Documenting The Lives of The Ordinary
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House Hunting in Ernakulam
I’ve been house hunting in Kochi after living for a decade in a rented apartment. What I’m finding is disheartening. A decent home inside Ernakulam town now comes at nothing less than ₹1 crore. That’s simply out of reach for an ordinary Ernakulamkaaran like me. I’m looking for a home to live in, not something […]
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Let’s not talk about Iran or the Genocide in Gaza
I find it difficult to understand the selective outrage of those who passionately call for regime change in Iran while remaining conspicuously silent about authoritarian excesses elsewhere in West Asia. However, such positions reveal a troubling inconsistency and, quite frankly, hypocrisy. The same voices that invoke civil rights, women’s rights, and democratic values in one […]
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Enid Blyton-When a Book Was Enough for an Adventure
It has been ages since I last read an Enid Blyton, probably not since my school days. So when the theme for the upcoming Book Club meetup was announced as Enid Blyton, it felt like perfect timing. By pure luck I stumbled upon a Secret Seven Annual and picked it up without a second thought. […]
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Best Films of 2025: Personal Top Picks
2025 was a beautiful year for cinema, especially for Malayalam viewers. Here are a few films that stayed with me. My top picks this year were Homebound, Train Dreams, and Feminichi Fathima. Homebound is a poetic expression of the pain and angst of the sub altern classes of India. A tale of love and companionship […]
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When Celebration Turned to Tears
On 4 June 2025, what was meant to be a triumphant celebration outside Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium turned into heartbreak. These images taken the morning after reveal the haunting aftermath of the stampede. Shoes and slippers lie where joy turned into terror, silent witnesses to a night that began with cheers and ended in grief. As […]
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Books That Uncover the Truth About Caste in India
Two books I’d like to recommend are Coming Out as Dalit by Yashica Dutt and Anti–God’s Own Country – A Short History of Brahminical Colonisation of Kerala, A. V. Sakthidharan Coming Out as Dalit by Yashica Dutt is a memoir in which the author narrates the burden and struggles of hiding her dalit identity and her tumultuous journey of […]
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The “Well Meaning Majority”Empowering Muslim Women
The hypocrisy leaks through like a bad patch on borrowed saffron cloth. The “well meaning majority”, so quick to pat themselves on the back, beam when a Muslim woman wears the Indian Army’s uniform. Look, they say, secularism is alive. See, we empower. They wrap her in the tricolour, their conscience too, for a brief […]
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An Awkward but Necessary Conversation on Pahalgam
So I had this most awkward conversation with someone on the horrific targeted terrorist attack against Hindu tourists in Pahalgam. Him: Did you see what your people did? Me: (Confused) Which people and who did what? Him: No. Your people in Kashmir. Me: (Again confused) My people in Kashmir? Him: Yes. Me: I don’t have […]
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The Three-Body Problem Captivated Me—But The Dark Forest Lost Me
I read The Three-Body Problem and its sequel, The Dark Forest both masterfully translated into English. One drew me in, thanks to a recommendation from a fellow book club member, while the other left me adrift—like a ship lost in the vastness of timeless space. The Three-Body Problem is a sharp, unflinching story. It talks about science and survival, […]
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in the Age of AI
Rereading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? after years feels like stepping into a familiar yet altered dream. The world Philip K. Dick envisioned—bleak, desolate, drained of life—hits differently now. Maybe because AI has arrived, or maybe because it hasn’t—not in the way we imagined. And yet, its presence lingers, an inevitable force reshaping the boundaries of […]