Although I can't for the life of me imagine why you would think this piece is about the Olympics or anything to do with them, I thought I'd go the extra mile and disabuse you of all misconceptions with an additional sentence, you know, just in case. This piece is not about the Olympics. Years … Continue reading Olympic Gold Record 2012
The Year My Grandfather Got Cancer
I've never been to a funeral. Attending one seems to me a kind of rite of passage, whereby a person pushes off from a harbor of sorts and into deeper waters. This is perhaps because I associate funerals with adulthood, adulthood being the porter which brings death closer. It's not that death hasn't touched people … Continue reading The Year My Grandfather Got Cancer
India
For most of my life, the fact that I am from India was little more than an embarrassment. I grew up in settings replete with the influences of western culture (with friends who were mostly white) and as such, my associations with being Indian arose mainly from the typical stereotypes having to do with a … Continue reading India
iRacist: An App for Any Racist Occasion
After one particularly grueling game of football (3-3 being the end result), I walked to the train with a few teammates. We must have looked a rather motley bunch, what with one Somalian, a Nigerian, a Nepali, a Yemeni, and myself. We got onto the train and there were a few empty seats. The Yemeni … Continue reading iRacist: An App for Any Racist Occasion
In Treatment: The Fairest Mirror of Them All
I wrote about the following story in another article, but I just can't resist reiterating it here (with some embellishment). I once heard a rumor (or started one) about a man who was convinced he was dead. Despite the arguments of his friends and colleagues to the contrary, he remained steadfast in his conviction. Eventually, … Continue reading In Treatment: The Fairest Mirror of Them All
Cannes Do
1947 was a special year which forever altered the trajectory of human history. India gained its independence from Britain, Arnold Schwarzenegger was born, and the Festival du Film de Cannes was properly inaugurated a year after its founding. To be honest, it's a wonder that the world was turning prior to '47. Cannes has since … Continue reading Cannes Do
How I Bloomed with Beach House
It is with a certain trepidation that I embark on this piece - an pseudo-review of Beach House's "Bloom." Though it's one thing to love (read: lurve) music with every cockle of my heart, it's quite another to attempt some sort of coherent commentary on it. What's more, there is nothing worse than taking the … Continue reading How I Bloomed with Beach House
Level Playing Fields
As our bus rattled up the hill (not pictured above), a Pakistani guy around my age was telling me how, once as a devout Muslim, he had a dream where Jesus appeared to him. So profound was the experience that he left everything to become a follower of this apparition, thereby incurring the contempt and … Continue reading Level Playing Fields
20 “Foreign” Films to Die For (Preferably After Viewing)
As I thought about how best to commemorate this our twentieth issue, I came to the unfortunate realization that my piece would have to incorporate the number twenty. Even more discouraging was that by necessity (aka a shoddy showing of ideas from the old brainbox), "twenty" was going to have to present itself in some … Continue reading 20 “Foreign” Films to Die For (Preferably After Viewing)
A Camera is Worth a Thousand Words
Several years ago, my grandfather bequeathed his Rolleicord camera to me. He and my grandmother bought it in 1954 for 1,500 rupees (US $29.4) and it became their means of documenting the simple goings-on of home and family life. Until I got wind of its existence, it had been sitting dormant in a small valise … Continue reading A Camera is Worth a Thousand Words
Writing Is Prayer 