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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The country is suffering, while the elite are engaged in Facebook wars. Nothing is going to change till each of us makes up his or her mind to fight patriarchy, caste, communalism and injustice. The working class continues to exist on a pittance, and the politicians continue to roll in rivers of money. I was […]
“… cutting up women is a sport older than cricket but just as popular and equally full of obscure rituals and intricate rules that everyone seems to know…” ~ Mohammed Hanif, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti I’m reading Our Lady of Alice Bhatti as I travel trip my way across India, meeting women for the newest campaign of our NGO- an […]
All around they keep fighting. About ideals, emotions, justice, love, life. They keep debating, elevating their minds intellectually. Superficially. And then I notice, there’s no more heart. No one puts their heart into something anymore. Maybe that’s our tragedy. The flow of emotions has just been displaced into a virtual environment and our emotions have moved […]
He lied. I was at my favourite cafe. It was a bright sunny afternoon. I was wearing a black top he had chosen for me when we were on one of my shopping sprees. It’s strange how I look so perfect when I wear the dresses he selects for me. This time too, all my […]
Melancholy. That much celebrated emotion of poets, bards and writers. That very same state of mind that evokes the deepest of sentiments that spill over and create art that transcends time, culture, and every other tangible wall. I fancy melancholic. It is definitely more palatable than depressed, don’t you think? Like a fancy mental state […]
The anxiety within oneself involved in the process of searching truth begins to settle when real Sadhana begins. Sadhana means an endeavour persistently undertaken especially to search truth. It is one pointed movement towards the desired goal. Desire when driven inwards becomes sadhana and when projected outwards, it is ambition. Ambition is the achievement of material gains. Sadhana is the […]
The truth is… Bitter A hard pill to swallow Harsh Scary Daunting Not something you want to hear. These are usually the string of words that follow the line nobody in their right mind wants to be confronted with, “the truth is…”. Ever wonder why from the very first time we hear the statement, it […]
It is only a make-believe that we are born free. We are not. Have you wondered why authorities register your birth? To keep track of you. It is like tying a collar radar on the neck of a beast so one could trace it as and when required and curb its movements. The word ‘official’ is quite […]
Honesty..passion and connection are words that Kunal Karan Kapoor uses a lot in his conversation. Every sentence either begins or ends or draws from what these words stand for. After chatting to him today, I was watching a tribute to RD Burman and someone said about him, “he always believed that rhythm was within. […]
One morning I walked into a National Park. I could see a small fragile flower behind a rock, shy but curious and trying to peep from her hiding place. I hesitantly went towards her and sat next to her. After quite some time I asked her if she wanted to say something. She collected herself and said […]
I don’t seem to know any more I wake up in the morning And stare blankly at the door. Trapped in a body wracked with limitation, Every breath is an act of suffocation. Am I the sum total of my successes, Or the product of my failures? Everything is a lie and illusion is […]
He raises his eyebrow. Flicks a tear off his sculpted, strikingly beautiful face. Leans forward. Cups his chin. He is not Oprah but we could be wrong. Satyamev Jayate is a well-intentioned show. It has got one thing right. The fact that in a country where we are oblivious to the obvious, a show about […]