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Browsing All Posts filed under »Society«
Have You Heard the Sound of Your Own Voice?
A plug for Krithika’s book, available here: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B09DP2SFGM In her words: “I recently self-published a non-fiction book on depression. It’s called “Have You Heard the Sound of Your Own Voice?” It was written with the intention of hand-holding students who feel suicidal/depressed on Indian college campuses. I am wondering if you can help me in […]
Readers Write In #424: Transcript of Interview with Matt Stoller on the Supply Chain Crisis, Great Resignation and Monopoly
November 8, 2021
(by Aman Basha) This is the partial transcript of an interview I did with Matt Stoller on important issues today. The total interview is an hour long and the remaining portions focus on the international finance systems, China, Hollywood, economists Modi and more (credit control, monetary policy, Obama and such). To see the latter, check […]
Readers Write In #413: Why Gandhi?
October 5, 2021
(by G Waugh) The United States of America dropped two powerful bombs – one at Hiroshima and one at Nagasaki in August 1945. They were the first nuclear bombs in the world to be dropped upon human beings and Japan, as a result was forced to surrender instantly. Newspapers all over the world hailed the […]
Readers Write In #406: Why Nehru was a horrible “founding father”
September 11, 2021
(by Sudharshan Garg) Aman had posted a Reddit post (which I had rebutted in a detailed manner. Will repost it here) Let me start out with the easy way, the “positives” as listed ZERO civil wars ( China, Mexico, SL) Why is this “Nehrus achievement” now? Look up our history, starting say 500 bce from when […]
Readers Write In #400: Lessons from a Grandmother to her Grandchildren
August 24, 2021
(by Aman Basha) What Rahul and Priyanka ought to take from 1960s Indira Gandhi to get the Congress its groove back An India suffers its worst crises since Independence, two years after a conflict at the border with Pakistan, there are still high tensions after a conflict with China, Hindu Muslim tensions rear their ugly […]
Readers Write In #388: Hinduism – Its Philosophy, Science and Politics
July 26, 2021
(by G Waugh) I had written a bit about my interest in space and evolution in this piece** almost a year ago. The most interesting part of my space ‘journey’ was the place where Stephen Hawking was to a very great extent able to fully explain what is often meant by ‘The Big Bang’ theory. […]
Readers Write In #385: Dictatorships and popular consent
July 18, 2021
(by G Waugh) I have always wondered about the nature of political dictatorships in history and the mentality of the masses who were subjected to them. In childhood, whenever references to the freedom struggle were made in my textbooks, I always had a mental image of a great mass of angry people trying desperately to […]
Readers Write In #362: Women, a memoir
May 14, 2021
(by G Waugh) “She wasn’t doing a thing that I could see, except standing there, leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together” -J.D. Salinger I am a male and I am 32 years old. My earliest memories of my association with women date back to the earliest phases of my boyhood- the […]
Helping with COVID
April 24, 2021
Krishikari had a great idea about putting this space to good use to help the situation — for example, if anyone needs a bed, or where to send a donation, etc. If you have anything to share, do get back in the comments section.
Readers Write In #354: On the caste origins of Karna
April 13, 2021
(by Sudharshan Garg) Loved the movie and the review, but a few…mythological and historical quibbles. Karna’s foster parents were not from the ‘oppressed’ classes. If anything Adhi his dad was from the lineage of the mighty king Jayadrata of Anga. Ratha was a suffix this line took, Jaya + Rata > DhratvaRata > Satkarma > […]
Readers Write In #353: Karnan: An Essay on the Radical
April 13, 2021
Hemanth Bharatha Chakravarthy I read Mari Selvaraj’s stunning Karnan as an essay on the radical, as a story of radical movements and radicalism within political struggles. There is a lot else in the movie: visually rich screenwriting with stunning landscapes and aerial shots, previously unsaid ethnography of the “lifestyle” of oppressed communities from their customs […]
Readers Write In #349: A case against the current system of elections
March 26, 2021
(by G Waugh) Assume that you are a social activist. You belong to an area where a chemical factory keeps sending harmful effluents to the local water bodies and other sources of water for public use. In addition, the workers who are employed there have also been exposed to harmful radiation and many of them […]
Readers Write In #343: Greta Thunberg, Farm Laws and the Curious Case of Prahalada Déjà vu
March 4, 2021
(by Macaulay Perapulla) Hindu Mythologies have a strange onion peeling effect. At first, your eyes find it hard to tolerate them. You can apportion some blame on the poor English translations that were made by enthusiastic Indologists during the 18th century who made sure that the stories sounded like cut-and-dried moral science lessons of “good” […]
Readers Write In #338: Understanding Indian agriculture through Indian cinema
February 8, 2021
(by Macaulay Perapulla) Ever since I fell in love with Mahabharata, I began to discover the power of a beautiful, a rather deceptive phrase: “Puranas”. Puranas means Pura Api Navam: That which is ancient AND nascent. And as someone who works on the wicked challenge of digitizing agriculture, I became obsessed with one question: How […]
Readers Write In #337: A diary of suffering
February 6, 2021
(by G Waugh) Never in my life had I ever imagined a time would come where I would be seeking treatment for something as terrible as– a mental illness. Whenever I used to call teasingly some of my friends “loosu”, “mental” it never waswithout a derogatory connotation that makes me wince today and those words […]
Readers Write In #335: Gamestop
January 31, 2021
(by Shiva Prasad) There is significant outrage, the social media is going crazy about what GameStop thing really is? As someone who has relied heavily on investments to make my ends meet for the past two odd years, I’ll admit, even for me there was still a lot of learning I had to go through, […]
Readers Write In #322: Bye Bye Miss American Pie
January 11, 2021
(by Madan Mohan) Don McLean wrote the iconic American Pie as a lament addressed to the events at Altamont, where pandemonium broke out between fans and Hell’s Angels (private bodyguards of sorts) as Rolling Stones performed their set at a music festival and also as a general critique of what he saw as accelerating cultural […]
‘Master’ is coming, but the pandemic isn’t going, so what do we do?
January 5, 2021
https://www.filmcompanion.in/features/tamil-features/tamil-movies-master-eeswaran-theatres-covid-19-master-is-coming-but-the-pandemic-isnt-going-so-what-do-we-do-vijay-simbu-baradwaj-rangan/ Now that 100% occupancy has been ensured in theatres, let’s just be safe and responsible and leave the rest to the movie gods. When the announcement came that Tamil Nadu theatres would be open at 100% capacity to accommodate Master and Eeswaran, my jaw dropped. Really? What kind of message is being sent out? […]
#AskBR – Rewind 2020
December 24, 2020
In which I answer a few questions on an older film… or a new one… or talk about actors and directors… or take on a few YouTube comments… For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
Readers Write In #315: Mirror Cracked From Side to Side
December 19, 2020
(by Madan Mohan) No, this is not about the famous Agatha Christie novel. This is about the imminent shutdown of Mumbai Mirror, a tabloid-sized daily that used to accompany Times of India. Starting tomorrow, we are told, Mumbai Mirror will be a Sunday weekly affair. Notice I say tabloid-sized. If you aren’t from Mumbai (or […]
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Baradwaj Rangan 
November 21, 2021
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