If you are a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, or interested in its history and activism, you have probably heard of Hoshang Merchant. He is one of our most famous poets, critics, academics. In 1999, he edited the first mainstream publication of gay writings in...
Until the lion learns how to write, every story will glorify the hunter… I might tweak this proverb to read ‘direct’ rather than ‘write’ and ‘lioness’ instead of ‘lion’. At the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival, female directors were showcased in the main...
THE 2018 floods which hit Kerala was termed the disaster of the century for the State. Something on that scale had occurred last in the year 1924. Of course, it won’t happen again in another 100 years, everyone thought. Until August 2019. While the worst...
The Provoke Awards 3.0 was the talk of the town all of last month and for good reason too. It wouldn’t be wrong for us to call our three-year -old baby the best awards show in Chennai! And this is not something we’re assuming. We’ve...
Love — a lingering logic unknown to the brain. Love — a reality known to that heart, which beats in emotional time. That heart — of a person who wears love on their sleeve. This love on the sleeve — an avalanche of emotions for...
The first time I was asked, ‘do you masturbate?’ I remember feeling like I was put in a spot. I didn’t know how to answer it. I didn’t know what would be the appropriate reply. I didn’t know if I was supposed to masturbate or...
How and when did you decide to become a singer? I used to participate in singing competitions when I was a child and one of the judges of a competition (who later also happened to become my guru) recognized the talent in me and told...
Getting up at 4 every morning with the constant reminder of not being a kid anymore; rushing to school without entirely understanding Kepler’s laws; starting an exam with ‘-5’ already marked on the answer sheet for being late; listening to teachers ‘motivate’ students by asking...
When Masthan Maharaj looks back on his journey, he still feels it might all be a dream. For from where he started, he has sure come a long way. Masthan grew up in Chennai, watching Ronaldinho and Cristiano Ronaldo and being in awe of their...
“That was the Past. Tie me, tether me so I don’t stray there again.” I Have Become the Tide – Gita Hariharan I read a review recently which argued that fiction was not free of the necessity to be political. If we address a subject,...
