Social Ladder: Mumbai Class System
What about the Mumbai class divide?
Pop Culture
Books, Film, Fashion, Food, Music, Performance & all things popular culture
Cityzen – A Mumbai Retrospective
My divided love affair between the cities of Bangalore and Mumbai
Checklist For Letting Go
At some point, you have to let go of the people who you think healed you because they’re no more than crutches. Maybe you needed them once but letting them go is part of growth. There is no glory in suffering, no love in neediness. Shared pain is an opportunity,…
Meeting Desire
You wouldn’t recognise desirein the emptiness in your mouthmaking way for wordsthat your stomach is already breaking down You wouldn’t know desire if it licked youYou think it’s meant to kick & clawNot snuggle between your cellsBreathing the quiet places between people You wouldn’t trust desireEven if you laid bare…
Valentine’s Day Farce
Whew pink season is over, what a relief! To paraphrase Mad Men, romance was invented by capitalists to sell more stuff. Valentine’s Day single-handedly created an economy of greeting cards, pink teddy bears & red hearts. Nothing wrong in these, of course. But let’s not pretend it’s something else.
The Story Your Body Tells
I wore this to an event on inclusivity. A stranger said they’d seen me at the event & thought, “She’s doing it for the attention.” That they’d later read my blog, learnt of abuse I’d survived & decided I deserved to dress as I liked. It angered me. Dressing as…
The Romance Gardener
I found my kinship with green things when I was 8, watching fascinated as baby shoots poked out of the mud laid on a try, where I’d sprinkled mustard seeds a few days earlier. I didn’t know it then but I became a gardener that day.
Certified Weirdzo
I’m a certified Weirdzo. Certified by the Confederation of Superficial Judgement on Body, Apparel & Behaviour. They really value conformity. I qualified early, aided by a love of bright colours, fascination with shapes & textures & absolute indifference to social rules. The kid in a neon raincoat when black &…
Living Art
I’ve loved painting since I was young enough to find joy leaving my fingerprints on walls & my own face. That has not changed. Something about the interplay of colour & the feel of pigment in every form just makes me sit right. I feel like I tap into a…
Can Masculinity Be Safe?
A lot of straight women feel safer around gay men. It has felt, I’ve thought, like having a girl best friend but who can drop me home when it gets late. Yes, that’s shallow. But also, what does it say about masculinity (since straight men have led the charge on…