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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The wisdom of the Absolute posing a challenge to the intellect of human is the crux of human predicament. The perennial questions about god, self, soul, afterlife, purpose and meaning of personal and impersonal existence – all point towards the enormous gulf between our limited capacities to understand key abstractions on one hand and the infinite […]
Don’t begin to meditate with an objective in mind because this is against the very spirit of meditation. Meditation is non-doing. Most actions are goal directed and a goal implies a desire. A desire to achieve something through meditation works as an obstacle in attaining the state of meditation. In fact, liberation which is the […]
The anxiety within oneself involved in the process of searching truth begins to settle when real Sadhana begins. Sadhana means an endeavour persistently undertaken especially to search truth. It is one pointed movement towards the desired goal. Desire when driven inwards becomes sadhana and when projected outwards, it is ambition. Ambition is the achievement of material gains. Sadhana is the […]
Sometimes strolling in a park, Or walking by the sea At times lazing on a terrace, Or ambling in an open space, Be a nobody, a stranger. Don’t mingle. Collect yourself within. Listen to the sound of the waves, The squeals of children playing, Or the din of the traffic moving. See the sky, […]
What is the value of a person whose dawn breaks on streets or railway stations who sips tea at dingy canteens each day whose sells scrap to live who sleeps under an empty sky Who is he in the city of dreams? I don’t know. Perhaps he is a mascot of disparity, inequality of empty […]
Have you ever been whistled out of a public park, shooed while halting at a parking place, insulted at a railway ticket window, mocked at a police station? If you were a common citizen of India, you must have been. Admit it. Born and brought up in India, I have faced this and often my friends have told […]
In deep sorrow lies the doorway to bliss. It is cruel to ask but have you parted from or lost someone whom you loved deeply? In this separation one encounters a deep sorrow. A sorrow that shakes the very root of your being. The loss is not the loss of a person alone; it is also the loss […]
An often repeated question raised during various meetings on meditation with people is: why should I meditate? My simple response is: if you are happy the way you are in this world, don’t meditate. Some baffled by the response, shy away. Others drift to another question: what are the benefits of meditation? My answer differs most times this question […]
Freedom is raising your hands to the sky and saying, “I am done.” Freedom is running on the beach, falling and saying, “This is it.” Freedom is listening to a tune, weeping and saying, “This is all.” Freedom is letting the waves wash your feet and saying, “You washed my miseries away.” Freedom is sitting […]
Not only action but also inaction can hurt. Violent action is direct and has obvious forms like killing, injuring, beating, taunting, mocking, and insulting whereas violent inaction can be subtle and indirect. Violent inaction can be both intentional, I call it Manipulative Passivity and it can be unintentional which may be termed as Ignorant Passivity. Both can hurt significantly […]
It is only a make-believe that we are born free. We are not. Have you wondered why authorities register your birth? To keep track of you. It is like tying a collar radar on the neck of a beast so one could trace it as and when required and curb its movements. The word ‘official’ is quite […]
In a rustic hut near a river tributary On a secluded land with living serenity In a small temple of a beautiful deity A peaceful mind in an agile body Seeking truth in breath and life in beauty O’ ascetic.. immerse..immerse me in divinity On a hilly terrain inside a forest Beside a Buddha statue […]