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 the age of twelve, she had crossed the borders from Bangladesh. She was a refugee of the India’s independence movement. She found shelter in her maternal uncle’s house in the suburb near Calcutta. She is 92 now. The distant memory of her journey across the border is crystal clear though she cannot recall a sentence […]
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, […]
The room was dark and empty and so were we, Reflecting our thoughts was a mirror in between, Of what we know about each other and what we see, Images vanished, casting away shadows to be seen. He is nothing but a false manifestation I believe, “Is it me or […]
“Men who want to be feminists need not be given a space in feminism. They need to take the space they have in society and make it feminist”. -Kelley Temple For some reason, this year began with a number of my male friends accusing my writing of being “alienating” and “scary”. I was told (by […]
The ego’s primary job is to take offence. To feel insecure. To get defensive. To find fault. To point fingers. To never feel enough. To feed on lacks, fears, jealousy. To constantly bicker and chatter and never be at peace. If you watch how it flits from one slight to another, imagined or real, you will […]
Has it ever happened to you that you are having a conversation with someone and even though both of you were speaking the same language you couldn’t really understand a word of what they were saying? Walls of cultural references, upbringing, experiences and age separate you. You could tell them what it was like to […]
The winds of change blow hard Rattling my windows Shaking every tree in my yard I flinch under the covers Frightened and sick. ** I try to shut out the howling storm But it will not be ignored One by one the windows shatter And my blanket of safety gets whipped up in the […]
*** I don’t want the fleeting happiness that comes from acquiring beautiful things. Nor the shallow mirth that comes from people who please you, praise you and bring you gifts. But I crave the satisfaction of one who need not try so hard to prove one self in a cruel world. One who without seeking […]
She stared back at me. Deep, dark eyes. Mixed with fear and uncertainty, blended in anticipation and hope. Tried to speak. But something stopped her. A force, a faint shadow loomed behind her. It held her rigidly, yet not tightly. Her struggle pushed her back slightly, but she stood there. Waiting to be seen, waiting to reveal the shadow. […]
“Just one step, just one step” echoed the voices inside his head. He could taste the fear at the back of his throat, his head buzzed. “There is no way out,” said the same voices, inside his head. “Just one more step and you shall know peace like you never have before,” said the same voices, sounding […]
I’ve mentioned before, I’m relatively new to Kolkata.. Calcutta. Before coming here, I’ve never had domestic help. Today, I have a cook, a cleaner and someone to look after the little ones. I’m a little spoilt, if truth be told. I’m living an easy life, free to do as I choose. But having this freedom […]
Seven years of marriage were enough to attune them to each other’s energy rhythms; Ratan, an early bird while wife Meeta observed owlish hours. He would be winding down at dinner time when she would go amber, ready to turn green as night fell. ** “I missed my walk today. What’s the time?” he looked across […]