It is that time of the month again. The sideburns are skewed. Stubborn locks refuse to budge from the forehead, well on their way to assuming grotesque forms. The scalp is getting itchy all over and my concentration is waning. The mirror does not lie. My immediate response is to
As a child, I remember how my parents couldn’t function without a cup of tea. On Sundays, before the four of us could hop onto the Bajaj Vespa (I stood in the front and pretended it was an airplane); at story time on Saturday mornings; during the make-believe school
Classified as a horror novel, Arnab Ray's The Mine was not only one of the first books in its genre in India (in English), but also one of the first to release a visual trailer of the book months before its release. A prolific tweeter and celebrity blogger,
Parismita Singh’s work has been featured in Time Out, Sarai Reader, Katha Prize Stories, Tehelka, The Little Magazine, and most recently, The Pao Anthology. Her debut graphic novel The Hotel at the End of the World was published by Penguin India in 2009. Her work draws from folklore and
How do you best challenge the fact that in India, finding a woman in a position of power at her workplace is almost always---your short-haired, handloom-wearing principal notwithstanding---the exception to the rule? How best to use the propelling power of one of India's largest publishing houses to make
The first time I watched The Burning Train, I didn't sleep all night. My mum tells me that I was so taken aback by the film, I kept asking her questions about how a train operates and why it was so difficult to stop that train. At that
Another Country is Anjali Joseph’s second novel. After her critically acclaimed debut Saraswati Park, Another Country is the story of 21-year-old Leela in---you guessed it---other countries. The story follows Leela through her sojourns in Paris, London, and Bombay, as she grows up through experiences both awkward and lovely in
I know Sudha Murty as the lady who wrote to Ratan Tata in 1974, bravely calling him out on the discrimination against women in a job advertisement by the company, which stated “lady candidates need not apply”. I also know of her and her husband Narayana Murthy’s programs and
There are so many primeval experiences that are universal yet remote if one tries to approach them through language. Amruta Patil finds the words and the images; images she calls ‘scaffolding for the text’ to describe these moments. Whether it’s suggesting that humans have a weakness for cigarettes because
The Riot Peddlers are a three-piece punk band from Bombay comprising Ashwin Dutt on drums, Arun Singh Ravi on vocals and guitar, and Animesh Das on bass, and the trio has recently released its debut E.P., Sarkarsm. They are also, supposedly, India’s best hardcore punk act. Now, this
Krishna Udayasankar is a full-time lecturer living in Singapore. Her novel Govinda is the first of an intended three books in The Aryavarta Chronicles. As fast-paced as it is educative, Govinda is a labour of intensive research and passion and has a refreshingly in-depth approach to its characters, otherwise familiar