Every dog has a story—and they can certainly strike a pose for the camera. That’s the central theme for pet photographer Elias Weiss Friedman, who has been running the Instagram and YouTube channel The Dogist for a decade. Friedman moves around the US and other locations photographing dogs—be it on the pavement or the beach—and speaking to their pet parents to know the dog’s temperament and special habits. In doing so, he has clicked thousands of dogs. The dog portraits are special, full of expressions and the usual head tilts that are downright adorable. I have personally enjoyed learning more about interesting breeds—be it a bernedoodle or a pomsky. The Dogist’s YouTube channel says Friedman’s goal is to create a happy place on the internet for dog lovers. It has certainly worked. —Nitin Sreedhar
The fuchsia cover does it no favours, giving this book the façade of frothy, frilly romance, but Prajwal Hegde’s The Way We Were is a gentle story of deep friendships, workplace culture, intergenerational trauma and the different ways people grieve. It’s set in Bengaluru, a city that the author clearly loves. There is plenty of romance, fun and heartache—as books of this genre of writing made most popular by Helen Fielding have—but this also a story that takes the careers of its female protagonists seriously. Set in an old-school print newsroom, where journalists go the extra mile to bring a story to life, this is an easy read about life, work and love. —Shalini Umachandran
A friend recently brought me two folders on the ancient art in Assam during a visit to the National Museum in Delhi. One of them is about manuscripts from the 16th century, and the other about rare sculptures of the Brahmaputra Valley from the fifth and sixth centuries. Each of them comes with a booklet filled with deep academic research supplemented by a clutch of fascinating photos. Blame it on sheer apathy, but I had no idea about these precious cultural relics. The National Museum calls them portfolios, and they have published more of these, including on Assam’s centuries-old monuments and bronze figurines, an imprint of tantric Buddhism. I want them all now. — Jahnabee Borah
There is nothing that elevates cooking more than the warmth of chilli. For a long time, I searched for chilli-infused oils which could add that extra zing to dishes, while suiting everyone’s palate. But, the products on offer were either the searingly fiery ones that numbed your senses, or the mellow ones that didn’t make any difference. That’s when I came across Burma Burma’s chilli garlic oil drizzle. I have, for the longest time, been shopping for khowsuey paste from the speciality restaurant’s online pantry store. And I decided to give the oil drizzle, made with flakes of dried red chillies and fried garlic, a try. What works for it is the versatility— you can use it to add a layer of depth to soups and curries, or as dips for dumplings and wraps. I usually add on top of chilli cheese toasts, omelettes and chillas for that gentle hum. —Avantika Bhuyan
