POV Archives

You Might Be Liberal or Conservative, Pro or Anti-CAA, JNU Students Deserve Your Support

It wasn’t JNU students who went around smashing heads with iron rods, it was the masked thugs. It wasn’t JNU students who vandalised ambulances trying to enter the campus, it was the masked thugs. Regardless of your political ideology, JNU students were under attack. They aren’t the villains here.

Dushyant Shekhawat April 8, 2016

POV

The Rise of Communal Porn: What the Kathua Girl Search Says About Us

The eight-year-old who was gang-raped in a Kathua temple, today became the top trending search on a popular porn website. But we’ve been purveyors of “Hindu-Muslim” porn for a while now. It is easier to blame Sanji Ram for the perversion, but the real perversion lies in our minds.

Aakash Ahuja April 7, 2016

POV

My Experiments With Plagiarism

Can we please just drop the pretence? The truth is, originality is a myth.

RayC April 6, 2016

POV

Avengers: Endgame Is the Millennial Generation’s Lawrence of Arabia

If there’s one word that perfectly describes Avengers: Endgame, it is “big”. Beyond its runtime or wank-worthy IMAX aspect ratio, there’s something about this movie that is stirring in a way that Hollywood classics such as Lawrence of Arabia and The Maltese Falcon are.

Damian D'souza April 6, 2016

POV

Our Unhealthy Obsession with Honeypreet Insan

No matter how much we wince and outrage over Honeypreet and Ram Rahim’s relationship, there is a sort of guilty pleasure in watching incestuous stories play out on prime time.

Parthshri Arora April 6, 2016

POV

When Did Ambedkar Jayanti Start Getting the Rohit Shetty Treatment?

I was born in a Dalit family, and Ambedkar Jayanti was nothing short of Diwali for us. April 14 was a day of music and quiet pride. Over the years, however, the day has transformed. It is no longer the underdog indie; it is now a big, gaudy Rohit Shetty film.

Vaibhav Wankhede April 5, 2016

POV

Who Will Be the Villain in the Biopic on Mumbai? Terrorists or Potholes?

Congratulations, Mumbai, your apathy truly deserves an applause. Your tax money is used to build roads, repair them, so when there are pothole-related casualties, you are paying for your own death. The biopic on the city should ideally be titled “Bombay, the City that Never Feels”.

Hardik Rajgor April 5, 2016

POV

The Decade in Which I Stopped Punishing Myself for Being Overweight

The 2010s have been the most significant decade of my life. I don’t recall any other time in my life when people, especially women, were so encouraged to accept themselves exactly as they were. Sure, the obsession with losing weight still abounded. But alongside the “Lose 50 pounds by Christmas” articles were pieces titled “Fitness at any size.”

Radhika Oltikar April 5, 2016

POV

Fast and Furious: Will the New Traffic Rules Finally Force Indians to Drive Safely?

If you can drive in India, you can drive anywhere. Our pitiful reputation for unsafe driving has led to the steep fines for traffic violations in the new Motor Vehicles Act. But despite the public outcry over sky-high challans, is money the only language we will understand?

Kahini Iyer April 5, 2016

POV

Why “Take Care of Yourself, and If You Can, Someone Else Too” is My Go-To Mantra in the Pandemic

My favourite sign-off line these days is from the popular Freakonomics podcast: Take care of yourself, and if you can, someone else too. Look at the order of prescribed care: yourself first. And then comes the second bit: If you can, someone else too. What I appreciate the most about this is the voluntary nature of it, which makes you want to do more.

Deepak Gopalakrishnan April 4, 2016