Articles

Healing in the Age of Agitation: How the Constant Protests and Tension in Delhi Affected My Mental Health

For students of JNU, the past couple of months have been full of despair. The protests meant we had to give up on our routine student life. Then on Jan 5, masked goons attacked us. The horror of that day lingers on. I’ve had sleepless nights and after a point could not bear to see images of bleeding students.

Paro Tomar June 12, 2016

Bollywood

The Zoya Factor Review: An Average Romantic Comedy Let Down By Sonam Kapoor

The Zoya Factor is equally let down by the terrible casting of Sonam Kapoor, whose portrayal of the “klutzy heroine” is now bordering on the offensive and its director Abhishek Sharma's insistence on taking refuge in crowd-pleasing spoofy filmmaking.

Poulomi Das June 11, 2016

Bollywood

The Seductive Villainy of Ranveer Singh

Ranveer and his complete disregard for decorum when he’s talking about fucking or kissing on screen makes the rest of the Bollywood brigade look like a bunch of sanctimonious pricks. “I fucked around a lot until I was 26,” he declared to a world in which Salman Khan is an eternal virgin.

Poulomi Das June 11, 2016

Social Experiment

Love Letters To a Jiggly Bum & Wiggly Thighs

Would you be a more content person if you could talk to the body parts you were unhappy with? A Mumbai artist was about to find out.

Shivani Krishan June 11, 2016

Sports

Brazil May Have Gone, But the Neymar Roll Will Live On

On Friday, as Brazil battled Belgium, it seemed Neymar wished to hide his theatrics in the background by showing he could run, dribble, and diddle. But in the end, it was he who had to roll past the exit door. Indeed, the World Cup will move past his various grumblings, but it is the Neymar Roll which will make the list of enduring memories.

Priyansh June 11, 2016

Bollywood

26 Years of Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!: The Stairs that Killed Bhabhi Are the Biggest Baddie of ’90s Bollywood

The biggest plot twist in Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! is the death of the adorable, ever-smiling Pooja bhabhi. Twenty-six years on, this endlessly rewatchable sequence is a cultural phenomenon – it’s now a meme. In the age that we live in, this is the ultimate form of flattery.

Arré Bench June 11, 2016

People

Love Letters for Sale

In the age of left and right swipes and insta-love on a menu card, a handwritten love letter is an anomaly. But several young people are embracing the old-fashioned romantic note.

Humaira Ansari June 11, 2016

Animals

Bow Wow, Mumbai: The City Through the Eyes of its Strays

Some of Mumbai’s many stories reside with its stray dogs. A new picture book on our canine compatriots, gloriously named Tamatar or Periappa or Whiskey, tells us a lot about the city’s streeties – and a fair bit about us.

Anand Holla June 11, 2016

Gender

Why Is No One Talking about the Rape and Murder of a 21-Year-Old in Kashmir’s Kulgam?

While we regularly receive news of minors and women being raped in India’s heartland and metros, cases from outlying regions like Kashmir get scant coverage. A 21-year-old rape victim in Kulgam district died due to her injuries in hospital last month, but why haven’t you heard of it?

Rhea Arora June 11, 2016

Love and Sex

Thank You, Next: I’ll Pick the Beauty of Everyday Affections Over Grand Romantic Gestures

Small affections – knowing how much sugar your partner likes in their coffee, reaching out for their hand instinctively during a Netflix binge – mould companionship. The beauty of these intimacies are that they don’t announce themselves to the world but demand a keen familiarity.

Poulomi Das June 11, 2016