Student's Corner: Back to Wasseypur
In a deconstruction of Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), Ishan Mukherjee revisits the history, soundtrack, and the work of an inspired auteur director that truly made this saga a cinematic classic.
What the storm brought home: A photo-essay from Nagapattinam
A cyclone. A phone call. A two-dimensional time-machine. Barnali Ray Shukla shares the tug of emotions after storms of the past and the present in this poetic photo-essay.
Shyama's Cattle: Ode to a Himalayan friendship
Photo Essay: Deep in the mountains, the seeds of mutual loneliness evolved into an unlikely camaraderie. Aman Panwar writes about his friend Shyama—a cattle-herder and shepherd—in the Har Ki Dun valley.
Livin’ With Metal: A peep into the Indian metal scene
To provide a glimpse of India’s metal scene, Nidhi Lodaya interviewed some of the country’s top bands, shared personal experiences, and expressed hope for a genre beyond its traditional stereotypes and misconceptions.
‘This life is all that we have’: Four Poems by Amit Shankar Saha
Four poems by Amit Shankar Saha: ‘The city awakes / / from the depths of sleep / and beyond the walls / their minds are released / from quarantine.
Utterly United by Dark: Sarvesh Wahie’s poetry in the time of isolation
The nihilistic poetry collection Black Verses (2018) by Sarvesh Wahie offers a call for pure meditation, of accepting oneself in a vacuum. Review by Karan Madhok.
The Weird and the Woeful
An existential homage to the Coen brothers, the Indian web-series Afsos emerged as surprising, surreal, and - despite its flaws - a must-watch. Review by Prateek Santram
The Vulnerable 50%
India’s economy has failed the most-vulnerable half of the population. Shefali Saldanha argues that the pandemic could be an opportunity to change the system.
Transcendence or trap: The pitfalls of Imtiaz Ali's SHE
Aiming for transcendent commentary on female sexual power, the Netflix series SHE fails in providing true agency to its heroine, falling instead in a powerless trap - Sabah Virani writes.
Nowhere But Here
Personal essay: Anant Mital, drummer of new Delhi-based Nowhere Station, shares the story of the band’s origins and ambitions on the eve of their debut release.
Student's Corner: Sports as a unifying element in India
From the school basketball courts to international cricket tournaments, how India’s diversity and divisions can be united under the umbrella of sports - by Adit Joshi in Student’s Corner.
Sita and Draupadi: The Unmaking and Remaking of India’s Mythological Heroines
In the comparisons between Sita and Draupadi, Urmi Bhattacheryya argues how the trope of ‘the other woman’ has hurt feminism in Indian mythology.
Short story by Vishnu Bagdawala: ‘Sometimes, I would lie in bed waiting for the tears to come. Sometimes, I would wonder how it was strange that we needed to sleep in order to be awake for the rest of our lives. Until the day when, like my grandfather, we fall into an eternal sleep.’