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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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 […]
The word icon is used so cheaply today. The fact that it has the word, con in it may have something to do with it. Perception is more important than substance. Image more important than truth. Marketing more important than creating. Fame and shame sometimes are not indistinguishable. And somehow it doesn’t matter. So strong […]
Untouchability has its roots in India like its culture,religion,pride and diversity.We are born with it and we die with it.We neither question nor dare to find answers.It has survived like a label,a name,an identity.One may not believe in caste,yet one can’t change the belief of others . The whole notion of Purity and Pollution is […]
`Trying to remember our way back into past realities, past rooms, past beliefs is a first step towards measuring the depths of change in ourselves and the world. It’s also a reminder that the progress we may now take for granted is the result of many major accomplishments of the past and just the beginning of […]
Was it coincidental that I wrote the introduction to the Chicken Soup for the Indian Woman’s Soul on the eve of Woman’s Day? As I wrote it many years ago, I recalled women who have triumphed in big and small ways and changed lives and perceptions without ever being acknowledged. Women who don’t bail out easily […]
The last few weeks have had a daunting effect on my mind; the events around the world creating many shifts in thought processes and forcing me to question the very basic of human existence — trust. Humans seem to have a very skewed perspective of their actions sometimes. “Aren’t you being inhuman?” is an oft-repeated […]
“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.”-Benjamin Franklin ** It is 10 am and near Bangalore’s Austin Town Circle, a crowd is slowly gathering around the Ambedkar statue. Young students from St Joseph’s college, volunteers from NGOs, nuns, workers of assorted political parties, […]
The plan of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to construct more commercial complexes is fated to increase the traffic menace in the city while the livelihoods of local vendors are already at risk. The BDA is planning to build four big shopping complexes at Jayanagar Market, Malleshwaram, Seshadripuram and K.R. Puram Santhe […]
With just three months left for Karnataka to file a compliance report on a law guaranteeing free, compulsory education to children aged six to 14, many schools seem to be flouting the norms fearlessly. Located in Shivajinagar, Kannada- medium Hafzia Higher Elementary school has poor hygiene standards and lacks basic facilities. Apart from this, the […]
Guilt today is a global media event. So when Lance Armstrong finally answered the big question about his integrity in the widely televised interview with a, “I’m not the most believable guy in the world right now,” Oprah Winfrey almost brought back her under-performing OWN network from the brink. Lance could have given a newspaper […]
These walls used to be lined with books. Now they hold imprints of a different kind. History was made here that day, and people unmade, in fire, in smoke, in blood and sticky gore. ** In the stillness of the empty room, you can still feel the heat, hear the hopeless cries, the sense of […]
What is the meaning of a republic? Is it a selectively amnesiac entity where bull dozers run over and flatten the lives and dignity and pets and homes and belongings of the poor while builders advertise gated communities protected from the “noise and the pollution” of the big metros for the benefit of those they […]