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“He seemed like a good person. A feminist. A revolutionary. Someone who ticked all the boxes. This made it very difficult for me to accept that people like him can also be [sexual] predators,” says Pihu*, a postgraduate student at the University of Delhi (DU). The ‘he’ being spoken about …

The complexity of the idea of freedom of speech is generally not reflected in films tackling the subject that generally take the hackneyed form of a political courtroom drama or a crime thriller. 19(1)(a) is impactful because it puts the focus on how an ordinary person quietly taking agency over …

On June 22, 2022, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration issued another round of notice to the owners of dhabas, canteens and photocopy shops inside the campus, demanding hefty fines and asking them to vacate the campus by June 30. According to a statement by the varsity, the businesses have …

The evening is spread out against the sky, and I am spread out on my couch. The bright, wretched gloom of the tube light is no match for my phone, whose glare forms the perpetual backlight to my life. Last night, I had decided that today would be different. But …

A friend recently explained how Snapchat works, and I remember feeling slightly disconcerted. I learned that streaks are an integral part of Snapchat — you and your online friend have to send each other a Snap at least three days in a row to maintain it. These Snapstreaks come to …

Praful Patel, the newly-appointed administrator for Lakshadweep, India’s smallest union territory, seems to have missed the memo on the impending climate crisis. Since February 2021, Patel has introduced a series of new laws that are in utter conflict with the region’s cultural as well as ecological past, present and future. …

On another doom scroll run Found out, a close friend lost his mother Numb, tears incoming while I text him Some condolences along with my number Don’t know how I’ll help him, but still. A friend shares a funny video I see that right after my existential crisis I laugh …

“Dark, f***ed up, seedy-ass tenements The roof is where gangs rape old ladies just for sentiment, yeah Now this s**t is getting real ghetto prolific Ain’t no hipsters gentrifying Gotta keep this s**t authentic” The moment Radha put on her headphones, flipped open her notepad and blurted out the lines …

A poetic commentary on women's safety across the world.

Delhi University is a Central university with a diverse student body from all across the nation. More than 10,000 students attend college annually, leaving behind their homes, with the hope of building a secure future for themselves. However, COVID-19 has slowed down the education system owing to a nationwide lockdown …

This is not a poem and I’ll tell you why, because it lacks meaning, but you’ll still try. It follows a rhyme scheme and uses elaborate words – I used the thesaurus to identify and make myself feel heard. This is not a poem yet it has repetition to exaggerate …

‘He is not dead. There is still life left in him.’ ‘O leave it, my friend, I am exhausted.’ Exhausted. That’s how many of us have been feeling lately. This isn’t something that only those part of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests are feeling, or those devastated by the recent …

Cries are comestible. Our compassion is a cuisine. Panic is an entrée. Our Agony is a meal. ... Click To See More

I grew up in a Indian middle-class nuclear family – the kind where you squeeze the toothpaste get to the last little bit, use the soap until it’s so tiny it could evaporate and use the empty Bournvita jars for storing pulses and grains. In essence, we made sure wastage …

Is it the perfect evening for protest? As the evening sun sets, the screams grow louder and louder and the explosions sound closer and closer. The moon rises and its cold rays cast an eerie light on the rising columns of teargas smoke. This is the first popular uprising for …

It took truly agonising words spoken by the person I loved heartily to start an inconceivable journey – a journey to recover debris of lost esteem and self-love. My mind had been abuzz with bitter thoughts when he yelled at me: “I had the pleasure of knowing the most toxic …

I live in a country which was founded on love and faith But now I’m being taught to fear and hate Come share with me this collective fate Where the people are prisoners by the will of the state. I feel numb, succumbed by these insecurities Where the roads are …

I have often searched for home, in places and people. I have felt rooms, rooftops, the arms of my friend, or the side of the bed – which are only temporary – to be my home. But it took me several years to recognise that I also looked at my …

Reporting

I don’t know what it means to live as a Muslim woman in Modi’s India. I’m terrified most of the time. All my life decisions – including the career I want to pursue or the place I want to live – are determined by the ruling dispensation’s expectations, and not …

The haunting synth music grows louder and louder to match the panic of a brown teenage girl running back home in the cold Norwegian night. As her hoop earrings jangle, my heart hammers. The scene switches between shots of the girl’s father, checking on each of his sleeping children in …

Even though I have been brought up in Bhopal for almost all my life, the streets of Old Bhopal are still alien for me. So when I came to know about an all-women iftar party, I decided to jump on the opportunity. My Jumma (Friday) at Junta Quarters began with …

One upside of working at a school is to get an insider’s view of how cruelly and easily, over a period of time, the education system hardwires children into believing that they’re nothing more than educational assets. Their sense of worth solely rests on a certain percentage, and everyone around …

Reporting

Just a few months after a huge protest against regressive hostel rules for women at Bhopal’s Regional Institute of Education (RIE), students are gearing up for their next battle against the administration. On Tuesday, April 9, over 200 students gathered on the campus to demand justice for the student who …

These pieces are in response to the piece”‘Gully Boy’ Strips Hip-Hop of Its Crucial Link With Identity”, published on The Wire on February 23, 2019. While I strongly appreciate the value of identity-based representations, Pranav Kuttaiah’s article fails to explain why identity formation cannot take place on economic lines, a …

Reporting + photography

“Kaunsa kanoon sabse battar? Teen sau sattatar, teen sau sattatar!” (Which law is the worst? 377, 377!) On Sunday, July 15, Bhopal celebrated its second annual pride parade. People gathered to raise slogans like “We are here and we are queer” and “I am gay and that’s okay”. Organisers of …

Since June 29, Indian theatres have been filling up with people – all there to watch Raj Kumar Hirani’s biopic of the controversial Sanjay Dutt, starring Ranbir Kapoor. This is not a review, instead, I want to talk about something I read recently – an article, titled ‘Sanju is no …

A poem about the government's censorship of the freedom of press.