Shaam-e-Sarhad: A day at a border village in the Rann
In January this year, we were in Gujarat to be part of the Rann Utsav. The festival held in the Rann of Kutch from November to February each year attracts several tourists. We were to spend an…
Pride in being competent
That morning, we were examiners at a postgraduate examination. I hardly knew any of my other co-examiners. It was my first encounter with all three of them. ‘Encounter’ is a word I use deliberately. For what followed…
The fuel called failure
Despite the decades that have disappeared since, I remember every little detail in great clarity. The kasavu saree I wore. The colour combination used in my PowerPoint slides. The strange shape of the podium. The huge timer…
Them versus us
The year was 2002. I was a naive small town girl on her first solo trip to the big bad world of metropolises. Mumbai. The sight of people stuffed like sardines into local trains— pushed in and…
Burning my bridges
Gulp down that poison Close your eyes. Shut your ears. Feel nothing. Ignore this. Don’t react. Be human again. Find your voice. Speak up. Protest. Question. Respond. You are intolerant. The bitterness bursts And falls over the…
The legend behind Holika Dahan
Tomorrow is Holi, the festival of colours. The whole country will be bathed in vibrant colours and the air will have a strange headiness all morning. But tonight, on the eve of Holi, we will all celebrate…
Naked in the communal bath
We were going to get married and it was time to rent a house in the vicinity of my work place. We started house hunting in one of the areas of Nagpur which now frequents national headlines.…
Badla: Sujoy Ghosh’s taut thriller
It is after a long long time that I have seen an audience break into applause spontaneously at the end of a movie. The last time I witnessed that was in a Leicester Square cinema hall in…
The summer soap opera
In the summer of 2000, a new kind of soap opera invaded our television screens. Indian audiences, who were used to intense stories from the partition or funny sitcoms starring Satish Shah, Shafi Inamdar, Rakesh Bedi and…
