-
Inside Every Desi Girl’s Phone | Women’s Day Special
Whether you're an abla aurat or an unsanskaari naari, your phone on March 8 will be overflowing with Women's Day discount SMSes. Your DMs (as always) will be overflowing with misogyny.
Add to list -
Grub Indians Can’t Digest Any Criticism About Their Food. This UK Prof Learns From “Idligate”
“Idli are the most boring things in the world,” tweeted Edward Anderson, a UK professor of history and expert in India-Britain studies. All hell broke loose. Anderson was schooled by angry Indians on Twitter over his blasphemous opinion – even Shashi Tharoor got involved.
Add to list -
Pop Culture Sunny Leone and Arbaaz Khan Play Taboo
Sunny Leone and Arbaaz Khan joined us for a game of All Things Taboo. Sunny talks to us about homosexuality and Arbaaz tells us not to drink and drive.
Add to list -
What’s Up With India’s Bhabhi Obsession?
In the first of our "What's Up With" series, we explore India's fascinating bhabhi-devar relationship. Why is "bhabhi" one of India's most searched porn keywords and what’s behind the popularity of shows like "Bhabhi ji Ghar par Hai"? The answer goes further back in time than you'd imagine.
Add to list -
Bollywood How Soorma Almost Makes a Villain Out of Sandeep Singh’s Wife
In Soorma, Sandeep Singh’s wife – Harpreet Kaur in the film – abandons her husband soon after he is paralysed. She is also painted as a distraction for Singh’s goal-scoring abilities. I’ll let you guess what happened in real life. Hint: None of it.
Add to list -
Pop Culture “What Up, Biatch?”: Why We Can’t Help But Root for Breaking Bad’s Jesse Pinkman
The question of “Is Heisenberg alive or dead?” still looms, thanks to the fact that El Camino, the new Breaking Bad movie, focuses on Jesse Pinkman instead. I couldn’t be happier, because after five top-notch seasons as second fiddle, Pinkman deserves his time in the spotlight.
Add to list -
Gender I Am a Tawaif’s Son: Growing up in Mumbai’s Brothels
I grew up amid the sounds of thumris, ghazals, the heady scents of mogra and whiskey in the kothas near Mumbai’s Kennedy Bridge. My earliest memory is of my mother fighting a drunken man, who was calling her a “randi”.
Add to list -
POV The Anti-Climax of Coming Out on Social Media and What it Taught Me About Queerness
Is my queerness invalidated by my lack of the conventional experiences expected of queer folks? Do I need to perform my queerness, or is the fact of it enough? Did I need to look and behave a certain way to meet some standard of queerness? A year into coming out, I’ve somewhat found the answers to these questions.
Add to list -
People In Search of Krishna in Vrindavan’s Secret Forest
Legend says that every night, Krishna descends upon a forest in Vrindavan to dance with his gopis. But in a town dependent on its faith economy, does it even matter if it's true?
Add to list -
Coronavirus Do We Really Need a PM-CARES Fund When We Have the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund?
What’s up with the new PM-CARES fund created for those who wish to contribute to India’s fight against Covid-19? And how different is it from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund?
Add to list -
Love and Sex The Secret Life of My Father
I tried to be rational when I found out that my father was having an affair. But I was only drawing more lines for him to toe, for his halo to remain untarnished.
Add to list -
POV Why Moving Out of Your Parent’s House is Overrated
I thought moving out would be about no deadlines, no curfews, and no rules. But it is about waiting for a plumber, paying rent and bills, waking up early to fill the water tank, and eating bland, self-cooked food. I didn’t do drugs, I did dishes.
Add to list -
Pop Culture Stranger Things and the Beauty of the Steve-Dustin Bromance
The Steve-Dustin bromance is an unlikely alliance of opposites, that cut across the boundaries of type and age. It’s also the sweetest thing Stranger Things will leave us with.
Add to list -
Pop Culture Jugjugg Jeeyo review: Hits the Mark with Humour and Emotion
Jugjugg Jeeyo is a trademark Dharma film. Loud and boisterous, with a fantastic ensemble cast – especially the returning Neetu Kapoor - it follows familiar tropes too, but surprisingly packs in the kind of emotional punch that most, old-wines-in-new-bottles lack.
Add to list -
POV Why We Need to Pick Productivity Over Punctuality
In an Indian office your dedication is determined by what time you get to work. Which means, that you get labelled a “bad employee” for reaching work at 11 am instead of 10.30 am, but not if you’re one of those people who is at work at 9.30 am and yet does not meet deadlines.
Add to list -
Pop Culture Rocketry: The Nambi Effect is a Middling Biopic Bar Madhavan’s Commitment
Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, thanks to a committed Madhavan is one of those films that you don’t really feel like criticising too much, and yet there’s little about it that outlasts its runtime.
Add to list -
POV The Curious Case of the Parent-Dependent Indian Millennial
Except for their height and education, nothing has really changed about my now grown-up kids. I think I might be the one to blame. I turned into that dreaded beast: the helicopter parent, who controlled their routine, and now my children depend on that control.
Add to list -
Bollywood 26 Years of Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!: The Stairs that Killed Bhabhi Are the Biggest Baddie of ’90s Bollywood
The biggest plot twist in Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! is the death of the adorable, ever-smiling Pooja bhabhi. Twenty-six years on, this endlessly rewatchable sequence is a cultural phenomenon – it’s now a meme. In the age that we live in, this is the ultimate form of flattery.
Add to list -
Modern Family Why My Father Made Sure His Invisible Disability Stayed Invisible
As we grow up, parents, whether intentionally or not, reveal to us a side of theirs that we’ve never seen before. But a large part of growing up comes with the understanding that they do so for our benefit.
Add to list -
Pop Culture Masoom is a Gripping and Unsettling Story of Family Secrets and Lies
Masoom is fully committed to its mood and texture and more than the mystery, it is shouldered by the uncomfortable relationship between Boman Irani and his daughter, played by Samara Tijori.
Add to list -
सेक्स बाबा की तलाश में
मजबूरी की कगार पर खड़े परिवारों को पैसों की बारिश का झांसा देकर, मासूम नाबालिग लड़कियों का बलात्कार करने वाले एक ढोंगी बाबा की सच्ची कहानी पर आधारित ऑडियो स्टोरी।
Add to list -
Gender Navigating the Great Indian Workplace as a Woman
Workplaces are evolving, but as a working woman, it is nearly impossible to instinctively reach out for opportunities without evaluating the gendered risks of that leap.
Add to list -
Gender The Secret Lives of Marwari Housewives
In Gujarat, Marwari women lead dual lives. They fast with their mothers-in-law and sip mojitos with their friends.
Add to list -
People “Ughich Kashala?” The Two Words That Kill All Maharashtrian Dreams
The attitude of most Maharashtrians can be summed up in two words: Ughich kashala? Literally translated, it means “needlessly why”? It is the reason why we Maharashtrians are diabolically lazy and spectacularly unambitious.
Add to list -
First Person My Father Sexually Abused Me as a Child. But I Still Can’t Hate Him
I was 12 when my father first touched me inappropriately. It took me reading about Lolita, more than a decade later, inciting and luring her stepfather into intimacy to realise that my first experience of any form of sexual pleasure came from my own father.
Add to list -
POV What Cringing at Old Social Media Posts Taught Me about Adulting
My old social media posts, especially those on Facebook often feel like a nightmarish journey back in time. But they are also clues to the way we absorb the world and learn to eventually, navigate it as adults.
Add to list -
Modern Family Why Don’t Indian Families Say “I Love You”?
Indian families are diverse in every way, especially in how they choose to express affection. There are the boisterous, pappi-jhappi ones – and then there are the quiet, awkward-hug kind of families who pass on a strained emotional inheritance to their confused millennial children.
Add to list -
Bollywood What Kapoor & Sons Teaches Bollywood About Coming Out of the Closet
Shakun Batra’s Kapoor & Sons, was a brilliantly observed family drama. It also stood out from a sea of Bollywood offerings that stereotyped homosexuality, by having a gay character in the lead whose orientation is almost incidental to the plot.
Add to list -
Outdoors A Jouney To The Last Indian Village
Sonia Jain traveled to Mana, the last Indian village on a bike. You won't believe what happened next!
Add to list -
People Sidhu Moose Wala’s Conflicting but Significant Musical Legacy
Moose Wala’s shocking death is probably the outcome of certain avoidable cultural tropes that have been allowed to simmer in Punjab but while the singer wasn’t always politically correct, his music travelled further than most.
Add to list
Pop Culture Rocketry: The Nambi Effect is a Middling Biopic Bar Madhavan’s Commitment
Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, thanks to a committed Madhavan is one of those films that you don’t really feel like criticising too much, and yet there’s little about it that outlasts its runtime.
Add to list