30 April, 2010

Introducing Yahoo! India Columns

Announcement time: For the last few weeks, I’ve been working as a consulting editor for Yahoo India, helping them put together a few new sections. The first of them, Yahoo India Columns, launches today. I’ve put together a team of 10 columnists, including myself, who will make sure that from Monday to Saturday every week, Yahoo has a column for you. My introductory piece, the first installment of my new column, Viewfinder, is here.

Here’s the full line-up of columns and columnists:

Anything That Moves—Girish Shahane links culture and politics (fortnightly, Mondays)

Minority of One—Mohit Satyanand’s private take on public affairs (fortnightly, Mondays)

Corner Plot—Ashok Malik on that great Indian obsession—politics (fortnightly, Tuesdays)

Pax Indica—Nitin Pai demystifies the anarchy of international relations (fortnightly, Tuesdays)

Atlas Invested: Deepak Shenoy on the world of money (weekly, Wednesdays)

Viewfinder—Amit Varma plays around with frames of reference (weekly, Thursdays)

Dead Tree Diaries—Sanjay Sipahimalani on the three Rs: reading, writing and Reality. (fortnightly, Fridays)

Persistence of Vision—Jai Arjun Singh takes you on a night out to the movies. (fortnightly, Fridays)

Mirth Vader—Anand Ramachandran discovers the power of the light side. (fortnightly, Saturdays)

Stereotypist—Aadisht Khanna plays the boom box of absurdity (fortnightly, Saturdays)

I’m sure you’re familiar with some of these writers, but the columns they will write for us will take them beyond what they usually write elsewhere. I’ve spoken a bit about that in my column today—and I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading them as the weeks unfold. Watch that space!

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Mint was kind enough to give me permission to retain the title of my column for them, Thinking it Through. But after getting their permission I realised that this column is actually going to be quite different in tone and character. So I’ve named it Viewfinder. What I intend to do with it should take me out of my comfort zone—and I hope you come on that ride with me.

Also, while it appears today because the section needed to launch with it, from next week Viewfinder will appear every Thursday, as Thinking it Through used to. Thor fhtagn!

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Update: Yahoo India’s managing editor, my friend Prem Panicker, has some thoughts on this section.