POV Archives

My Rich Friends Want Epic Weekends, I Want to Pay Rent

People like me sweat the small stuff, while my investment banker friends worry about how to make an epic weekend. Your Saturday-Sundays then become the equivalent of a Bhansali film. You look forward to having a great time but end up feeling massively ripped off and questioning your life choices.

Riddhi K May 10, 2016

POV

We’ve Spoken a Lot about Shweta Now Let’s Talk about the Friend Who Bitched about His Ex-Girlfriend

We’ve had our share of laughs over the Shweta call but we are also privy to its darker side. After all, there is a real person involved – the girl Shweta was discussing. And while she thankfully remains anonymous, the conversation reveals how men talk about their partners, often to other women, when they are not around to speak for themselves.

Kahini Iyer May 10, 2016

POV

Why I Might Lose My Feminist Club Membership

I think not having a #MeToo story to tell is a great story by itself. It is a story of hope. It is validation of the fact that we can rely on at least a few good men and some of them are on our side.

Ashwina Garg May 9, 2016

POV

Ganesh Chaturthi of My Childhood: How I Learnt the Art of Pandal-Hopping

Today Ganeshotsav is about visiting that one relative who keeps Ganpati and having one-fourth of a modak. As children, though, it caused more excitement than for Charlie at the Chocolate Factory, because pandal-hopping was the only all-nighter we were allowed.

Hardik Rajgor May 9, 2016

POV

What Bollywood Always Gets Wrong About the Differently Abled

Why can’t Bollywood filmmakers seem to give disabled protagonists challenges other than overcoming their disability? It isn’t as if we don’t have precedents. In films like Sparsh and Jagga Jasoos, the leads’ afflictions don’t dominate their characters.

Amal Singh May 8, 2016

POV

Moral Police or Pervert? The Anatomy of an Online Troll

Indian trolls are mostly sanskari or sleazy AF, but instead of squabbling among themselves, they get along just fine. In fact, they are two sides of the same coin, and more often than we know, the moral police turns out to be the pervert.

Dushyant Shekhawat May 7, 2016

POV

Kabhi Haan, Never Naa: When You Lack the Art of Saying No

I suffer from a condition called No-monia that renders me incapable of saying “no”. I’ve taken up more assignments than I can handle; I’ve paid bills for people who said they will pay me back when I know that they never will, just so that people don’t dislike me.

Devrupa Rakshit May 7, 2016

POV

Two Steps Behind: Being a Runner-Up in a World Full of Winners

Being a runner-up in a world that places an unbending prestige on being the absolute best at everything is like being a dusty cassette in the time of Apple Music; an expiry-date-laden book shop in the age of the immortal Kindle; wholly redundant.

Poulomi Das May 6, 2016

POV

The Rise of the Right

The Brits aren’t the only ones coasting along on the fear of outsiders and loss of identity. The world is swiftly taking a turn right.

Sharan Saikumar May 5, 2016

POV

In Memory of Friends: Why a 1990 Documentary on the Fallout of the 1984 Pogrom Still Remains Relevant

Anand Patwardhan’s 1990 documentary In Memory Of Friends made me realise that the alienation and othering of Sikhs reached alarming levels during the ’80s. As Sajjan Kumar is sentenced and Kamal Nath’s role is under scrutiny, we continue to feel the fallout of the violence of 1984 even today.

Sourodipto Sanyal May 5, 2016