My Bai, the Cleaner of My Conscience
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My Bai, the Cleaner of My Conscience

Even though it’s been years since I sat for an exam, the moment my maid rings the doorbell at 8 am, I break into the kind of cold sweat I’d experience before entering an examination hall. Each time she empties the ashtray into the bin, she gives me a judgey glance and every beer bottle elicits a standard response, “Itni daaru!”
Champi… Tel Malish for the Complete Indian Mard
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Champi… Tel Malish for the Complete Indian Mard

Indian men do not usually indulge in pedicures and facials. Who and what then gives us succour from the relentless onslaught of life? The answer, my friends, is in the strong, virile, and skilful hands of the neighbourhood barber and his vigorous champi.
Grandma Must Die
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Grandma Must Die

Every year, a brood of my relatives descends on our ancestral house in Mangalore to meet my great-grandaunt. The 102-year-old woman in the wheelchair is a wrinkled pot of gold.
Kabir Khan’s Sneaky Subversions
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Kabir Khan’s Sneaky Subversions

If Tubelight and Bajrangi Bhaijaan are any indication, two things have heightened with every new Kabir Khan project: the scale of his movies and their political undertones.
The Biker Buntais of Ramzan
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The Biker Buntais of Ramzan

Bikers, who take over the streets of Mumbai at midnight, are a nightmare for law-abiding motorists. But they say speed is an addiction, and the city needs to keep pace with them.