'Accusations would be flung about his votes being stolen. He'll say dead people were voting from the grave.' Payal Singh Mohanka reports on the mood ahead of the US presidential election.
As we continue our climb, I meet 59-year-old Pushpa Devi from Banaras. I stare at her in wonderment when she tells me this is her 45th visit to the temple. She is equally bewildered to hear this is my first visit!What is it that draws her here each year? 'Bas ek shabd hai. Shraddha. (There is just one word. Faith.)'
Hugely creative with a very evolved aesthetic sense, he made the Illustrated Weekly of India every young reporter's dream. Payal Singh Mohanka remembers Pritish Nandy who passed into the ages on January 8, 2025.
Embracing the past and the present, Mexico City pulsates with warmth and vibrancy, discovers Payal Singh Mohanka.
Legendary artist Sayed Haider Raza speaks to Payal Mohanka about roots and compassion
Payal Mohanka discovers the medieval magnificence of Prague.
'It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.' This is what Mother Teresa taught the nuns and her co-workers.
'Rather than assuaging the feelings of the Hindus accommodated in schools and hospitals, she calls a meeting of imams and tries to assuage them.'
Kolkata hangs its head in shame as the hope of a government with a moral compass and a heart in the right place recedes into the distance, notes Payal Singh Mohanka.
'The TMC can't go on forever taking advantage of the people's fright of the BJP.'
Law enforcement officials from the US Department of Homeland Security have started visiting gurdwaras in New York and New Jersey to check for the presence of illegal immigrants, drawing a sharp reaction from some Sikh organisations which see such actions as a threat to the sanctity of their faith. The Trump administration has rescinded the Biden administration's guidelines that protected places of worship from immigration enforcement actions, leading to concerns that gurdwaras are being targeted. Sikh organisations argue that gurdwaras are not just places of worship but also vital community centres and that surveillance and raids by armed law enforcement would burden religious exercise and limit the ability of Sikhs to gather and associate with one another.
The anger and the anguish are on the rise. News of a botched-up post mortem, tampering of evidence, a hurried cremation has gone global, reports Payal Singh Mohanka from London.
Once a boxing champion, life has dealt Krishna Routh a severe blow.
'If she manages to throw out people, go for surgical operations, clean up her image, she will be victorious.'
'She could have sat down with the students and taken a list of their grievances including their allegations and suspicions.' 'Not all suspicions are true, but you have to listen, you have to let the steam come out.'
'My primary point was where is the Mamata Banerjee who jumps and reaches out, starts talking directly and starts solving over the heads of the bureaucracy.'
Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh, was not just a poet, playwright, dancer and patron of the arts, says Payal Mohanka. He was a royal who hand-created his personal calendar.
'They were ahead of their times. We don't expect this from a civilisation of the first century AD.'
With over 3,000 species of plants, 26 interconnected lakes and the 250-year-old Great Banyan Tree -- the largest in the world -- the Indian Botanic Garden is a veritable treasure, discovers Payal Singh Mohanka.
Several police officers who followed the Election Commission's orders during the recent West Bengal assembly polls get punishment transfers. Payal Mohanka reports.
'I worked closely with Mother for decades, not once did she say become a Christian.'
Twenty five years after her passing, Mother Teresa's congregation continues to work selflessly in the homes she set up for abandoned babies, leprosy victims and the dying destitute, reports Payal Singh Mohanka.
'When one was with Mother, one realised you were with somebody who was the nearest person to God.' 'She must have been God incarnate.'
Three mentees pay homage to Sherna Gandhy, the legendary journalist and editor who passed into the ages on April 28 after a long battle with cancer.
Payal Mohanka travelled to Morocco, that magical place where the past and the present don't jostle but instead coexist rather beautifully.
'With sufficient gaps between polling dates, the BJP will have time to convert the 'fence-sitter' votes,' observes Payal Mohanka.
From our archives: Payal Singh Mohanka on the Indian hockey legend who passed into the ages on Thursday.
Has Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee created a situation with dangerous overtones in Bengal? In the six years that she has been in power, her detractors feel she has overplayed the politics of appeasement.
'A hugely dangerous game which she thought she had mastered has now found a stronger opponent,' points out Payal Mohanka.
'The BJP's modus operandi is not just to be intolerant of dissent, it is to create mistrust and doubt between communities and the electoral process itself.'
Did the CPI-M and Congress' shrill campaign against 'tainted' officers prompt the Election Commission to respond with alacrity?
'Today it is not about seeking blessings, but seeking selfies.' Payal Mohanka listens to the 'uneducated guru' Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev explain the mysteries of life.
The constitution of the Missionaries of Charity that declares, 'We shall not impose our Catholic faith on anyone, but have profound respect for all religions.'
'In Bengal it is a very sad way in which the party is faring. I don't have high hopes.'
If the BJP wins Bengal, would Kishor's indiscretions have played a significant role in that victory? Victory for the TMC would be another badge of honour in his CV, but defeat would raise an unsavoury question: Which party was Kishor actually working for? asks Payal Singh Mohanka.
The story of Iceland is the story of life, notes Payal Singh Mohanka after a recent journey to that fascinating land.
Kolkata-based artist and co-worker of the Missionaries of Charity, Ritu Singh, who has had a long association with the order, fondly remembers the gentle Sister Nirmala, who passed away on Tuesday, sharing anecdotes that truly uplift the spirit.
Exactly 50 years ago, the first Indian team, led by Manmohan Singh Kohli, reached the summit of Mount Everest. As Kohli and his team are felicitated to mark the anniversary, he reminisces on the event that continues to inspire generations of Indian mountaineers. Payal Mohanka reports
India is a passion with him. He is immersed in India. But he cannot help worrying about India too.
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