Times Crest: Sex and the Maximum City

Women in Mumbai traditionally occupied public spaces with far greater ease than most other Indian cities, owing to two distinct historical phenomena. The combination of social reform movements, around freedom, education and the abolition of caste, alongside the development of public transport systems made Mumbai comfortable for women. The recent breakdown of Mumbai's public transport, at a time when its social fabric is unravelling, is fast turning the city into an urban nightmare.

"Women were at the forefront of important reform movements in Maharashtra, resulting in their taking to the streets in large numbers, " says Sameera Khan, co-author of Why Loiter?, a forthcoming book on public spaces in Mumbai. Khan indicates the ladies' compartments in Mumbai local trains, which made it possible for women to travel across the city. But Mumbai's burgeoning population has put immense strain on transport.

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Crest: Sore losers? How the West responds to defeat

Fifa's much-anticipated bid selection to determine which nations would get catapulted onto the football map in 2018 and 2022 reads like a proper thriller. As Russia and Qatar were announced winners of the world's biggest show, the news - particularly in the land of those who were not chosen - became full of plot, intrigue, bad guys and rogue reporters hoping to add to the stories.

The English media - where many, somewhat confusingly, referred to it as 'Britain's bid' - were downright horrified. Alongside tabloid frontpage screamers of Mafifa and War on Fifa, high-brow BBC documentaries looked at allegations of vote rigging and other-wrongdoings within world football's executive committee. The presence of the heir to the English throne alongside global jet-set darling Brand Beckham, certainly fuelled the interest.

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Times Crest: Why Armin's so charmin'

Armin van Buuren, voted Best DJ in the world, on how he teases, pleases and has the crowd coming back for more.

They couldn't have been older than 14. Accompanied by parents who kept a sharp eye on what they were up to, the girls in neon tees were a strange sight in the sea of dressed-to-the-nines club crowd. But the teenage pair was oblivious to the curious glances. With permission slips in hand to stay out till 3 am, they had turned up, like hundreds of others, to watch the world's number one, and some may argue, best DJ, Armin van Buuren.

Unlike many of the big names on the electronic dance scene who are all on the wrong side of 40 and hence less attractive to a young crowd, van Buuren is 34. More than any other DJ, he has revived the dance music genre which has in recent years suffered from stunted evolution, with people tiring of the same cheesy anthems that are played in superclubs.

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Times Crest: Small towns, big leap

Who would have thought 10 years ago that Amritsar would have greater mall penetration (per thousand population) than Delhi;that Vittorio De Sica's arthouse classic 'Bicycle Thieves' would be shown at an international film festival in Yamunanagar;that the Indian cricket team would be captained with such distinction by a Ranchi boy? Indeed, who would have thought that small towns would be so integral to India's growth narrative? But is that the full picture? Amidst soaring real estate prices and mushrooming super-luxury car showrooms, there's also a lament for a vanishing way of life - a time when you could just drop by at a friend's place. TOI-Crest brings you the story of small-town India 2. 0 and what it has lost and found in transition

Revolution has many colours. But at the Adidas shop on Delhi Road in Rohtak, it's white. Middle-aged farmers from nearby kasbahs and villages drive in SUVs and ask for the priciest pair of white sneakers.

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