to make higher education more interesting. Asked about the perception that Indian graduates are “not employable”, he reacts strongly, and emphasises the difference between training and higher education. Edited excerpts:
SERVING WITH DISTINCTION
Conceived as a university like no other, Jawaharlal Nehru University became India's best. Here is how
Mandela Effect and Liar's Dividend
The complex tapestry of AI's impact on society
The other Sabyasachi
I am Sabyasachi Mukherjee, not to be confused with my namesake, the celebrated fashion couturier, declared the venerated director-general of Mumbai’s pride, George Wittet’s Indo-Saracenic jewel, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum.
THE MANGO HUNTERS
'Naadan Maavukal' started out as a Facebook group, but what it does offline has helped conserve many indigenous varieties of mangoes
BJP LEADERS, TOO, HAVE HAD ENOUGH
Farmers’ protest has taken the centre stage in Haryana, which goes to the polls on May 25. Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is confident that the Congress, which has been out of power for 10 years, will regain its hold on the state. “People who voted for the BJP are disappointed today. It is clear that they want change,” he told THE WEEK.