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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A raindrop falls, hits the ground, disintegrates and is no more. The last light of the day leaves Imagine a home in the country Imagine a garden, rose beds Think of the sun in the flowers, Imagine your children playing, Carefree and happy. Are the seams in your shirt straight? Imagine a girl who wanted […]
I walk with my hands stuck to my sides when I’m alone, usually very quickly without realising it. When there’s a man behind me (however nice and harmless the poor chap may be) I stop to let him walk forward before continuing on my way. I dodge ‘boob brushes’ by effortlessly moving my shoulders […]
How can words sum up who you were? What you stood up for? What you fought for? What you died for? You fought. Till the end. for that breath, that cannot be wounded, because it comes from an inviolable I AM. And even though you are gone. You are here. In all of […]
Just this morning, while getting ready for work, I overheard on 93.5 Red FM via the RJ (a woman) that the victim of the Delhi outrage was now in Singapore and responding well to treatment and since this was such a good news, she was going to play us an upbeat song and then the […]
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 […]
I recently attended a protest rally against the brutal gang rape of a woman in Delhi. Fewer than 200 people turned up. Bangalore has a thriving theatre and arts community, writers, actors and an IT community that drives the economy of this city. But we don’t seem to have even a thousand people who could make […]
When crimes against women increasingly make shocking headlines and figures citing how different crimes against them are rising all the time, one explanation most readily given is that it is a time of transition, or even confusion. India, we hear, is a modernizing, young nation though large sections remain conservative, patriarchal, reluctant to change. And […]
I have never lived in Delhi but every time I pass it on the way to my mother’s town, my skin crawls and not just because of the rape lore that thickens its air. After having lived in the South for the last 18 years, I cannot handle the brazen disrespect in Delhi’s gaze […]
My wife drives. She is way ahead when it comes to this particular skill. Sometimes sitting next to her while she is driving helps me understand what she is up against whenever she gets behind the steering wheel. Most male drivers in the city don’t like women driving. This is regardless of the class they […]
And so the 20-something terrorist was hanged to death this week and the question remains. Does capital punishment resolve, solve anything? Does it bring real closure? And who are we to judge whether a criminal, no matter how hardened and beyond redemption deserves to live or die? Who are we also to judge people […]
So here is the overwhelming thing. It is the anniversary of 1984 riots. It was Aishwarya Rai’s birthday yesterday and it is Shahrukh Khan’s birthday today and on top of that.. Bond..James Bond is wowing audience worldwide. So the media is in a tizzy trying to keep up. Why am I clubbing the 1984 […]
It has been over one year since Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandez were killed in Mumbai by eve-teasers for trying to protect their girl-friends. Their loved ones are still waiting for justice though finally charges have been framed. However, never before in the history of independent India have the young faced so many challenges as they […]