For a long time Rajkummar Rao, who neither came from a filmy family nor had the luxury of a lavish Dharma debut, was nobody’s idea of a hero. Yet in the decade that he has spent in Bollywood, he has redefined what it means to be a hero in his own terms.

The award-winning filmmaker, Neeraj Ghaywan, quit a cushy corporate life and charted his own course at 30. The result is sensitive films like Masaan, that drew accolades at home and abroad, and the second season of Sacred Games.

The “Asli Hip Hop” hook from the Gully Boy that you’ve been tapping your foot to? It was created by Nitin Mishra, aka Spitfire, whose signature verses have set the Ranveer Singh-starrer aflame. Exactly how did a young rapper from small-town Madhya Pradesh make his mark on Bollywood?

An Out Of Love survey that polled married Indians on their expectations of loyalty found out that people in love marriage are more prone to being suspicious of their partners than the ones in arranged marriages. Normally, I’d scoff at this. But today, I’m living proof.

I voted for the BJP in 2014 and 2019. I backed GST and supported the abrogation of Article 370. But I am no bhakt. I am a BJP voter who is opposed to the CAA.

Chandrashekhar Azad’s now viral photograph, holding the Constitution on the steps of Delhi’s Jama Masjid, screams resistance and unity. His Bhim Army prides itself on the Constitution, a document that is secular and impartial to any one religion, caste, or sect. No wonder the increasingly distressed Indian Muslims now see an ally and perhaps even a leader in Azad.

Aap chronology samajh lijiye... Pehle anda aayega, phir murgi aayegi, phir chicken fried rice banega, aur uske baad acidity hogi.

For five years I was suffocated in a relationship of co-dependence. We were always together. But I was never present. It took me a while, but this year, I realised that I cared about my erstwhile partner a lot, but when I was with him, I had forgotten how to love myself.

Toh kaun jeetega ye match? Building ke uncles ya khurafati bachhe? Kiska hoga ye Nana Nani park? Ya ye match lega koi aur naya turn? Watch Gully Cricket ki Match Fixing ft. Badri Chavan, Rohan Khurana, and Max Fernandes.

When women are in the street, the State better sit up and listen. So when a JNU student leader refuses to back down despite being beaten up, and when grandmothers and mothers in Shaheen Bagh gaze into the camera and demand answers of the PM, there is only so long he can hide behind silence and platitudes.

Deshbhakti is all the fierce hijabi and burkha-clad women who refuse to be sidelined or othered. Deshbhakti is the college students picking trash off of the roads where they protested, mere hours after the police opened fire and lathi-charged.

Even if JNU was a stunt, the simple act of bringing one’s star power to a social battlefield can go a long way. The influence of Bollywood on India’s people cannot be undermined. And if Deepika Padukone has urged even a handful fans to sit up and take notice, to question the government, it is worth the fight.

"Kal se daaru bandh." #OPPOReno2

For many, the announcement of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees U2’s first- ever concert in India is the end of a long wait. But what’s also true is that U2’s maiden Indian appearance is coming around 15 years too late.

I have noticed a curious trait about Indians living abroad – the sight of a fellow countrymen annoys them. It’s like what one Punjabi woman sincerely told me in England, “I didn’t escape to a foreign country only to be surrounded by more Indians.”

On Hrithik Roshan’s 46th birthday, his old friend Jadoo is throwing him a surprise bash. We managed to get an invite for the party and it’s both heartwarming and ludicrous.

Why do we women squeeze ourselves into undergarments that behave like torture devices accessorised with elastic, bows, and ribbons that are meant to irritate the skin at inopportune moments? I’ve realised you aren’t truly emancipated until the day you find yourself committed to the cause of comfortable drawers.

The silver lining to the dark cloud of the anti-CAA protests is that the Act went from being something that people had heard about but not fully understood, to the subject of a mass movement. Now, there is a sense that this idea is not fringe anymore. There’s a feeling that it could get better.

As Malti, an acid attack survivor, Deepika Padukone delivers a moving, invested performance in the uneven Chhapaak, without indulging in self-pity. It is to her credit that despite the prosthetics, her performance feels neither artificial nor gimmicky.

In a Tamil Brahmin household, mornings aren’t complete without the holy trinity of filter coffee, The Hindu, and MS Subbulakshmi’s “Suprabhatam”.

Much before I was spoilt for choice by in-flight entertainment options, I’ve enjoyed a dubbed version of The Transporter with a Hindi-speaking Jason Statham just as much as a double-header of Hungama and Hulchul on bus rides. As a broke college student with adventurous dreams but limited means, the movies played in the bus quickly became my favourite part of travel.

Lavasa’s story is not just a story of an environmental disaster or an economic nightmare, it is a cautionary tale of the failure of human hubris and a reminder that it may be easy to build a perfect city, but it is damn near impossible to buy its heart.

The thought of watching another Jedi vs Sith battle while protests raged across the country was enough to cause a little guilt. But at the demonstration against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Mumbai’s August Kranti Maidan, I realised that even here, there were people resisting the Dark Side of the Force.

Remember the excitement as we entered the 2000s and the 2010s? The internet and fruits of liberalisation sweetened the former, as did a strong economy and smartphones for the latter. But this time it seems different — global expectations from the decade we’ve just entered seem to oscillate between tempered realism and outright dread.

If there were to be a physical manifestation of what “being timeless” looks like, Mohammed Rafi would be it. “Tribute to Mohammed Rafi” is a permanent fixture in most taxis in Mumbai and you’ll find his famous classics on the playlist of a backpacking hipster in Himachal.

The protests at JNU and Jamia reinforce one crucial thing – students are the government’s greatest opposition. They’ve been facing the threat of violence head-on with nothing more than copies of the Constitution, slogans, poetry, and a kind of patriotism that makes the world sit up and take notice.