Manoj R Nair is part of Hindustan Times’ nationwide network of correspondents that brings news, analysis and information to its readers.
Articles by Manoj R Nair
Old and alone: Why do senior citizens have to retire hurt?
In a 6-part series, HT will focus on a large and ignored group of Indians — senior citizens. How they are coping in a world where traditional support systems have vanished and the enterprising solutions some of them have come up with. Some stories are heart-rending, some others give us hope.
Updated on Aug 17, 2015 03:41 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair
Unusual design, but Dadar church stands tall
When Dadar’s Our Lady of Salvation Church building, which dated back to 1914, was pulled down in the 1970s and replaced with a four-dome structure designed by Charles Correa, the parishioners got a church that could not be compared to any other in Mumbai.
Updated on Jun 18, 2015 12:46 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
Charles Correa, an urban planner with a vision
Charles Correa, who passed away on Tuesday night in Mumbai, was one of India’s greatest contemporary architects; but he was more than just an architect who left his legacy in great buildings and projects such as the Kala Academy, Goa, Gandhi Samarak Sangrahalaya, Gujarat, and Navi Mumbai, the satellite city across Mumbai’s harbour.
Updated on Jun 18, 2015 12:44 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
A pioneer who put Mumbai on the architectural map of the world
Charles Correa, who passed away on Tuesday night in Mumbai, was one of India’s greatest contemporary architects.
Updated on Jun 18, 2015 01:09 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
Seeing Rajasthan in Shakespeare
A quartet of mismatched lovers, a troop of bungling actors, a duke, a duchess, fairies and a mischievous sprite named Puck — the characters of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, adapted for a Rajasthani setting, with puppets, colourful costumes and songs, came alive at the Horniman Circle gardens on Wednesday evening.
Updated on Feb 12, 2015 12:32 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
A stunning play with a simple message: We are Indians too
Sanatombi, a girl from Imphal, Manipur, is in Delhi, having received a scholarship from the culture ministry to learn Kathak. After her first day at the dance school, she is back at the house where she lives as a paying guest. Her mother, a veteran Manipuri dancer, calls from Imphal to ask about the class.
Updated on Feb 11, 2015 12:41 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
Stories, songs capture the spirit of Sufism at Kala Ghoda fest
Sounds of the Sufis, a three-hour show that featured conversations, songs and storytelling by the group The Looking Glass, was part of the Zindagi theatre section of the Hindustan Times Kala Ghoda Arts Festival.
Updated on Feb 09, 2015 10:22 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
‘Rockstar’ Farhan Akhtar rocks on at finale
“It is so wonderful to perform in Mumbai,” roared ‘Rockstar’ Farhan Akhtar as the huge crowd that had gathered on the Asiatic Library steps on a cool and breezy Sunday evening, roared back.
Updated on Feb 09, 2014 11:56 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
A theatrical tradition, preserved
In Mithila’s villages, a woman leaving her home is always sent off with Doobdhan — a fistful of grass and rice, symbolising fertility and abundance. When a three-member cast performed the Hindi play at the fest, many members of the audience were left teary-eyed.
Updated on Feb 08, 2014 11:05 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
Staged: The politics of hunger strikes
The Hindi satire Dus Din Ka Anshan was staged at the Hindustan Times Kala Ghoda Arts Festival on Friday. It is based on a story written by noted satirist Hari Shankar Parsai in 1964.
Updated on Feb 07, 2014 10:33 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair
Sibling rivalry, via Munshi Premchand
Two brothers, one older than the other by five years, live in a school hostel away from their parents. The younger brother, a Classs 6 student, would rather eat golgappas and play kites than study. The elder, in Class 9, is conscientious.
Updated on Feb 07, 2014 01:22 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
A look back at Mumbai’s musical history
Mumbai had burgeoning industry and trade, and the artistes looked at Bhatia, Bania and Muslim traders as new patrons. Thus began Mumbai’s music history.
Updated on Feb 06, 2014 10:41 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
A minimalist play takes Marx through Kalbadevi
Karl Marx wants to travel out of Germany. Russia is too cold. China has the language barrier. So he heads to Mumbai and asks a taxi driver to take him to Mani Bhavan. Mani Bhavan is closed for the day and he soon finds himself in Kalbadevi.
Updated on Feb 05, 2014 10:40 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
Echoes of Draupadi in modern-day India
Atul Satya Koushik’s Draupadi, enacted at the Hindustan Times Kala Ghoda Arts Festival on Monday, retells the story of the Mahabharata through the lives of village women. As the 12 women take up characters from the epic, they realise that their lives are not very different from Draupadi’s.
Updated on Feb 03, 2014 11:11 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair
After Little India riots, Singapore restricts drinking in public places
A little more than a month after its first riot in four decades, Singapore parliament announced a new law restricting alcohol consumption in public places and controlling the movement of people in the city-state.
Updated on Jan 20, 2014 09:47 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Singapore
Ghost of 26/11 attacks still haunts Thane’s Jews
Security is a lingering concern for Thane’s Jews and over the last few years attendance during prayers has thinned at the synagogue. Around two years ago, to secure the synagogue, identity cards were issued to every member of the congregation.
Updated on Dec 22, 2014 11:06 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Mugdha Variyar/Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
Maharashtra villages fear road to city will destroy business
New development plans for the 'Dharavi Bhet' envisage a bridge link that could end the area’s relative isolation from the suburban sprawl across the creek. But most residents of the villages do not want the bridge. Manoj R Nair writes.
Updated on Sep 20, 2013 11:22 AM IST
Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
Caste panchayats: Dr Dabholkar’s unfinished mission
While the existence of caste or Khap Panchayats in Haryana is known, relatively little has been reported about Maharashtra’s Jaat Panchayats, especially those in the state’s tribal villages. Manoj R Nair writes.
Updated on Aug 24, 2013 07:53 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
City Telugus debate name change for Andhra Mahasabha
As their home state faces the possibility of being divided into two or, maybe three provinces, Mumbai’s Telugu speakers are deliberating whether the name of their largest representative body – The Bombay Andhra Mahasabha and Gymkhana – should reflect the proposed redrawing of political boundaries in the south.
Updated on Aug 09, 2013 02:14 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Associate Editor, Mumbai
Dance no bar in Mumbai: SC restores jobs to 75,000 performers
Chandni Bar may soon be back in action, with dancing girls, stuffy interiors and sweaty clients, but, hopefully, without the same masters - the crafty owner, the grubby criminal and the typical policeman. Manoj R Nair reports. Dance Dynamics | The rule book | Back on the dance floor | What bars may have to do
Updated on Jul 19, 2013 02:06 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
Can new body help save Protestant church land?
On Saturday, members of the Church of North India (CNI) will observe a fast and offer prayers at a Grant Road church to draw attention to the unauthorised sale of church property by trustees. Manoj R Nair writes.
Updated on Jun 07, 2013 01:18 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
Cubist building for city’s art society
With its rolling concrete skin, overhanging cubist blocks and three-storey high glass panels, the Bombay Art Society’s (BAS) new building at Bandra Reclamation looks like no other in Mumbai.
Updated on Jun 06, 2013 01:22 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
A million postcards to save a language
Since March 2012, thousands of postcards addressed to the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi have been sent from cities and small towns in the country that has Sindhi-speaking residents. Manoj R Nair writes.
Updated on May 17, 2013 01:49 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair
Can Esplanade Mansion be saved?
On Wednesday, the Mumbai Repair and Reconstruction Board (MRRB) asked the state chief minister to give them special authority to forcefully evict residents of 13 dangerous buildings in the city. One of the buildings is Esplanade Mansion, the former Watson Hotel, one of Mumbai’s architecturally unique buildings, writes Manoj R Nair.
Updated on May 10, 2013 01:50 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
MHADA tells tenants to renovate historic Esplanade House themselves
Restoration plans for Kala Ghoda’s historic Esplanade Mansion has hit another hurdle, with the Mumbai Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), the agency revamping the building, saying repairs are now costing Rs 17.89 crores.
Updated on May 06, 2013 02:21 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
No dignity for some even in death
The death of an 86-year old woman living in a trust-run housing colony in Colaba recently made news in the Parsi newspapers - not because she was a notable member of the community, but because after she died a lonely death in a hospital, the trust that manages the housing colony refused to accept claims that she had living heirs. Manoj R Nair writes.
Updated on May 03, 2013 03:36 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
When schools get lessons from politicians
A few days ago, a senior Catholic priest explained to me why he had decided to step down as the manager of a parish school in Jacob Circle after running the institution for more than five years. Manoj R Nair writes.
Updated on Apr 26, 2013 01:21 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
Mumbai priest was stopped from washing feet of women in 1994
Last week, the new head of the Catholic Church broke the Easter tradition by washing the feet of women.
Updated on Apr 02, 2013 02:02 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
City priests want new pope to bring in reforms
For the Catholic Church that is going through one of its most difficult periods, the name chosen by its new head holds a lot of significance. St Francis of Assisi, the twelfth-century saint whose name the new Pope has adopted, was once a war-seeking knight who was called to a life of religious service.
Updated on Mar 15, 2013 01:57 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair, Mumbai
Cops to keep watch during festival at disputed shrine
As the Urs, the annual festival at the disputed Sufi shrine of Haji Malang near Kalyan began on Wednesday, worries about a revival of communal discord brought the Muslim community’ leaders to the office of the Thane police commissioner.
Updated on Feb 21, 2013 02:06 AM IST
Hindustan Times | Manoj R Nair