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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At this point, the history of the EWS colony in Ejipura is a haze. A dust haze, under fierce sunshine as bulldozers plow away the last bits and pieces of the homes of more than 200 families. Fragments swim into focus now and then. ** The corporation-built housing blocks that were so shoddy they became […]
Dear Stranger, I have never met you. I don’t know your name. I have not even seen any pictures of yours. All I know is that you became a part of my consciousness on a cold December day in a foreign land. When I read about the violence perpetuated on you, my stomach turned […]
Even if the rapist had broken through the door and raped someone in the house, the woman victim would have been at fault. At least partially, because “taali ek hath se nahi bajti…” If the rape victim was an infant perhaps the reason would be her parent’s non- belief in god or perhaps her stars […]
The rape and murder of the young 23- year- old in New Delhi on December 16, 2012, has unleashed the suppressed angst of millions of men and women in India and has led to endless debates and discussions across all media, which are not going to finish too soon, but will die down nonetheless, over time.Meanwhile, rapes, […]
Dear Mr Godman ji First things first. You are neither a God. Nor a man. And if you are..the latter..I mean then do you have a daughter, a sister, a woman in your life who you care for, worry for? Do you remember your mother’s face from the time when you were a young boy? […]
The December 16 horror leaves me feeling helpless beyond words. ** I am an average woman, piecing together my life, bringing up two kids, running a family, supporting a busy spouse, trying to craft out a career and busy trying to realize all my hopes and aspirations. Suddenly the news of the death of a […]
For more than 60 years they have been invisible. AfterIndia declared her “tryst with destiny,” they disappeared into their homes and got busy with India’s developing story. You would see them in private photos and fenced spaces but barely ever on the democratic canvas. While they labored over raising decent families, the political evolution of […]
He sat there. He sat there like an unruly child who is punished by a strict teacher to face the wall. All this while, Arnab Goswami hectored as only he can. It’s an image that continues to haunt me, a couple of days after a friend mailed me a link along with the triumphant […]
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 […]