Rani is an Assistant Editor and a part of the Social Media team at Outlook. She writes about popular culture, gender, films, and society. She has a Master's degree in Cultural Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
In Bihar, every candidate is a character — and every election, a spectacle. From Tej Pratap Yadav’s saffron theatrics to Khesari Lal Yadav’s musical rallies, from Maithili Thakur’s melodic mobilisations to Anant Singh’s muscle politics, Bihar’s 2025 election is a drama of ambition, image, and legacy. Outlook dives into a contest where politics meets performance and power wears many costumes.
For decades, Sharda Sinha’s voice has been inseparable from the spirit of Chhath Puja. Born in Bihar in 1952, she elevated Bhojpuri and Maithili folk music to national recognition, becoming the festival’s defining sound. In this Outlook conversation, her children — music producer Anshuman Sinha and singer Vandana Sinha — reflect on her journey, her Padma awards, and her final song “Chhath Maiya Ke Darbar,” released posthumously in 2025.
The British Museum is set to host their debut ball tomorrow. The theme is ‘Pink’, inspired by “the colours and light of India”. In 2025, nearly 80 years after independence, why are India’s Ancient Living Traditions still being displayed for the West?
Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai, celebrated for his dense, dystopian prose, has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize for Literature. His long, unbroken sentences confront chaos and affirm the power of art in times of apocalyptic terror. At Outlook, our coverage—from In 'All Is Well' to 'My Dear Apocalypse'—explores worlds in crisis, satire as rebellion, and whether the crises around us are the apocalypses foretold in scripture.
The addition of many slangs like "rizz," “side-eye,” and “no cap” in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary reflects the cultural momentum that Gen Z is gaining rapidly.
The ecosystem that Nepal’s Gen Z built online to call out corruption and nepotism has become the new language of dissent and protest.
From memes to mass mobilisation, Nepal’s Gen Z turned the #NepoKids hashtag into a digital revolution. In just 48 hours, protests over corruption, nepotism, and a social media ban led to the resignation of Nepal’s Prime Minister and Home Minister.
US President Donald Trump claimed that America has “lost” India and Russia to China—stirring fresh debate on India-US relations, Trump tariffs, and global politics in 2025. Just days earlier, a viral clip showed PM Modi holding Putin’s hand and pulling him towards Xi Jinping. The moment raised questions: is body language a small detail in diplomacy, or does it reflect deeper shifts in India-China-Russia diplomatic relations?
From tomorrow, Trump’s imposed tariff on India could rise to 50 per cent. Higher tariffs mean Indian goods become costlier. Indian traders are forced to raise prices, American retailers resist, and the demand-supply chain gets disrupted. The additional 25 per cent penalty tariff comes in response to India’s continued purchase of Russian crude oil, compounded by India’s pushback on Trump’s claims of brokering peace between India and Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.
It’s been seven years since the CBI’s psychological autopsy ruled that the Burari deaths were motivated by shared psychosis. Yet the case continues to be viewed through the lens of ‘bizarre’
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