This article was originally published in Indigo’s Hello 6E in-flight magazine in September 2026. From pioneering gyms in Guwahati to packed academies across the Northeast, a new fighting ecosystem is turning the region’s deep-rooted combat traditions into professional MMA careers Through his teens, Niranjan Phanjoubam challenged his friends to street fights. Strong and nimble, Phanjoubam relished […]
Author: Tora Agarwala
Zubeen Garg: Assam’s first true rockstar
This article was originally published in Mint Lounge in October 2025. Below is a longer version. Zubeen Garg sang thousands of songs but his legacy extended far beyond the music he made. Answering to absolutely no one, Garg’s irreverence gave him god-like status in a community starved of icons. One February night in 2023, Zubeen […]
Once derided as ‘stinky’, Naga food now fuels entrepreneurship
This article was originally published on Live Mint in February 2025. Enterprising Nagas have spotted a market opportunity away from their homeland. Delhi, today, has about 40 Naga food businesses, including restaurants, cloud kitchens and delivery services; Bengaluru about 15, and Mumbai at least 5. DIMAPUR/NEW DELHI: Sanulu Lohe shaped and styled nails for […]
The Naga Mukbangers Challenging Cultural Stereotypes
This article was originally published on Rest of World in July 2024. Below is a longer version. Creators from tribes in north-east India hope these YouTube videos will help break down harmful stereotypes that have kept them isolated from the rest of the country. In the video that made him famous, Apollos Kent is barefoot, […]
The north-east Indian YouTubers challenging cultural stereotypes through mukbang
This article was originally published on Rest of World in July 2024. Below is a longer version. Creators from tribes in north-east India hope these YouTube videos will help break down harmful stereotypes that have kept them isolated from the rest of the country. In the video that made him famous, Apollos Kent is barefoot, […]
How Oro Bruk’s Monpa Clothing Responds to Climate Change
Arunachal Pradesh entrepreneur Tenzin Metoh reinterprets the Monpa tribe’s traditional attire with weather-conscious textiles, fresh colours and symbolic motifs Growing up in Bomdila, a hill town in Arunachal Pradesh, Tenzin Metoh remembers winter mornings meant waking up to taps jammed with ice, rooftops lined with icicles, and a yard knee-deep in snow. Naturally, Metoh and […]
Children of Assam’s NRC: ‘Will They Take Me Away?’
This article received a Special Mention at the RedInk Awards 2021, and was originally published in The Indian Express in February 2020. Assam National Register of Citizens list hangs in a limbo. So does the fate of children out of it. “Gaari, Gaas Gujali, fuler bagan (Cars, trees and flower gardens)!” says Fatima, 12, her face lighting […]
Find Me On a Hill in Imphal
This article won the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award 2020, and was originally published in The Indian Express in August 2020. On a full-moon night, atop a hill in Manipur, Yumnam Rajeshwor Singh reads the names of the dead. They may have been gone from this earth for 76 years, but time is relative for Rajeshwor, […]
Four Kuki women recount brutal assaults they survived
This article recounts testimonies of sexual assault survivors of the 2023 ethnic conflict in Manipur. It was originally published on Scroll.in in July 2023, and won the Laadli Media Award 2024 for gender sensitive reporting as well as a special jury appreciation by the International Press Institute India Award for Excellence in Journalism 2024. [*Trigger […]
The Girl Who Chases Time
This article won the PoleStar Foundation’s Excellence in Journalism Award 2019, and was originally published in The Indian Express in July 2018. For most of her life, Hima Das has faced life’s challenges by running. She has run in rage and joy, after brawls and victories, and as if her life depended on it. The story of […]