28 DECEMBER 2020 / 50 www.openthemagazine.com CONTENTS 28 DECEMBER 2020 6 8 14 16 18 20 EDITOR’S NOTE OPEN DIARY INDIAN ACCENTS OPINION WHISPERER OPEN ESSAY By S Prasannarajan By Swapan Dasgupta Hope and happiness A million manufactured By Jayanta Ghosal Science and public trust By Bibek Debroy mutinies By Dipankar Gupta By Minhaz Merchant THE YEAR IN REVIEW 24 30 INVERSATIONS IN THE OUTLIER THE YEAR OF FEAR STATE By MJ Akbar By Siddharth Singh 33 36 40 THE VALLEY OF PARADOXES TERRA INFIRMA COVER UP OR BE DAMNED By Rahul Pandita By Sudeep Paul By Madhavankutty Pillai BEST OF Books PRATAP BHANU MEHTA, SUNIL KHILNANI , WILLIAM DALRYMPLE, JEET THAYIL, SHASHI THAROOR , TCA RAGHAVAN DAVID DAVIDAR, AATISH TASEER, IRA MUKHOTY, MAHESH RAO DIPANKAR GUPTA, SRINATH RAGHAVAN TISHANI DOSHI, TABISH KHAIR, ANITA NAIR 46 NAndINI NAIR 64 EDITOR’S CHOICE 66 SUdeep PAUL 68 SIddHARTH SIngH 70 SHYLASHRI SHANKAR Entertainment 74 RAJEEV MASAND 78 KAVEREE BAMZAI 80 AKHIL SOOD 82 NOT PEOPLE LIKE US The ‘AK’ effect By Rajeev Masand Cover by Saurabh Singh 28 DECEMBER 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 3 OPEN MAIL
[email protected] EDITOR S Prasannarajan LETTER OF THE WEEK MANAGING EDITOR PR Ramesh C EXECUTIVE EDITOR Ullekh NP The stereotypes of a father coming home from work, EDITOR-AT-LARGE Siddharth Singh DEPUTY EDITORS Madhavankutty Pillai briefcase in hand, and the mother nervously serving (Mumbai Bureau Chief), him a cup of tea seem set for a change (‘The Newborn Rahul Pandita, Amita Shah, V Shoba (Bangalore), Nandini Nair Dad’, December 21st, 2020). Patriarchal structures, CREATIVE DIRECTOR Rohit Chawla with deep foundations in culture, are not easy to ART DIRECTOR Jyoti K Singh SENIOR EDITORS Sudeep Paul, break.