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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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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
As we are entering into the 65th year of Independence, a zeal, a fervor can be felt all around; and moreover, as we celebrate the glorious achievements of our six Olympians, who have made the whole nation proud with their feats, here are six cases which put every Indian, worth his salt, hang his head […]
The country is in the throes of an inexplicable regression. Cover up or get raped is the message that is getting steadily strident and sinister. Stay safe with traditional clothes. Dispense with jeans and shorts if you want to preserve your modesty. Watch what you wear and how! The sneaky, judgemental voices emanate from everywhere. A […]
Here it comes again – another gory incident; a barbaric, heinous, inhuman and despicable act that has put the whole nation to shame. A young girl was molested by 20 men, in the open, in front of the eyes of many more standing there, or passing by. And we say we are living in the […]
The air is still. Almost as if it has decided to see just how quietly it can creep, undetected, through her home. Not a leaf has moved. Not a sigh has escaped her lips. Not a word of this article she has read has stayed back except one: raped. The images swirl in her head. […]
So how dirty is dirty on Indian television? A censored film is not sanitised enough for family audiences but home grown crime shows are? Especially the ones where in the guise of educating viewers about the dangers lurking in every neighbourhood and dark corner, gang rapes are recreated, victims are shown pleading for mercy as […]
In the early 90s, during the last gasps of terrorism in Punjab, terrorists in a desperate bid to penetrate the social fabric passed a diktat that women will only dress in salwar kameez and saffron dupattas. The argument was that jeans and other visible symbols of modernity were against tradition and culture. The fear of […]