Screen Ghosts and Feminism, O Horrors!
Horror comedies prove society’s blind to women’s power, but these films coast on that, delivering feminist zingers amid the laughs.
China’s Economic Slowdown has Chefs hawking Street Food
China’s economy is slowing. Even its high-end hospitality sector is feeling the pinch, with luxury hotels resorting to innovative measures to stay afloat. In Changzhou, Jiangsu province, the five-star Zhongwu Hotel—ranked second among the city’s top 10 luxury hotels on Trip.com—has drawn local media attention by launching a ‘street vendor service’, offering budget meal boxes […]
Dalai Lama Challenges China with Succession Plan, Bolstering India’s Stance
In two days, His Holiness the Dalai Lama celebrates his 90th Birthday, but he’s already lit a candle, and set a fuse for a geo-political powder keg. Frank Krishner elaborates: The Dalai Lama, spiritual head of the Tibetan and Vajrayana Buddhist sects, has ignited a fresh diplomatic and spiritual confrontation with China. He has declared […]
The Dalai-Lama vs China: next round on July 2
Tibet’s spiritual leader is set to reveal one succession plan. China has another. Where is India in this tussle? Frank Krishner elaborates. On July 2nd, 2025, just days before his 90th birthday, the Dalai Lama is set to deliver a video message that will captivate Tibetans and Vajrayana Buddhists in Sikkim and worldwide. This is […]
The USA and Israel: A Pair of Insufferable Bullies
The Middle East is on edge, and two nations—Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu and the United States under Donald Trump—are stoking the flames. Their reckless actions, especially the recent U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, are pushing the region towards chaos. These countries act like bullies, ignoring the pleas of Arab nations for peace and stability. […]
A Dalit Child’s Tragedy Exposes India’s Hollow Promises on Human Rights
In India, where central and state governments often proclaim their commitment to human rights and the upliftment of marginalised communities, the grim reality tells a different story. The harrowing case of an 11-year-old Dalit girl, brutally raped and left to die after hours of waiting in an ambulance, lays bare the systemic failures that plague […]
Why Give It All Away? The Medical Mission Sisters’ Century of Healing in India
Why would a thriving religious order, renowned for running hospitals across India, gift them to others? The Medical Mission Sisters (MMS), founded in 1925 by Austrian doctor Anna Dengel, have spent a century healing India’s sick and poor. Yet, in a radical shift, they moved from institution-based care to alternative therapies, reflecting a mission that […]
The Right-Wing Media Machinery and the Silencing of Artists
Over the past decade, writers, journalists, and creative artists in India have found themselves increasingly trapped in the cross-hairs of a ruthless right-wing media machinery and its enforcers. What starts as a single voice—often a self-appointed guardian of propriety or a politically motivated zealot—taking offence quickly snowballs into a vicious onslaught. A pack of hounds […]
Wake up sleepyheads! World War III has already started!
Call me Chicken Little, running around shouting that the sky is fallin’ on my head. But I do declare that that World War III has already started. If you take your noses out of your social media cocoons for a bit, and look at the events unfolding across the globe, it’s not hard to miss […]
They’re Fire-crackers, not Poems!
FRANK KRISHNER REVIEWS A NEW COLLECTION OF POETRY Ban Dook Dom, poems by Prabhat Jha, Authors Press 2024, 72 pages, Rs 295. Came back from one of those small little academically oriented ‘Book release’ things, that took place in an upper room with an audience of less than four dozen people. A room packed with […]
Coca-Cola’s PR Nightmare: a Media Lesson in Realpolitik
Media trainer and communicator Frank Krishner breaks down Coke’s latest foot-in-the-mouth PR gaffe. The Perils of Miscommunication In a world where every word and action can be scrutinised, twisted, and amplified across continents, big brands like Coca-Cola need to tread carefully. A recent PR disaster in Bangladesh has shown just how quickly things can go […]
Cindy’s First Olympic Medal could have been Cameroon’s Pride… It’s a pity, innit?
Cameroon hasn’t won a single medal in the 2024 Olympics, too bad it ‘kicked out’ a terrific woman boxer because of archaic and insensitive colonial style sexuality laws, Frank Krishner writes. You have the talent, determination, and grit to reach the pinnacle of your sport, only to have your dreams constantly threatened by something as […]