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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Did I tell you about the time I flew? No seriously. I was always the quintessential only child – held back from most physical activities because of the degree of preciousness that my parents attached to me. As a result, most activities which children take for granted were completely removed from my life – […]
What does fear smell like? Fear smells like the absence of smell in a hospital. Perhaps induced artificially from swabbing the floors with phenyl and other chemicals. The absence of smell is in almost everything. Isn’t it unnerving and disconcerting when you find that food does not smell like food, people don’t smell like people […]
You know why GOD created a gap between fingers?So that, some day the one who is made for you comes and fills those gaps by holding your hand. I have often come across these lines and every time they would leave me in a cynical contemplation. A cliché, I would remark. I had always regarded […]
In this world of little forgotten things, finding one’s true purpose seems to be of quintessential significance. You got to have an unwavering, steadfast reply to the question “ Who are you”? I don’t have one. I’d like to say, “Hey, I’m Sandra, I’m a writer”, but that’s just a load of crap. I’m no […]
It starts with a hum and slowly builds into a wave that washes over your mind, body and soul. A singing bowl really does sing to you. It takes a certain pace, a restrained rhythm all working in sync to make this music. The best way to play it is to surrender. Close your eyes […]
Fear is a friend. She’s been by my side for as long as I can remember. While most friends tend to drift away or come back into my life sooner or later, she’s never wavered. No matter how safe a country, city, street or home is, she’s taught me to regard all men with suspicion, […]
There are times when we look at the world and feel despair. Events over the months of 2016 and part way across the threshold of 2017, have given us justifiable cause for such malaise. Trump will be president within days. The Syrians are either forgotten or vilified, Britain is leaving the EU, the weather has […]
I don’t know what it is about a new year that makes us all so optimistic. It is just another year, like the many others that have gone by, leaving behind dreams, aspirations and resolutions that never really took off. And yet every year is vividly different from the one before and the one after […]
I am sitting in a cab that rushes at 80 kms an hour. My gaze is fixed on the clear azure sky, but my mind is muddy; the noise in my head is deafening. The driver sings along to a retro song that is on the radio. On any other day, I would have smiled the […]
Tell me the story of a prince, Of a man good at heart, Of a gentle soul. Tell me they exist, Tell me there are men Who are genuinely sweet And who won’t break you whole. Tell me it’s a possibility To encounter this magic Called kindness In this world. Tell me it’s not a […]
I dreamt of blue flowers Growing out of snow In a mountain field Bathed by a warm sun. They were majestic Impetuous With their deep indigo blue They pierced winter In a wild and beautiful manner And colonized the field with their radiant truth. You could only feel taken in By their magnificent will To show […]
I had a dream where someone gave me a kiss. So sweet and gentle. Purely unconditional. Unartful. He simply looked at me, and kindly offered me this moment of intimacy to convey a message. Like a fairy tale prince, he woke me from my state of lethargy to make me understand that there’s still hope. […]