Known Turf

Over the last couple of years, I’d often see press releases from environmental groups or an angry letter on a mailing list lashing out at R...

I can’t remember the last time I noticed film credits roll in Devnagri. In fact, I too have switched to the Roman script when writing in Hin...

"When motor vehicles bring in the risk of death, why are pedestrians given most of the responsibility of preventing it?" That a...

The tears come when the  kachra-wala  rings the bell. It is the son of the lady who usually comes. A boy in his late teens, hair plastered d...

What do you want, Mumbai? Who do you want as your neighbour, or tenant? You want ‘good’ people, yes? By good, you mean ‘respectable’, non-vi...

The blurb describes  Ibne Safi’s  Jasusi Duniya  series as an “intricately demented world of larger-than-life villains, mad genius detective...

A friend's friend was cheated and threatened by a man who married her. He and his family disappeared when it seemed like their game was ...

It’s not as easy as choosing between a pink lehenga and blue jeans with climate control factored in. What-to-wear is a finely calibrated dec...

It’s been so long since I saw television that I’m stunned at the sight of a young man being insulted on national television. I’m squirming ...

Blame it on the great Indian white skin fixation. Or, if you prefer, on a new body code that has corroded the flimsy wall between modeling a...

Try and imagine this. Take the names of eleven women you know. At the eleventh name, blink. That woman just disappeared from your life. Thi...

I’m ashamed. Deep down in my cynical writer’s heart, I didn’t believe he would actually do it. But he did. And I am ashamed because I’d hea...

Think about it. When was the last time you saw a romantic song where a couple dance — or even just circumambulate in a skippy, dreamy sort ...

As long as you go on calling things by false names, there’s a good chance people will go on buying the lie. We can go on pretending that eve...

Abhinavgupta Careful, Master! The mirror lies      all that is to our right      it shows to our left,      all that is to our left ...

I'd recently done a brief review of: ‘I want to Live’ – The Story of Madhubala  (by Khatija Akbar). I've been a lifelong fan of the ...

The simple thing is to set fire to them. But that isn’t a good option, especially for plastics. Perhaps that was when someone came up with a...

I still remember with absolute clarity the day mom asked us: What makes shadows? In my mind, shadows were associated with darkness — with c...

Say, the PWD engineer decided he wasn’t going to attend this enormous cost-cutting party. Say, he fined the contractor or blacklisted the f...

Friend requests come from religious hardliners and right-wing chest-thumpers. Also from leftists, libertarians, atheists, humanists. Last w...