Posted inPeople
My 15 Minutes of Fame with Amitabh Bachchan
At an award function, I was assigned a seat right behind Amitabh Bachchan. And when the cameras turned towards us, I put my best face forward.
Posted inPop Culture
SOS! Netflix’s Black Mirror is Getting Too Real
The three episodes of Black Mirror’s latest season may have lost their tech edge, but they are so relatable for a much scarier reason – our reality is quickly keeping pace with Charlie Brooker’s satire. This was probably his plan all along.
Posted inPOV
Why Millennials Should Read the Bhagavad Gita
That the Gita is given a religious connotation which limits its reach, is a pity. Much before Twitter threads told you that your biggest enemy is within, the Bhagavad Gita had already got it covered.
Posted inPeople
Shraddha Kapoor’s Birthday Confessions
In a diary entry, Shraddha Kapoor reflects on the year gone by: “The only call I got after OK Jaanu was from KRK. It was like getting an endorsement from the Ku Klux Klan.”
Posted inBollywood
How Rajnigandha and Choti Si Baat Gave Us Vidya Sinha, the Original Girl Next Door
As I mourned the passing of Vidya Sinha last Thursday, I couldn’t help but realise that Sinha was an Everyman’s heroine. As Deepa and Prabha in Rajnigandha and Choti Si Baat, two of Basu Chatterjee's classic outings, she oozed femininity that was distinctly Indian while embodying a sort of reckless abandon that was almost postmodern in its emancipation.
Posted inPop Culture
Friendship Cancel with Twitter, Announces Amitabh Bachchan
It boggles the mind to think that India’s most adored superstar could be so touchy about something as superficial as a Twitter follower count. But losing those followers seems to have hurt AB more than the Bofors allegations and Nishabd combined.
Posted inPOV
Remake Game of Thrones! Remove Robert Pattinson! Have We Reached Peak #FirstWorldProblems?
We’ve come to see petitions as a way to be loud when we’re tired of Twitter. From disgruntled fans demanding Game of Thrones’ final season be remade and Robert Pattison be recast as Batman, to actual do-gooders trying to save the environment, the online petition is the new outdoor rally.
Posted inPOV
“Even the Bhakts Are Here”: How Ardent BJP Supporters Have Joined Anti-CAA Voices
All through last 10 days, the police crackdown, the imposition of Section 144, and internet shutdowns over the Citizenship Amendment Act saw many BJP loyalists turn. They have a common complaint – they were banking on Modi’s development agenda not divisive politics.
Posted inCoronavirus
In Twitter We Trust: How the Social Network Has Turned into a COVID-19 Directory
As COVID-19 hits home for lakhs of families, complaints on Twitter about having to work from bedrooms and Zoom fatigue have slowly made way for urgent pleas for hospital beds, Oxygen cylinders, and medicines. And the Twitterverse has stepped up, providing details of beds available, preparing a list of oxygen suppliers, compiling Google docs with information on where to find the life-saving Remdesivir and more.
Posted inCoronavirus
It Starts with One: A League of Ordinary Men and Women Trying to Save India Running Out of Breath
As the second wave of the pandemic hit us, our timelines were flooded with SOS calls. We were all filled with despair but then a few among us decided to do something about it. This is the story of those men and women, who started by making one phone call, running one errand, verifying one source, and haven’t stopped since.