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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“May I be protector for those without one, A guide for all travellers on the way;” ~ Shantideva, in A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life. The gorgeous Goan monsoon is washing my windows squeaky clean, and as I’m lying around in bed, I’m suddenly thinking of Sealdah railway station. I was there just […]
Radhika was spoilt for choice when it came to clothes, accessories and almost everything else she wanted. She was the pampered wife of a millionaire who went on endless business trips around the globe in search of better deals and more money. They owned a lot wealth and led a lavish life; an outsider could […]
What is the value of a person whose dawn breaks on streets or railway stations who sips tea at dingy canteens each day whose sells scrap to live who sleeps under an empty sky Who is he in the city of dreams? I don’t know. Perhaps he is a mascot of disparity, inequality of empty […]
Last year, over 100 Broadway stars, directors, producers, musicians, choreographers, designers and technicians gathered in front of the police station in Times Square, New York, while a poem titled ‘I Can’t Breathe‘ was rendered by Daniel J Watts. This was done to register a protest and start a conversation about police violence, which had claimed […]
It’s architect, planner, activist and theoretician Charles Correa himself on the stage of the JN Tata Auditorium in Bengaluru and what he once said about Corbusier’s architecture in Chandigarh, comes to mind, “Corbusier has sought to create an architecture of passion. No sotto-voce, no politeness but like Wagner-thunder in the concert hall.” * Correa’s voice is weak and broken but […]
Yesterday, I saw her again, No sign of recognition, Now I know there needn’t be any. Little grey eyes had changed. The first time she followed me, Tugged at my stole and called to me. A smile so innocent, asking for money. Ragged hair and shaggy clothes, Not worth a care, I know, Too busy […]
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 […]
The world is divided between them and us. Between the disempowered and the powerful. Between survivors. And oppressors. And what better way to tell a story about dispossession, migration, transition and struggle than to assume not just one voice but many? To narrate not just one but diverse histories embodied in Japanese mail order […]
Her eyes gleamed brighter than the pretty gold ring shining on her frail finger. She stared at it in shock and awe, examining her finger from different angles and muttering in utter excitement, “This is for me didi? Really! This gold ring is for me?” I nodded with affection, my mind still recoiling from the […]
“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in […]
The sun had begun to set on the horizon. Chanda’s frail arms could no longer carry the weight of Bablu. Cold and tired, she put him down on the cobbled pavement. The old mansion looked deserted. Chanda and her brothers huddled together to keep warm. “Will he come?” she wondered looking at the box in […]
Just another day. I leave office and wait for an auto to ferry me home. A cheque I had deposited on Monday, should have been credited by now, I think to myself. It surely would help. I am listening to music. A ritual to lose my mind that sometimes can’t focus on life or work, into […]