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Ishaan Rajiv Rajabali

News Editor

Ishaan Rajiv Rajabali is a sophomore studying political science. Ishaan can be reached at ishaan_rajiv.rajabali@tufts.edu.

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Arts

Arundhati Roy speaks her words of wisdom

By Ishaan Rajiv Rajabali | November 20

“Perhaps even more than a daughter mourning the passing of her mother, I mourn her as a writer who has just lost her most enthralling subject.” Arundhati Roy strikingly muses, cigarette in hand, on the cover of her latest memoir, “Mother Mary Comes to Me.” Her contemplative gaze masks emotional turmoil, audacious pluck and good ole’ mischief. Across 352 pages, she takes us through a life spent navigating uncharted waters with little trepidation. The unpredictable undercurrent of this stream is the eponymous character she describes as her “shelter and her storm:” Mary Roy.

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Arts

Odessa Gaines shares her 127-article-long journey with the Daily

By Ishaan Rajiv Rajabali | May 12

“I remember people being like, ‘Do you like to write? Come to DailyCon!’ And I signed up,” graduating senior Odessa Gaines recalled in her Daily origin story. A staple of the Arts and Pop Culture section (and its spring 2025 executive editor), Gaines’ journey with the newspaper began at the student organization fair during her first year, where her existential need to write encouraged her to join and try something new.

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Arts

A little R and R

By Ishaan Rajiv Rajabali | September 5

If I were to associate summer with three words, they would be rest, rejuvenation and, most importantly, reading. The months of June, July and August are crucial to reassure my conscience and my Goodreads that I am indeed keeping up with my TBR — I often divide my vacation into phases based on the books I intend to read, to go with my desired aesthetic or vibe. My TBR is erratic at best, and it’s difficult to pick just two books, but we are working with a word count here. Here are my top two reads of this summer:

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News

The Daily Class of 2024, in their own words

By Estelle Anderson, Ishaan Rajiv Rajabali, Shannon Murphy, Michael Onysko, Teagan Mustone, Matthew Sage, Rebecca Barrie and Josué Pérez | May 19

As Tufts’ newspaper of record, the Daily sees many students contribute to its black-and-white newsprint pages, but not all work their way up to its masthead. The Daily staff spoke with eight members of the Class of 2024 who have all served on the newspaper’s managing or executive board and left their mark on the organization’s history.

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Columns

Brown and (Usually) Blue: Salman Rushdie’s ‘Knife’ is sharply witty, brilliant

By Ishaan Rajiv Rajabali | April 24

Salman Rushdie, famed Indian novelist, seems to have occupied the liminal space between fame and notoriety since the beginnings of his literary career. His second novel “Midnight’s Children” (1981) won him fame, admiration and the Booker Prize; his fourth, “The Satanic Verses” (1988), forced him to go into hiding as he reckoned with the potent forces of censorship and violence. It is not challenging to find an author with a life as tumultuous as the stories they spin, but rarely is it as brilliant as Rushdie’s. And this brilliance continues to define his work, as proven by his 2024 memoir “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” published this April, a mere two years after he was attacked on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in August 2022. 

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Arts

Brown and (Usually) Blue: Tangled in misinformation, rooted in racism

By Ishaan Rajiv Rajabali | April 12

Sometime in March, someone on X, formerly known as Twitter, tweeted their enthusiasm at a fancast for a live action remake of “Tangled.” The tweet speculated that actors Avantika Vandanapu (of the feature musical adaptation of “Mean Girls”) and Milo Manheim (of the Disney Channel “Zombies” movies) had been cast in the alleged remake and was followed by edits of this potential cast.

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Columns

Brown and (Usually) Blue: Holi moly

By Ishaan Rajiv Rajabali | April 2

A few weeks ago, I was sitting with my friend and her study group in The Commons Marketplace, working away on an assignment. As we talked spring break and the onset of March, the conversation turned to the Indian festival of Holi. “Oh yeah!” exclaimed someone at the table, “Isn’t that like Indian paintball?” I suppressed a chuckle, agreed and added that we also dance around a fire at midnight and offer a vial of our blood to celebrate springtime. The comparison did stay with me though, having struck me.

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Columns

Brown and (Usually) Blue: The power of ‘Lagaan’

By Ishaan Rajiv Rajabali | March 5

Since the institution of the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, only three Indian movies have ever received nominations. The first, “Mother India” (1957), is a classic, interweaving political commentary with a narrative of a determined farmer. The film follows a rural woman named Radha and her struggle to nurture her family, village and land. The piece uses her resilience as a marked metaphor for an Indian nation in the aftermath of independence. 

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Columns

Brown and (Usually) Blue: ‘New Kings of the World’

By Ishaan Rajiv Rajabali | February 27

“Every day, 14 to 15 million Indians go to the movies. India produces between 1,500 and 2,000 films a year — more than any country in the world.” The first section of Fatima Bhutto’s book, “New Kings of the World: Dispatches from Bollywood, Dizi, and K-Pop” (2019), dives right into an astute analysis of Bollywood, one of its three subjects. The fact that the Hindi film industry brought in a whopping $1.3 billion in 2023 only affirms the global scope and influence Bhutto examines in her book.  

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