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James Joyce was a member of Ireland’s revolutionary generation. The author of Ulysses (1922) was born in 1882, the same year as Éamon de Valera, and three years after Patrick Pearse in 1879. The latter two figures proved to be instrumental in realizing a political revolution in Ireland between the years 1916 and 1923 that would see it gain effective national autonomy.

When you have an incredible face, an incredible figure and incredible talent, you really have it all. Film star Deepika Padukone works harder than anyone. She has inherited from her parents a lot of discipline.

Drone cameras at weddings and social events no longer make eyes pop up. But the day may not be far off when your favourite pizza will be delivered to you by a drone rather than the Swiggy rider, adding to the chaotic scenes on the roads as he has to negotiate all kinds of odds to beat the delivery deadline; for, any slippage means a cut in the money that goes into his pocket because pizza chains are promising not to charge customers if delivery is delayed beyond the promised time.

Talk of Dharamdev Pishiorimal Anand and one will be greeted by an yawn. But the audience is all ears even at the passing mention of Dev Anand. The evergreen star will turn 100 on September 26. The month long celebrations are already on for remembering the perennial young lover of the Hindi cinema who, in his own words romanced with his life.

Renowned Indian American author Jhumpa Lahiri's new collection of short stories – Roman Stories — is set to be released next month. Her fans are excited and expressing their feelings on X, formerly Twitter. This would be her third collection of short stories after Interpreter of Maladies (1999) and Unaccustomed Earth (2008). She has also written six books, including two novels: The Namesake (2003), The Lowland (2013), In Other Words (2015), The Clothing of Books (2016), Whereabouts (2021), and Translating Myself and Others (2022).

Recently, Anoushka Shankar took to social media to share her personal struggles – her moments of vulnerability during her music performances and emphasized the necessity to persevere. She began by recounting her recent performance at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Biographies make fascinating reading. Not only because one gets involved in the life of the central character, but they’re also full of anecdotes that are fun to read. This is where serious books of history differ. They’re more analytical and, therefore, more demanding. Often, when they re-valuate something, they can be formidable.

Near the start of Netflix’s now-long-running reality show Selling Sunset, real estate agent Heather Rae El Moussa (née Young) pans to the camera and makes a rather Marxian observation about labour in a wage-based economy. The impeccably made-up agent (it has been reported that she and her coworkers, not Netflix, pay for their own makeup artists) says, “It’s hard because if you don’t work and hustle . . . you don’t get paid.” A few scenes later, she is ostensibly “at work” at the office of her employer, the Oppenheim Group, but is chided by another agent for excessively gossiping: “Heather, shut up and do some work!” “I told you, I don’t have a computer!” she cries back.

Otto Von Bismarck had to trigger three wars to forge peace across Germany. A Prussian master of strategy, Bismarck manoeuvred Denmark, Austria and France into fighting a loose alliance of 39 quarelling German states. In the end, he got what he wanted: three war victories that fused the states into unified Germany, making it a major European power.

It’s tempting to view the strike underway by Hollywood writers and TV and film actors against the studios as a war between wealthy Hollywood elites.