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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Never meet Gulzar during lunch time, especially when it hasn’t been served yet. When he is hungry, he gets into a foul mood, refuses to answer in more than monosyllables and makes mocking comments like “I am busy arranging marriages” when asked what keeps him occupied these days. What we have said to upset him […]
I am lost in my own being Knotted, twisted, reeled in, I see a being unrecognisable staring at me from space. A wanderer, longing to reunite with what was once her soul. Love demands from you everything you can’t give. It pokes fun at you, flogs you, and then bleeds you to death. I have […]
We do not fear dying; we fear being forgotten. That’s why we have death anniversaries, barsis and shraadhs . That’s why we have graveyards longing for someone to stop by. That’s why we have urns on ledges and frames gracing our walls. But I don’t want to be those bones lying in wait. I want you to show me how […]
Unboxed Writers began reaching out to readers in March 2011 and in April we are nearly 140 stories and many thousands of clicks old. Yes, we are being read and shared but there are days, to be honest, when we wonder. No, not about we why are writing. We do not question the joy of reaching out every single day to every single person who […]
Not the love that watches. Not the love that waits. Not the love that bides its time. Not the love that obeys the clock, the traffic, laws of the season and reason. But the love that is here and now.. Like an impetuous embrace, The sweat on the brow, The sun on the skin, Like […]
Silence chugs on noiselessly, eternally like a well-oiled secret. Pervasive. Invasive. Persistant. Lingering on to speak, listen, sigh, whisper and feed on the chatter of hope. Silence, rising like smoke, stinging nostrils and eyelids of the soul.. As we watch empty years that passed without eyes locked across the checkered table cloth. Without words that were to gush into parched hollows like monsoon rivulets and bring us to life […]
I want to take the sea with me Wherever I go, whatever I be To rest my head on a pillow of water A life lived as King Neptune’s daughter I want to take the sea with me To feel the whipping wind in my face Could there ever be a better place? I want to […]
Chased the sun to the edge of a cliff He slipped into Sandman’s lair through walls as thick as mist Rowed through the clouds trying to remember a dream With a heart that’s numb and a mind in deep freeze Shadows wear colour as and when they please Reality grows rich in a world of […]
Down the street they stroll hand in hand Like lovers who’d care two hoots should the whole world be damned She leaps about to a rhythm none but she can hear Never failing to keep pace with his slow tentative step Two hops to one plod A rather odd time signature “Another one, another one” […]
The Mumbai trains are like a country within a country. Most people who use it to commute call it a “life-line” that takes them to work so that they can provide for their families. Every person who uses it has a new story to tell each day and with nearly seven million people travelling on a daily basis, all one can do is listen and marvel…