Saturday Feeling: The restaurant wars, Rushdie's new book, ‘Dil Se’ back in theatres, and other stories to read

“There are,” wrote Julian Barnes with the certainty born of experience in The Pendant in the Kitchen, “certain dishes always best eaten in restaurants, however tempting the cookbook version appears.” As a Barnes fan, I have taken his advice to heart and cook as little and as rarely as possible for myself. I’m one of those “evolving consumers” that restaurant industry reports gleefully describe as responsible for “India’s dining boom”, a phenomenon of the past 15 years.

In India, as Camellia Panjabi explains in her new book Vegetables: The Indian Way, eating out is a relatively new practice, and five-star hotels began upgrading their menus only in the 1970s as the government encouraged them to attract tourists and earn forex. That was also the era of licenses and permits, which meant only the chains had pockets deep enough to buy the kind of ingredients fine dining demanded. Naturally, hotel kitchens became the training ground for young chefs and even today, they remain the best place to learn the ropes and understand process. But process alone isn’t enough for a great meal. Cooking isn’t magic but it certainly is more than following an SOP.

It’s taken about 30 years but the opening up of the economy in the 1990s has transformed the way we eat too—it gave chefs access to ingredients, education and influences. Standalone restaurants, bistros and cafes now populate “where to eat” lists that would earlier have been stuffed with hotel coffee shops and ‘grills’. As independent chefs experiment with flavours and ingredients, have hotel restaurants fallen behind? Or are upscale standalone restaurants merely standing on the shoulders of the giants that luxury hotels are? Hotel restaurants are trying to innovate with bar takeovers, pop-ups, chef collaborations and revamped menus, but is it enough? Those are the questions we try to answer in Lounge this week.

A story to bookmark is our rewatching of Dil Se to mark Shah Rukh’s 60th birthday and grappling with the new questions it raises nearly three decades later. We have an interview with Madhav Agasti, who has dressed some of Bollywood’s most memorable villains and the country’s most iconic politicians. We also review Salman Rushdie’s new book, The Eleventh Hour, and take a tour of the Capital’s newest south Indian restaurants (yes, they’re all standalones).

The vanishing human in customer care

Less than five years ago, calling customer care and speaking to a human agent was the norm. Today, companies have turned it into the last resort, with many of them deliberately making it harder to reach a real person and making chatbots to do the job. Some have turned direct human assistance into a premium feature. This automation of customer service is a problem especially in times of crisis. In the race to automate everything, companies risk learning an expensive lesson: it only takes one moment of terrible service to break a customer’s trust forever. And unlike an AI voicebot, that’s one thing no algorithm can fix, writes Shephali Bhatt.

Booker Prize winner ‘Flesh’ is inviting yet challenging

David Szalay’s Flesh won the Booker Prize 2025 on Monday from a shortlist of six very readable titles. All six shortlisted books were uniquely powerful this year, from Kiran Desai’s breezy The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny and Katie Kitamura’s slim Audition to Ben Markovits’ The Rest of Our Lives, which grapples with the Big Questions of Life. But none of them come close to Flesh in terms of originality, writes Somak Ghoshal. Flesh is an “anti-novel”; Szalay cultivates a deliberately styleless style with no signposts to lead the reader to decode the message the book hides. By refusing to give the reader access to the inner life of his character, Szalay sets up a challenge that is unyielding while remaining inviting.

As AI transforms work, women have more to lose

AI can free us from tedious work but if we’re not careful, it can deepen divides, writes Feon Ang, managing director (Asia Pacific) at LinkedIn. In theory, AI should expand opportunity, but in reality, women are standing closer to the edge. In India, 80% of women are in roles in technology, retail, finance and media that could be augmented or disrupted by AI, compared to 75% of men. Conversely, eight in ten HR leaders in India say soft skills are a top hiring priority—which is an opportunity for women. AI will determine much of the “what" in tomorrow’s work. But the “who" is still ours to decide. An inclusive workforce is about ensuring women are leading, influencing, and designing what comes next.

Living with adult ADHD

ADHD, or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, has long been framed as a childhood condition but as research and awareness shifts, many urban Indian adults are realizing that their chronic disorganization, emotional impulsivity and restless energy has a name. Divya Naik speaks to experts and lists some everyday strategies to help adults with ADHD stay afloat in a culture where the condition is poorly recognized, workplaces are rigid, and stigma remains high. However, therapists must be consulted to help adults build sustainable systems and structured routines, have psychoeducation, and undergo ADHD-adapted cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to strengthen executive skills. Medication can bring significant relief for some, and having strong support networks is vital.

On a pintxo bar crawl in San Sebastián

It seems simple: a single salt-cured anchovy, a pickled olive, and a bright green chili threaded onto a toothpick. But this tiny, briny powerhouse is rewrites the rules of eating in San Sebastián, Spain. The only way to truly experience it is to dive into the frantic, elbow-to-elbow chaos of a pintxo crawl (txikiteo). Pintxos (pronounced peen-chose) are small bites, that can range from simple tuna and pickled pepper to perfectly seared foie gras on apple compote. It’s the precision of a fine dining dish, served on a stick. Lounge goes on a pintxo crawl in San Sebastián, starting at the Old Town’s local favourites and ending at a sports bar.