Truth vs MJ Akbar

Priya Ramani’s lawyer makes final arguments in MJ Akbar defamation suit Continuing from where she had left off on Saturday, Priya Ramani’s lawyer, Rebecca John, presented her final arguments at a virtual hearing on the defamation suit brought against the journalist by Bharatiya Janata Party leader MJ Akbar. Akbar had filed the case in October 2018, […]

How Kerala’s literacy beats Delhi’s

The fact that the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is running schools is one of the reasons why the Capital city lags behind. This is why the Delhi government’s efforts do not lead to a better outcome No matter how the education system may have been transformed by the Delhi government, the Union Territory still misses […]

Wedlock in lockdown

Women of marriageable age are under pressure from their parents to get married soon. Stuck at home due to the pandemic, they have no choice but to listen to harangues about how time is running out  The ongoing pandemic has negatively impacted normal life. Needless to say, this impact has not been uniform — some […]

Girl child at risk of dropout

With online classes hardly viable in poor families with two or three school going children, their education is bound to suffer. The risk of them being put to labour or married off is real   Manisha Tiwari lives in a village of Jharkhand’s Koderma district. Since March, when the lockdown was imposed to fight the spread […]

Together physically, virtually in another zone

During the pandemic, families are being forced to spend quality time together but each is involved in their own online world — WFH, video games and Netflix There’s always a silver lining. The pandemic has destroyed millions of livelihoods, the economy is in shambles and the future is at best uncertain. Despite this, there are […]

Memes go political

Apart from caricaturing public figures, memes appropriated for political propaganda have not really added gravitas to public debates. Rather, they have trivialised serious issues If we look at some famous “meme” of the last few weeks that grabbed a lot of attention on social media — one was “Rasode me kaun tha (Who was in […]

Online wars against a girl named Rhea

The story of three men united by their fever-pitch resentment towards Rhea Chakraborty, and their anger and grief at the death of a Bollywood star A picture posted on a popular Facebook group shows actor Rhea Chakraborty next to a coronavirus illustration. “Which virus is more dangerous?” shouts the text on the image. The caption says: “2020 worst […]

Mirror to millennial moods

Netflix’s ‘Masaba Masaba’ has its protagonist depicting the lives of young working women like never before — it may be a ficitonalised story of a famous mother and daughter, but it’s totally relatable When I started watching Netflix’s much-talked about “Masaba Masaba”, I did not have any expectations from it. Rather, I was only hoping […]