Love in Mofussil India

Aanand L Rai’s cheeky Tanu Weds Manu begins with the nostalgia evoking voice of Ameen Sayani announcing farmayashi names of the protagonists and the song, ‘Bhor aayi gaya andhiyara’ from Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Bawarchi. We see a time dappled home in Kanpur that hasn’t been painted in a while, getting ready for a guest while the patriarch sits blissfully lost in […]

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Nine Lives

This poem underscores the lives led by many a woman in India. Many traditions believe that cats lead nine lives. And the title is an analogy to the fact that cats survive life threatening situations in a very natural manner. Just like it’s a way of life for these women too… Nine Lives As tender […]

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Still. Silent

Artist CF John is not given to flourishes. He does not need them because in his work, you see the distillation of all of life. Not its impulses. Raw gashes. Or its over stated drama. What you see is balance. Stillness. Life evenly poised between the tangible and the invisible. Swathes of peace. Introspective protagonists revelling in rich inner […]

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Alive on Stage

Alive on Stage

Piece together the pieces of a scattered mind Make a scented paste of the bump and grind A play, a performance, a story played out An emotion whispered with a gentle pout. The sweat must not smell and the hurt must not show But Feelings must reach all the way back to the last row […]

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Killing Them Softly

A story about the black widow of six dysfunctional husbands could have been filmed like a grisly chapter out of Manohar Kahaniyan or a blood and gore spill in a Ramsay horror film. And yet in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Saat Khoon Maaf, you find startling strands of brilliance like,”Zyada kabhi zyada nahin hota..hamesha kam hi hota hai..aur jo kam mein jeena […]

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What Lies Beneath

I met Vivek Mathew years ago at his first photography show and he has progressively delved deeper and deeper in the core of his passion for images, for light and shadows, for the ripple of textures, for the music of silence and photographed the most unlikely of objects and themes with startling perspective and insight. It is easy […]

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The Bitter Half

The Bitter Half

I have recently been editing papers about women’s empowerment and the plight of the downtrodden Dalit women in the Indian hinterland, and thinking that most Indian women, even in the so-called ‘upper strata’ in metros don’t have it so hot either! Maybe in terms of sheer physical labor and material hardships they are much better […]

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