Articles

Lockdown Lessons: Is Our Wasteful Generation of Plenty Finally Learning to Ration?

Ever since the lockdown started, we’ve used up all our veggies and groceries, and nothing was left to go limp or cross its expiry date. Scarcity or survival, we’ve learned to ration out everything, and have actually ended up using a lot less.

Deepak Gopalakrishnan April 11, 2016

POV

What Mumbai Stands to Lose When Chawls Turn to Skyscrapers

As Mumbai undergoes redevelopment, skyscrapers are taking the place of the city’s old chawls. For the people living in these 10x10 pigeonholes, it means moving into apartments with a toilet inside the house. It also means giving up the bonhomie and security that living in a chawl affords.

Damian D'souza April 11, 2016

Modern Family

No Blackmail, No Derision: Patience Helps Me Turn My Mother Away From Bigotry

My mother had no problem accepting my queer Arab ex-girlfriend, but she still believes in the idea of a “Hindu nation”. And I feel like a hypocrite espousing liberal values in public, but being unable to confront these challenging ideas at home. So I continued to talk to her – with love and patience.

Suryatapa Mukherjee April 11, 2016

POV

When Did Our Parents Go from Hating the “Idiot Box” to Being Addicted to It?

My parents have adopted the television as their own child. From 8:00 am to 11:00 pm, there’s a constant hum of static in the background, punctuated by a laughter track every 10 minutes. It’s ironic that the biggest consumers of the television today are the same parents who hated it.

Aditya Bhalla April 11, 2016

Bollywood

Dream Girl Review: A One-Line Premise that Suffers from a Vicky Donor Hangover

Dream Girl suffers from a visible Vicky Donor hangover and says nothing new in its greed to say a little bit of everything. But perhaps the biggest downside of Dream Girl is that it looks like the first sign of Ayushmann Khurrana being held prisoner by his own reputation.

Poulomi Das April 11, 2016

Pop Culture

Beyond the Malayalam new wave: Classics that set Mollywood apart

Malayalam new wave cinema is all the rage right now, consistently putting out trendsetting films that have become a point of obsessions for cine lovers from across the country. But not just the new wave, Mollywood has produced some classics before as well.

Prateek J April 11, 2016

Pop Culture

Sacred Games: Sartaj Singh, The Man We Can’t Wait to See on Screen

Sacred Games with its supremely Sikh hero, is the stuff great stories are made of: Men struggling with their burdens, their goodness and their ghosts, and failing spectacularly at it. Will the Netflix series do justice to both the book and its brooding anti-hero?

Sharan Saikumar April 11, 2016

Pop Culture

The Indian Detective is Everything That’s Wrong with Russell Peters

The Indian Detective is filled with all the tired cliches that Russell Peters peddles in almost every comedy special. The Netflix show has finally made us acknowledge something: Why did we ever think Russell Peters was funny?

Poulomi Das April 11, 2016

People

My Shikayat with Shikaar

When I was 11, my head was filled with tales of shikaar from my Rajput family. But after my own hunting experience – where my uncle shot down a brown hare – I felt nothing like my hero Jim Corbett. The only thing I felt was regret.

Dushyant Shekhawat April 11, 2016

Gender

Beware of the Brocialist

In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, there is a new species of men to study: Brocial-ists. Dudes who are supposedly woke and espouse the right kind of politics, but are utter douchebags to women.

Apoorva Sripathi April 11, 2016