Essays

How Dracula Became the Freshest Internet Phenomenon

  If I were to tell you that in May of 2022 the #1 trending topic on social media for two weeks straight has been...

Kalkattewali: The Goddess and Her City

  A temple in the northern part of Kolkata, the Thanthania Kalibari has a marble slab, on which “Shankar’er hridoy majhe, Kali biraje,” (Kali reigns...

Queen Victoria, ‘Consumption’ and Goth Culture

  The first thing that many will visualise upon the mention of ‘Goth’ is the mohawk, black lace, powdered faces, spikes and metal on ‘uncivilised’...

On The Pursuit of a Room of One’s Own

“Woolf is right. Women need a room. Women need floors to kick, walls to beat, air to scream into or they will wind up dead.”

Walking

“Is the neck of my top too low, are my breasts moving a lot, is there a bike ready to knock me down, are the neighbours noticing me too much?"

83 and Lessons on Sporting Victories

Kabir Khan’s 83 showcases how a record of the past responds to the cultural context of the present.

Coral Warriors: Keeping Corals from Losing their Colour

An Initiative to understand the recurrent mass bleaching of corals and make diving accessible.

Sir: Of Domestic Workers Who Risk Dreaming And Falling In Love

Rohena Gera’s ‘Sir’, while subverting the popular portrayal of domestic workers in Indian Cinema, is authentic to the core.

On Reboots, Reunions and Manufactured Nostalgia

“As a show or movie completes its run, viewers get to imagine the ending they like best. Reboots risk sinking this imagined ending and the franchise with it.”

MANU JOSEPH’S ‘DECOUPLED’ REVIEWS THE CRITIC

Characters are revived in each episode and the central predicament of the separating couple lives on even as the story makes excursions into Indian political life.
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