In 1979, Basu Chatterjee made Baaton Baaton Mein and unobtrusively brought to us the dating and courtship rituals of a community that was till then either caricatured or just overlooked in Hindi cinema. Nancy Perreira and Tony Braganza…
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Matriarchal manipulation in a patriarchal world is depicted unsparingly in Usha Priyamwada’s Pachpan Khambe Laal Deewarein (Now playing on Prasar Bharti). The mother resentful of her lecturer daughter’s comfortable life in her college residence because the younger daughters…
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“Start with hope..always start with hope. We went from being a shitty team to become one of the biggest dynasties in the sport and all it needed was one match to light this fire,” says Michael Jordan at…
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In 1947, my grandparents brought three children and the remains of an uprooted life from Pakistan to India in a train. One of those children was my mother. I grew up hearing a lot of stories about the…
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Three documentaries streaming right now show the ultimate culmination of the Bois Locker Room culture. And what happens when one gender is taught to mistrust its instincts of self-preservation and the other does not even learn something as…
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In Sudip Sharma’s Paatal Lok (Now streaming on Amazon. Co written by Sharma, Sagar Haveli, Hardik Mehta and Gunjit Chopra. Directed by Avinash Arun and Prosit Roy), India’s disowned inhabit the headlines we turn away from. A young…
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Red, green, purple! Every time Keerat pulled off one romper and put on the other, her eight month old wiggled and chuckled, chubby hands grabbing at the young mother’s arms as she fretted over the colour that best lightened her dusky baby’s skin tone. ** “She looks dark in each of these,” Keerat wiped her brow, […]
Boxes strike terror in my heart, the ones crammed with books and papers in particular. I will procrastinate sorting them until pushed to the wall. It is not that I am lazy or disorganized; I am just scared of hurting. And so the black containers sit scratchy and sore like corns on the toes, darkly […]
Seven years of marriage were enough to attune them to each other’s energy rhythms; Ratan, an early bird while wife Meeta observed owlish hours. He would be winding down at dinner time when she would go amber, ready to turn green as night fell. ** “I missed my walk today. What’s the time?” he looked across […]
“The Indian Railway’s Second AC has lost its elitist air,” Harshal told himself irritably. Elbowing his way into his assigned seat, he glared at the passengers already settled in. They wore that shifty eyed look of proprietary, typical of wait-listed Indians. He rolled his eyes at the pedestrian domesticity surrounding him, cursing the college alumni association for advancing […]
It will be annual diary time for teachers soon. There will be records to fill up; lists of textbooks and duties, methods of teaching to be detailed, workshops attended, special measures for bright students, remedial measures to improve the weak and of course, most important of all, an overview of what inspired the teacher most […]
A young lady half my age offered to carry my bag. On seeing me recoil, she reached out to grab it and we tugged a bit, my sense of independence rivalling her classy upbringing. She resolved the impasse by insisting her driver see me to the car. ** The second event took place as […]
I should have learnt this lesson earlier in life. But it is one of life’s ironies that most Eureka moments come too late. The next best thing you then want to do is to try and save your children all the pain and hurt and disappointment that go with a lifelong negotiation. It is […]
For more than 60 years they have been invisible. AfterIndia declared her “tryst with destiny,” they disappeared into their homes and got busy with India’s developing story. You would see them in private photos and fenced spaces but barely ever on the democratic canvas. While they labored over raising decent families, the political evolution of […]
I have been crying. There have been images on the TV, reports in the newspaper and talk on the streets. I understand the anger against the perpetrators, the concern about the victim and the frustration with the government. But my thoughts have been with the mother of the girl. ** Like me, she would have […]
** As mesmerizing as the flames of a bonfire or the frothy gurgle of a brook can be the flight of a kite. I crane my neck to look up in awe and in my thoughts, I am astride those fragile paper wings. My heart lifts, I feel my body levitate and there is an expansion […]
It is the oldest trick in the world. It is called diminishing by an unfair but convincing comparison. We do it all the time. And for some reason, it is quite the established and accepted ritual. Think back. Did you as a child push unpalatable food down your throat with a parent delivering statistics on […]
Whoever said women were permitted only one act in a lifetime? Do 20 extra kilos, scars of an invasive surgery, dental implants and some somnolent muscles mean you are done for in this life? Would it be fair to say that you are now past your peak and prime, having discharged your primary obligations of […]