Can Men and Women Be Friends? After 30 Years of When Harry Met Sally, We Still Don’t Know
Posted inPop Culture

Can Men and Women Be Friends? After 30 Years of When Harry Met Sally, We Still Don’t Know

Anyone who’s seen When Harry Met Sally as many times as I have will tell you this: its genius evolves and matures as you (hopefully) do. Maybe, when you realise you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you really do want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. But men and women can be friends. The sex part doesn’t always get in the way. Does it? Oh, who the hell knows.
Why I Didn’t Sign the Petition to Commute “Nirbhaya” Rapists’ Death Sentence to Life Imprisonment
Posted inPOV

Why I Didn’t Sign the Petition to Commute “Nirbhaya” Rapists’ Death Sentence to Life Imprisonment

If there ever was a case that was tailored to strengthen the position of those rooting for capital punishments for exceptionally cruel crimes, it would be the Dec 16 Delhi gang rape. As someone who experienced sexual violence at a young age, I wanted the rapists to die. Which is why, maybe the law should not give me or anyone the option to have our bloodlust satisfied.
HBO’s Chernobyl Warns Us About the Disasters of Propaganda & State-Sponsored Truths
Posted inPop Culture

HBO’s Chernobyl Warns Us About the Disasters of Propaganda & State-Sponsored Truths

It is impossible to watch HBO’s Chernobyl without one unsettling question gnawing away at your intellect: Could the worst nuclear accident in the history of humankind have been averted if documents containing vital information about structural damages and flaws in the design of the reactor hadn’t been redacted? The answer is almost too awful to contemplate.
#MeToo: Is it Okay to Feel Guilty about Outing a Sexual Harasser?
Posted inGender

#MeToo: Is it Okay to Feel Guilty about Outing a Sexual Harasser?

Days after I outed my abuser at the height of the #MeToo movement last October, I was overcome by gut-wrenching guilt. A big part of it was seeded in my belief that for the most part, people deserve second chances. Were a few unwelcome dirty messages a crime big enough to warrant the obliteration of his public image?
25 Years of Bridget Jones’s Diary: A Valentine’s Day Date for All the Single Women in their 30s
Posted inPop Culture

25 Years of Bridget Jones’s Diary: A Valentine’s Day Date for All the Single Women in their 30s

Bridget Jones and I have been each other’s Valentine’s Day date for several years now, no matter who we’re dating or doing. But I’ve only come to truly appreciate the books and the movies in the last five years, as have several other friends who found themselves unexpectedly single in their 30s. She’s the unlikely single-girl role model I didn’t know I needed.
Madhuri Dixit, the Woman of Middle-Class Dreams, and My Papa’s First Crush
Posted inBollywood

Madhuri Dixit, the Woman of Middle-Class Dreams, and My Papa’s First Crush

I have grown up on stories about my father’s not-so-secret childhood crush on Madhuri Dixit from the time when they were neighbours in Mumbai. As a child with a congenital heart condition, Papa had spent a large part of his childhood as the one-boy audience for her daily kathak practices. She didn’t know it, but Madhuri Dixit was making life a little bit bearable for an angry teenager.