Culture
The industry's song of the year is about a Bible nobody opensThe industry's song of the year is about a Bible nobody opens
12 October 2026 · 2 min read
Culture
Film, music, books and television, Christian and mainstream both. The core magazine function.
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She left school, and now she is the only woman running the sound desk at her church
Esther grew up the eldest of four daughters of daily-wage workers, and was pulled out of English-medium school so a younger sister could stay in. Then the church asked for someone to learn the mixer.
He taught film dance for a living, then taught himself keyboard, guitar and drums
Ricky Biswasi led an orchestra in Jeypore singing film songs. He talks about the year his friends left, the verse that stopped him, and why he no longer thinks of prayer as asking.
She learned oil painting at a work offsite, and has painted sixty-eight Bible scenes since
Maria Clara works at Genpact, runs a household, and paints. Some canvases take six months. She talks about Daniel among lion-faced men, and why she calls it a mission rather than a hobby.
Bhaskar Rao played twenty instruments, and sang in ten languages
He sat in the corner of a room until he was ten. Then a pastor asked whether he wanted to go to school. Our 2012 conversation with the flutist, who died in May.
The street fighter who became a cameraman for the kingdom
Pavithran Golconda grew up in a Christian home in Hyderabad and wanted nothing to do with it. He talks about the night that changed him, the band he started, and why he tells beginners to learn on film.
Mary Sujani has made three hundred puppets, and every one of them preaches
A Hyderabad designer on childhood play that turned into a profession, and on why the smallest talent is worth refining.
Samuel Stanley Jones: “Prayer is the only source that gives life to our talents”
A Hyderabad worship leader on being chosen to lead, staying undistracted on a stage, and why a gift is never a burden.
An MLA recited the whole of Psalm 103 to her in Telugu, and she went to the ladies' restroom and cried
She had been a Crusader, then Legion of Mary, then twenty-five years in the Christian Workers Movement. She was a nominated Member of the Legislative Assembly. And she could not name a single Bible reference.
The candle failed in the mould and left a hole, so she filled it with orange wax and had room for one short verse
The verse that fitted was "I am fearfully and wonderfully made". Months later a pastor in Trivandrum reached for that candle while sitting with a couple who had been told to abort their baby.
We cut the tags off in the changing room, walked out, and sold the clothes at half price to rich college kids
He failed eight papers out of ten and lost a year. Three friends died of overdoses. Then somebody asked him to play guitar at a prayer meeting, and he went because he had nothing else on that afternoon.
If one of my three children were caught in the match-fixing, I know exactly what I would do
She would cry herself hoarse in front of the cameras insisting they were innocent, and go on saying it long after guilt was proved. Then she works out what she believes God would want instead.
Twenty-four thousand cases in one year, and two words we use to make that bearable
The outrage lasts about a fortnight. Then the protests thin out, the panel discussions move on, and the country goes back to chalta hai until the next one is brutal enough to interrupt us.