Live Wire

LiveWire is a place for and by people of any and all age groups to share their views and imagination, opinion pieces on politics, feminism, LGBTQIA rights, pop culture, movies, books, TV, music, dating/relationships, sexuality and to debate issues you face at school, on campus, online or out in the world.

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Featured Writers

Farishta Anjirbag

A writer interested in telling stories about the novelty in the ordinary, and making a difference in the way we perceive the world around us.

Srijita Datta

bhumika aggarwal

I can be dramatic, quirky, somber, and funny with words. Juggling with words since fifth grade, if language and stories found their teller, then Satan did write my name on …

Varisha Tariq

Varisha Tariq is a freelance writer and Journalist working with the intersectionality of culture, travel, and gender.

Souptik Datta

The world is a crazy place and two things fascinate me the most: 1) Finding compelling stories.2) Giving them a voice and a shape.Stories are omnipresent. For instance, when I …

Ayushman Basu

I write for a living because I love it. Here are some of the words I have written till now.

Latest Articles

Harassment in College Campuses: Where Are the Safe Spaces?

“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 …

By Ishita Roy
28th September 2022 • Live Wire

Movie Review: In Malayalam Film '19(1)(a)', the Personal Is the Political

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 …

By Angela Therese Mathew
17th August 2022 • Live Wire

The Corporatisation of the JNU Campus Is Underway

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 …

By Nivedya P T
5th August 2022 • Live Wire

Longing, Belonging

Just over two months ago, I packed my bags and flew a few thousand miles, leaving everything familiar, everything that I have grown up with, that I have been accustomed to – the sights, sounds and the people – to land in a bustling city in the UK that I …

By Divya Venkattu
12th December 2021 • Live Wire

Taking a Gap Year Was Like Taking Frost’s Less-Travelled Road

I remember the wintry afternoon of January 2021 when I attended the first class of my last semester in my room. It soon dawned on me that I would be a pandemic graduate within six months. I stood clueless because half of my college life was washed away by the …

By bhumika aggarwal
5th October 2021 • Live Wire

The Doomscrolling of J. Alfred Prufrock

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 …

By Farishta Anjirbag
27th August 2021 • Live Wire

Changing Intimacies

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 …

By Shanna Jain
26th August 2021 • Live Wire

Knowing Your Privilege

While the Buddha is an extreme example of someone who renounced all his worldly privileges and attained Nirvana, it is safe to say that most of us continue to enjoy the privileges that have been bestowed upon us. The word ‘privilege’ means a special advantage that only a specific group …

By Divya Venkattu
8th July 2021 • Live Wire

Dowry and the 'Great' Indian Marriage

It has been less than a fortnight since a 24-year-old woman in Kerala lost her life, after being repeatedly harassed for dowry. More cases where young, married women have taken their own lives have surfaced in the state since. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said, “Parents have to realise that …

By Divya Venkattu
1st July 2021 • Live Wire

How and Why India Subjects Environmental Activism to Political Violence

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. …

By Aryan Rai
28th June 2021 • Live Wire

Insanity

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 …

By Ayushman Basu
23rd May 2021 • Live Wire

Maharashtra: Schools Yet to Reopen, Yet Offline Exams in the Offing

The Maharashtra government has announced that the offline exams for higher secondary certificate and secondary school certificate will be conducted on April 23 and 29 respectively. The announcement has come amid a situation where schools falling under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are yet to reopen and students in the …

By Gokul KP
3rd March 2021 • Live Wire

‘The Big Day’: Wokeness as Wedding Aesthetic

This is not your regular cringe binge. That’s all we know so far. Because The Big Day, Netflix’s latest feature centring more rich people, doesn’t know what it wants to be. It tries to be a progressive docuseries on modern millennial Indian weddings. The only weddings we see, however, are …

By Rohitha Naraharisetty
26th February 2021 • Live Wire

'Soorarai Pottru' Shows Why We Need More Women Calling the Shots

Among the many things that are commendable about Sudha Kongara’s Soorarai Pottru (2020) is the characterisation of Bommi (Aparna Balamurali). She is Bommi, not ‘Maara’s wife’ or the ‘hero’s love interest’. You see evidence of this distinction through the course of the film. Bommi lights up the screen with her …

By Divya Venkattu
8th January 2021 • Live Wire

The Many Lives of Used Books

In my parent’s room, underneath my mother’s dresser is a makeshift bookshelf. In it sit three worn-out books, away from the rest of their paper-backed brethren in the study, quiet and unassuming in their senile state. I call these three the crown jewels of my mother’s collection, for all three …

By Anoushka Rajesh
31st October 2020 • Live Wire

Radha Blank Defies Time, Embraces Vulnerability In 'The Forty-Year-Old Version'

“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 …

By Ayushman Basu
28th October 2020 • Live Wire

Memories Beyond Dusk

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

By Ambalika Chaudhry
5th October 2020 • Live Wire

'Unjust and Unfair': DU Students Reject Online Semester Exams

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 …

By Saumya Rastogi
21st May 2020 • Live Wire

This is Not a Poem

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 …

By Saumya Rastogi
2nd May 2020 • Live Wire

The Relevance of Manto's 'Mottled Dawn' in Today's World

‘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 …

By Ayushman Basu
12th March 2020 • Live Wire

A Nihilistic Afterlife

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

By Umang Dureja
26th February 2020 • Live Wire

'I Lost My Body': A Tender Story of Gradual Self-Discovery

To say I Lost My Body is a strange mix of a teenage love story and a horror movie would be a gross understatement, because it is so much more. The French animation movie directed by Jérémy Clapin is an adaptation of the book Happy Hand by Guillaume Laurant, who …

By Gokul KP
24th February 2020 • Live Wire

Deteriorating Mental Health in Times of Protest

I had never attended a single public protest or march until January this year. Even though I was political enough, I never quite got the chance to go for one. More so, I always knew deep inside that I wouldn’t actually go for one owing to my social anxiety and …

By Gokul KP
19th February 2020 • Live Wire

What Growing up in an Indian Middle-Class Household Taught Me About Sustainability

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 …

By Sonia Singha
5th February 2020 • Live Wire

Srishti Art Attack: Love, Art and Dissent in New India

It was 9 pm on a cold January night when thousands of people assembled at Ram Leela Maidan to witness one of India’s finest statesmen – Atal Bihari Vajpayee – speak. That night, Vajpayee spoke of freedom, democratic rights and fundamental rights to disagree with those who rule us. Today, …

By Souptik Datta
23rd January 2020 • Live Wire

While the World Watches, Assam Burns

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 …

By Mayuri Dutta
16th December 2019 • Live Wire

An Unforgettable Trek to the Swamimalai Temple

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 …

By Aatreyee Dhar
28th November 2019 • Live Wire

Musings of an Anti-National

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 …

By Ayushman Basu
25th November 2019 • Live Wire

The JNU Protests Stand For More Than Just Outrage Over the Fee Hike

On November 18, hundreds of students from Jawaharlal Nehru University marched towards parliament to oppose the draft hostel manual approved by the university’s administration. The manual was approved without the popular consensus of the students and has been slammed as a draconian measure to make education ‘exclusive’ and ‘discriminatory’. The …

By Shubhra Aswal
23rd November 2019 • Live Wire

How Glass Animals' 'Agnes' Brings the Rawness of Loss to Life

When a friend sent a link to the song ‘Agnes’ by Glass Animals and urged me to read the video description before I jumped in, I did.

By Gokul KP
10th November 2019 • Live Wire