Meghalee Mitra, Author at Arré

Why Women Need to Stop Being Polite to Predators and Creeps

Growing up, we women have been repeatedly led to believe that our own sense of being lies at the lowest rung of the ladder; that we must respect and bow before everybody but ourselves. So what if a stranger elbowed my breast? I am not going to disrupt an entire auto line over it, right?

Meghalee Mitra July 28, 2016

Pop Culture

Getting Over Endgame: How to Survive the End of a Franchise that Feels Like Family

Our emotional investment in the characters on screen – be it Iron Man or Tyrion Lannister – is more than most millennials invest in a relationship. But is this merely a mindless addiction, or is there something more that we’re missing?

Meghalee Mitra July 4, 2016

Gender

The Girl Without the Red Lipstick: Why I Keep Saying No To Make-Up

As our bodies began to transform when we turned teens, the girls in my class started to get little makeovers. Many started waxing, some got their noses pierced, and almost everyone started applying kajal and lip balm. I resisted them all, convinced that giving in to make-up would suggest that I wasn’t enough the way I was; that I needed fixing to fit in.

Meghalee Mitra June 4, 2016

Gender

I Was All for Body Positivity… Until I Gained Weight and Couldn’t Fit In My Clothes

We’ve been trained to believe that hating the way our body looks, feels, and weighs is another way of subscribing to societal demands of female beauty. It’s dangerous and self-destructive. But if I’m being honest, maintaining a veneer of body positivity, when you can’t stop thinking of your weight, feels much the same to me at this point.

Meghalee Mitra June 1, 2016

People

Delivery Boys, the Angels of the Age of Apps

For anyone struggling to survive, pay rent, work 12 hours, and flux toxins out of their body, food delivery boys are our mediums to nirvana. If the MCU had ever employed these delivery boys in the Avengers franchise, then they’d have found and stopped Thanos before his ETA.

Meghalee Mitra May 31, 2016

Pop Culture

Netflix’s Russian Doll Reveals the Hidden Cost of “Inconsequential” Decisions

Nadia on Russian Doll becomes a proxy for the viewer as she scrutinises her life while stuck in an endless time loop, confronting all the decisions she ever took for granted.

Meghalee Mitra May 20, 2016

Pop Culture

What Bhobishyoter Bhoot Gets Right About the Double Standards of Indian Politicians

Anik Dutta's political satire Bhobhishyoter Bhoot, re-released after being pulled off theatres in February. It's a timely offering in this election season, because the film is a solid critique of how non-partisan art is a victim of the whims of political parties.

Meghalee Mitra April 23, 2016