For the first 3/4th of the pandemic, I took pride in being responsible. My resolve remained absolute, my discipline unwavering in the wake of those setting worse examples around me – flocking to Goa, pubbing. Eventually, I gave in. I started travelling and doing things I don’t do even in a normal year, like attending weddings. But each of these outings is accompanied by guilt.

In Gujarat, Marwari women lead dual lives. They fast with their mothers-in-law and sip mojitos with their friends.

A new category of friendship has emerged during the pandemic: The Covid friend, someone whom you connected with over the last year and is now more than an acquaintance. I’ve a bunch of Covid friends – women I met at an online book club, a man I met via a dating app, and a host of home cooks who had joined a Mumbai foodies’ Whatsapp group during the lockdown.

While the idea of struggle is relative, I believe there’s a socially dictated equation for the logic of success. It goes something like: Struggle + Sacrifice + Ambition = Money + Security + Yay I’ve made it in life-wala feeling. Contentment and joy may or may not turn up in the answer, but that’s not part of the problem we’re told to solve, is it?

Dearest Bed, after one year of living, loving, and hating the pandemic together, I think it’s time we broke up. I am tired of using you as my workspace, coffee shop, and play station. As another lockdown looms large, I’ve decided to move on.

With no restaurants, pubs, and stand-up shows to enjoy, isolation is better spent away from the hustle and bustle that city-dwellers usually endure. In the past year, I’ve travelled more in India than ever before: a ski trip to Kashmir with friends who would normally rush to Europe, a couple of Goa holidays, and a family vacation to the Nilgiris.

Hello Charlie is a comedy where a billionaire tries to flee India disguised as a gorilla. If the trailer is anything to go by, this film is going to be a laugh riot.

Once you rise above the post of manager, why try to learn employee names and bother memorising them all? The corporate experience is all about being treated like shit, and the best way to do it is to refer to a human being with the same word you can use for a stapler.

Joji, Dileesh Pothan’s Malayalam-language Macbeth adaptation, is not a historical epic or a gangster movie. It is set in a leafy rubber estate in Kerala’s Kottayam. But what makes the film different is not just the setting but also Fahadh Faasil’s interpretation of Macbeth as a mousy schemer instead of a tormented warrior-type.

Twelve years after I was first introduced to the bra, I decided to break up with it. It wasn’t a decision borne out of rebellion or one to support a socio-political movement. Some of us just like going braless.