Posted inPop Culture
Toilet: Ek Bhakt Ki Katha
Instead of being a satire that could goad people into understanding the sanitation crisis in India, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha is a dishonest, factually incorrect love letter to Narendra Modi.
Posted inSports
Girls Just Wanna Score Runs: Why 2018 Was a Banner Year for Women in Sport
Women in sports are making up for lost time by smashing records while stoking the pride of the nation. From the on-field exploits of Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur, to the athletic feats of PV Sindhu, Hima Das, Mary Kom, and their peers, female athletes have forced naysayers to eat their words.
Posted inPop Culture
Who is Really Hurt By the TikTok Ban?
TikTok is not merely an app, it’s an experience. It’s an avenue to a different world, a different India that has never been able to create content before the app. So who does the TikTok ban really affect?
Posted inEarth
Are Your “Sustainable” Fashion Choices Actually Saving the Planet?
What started off as thrift shops to endorse second-hand goods have now become means of selling export rejects against aestheticised backgrounds. The “donation drives” by fast-fashion brands are a farce. Your old clothes are not being recycled – 90 per cent are trashed or burnt.
Posted inBollywood
Shashi Kapoor: The Man With the Crooked Smile Who Made Everything Better
On a terrible day, watching a Shashi Kapoor film is like therapy. Sometimes, even a song is enough: One viewing of “Bekhudi mein sanam” is enough to pull me out of any bad mood that I may be in.
Posted inHealth
“A Face-Mask Will Do Me Good”: What We Get Wrong about “Self-Care”
I have unscrupulously indulged in shopping for clothes because “it made me feel better”, spent extravagantly on meals because “I was having a good time” and bought expensive hair products as “an investment in my future self”. I was slowly but surely haemorrhaging my bank account under the guise of “self-care”, yet I wasn’t feeling any good.
Posted inPop Culture
The Sad Demise of the Greeting Card
The greeting card’s contemporaries, like Phantom cigarettes and board games have been canonised as priceless relics of our past. But the humble card has unfortunately missed its spot in listicles that “Only ’90s Kids Will Get!”
Posted inPOV
How I found a way of dealing with Angst
Angst is a formless shapeless ghost that hounds our mind and heart. People, sometimes unknowingly, invent ways to escape but often struggle and eventually, even give in.
Posted inPOV
Bass Itna Sa Khwaab Hai: The Pleasures of a Life With Small Ambitions
My friends work their bums off to get a house or a vehicle or a ration card registered in their name to feel like independent adults. But independence to me is the general compartment ticket of Indian Railways that doesn’t have my name on it, but still allows me to commute between two far-off stations.
Posted inPop Culture
Sharmaji Namkeen Review: A Fitting and Fun Ode to the Legend of Rishi Kapoor
Sharmaji Namkeen is a sweet, warm film that uses the charms of the late Rishi Kapoor to great effect. So much so, it’s probably the kind of film that acts as both a tribute, and a reminder of his affability.