麻豆约拍

Pascale Harter introduces two dispatches from India, with personal stories, insight and wit from Craig Jeffrey of St John's College, Oxford, and the 麻豆约拍's own Rahul Tandon.

Meerut, in Uttar Pradesh, is a place with a long history of academic fraud and student activism. Craig Jeffrey's been travelling there for over 15 years - and his experiences reveal plenty of the pitfalls of India's education market.

Temperatures fell to record lows across northern parts of India earlier this month - but how do Bengalis deal with the cold? Rahul Tandon reports that Calcutta echoed with the warnings of nervous parents, worried their children might catch their deaths - at least, if they weren't kitted out properly with a good stout 'monkey cap' and earmuffs.