Lore says that there’s a land where there are no bosses, only friends. A land where coffee and hot chocolate flow freely. In this holy land, the demon entity named Corporate Culture has been vanquished. It sounds a lot like a start-up, but don’t fall for it. Because like purple dinosaurs and superheroes, the “cool workplace” is just a figment of your imagination.

A coy bride, an awkward groom, a glass of kesar milk, and rambunctious relatives outside with their ears glued to the closed door – this is how a suhaag raat scene unfolded in Hindi films. But which was the last movie in which you saw a shy dulhan sitting on a bed of roses?

Benaras Hindu University’s newly appointed Sanskrit professor Firoz Khan should have been celebrated as the living embodiment of India’s diversity and tolerance. But “new” India would rather constantly complain about how Hindu culture is under threat from minorities, only to protest when a member of a minority displays expert knowledge of Hindu culture.

Now officially the longest running live-action sitcom in the history of television, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, entered its 14 season this year, and remains as topical as it was when it first aired in 2005. It has never hesitated to address sensitive and pertinent subjects such as #MeToo and climate change.

Welcome to the era where dystopia and our world overlap. An oxygen bar for a choking city might have felt like a far-flung science-fiction trope when we were kids, but today, it’s the reality in which we live.

There’s great pleasure in consuming literature that is cerebral and challenging. But I also really, really love the literature that has no greater purpose than to entertain in the moment and spark instant joy. The Princess Diaries, Sweet Valley High, The Fault In Our Stars remind me of who I was before I became who I’ve become.

Well into our 30s, my husband and I talk about money and “saving for the future” a lot these days. Though we have a decent monthly income, I resort to a stinginess that kills all spontaneous instincts. But is this mad chase for a “secure future” worth it? Where does it begin and when does it end?

For the next 17 months, until April 23, 2021, Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde will be trusted with upholding the Constitution in the highest court of the land. As his tenure begins, it is a good time to look back at the career of the man who will be heading one of the pillars of our democracy.

As a 14-year-old, I turned to teen shows like Hannah Montana and Lizzie McGuire naively believing that they’d help me escape my woes. Instead, I was left aching for a life that could never be mine. It's why I am glad that awkward teens are ruling TV today.

Chaos works like Isabgol for my thoughts. I am wired to work; chasing deadlines gives me a high that no amount of fresh air from the Aravallis can. Sorry William Henry Davies, I don’t want to stand beneath the boughs (too many mosquitos there.) I’d rather stare at my phone screen than at sheep and cows.

Amazon Prime Video’s One Mic Stand shows us Shashi Tharoor’s likeable, charming side. Look, he’s the guy you can hang out with. But we don’t need Tharoor to be relatable. We needed him to be cutting and crisp, to shame us out of the political coma most of us seem to have slipped into as we wait to hear on our Canadian PR application status.

On paper, Saeed Akhtar Mirza’s Naseem revolves around the demolition of Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. But it is never didactic. Its focus is more on the intimate. Through the eyes of Naseem, a school-going girl, it clues us into the repercussions that the communal tensions had on the everyday lives of India’s Muslims.

Since most readers are used to consuming their meals in front of the TV while wearing their pajamas, this field guide to the cast of characters you’re likely to meet at Mumbai’s food festival this weekend is what every hungry foodie needs.

In Ford v Ferrari, the rivalry indicated in the title is merely a footnote. Instead James Mangold is more interested in locating the bruises that propel men to declare war and mistake it for glory. The result is a thrilling racing drama that ruminates on the line separating ego from pride.

The lines between work and non-work hours have long been blurred, and that’s a bad thing. A three-day weekend in India would be pretty pointless unless the remaining four days are utilised well, and we stop glorifying long work hours.

It’s been a decade since Sania Mirza won her first Grand Slam title, and India is still waiting for another woman to emulate her. But her road to the pinnacle was far from an easy one. Her life might look like a bed of roses, but Mirza sleeps on a thousand thorns.

Milap Zaveri’s Marjaavaan is yet another pointless outing, based entirely on the idea of finding an excuse for two overgrown man-childs to glare at each other while threatening murder after every five minutes without actually doing anything.

There are many today who seem all too willing to hold Panditji guilty for all of life’s ills. But Jawaharlal Nehru is a man who escapes easy definition, and perhaps strove to definitively remain just that — a man; not a saint, nor a saviour, and not in the very least, a self-appointed chowkidar.

Nehru’s 130th birth anniversary marks the rare occasion where he isn’t being criticised by rivals of the Congress party. The last few years have seen Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru become the right wing’s favourite punching bag.

Amar Kaushik’s Bala, that has a TikTok influencer as its lead protagonist, offers possibly the most accurate representation of a generation whose lives are so dependent on apps that their permanent address is the internet.

It’s only the third time in Maharashtra’s history that President’s Rule has been imposed, and like the previous two times, Sharad Pawar is at the centre of the action. For the experienced campaigner looking for his next big victory, could the third time be lucky?

I picked Portugal for my bachelorette – it sounded way fancier than the very plebeian Thailand. Invariably, the day would dissipate from being a quest of discovering a new city, to an endless tirade of “The local market is trending online, so we will have better photo-ops!”, to “Why can’t we just laze by the pool – my pedicure hasn’t received enough justice yet!”

India is saddled with an education system that is a vestige of Britain’s industrial revolution, which churns out efficient workers, not innovative thinkers. If analyses from UNICEF and NASSCOM are to be believed, the bulk of our graduates are unemployable. We’re a country desperately in need of education reforms.

Like Veer and Zaara’s love story, the movie’s music stands the test of time. “Main Yahaan Hoon” became the ballad for an entire generation. Fifteen years on, it makes us pine for eternal love even when we find ourselves in an age where regularly liking someone’s Instagram posts is the zenith of commitment.

It’s odd that the ongoing student protests against fee hikes in JNU are being viewed by most as an excuse for the students to sponge off the privileged taxpayer’s money. Especially in a country where qualifying for a tax slab is in itself a privilege that most would be happy to have.

Solutions for Delhi’s (and any other city’s) pollution lies in new government policies and programmes – improved public transport, building cycle lanes, a well-thought out ban on plastic. Someone using one less firecracker during Diwali or cycling to work is not going to help.

I remember clutching my father’s finger as we made our way through the crowd at the Golden Temple. My head was covered with mother’s red dupatta; I was clenching onto a ₹100 note for dear life until I managed to slip it inside the donation box. That was always my “duty” and I would take it very seriously.

While followers of the BJP-Shiv Sena and Congress keep launching tirades against each other with cries of “bhakts” and “libtards”, their so-called “nationalist” and “secularist” leaders have abandoned their ideologies faster than Rohit Shetty abandons the laws of physics.

In an interview from 1999, which has gone viral today, Bal Thackeray said he would never join hands with Sharad Pawar. Getting the CM’s post then would be a short-term victory for Uddhav, but if the Shiv Sena is perceived as having turned its back on Bal Thackeray’s legacy, the win could be a self-defeating one.

Everyone on LinkedIn seems to be deep in the throes of a never-ending professional orgasm. And they’re not afraid to bellow their pleasure out from a digital rooftop: Made the long list for the best beauty blog award given by a website that didn’t exist until a month ago. Got invited to speak on a panel discussing digital disruption in in 2020.