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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I am my own savior. My spirit ran ahead to beam the light of hope as my weary body and mind struggled to catch up. It was this light that kept me alive as the piercing darkness around me spilled into my soul. The tunnel was akin to a birth canal, destroying every lie, facade and […]
Feminism is evil. Feminism destroys families. Feminism is anti-men. Feminism teaches women to see men as perverts, bullies and misogynists. Anyone who has had anything to do with feminism has heard these sentences being repeated again and again in different ways. A cursory search on the Internet for the memes on feminism throws up […]
A few nights ago, I was counselling a friend of mine who was grieving the end of a two year relationship. My advice to her was to put herself out there. Embrace singlehood, get on Tinder and meet some good looking (?) men. Her expression told me she didn’t take me seriously, but she then […]
A 13-year old school girl from Bangalore went missing recently and was found in Hubli. I do not know the family personally, but the incident had me thinking really hard because I too am a mother. I feel, today all stake holders in the education system are facing a serious challenge. Parents, teachers and the society have […]
Yes, it is just so hard. To not appropriate her success. So recently there was a Facebook post by Loyola students about how PV Sindhu’s father’s education at Loyola had something to do with her recent triumph. Another FB page dug out a picture of Sindhu in traditional regalia to show the ”feminists” that she could […]
I am sitting by Lake Shore Drive on my last day in Chicago. A woman is sitting by the shore, sketching the long skyline of Chicago. A gay couple kiss each other. A group of girls celebrate their friend’s birthday party. And a naughty Baltimore Oriole chases me. I sit there for hours with my […]
Boo is resting after her morning walk; her head is on her favourite panda and she seems to be half-asleep, as though she is reluctant to slip into slumber because she wants to include herself in my parents’ conversation. My parents are having their breakfast, listening to some devotional songs, and discussing the beautiful, mundane things in […]
From a very young age, I was terrified of dogs. This continued till I was in my mid- thirties. It would annoy my husband when refused to walk further if a dog was spotted at the end of the street. One day I noticed my neighbour struggling to feed her new dog. I discovered that […]
‘‘It says willing or not. What do I opt for?” asked my mother, then a mere 18- year-old girl. The question was aimed at her brother who had accompanied her to the Employment Exchange. “Not.. means no. Negative. So say yes. Choose Willing,” was his advice to her and perhaps the most valuable one that […]
Creativity has been an intimate part of the way I interact with the world. It isn’t forced. It either “clicks” or it doesn’t and when it does, beautiful things can happen. My earliest memories are of abstract ideas that just appeared out of the smallest parts of my surroundings, allowing me to view things in many […]
In a country where a mother of three babies is a five-time World Amateur Boxing champion, has represented India at the Olympics and won a medal, we recently had the director of Sultan defending his decision to show a pregnant wrestler meekly giving up her Olympic dreams while her husband hops from one international success to another. Because, […]
It’s a scary place to be. The vast openness in front of you. Myriad intertwining paths stretching across the horizon as far as the eye can see. Fear immobilizes you. One wrong step and you think all will be lost. How sad it is sweet child that you have forgotten where you have come from. […]