Message Is In The Medium

Imagine a world where you get to enter Cafe Coffee Day only if you are a fan of Marvel comics. If you were into the Disney movies, you are welcome, even fondness for Japanese anime and K-Pop would do, but follow DC comics and you are not welcome. That is something on the lines of the recent Citizenship Amendment Act the Indian government just passed in both the houses of the Indian parliament. What it says, what it means... The Act says that certain refugees on the Indian soil belonging to certain beliefs and hailing from specific locations are welcome as citizens in the Indian republic but others are not. The Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, and Parsis specifically from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are welcome in India but not the same communities from Sri Lanka, Myanmar or China, and Muslims from absolutely nowhere. It is the first time when the Indian Parliamentarians openly told the world that you must believe in certain stories before you dream...

Recently we all found out that the Madras High Court banned TikTok application because it is indecent for children and it connects vulnerable impressionable kids to lurking sexual predators. If you read closely, the same argument applies to internet as whole and might even be used to ban internet as well. TikTok, not any more complex than Instagram or Dubsmash still gets a ban unlike the other applications simply for its content and not the company policy. It's like overthrowing democracy in India because there are too many corrupt politicians. But this is not really the first time that we have had such an approach to our problems. This really is the Indian way of dealing with any issue. The solution to every problem. Don’t talk about it. Ban it. We have caste discrimination in our country. A section of people are humiliated for what their ancestors did as a livelihood. So much that names of communities have been equated with swear words. How did we solve the problem? We ...

The election fever is soaring in the country with no one but politicians and media people going crazy over the supposed festival of democracy. Though they always find a reason to bellow through microphones, the season of election gives them a particularly bizarre energy. The powerful become vulnerable and the forbidden questions resurface. For the past one month I am being bombarded with advertisements and promises of Utopian worlds and fears of broken ones. I get calls from Arvind Kejriwal himself telling me what my problems are; Narendra Modi hopefully looks at me with innocent eyes from every web-page that I open. Suddenly everyone is a well-wisher. As an example, someone allegedly(they told me) from Aam Aadmi Party called me to inform me about my name being struck off the electoral roll. Though I was skeptic from the beginning, I played along and asked what I should do. The person at the other end told me not to worry in a completely mechanical tone, as if he had said the s...

It started with  Simmba , I believe, that Indian audiences began venting out frustration through revenge drama-comedies. (Dramedies?) It was triumphantly carried forward by  Uri: The Surgical Strike . The trend of the protagonist with all his swagger avenging injustice is toxic. The injustice, in the plot, is also what our hero decides and revenge, of course, is justice. It is a one-man show (reflecting politics, maybe). This trend furthers in upcoming Amitabh Bachchan starrer  Badla . Read: Is Uri: The Surgical Strike a propaganda film. (Movie Review) Read: Simmba- The great Indian aspiration of bullying. (Movie Review) There isn't anything wrong particularly in the movies due to their revenge theme. It is reflection of the society after all. But the trend in itself is quite dangerous. It speaks of the general anger and frustration in us all. Considering the earlier two movies were little more than escapist crowd pleasers, the state of people is all the...

Uri: The Surgical Strike theatrical poster Well, the answer is yes. Just not in the way you think. It saves you a lot of time and you can leave right away if you cannot read beyond the headlines. Also, if you were looking for some confirmation bias and don't have patience to listen to the other side. And honestly, both  for  and  against  groups on this topic have gone deaf to other side. But let's not blame anyone here. It is the standard these days. In the world of today, arguments are not meant to explain your point with reason but to please those who already agree with you. Confirmation bias blooms on all fences. Opinions become content and there exists an audience for whatever side you pick. So what side do I pick? Well, no points for guessing; none.  Uri: the Surgical Strike  is propaganda but not in the way it portrays the events but the way it depicts the army. If I still have your attention, we could be friends. Uri: the Surgical Strike...

With elections on our head every time, it becomes difficult to avoid them. I know I shouldn't care about other state elections, but it's all over news. Besides, it's fun! So I watched one of these discussions on YouTube which tried to decipher what Indian politics is. They are all useless but fun, really. But then it hit me. Indian politics is just like the popular reality TV show, Bigg Boss. Up until a few years ago, I followed Bigg Boss quite religiously. To an extent that I had to ban myself from watching any more. Yes, I peeled myself off from the TV a few years ago when I realized it took too much and gave back absolutely nothing in return. Even after that, I accidentally(Hehe!) viewed a few episodes of Bigg Boss and got involved in some of the issues of the contestants, which really were non-issues. I got sucked right in. I could come out of that madness only when I began consuming even crazier acrobatics: The Circus Of Indian Politics. And literally thi...