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Readers Write In #534: Balls of Steel
By Anonymous PART 1 – Houston, we have a problem! The period when you are 16-18 years old can be a harrowing phase in your life. There is not only a turmoil that is happening on the inside, but also a battle that is being waged on the outside. A period when every relative of yours is […]
Happy 2021 from me… and FC South!
January 1, 2021
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
Readers Write In #284: Bereavements, a Memoir
October 19, 2020
(by G Waugh) I was 16 then. At 7 in the morning on a Sunday, my dad was woken up by a phone call from Theni. He could divine from the way the landline rang that it was an STD call. “Pitchaimani here, Hey, Raja tell me. What happened?” A break of silence. A deep […]
Blog vs Bharatvarsh
August 3, 2017
sai16vicky mentioned something in the Dunkirk thread, and it spawned a few responses. Posting them here, as a new thread, in case you feel like chiming in. sai16vicky August 2, 2017 BR, I have always respected your views on Free Speech (though my stand is different). But with you banning Anuj, I have a question […]
Readers Write In #19: Of bandhs and the VCR boom
June 17, 2017
I was in college in my sophomoron year (sic) and I’d just discovered the joys of binging on Video cassettes. My classmate in college was one of the first families to own a VCR (Video cassette Recorder) and I was a regular at his place, watching the old classics as well as the latest releases […]
Readers Write In #12: A Chennai story
March 27, 2017
City | Chennai Location | Shivan Park, Ashok Nagar A bright little evening on a weekend, I was taking a walk with my friend/mentor, a man of action with words to match up for it. The usual gleeful evening crowd filled up the park ; Children playing see-saw and swing, parents with their kids, the badminton […]
In the hills, they hope for change
May 7, 2016
The tribals of Sathyamangalam are seeing red during these elections. The Oorali tribals of the village of Kaalidhimbam, in the Sathyamangalam hills, say that the houses they live in were built during Kamaraj’s rule, some sixty years ago. They want new houses. And the government says they can get new houses under the Pasumai Veedu […]
The lay of their land
April 20, 2016
The Kani tribals in the hills of Mundanthurai know what they want (and what they’re likely to get) from the forthcoming elections. The forests of the Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, situated in the hills of the Western Ghats that slice through Tirunelveli, are a typically rough-hewn terrain, but P Veluchamy prefers to walk barefoot. If he […]
Vacation notes
February 9, 2016
I’m not proud to confess this, but flying thousands of miles and then lining up to visit a museum doesn’t do much for me. To your right, ladies and gentlemen, is the house in which Charles Dickens lived. Okay – and? This is the desk at which he hammered out The Pickwick Papers. Okay – […]
After the waters recede…
December 14, 2015
What some of us are feeling now, it’s vague, hard to put into words. And at least part of it is a little existential. Why were we spared? You don’t think this when you hear of shootings in America or earthquakes in Nepal. You register the horror, and do what you can – sign a […]
Lives in transit
December 7, 2015
As trains thunder overhead, a flood-displaced family waits to return home. It’s Saturday. The sun is out. It has been out for a day or two now, but today’s sun feels different. It’s brighter, warmer. It feels like a promise. Some of the streets are dry – they’re dull and grey, the way we like […]
New clichés for love
November 6, 2015
Greeting cards still exist. Okay, at some level I knew they hadn’t become extinct, exactly, but when was the last time you saw one? I saw one when a friend and I ducked into a small stationery store. Someone in her office was retiring. She wanted one of those cards that everyone can scribble you-will-be-missed […]
The work-life seesaw
August 12, 2015
I encountered this Alain de Botton quote in an article recently and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it: Work-life balance is impossible because everything worth fighting for unbalances your life. It’s so true. If you’re fighting for something at work (more visibility, a bigger pay cheque), then you’re going to have to do […]
Twists and turns
June 13, 2015
Baradwaj Rangan drops in at the Rubik’s Cube Indian National Championships and discovers a quirky, super-smart subculture. Naren Ramesh isn’t the kind of person you’d expect to encounter at the Indian Nationals 2015, the competition otherwise known as 2015 Rubik’s Cube Indian National Championships. For one, he’s 10, a small, scrawny kid with a red […]
Other careers
May 27, 2015
I could have been a painter. I wouldn’t have been a very good one, but I’d have managed. I’d have drawn three lines in blue, splashed on a few red dots and said it has meanings you have to cock your head and interpret. I couldn’t have been a chef, though. Don’t have the patience. […]
My favourite (Madras) things…
August 16, 2014
On the eve of Madras Day, Baradwaj Rangan celebrates the city he knows and loves. Can you truly know a city? Possibly – if your job entails a lot of travel, or if your home is in the southern part and your school somewhere up north, and you have friends in the east and family […]
The supreme court
June 14, 2014
Is there another sport as epic, as dramatic as tennis? A couple of weeks ago, as I was walking on the footpath, I came in front of a ladder that was propped against one of the stores on the side. A man standing on one of the upper rungs was painting over some existing signage, […]
Lights, Camera, Conversation… “Movies and memories”
May 16, 2014
Some thoughts on the fondness some of us have for film-related trivia. How do you know so much about cinema and how do you remember so much? Every time I am asked this question – which is not all that often, but frequently enough to serve as the opening for a piece such as this […]
Indian Premier Lok Sabha
April 12, 2014
With all the hype and media coverage around the elections and the new IPL season, Baradwaj Rangan wakes up finding it difficult keeping the two events apart. My money’s on this. Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be our next Prime Minister. Narendra Modi will lead the Mumbai Indians to victory. Television cameras, meanwhile, will zoom towards […]
Power to the people
March 15, 2014
How to ensure that your politicians aren’t making empty promises? Baradwaj Rangan looks into an initiative manned by eight alumni from some of our brightest colleges, including the IITs and IIMs. Rajesh Malviya, a 42-year-old who runs an executive search firm in Mumbai, first heard of AskHOW India from his buddy and IIT classmate, Yogesh […]
Baradwaj Rangan 
December 29, 2022
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