Posted inFirst Person
My Absent Abba
My Abba and I barely spoke. And while the lives of my friends’ fathers were not as complicated as my Abba’s, their memories of daddy-daughter conversations were limited too.
Posted inFirst Person
Swiping Across Borders: How Strangers on a Dating App Helped Me Cope With Pandemic Blues
For someone whose social circle comprised potted plants and a Netflix account, I thought self-isolation would be easy. But as people started losing lives and jobs, and work dried up for me, I was hit by a sudden urge to do more than just survive in my corner. That’s when I started connecting with strangers across the world on a dating app.
Posted inFirst Person
No First Day, No Show: What It’s Like to Grow Up Without A Movie Theatre in Kashmir
Back in the day, Kashmir was breathtaking – the Dal Lake still had clean water, the entire valley didn’t smell of blood. And it had a cinema. Today, the valley doesn’t have a single working theatre. Nobody in Kashmir who is under 30 years old has had the privilege of watching a film in the theatre on the very day of its release.
Posted inFirst Person
World Post Day: How My Mother Lost Her Voice as Emails Replaced Letters
Sometimes, when I miss my mother’s younger, healthier, happier self, all I need to do is close my eyes and think of the beautiful letters she wrote me – letters as distinct as the way she drapes her saree. But the realisation that my life was going to be forever lacking in the salt of her written words dawned on me when her memory began to fade.
Posted inFirst Person
My Brother’s Keeper
I’m grateful for my younger siblings every day and have anointed them my guardians. We were raised to be a team anyway, responsible for each other’s care and protection.
Posted inFirst Person
Why My Atheism Takes a Backseat Every Ganesh Chaturthi
I was brought up in a religious household, where Ganesh Chaturthi was the celebration we waited for all year. After my father passed away, I stopped praying and developed a disdain for religion. But I make an exception during the Ganesh festivities, where I suspend my atheism.
Posted inFirst Person
My Life as a Juvenile Graffiti Vandal
The first time my friend desecrated Juhu’s pristine footpaths with his vile aerosol can, I was overwhelmed at the prospect of finally getting to live out my childhood fantasy of being a graffiti vandal, like the ones I’d read about in Europe.
Posted inFirst Person
My Love Affair with Uma Parmeshwari
Vijay’s fascination with an 11th-century Goddess drives his quest to recover India’s stolen antiques. After an eight-year struggle, he fulfils his promise to bring her home.
Posted inFirst Person
Christchurch Shooting: My Brother Escaped the Australian Terrorist. But He Might Never Escape Islamophobia
My brother was in the mosque when Australian terrorist Brenton Tarrant opened fire at Christchurch’s Masjid Al Noor, leaving 50 people dead. Long before the call came, it was as if my family had been preparing for it our entire lives. Tarrant was only turning another cog in a giant wheel of violence, greased by generalised Islamophobia.
Posted inFirst Person
My Life as Sweaty Betty
Hyperhidrosis is a weird kind of illness. It’s enough of a condition to have an important sounding name, but it isn’t debilitating enough for people to feel sorry for you.