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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My heroes who I look up to would not be regarded as super human or larger-than-life characters but simple “ordinary” people who possess extraordinary qualities that somehow seem rare these days. In an increasingly cynical country, these unlikely heroes share a commonality that brings back my faith in humanity. In India. Their dignity and self-respect […]
Kite of my beloved lord flies… without wings, loosely hung on a thread … propelled by just an intention… unaware of it’s limitations… rises and touches the sky… dances in the air… as if there’s no tomorrow… So much and more …. in faith… it surrenders and rejoices, swings and enjoys it’s journey so […]
Before talking about living fearlessly, I have to talk about my fears. Some of my fears were really tiny. Like mustard seeds. A long long time ago, so long ago that I don’t remember how old I was, I was in the kitchen helping my mom cook. She asked me to pour oil in a […]
The yellow and red of the setting sun was in complete contrast to her mood. As she watched the horizon go from blue to orange to a dark purple, the waves crashed against her feet. She was thankful for the firm rocks she sat on. She knew that soon the world that she knew would […]
I am free from the fetters and I fly…I die. I dump the body in the garbage of your beauty tricks, your anti-ageing serums, your yoga mats and rejuvenation therapies. I rise above my gaze, my unglued and free gaze. Jealous? See me fly, my hair tossing above clouds, my milk whitening the world, my […]
Was it yesterday that I beamed at the fact that I had turned 18? I remember standing in one of the corridors of Seshadripuram College huddled with my friends, celebrating a milestone that added an extra zing to the already raging estrogen. I was 18. Yes. 18. Always wanted to be since I was a […]
It is just rain it falls in streams, rivulets fills gutters batters shivering dogs and frightened cats and cemented trees gasping for breath on city pavements it falls outside my window waiting for me willing me to walk to the curtains and part them I don’t stir and stay glued to my 8:30 pm spot before […]
My grandmother lived by one abiding dictum, “Daughters must never be left alone anywhere, overnight.” She was obsessive about Mom’s friends and rationed her rare friendly visits to the last minute. In fact, she is known to have chucked a pair of scissors at her once, over a five minutes delay, returning home from a […]
You have a fancy job. You have cool friends. You have a family that visits occasionally and you therefore feel you are in touch with them. You also have a vehicle to get around the city, you have a pay cheque that pays for unnecessary expenses like ready-made ginger-garlic paste, an extra skillet, more than two […]
Note: I met Aoife Mannix in 2007..the memories still linger though..of her robust world-view, her radiant poetry. After Aoife Mannix’s revolution changes the world, there will never be any wars because, “bullets will bounce where they come from, leaving no scars, just a trail of jelly beans.” Soldiers will only wear birthday suits. There will […]
Many many decades ago as a young girl in a small town, I remember reading a cover story on film maker, artist and writer Imtiaz Dharker with growing admiration. She was someone who had battled great odds to acquire personal and creative freedom. I wanted to grow up to be like her. A few years later, […]
There are several noises in her head. Years ago, they used to disturb her. The sound of mankind in turmoil. The painful grunts of voices that were never sure. The panting arguments of minds that had heard themselves over and over again too often . Not any more, though. There was no need to justify […]