can you vish?

A vague story idea hits you one day. You think it would pass, just like a hundred other vague ideas have, in the past. But to your surprise, this one stays. You are unsure at first, but interest seeps in gradually. You toy with the idea in your head.  As the story takes shape and characters are born, you are drawn deep into that universe. You look up facts, read accounts, and do some research on matters that would form the core of the story. You observe. Your family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, the people you saw on the metro or in a restaurant. You engage in social debates - online and offline. You observe life. All of it may not find its way into a story. But, some would. You start writing (typing). An entire chapter some days. A few lines some other days. As you write, you realize the story is evolving over the course. You finish writing the first draft. You add a working title. “I Want Your Life”. Your story is now a word document in your computer. You want it to be a paper...

  An ordinary man seems to have received a divine revelation. A voice from the other world revealed themselves to this chosen man, and started filling his head with worldly wisdom. The chosen man was not selfish, and so he decided to share his newly gained knowledge with his folks. As if to clear away all their doubts, a miracle was also performed - something which was apparently impossible without a divine intervention. The chosen man gathered his trusted followers, and asked them to write down the wisdom he gained in a book - so that they would not lose this knowledge so precious. And they filled pages and pages with the words of the voice as dictated to the chosen man. The book had guidelines on how to live their lives - what was to be done, what was not to be done. And they began following the book to the dot. They shaped their lives in accordance with what was written. They even found some success and prosperity. Happy days. But, as they say, happy days did not last. As it tur...

  People who know me might know that I am a cinephile. I avidly follow the happenings in the cineverse, regularly interact with fellow cinephiles in social circles, and occasionally write short snippets on movies that moved me. I am not much of a picky eater, but I am a picky watcher. I check reviews, watch the trailer, and decide to watch a movie only if it suits my taste. In a time before Covid and direct OTT releases, seeing a movie that you waited for eagerly was not always easy. The cinema halls may not be that accessible to you, or the movie may not be prominent enough for it to release in your nearest theaters. There have been times where I have dropped the idea of watching some movies in theaters due to practical limitations, but here let us talk about the times where I went the extra mile. The Jungle Book (2016) Disney’s Jungle Book was, beyond doubt, one of the most prominent releases of the year, and of course, it was released in theaters near me. But the trailer of the ...

As the news of the islanders of Lakshadweep being engaged in long drawn protests with the authorities took limelight in the media, I was reminded of the malayalam movie Kammattipadam. This Rajeev Ravi directorial talked about the lives of people who were forced to give up their lands to the powerful real-estate mafias, as Kochi underwent a tide of urbanization. The tropical archipelago of Lakshadweep is apparently finding itself in similar waters. The Union Government seems to have a revamped  vision for the islands, with a great onus on tourism. High end tourism projects are being mooted, “under the aegis of NITI Aayog with a vision to establish a robust base for maritime economic growth with tourism development”. Among the various plans, the major attractions include the construction of overwater villas and bungalows, which have proved to be a great hit with tourists worldwide, especially so in Maldives and Bora Bora. While India has the ideal geographic conditions in the islands...

  This is what happened. A youngster shot a girl dead in Kerala, and then killed himself. The police are investigating the case, and prominent theories suggest that the two were in a relationship, she ended the relationship for reasons unknown and he committed the crime as an act of revenge. Most people reacted to the news with utter disbelief, and anger. But let us talk about the people in the screen-shot and their disgusting comments. I will give a sense of the comments for those who don't know Malayalam. The first comment is a textbook example of victim blaming. The person says that the girl might have dumped him which was why he got enraged. “Equal blame on both”, the comment say. The second comment goes on to empathize with the killer, highlighting the pain he must have gone through to take such a drastic step. And there are many other comments conveying similar sentiments. In a society where the term dating is largely unheard of, many people believe ending a relationship is s...

  ‘11:11’, she texted me. I might have briefly pondered the meaning of it before I realized she had texted me the time of the day. ‘Okay?’ ‘If you observe 11:11 on a day, you will observe it in the coming days as well.’ That was an interesting comment. Not something I believed right away. Interesting, nevertheless. ‘11:11’, she texted me the next day. Is it becoming a thing now? Twice every day the clock shows us four ones. That day, my eyes caught sight of the second time the time was eleven past eleven. ‘11:11’ I texted her. It was becoming a thing now. So were we. Exactly eleven months ago, we were proclaimed as one by our family and friends and the society alike. And throughout the period, I cannot remember any single day where we have been away from each other. Due to the pandemic induced lockdown induced work from home, we have had the privilege to spend most of our time together. Such levels of close interaction expose a lot of our shades to the other person. Some, they may ...

You might have come across this joke that has been doing rounds for years now. Let me tell it to you nevertheless. It unfurls in a classroom, where the teacher is conducting an exam. The students are to write an essay on coconut trees. (What other topic to write on in a state named after coconut trees!) While all the kids went gaga over it, Veer was yet to write a word. Veer was not from the state named after coconut trees, and he knew scant about those. This is not to imply that his was a gone case. He decided to make up for his lack of knowledge in coconuts by leveraging his extensive knowledge about cows. This is how we wrote his essay: Coconut trees are good trees. We have a coconut tree in our backyard. My uncle ties our cow to the coconut tree in the afternoon. The cow gives us milk everyday. My uncle loves our cow very much... In a system that rewards on the basis of the number of words written rather than the sense it carries, Veer passed the test in flying colors. He later...

 The Dress was white and gold. It has always been so. The woman who had purchased the dress for her best friend's wedding had put up a pic of it on her social media, and a couple of her prankster friends had claimed the dress to be black and blue, setting the stones in motion. (It is important to note that at the time they were commenting, they had just thought of it as a harmless joke.) The woman who had uploaded the pic of the white and gold dress that she had  purchased for her best friend's wedding lost her mind when her friends said the dress was blue and black. She was a person of simple thoughts, and her mind had no place for her friends' mischief. However, their hard stand was throwing her off. She needed closure. So she did the one thing people do when they need closures. She poised the question to the Internet, with an elaborate description of how she had bought the white and gold dress for her best friend's wedding but how some of her friends were seeing it a...