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I watched The Lunchbox in my early twenties… I understood it in my thirties.

​ When you realise that Irrfan Khan turned down Interstellar for The Lunchbox… It sounds like an unbelievable decision. Watching it again after all these years, I finally understood why. Saajan Fernandes is a middle-aged widower. The kind of ordinary man we’ve all seen around us. He gets annoyed when kids play cricket outside his house and refuses to return the ball. He’s spent over three decades in the same 9-to-5 job, carrying the same routine that countless Mumbaikars do…with the dependable dabbawala service as a part of everyday life. He’s cynical, withdrawn and content living inside his own little world. He even tries to avoid the responsibility of training his replacement. His monotonous life changes because of something that should never have happened: the dabbawalas make that one-in-a-million mistake and deliver someone else’s lunchbox to him. That lunchbox belongs to Ila, a homemaker trying to win back her husband’s affection through her cooking. It reminds me of what Master O...
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Poetry in frames… Conversations that feel lived in… Characters that feel real…Taj Mahal 1989 deserves more love…

Today I watched this series Taj Mahal 1989 and my biggest takeaway was First impressions are not always right. Somehow we’re conditioned to believe the very first version we form of someone. But if I look at my own life, some of the best people I know are the very ones I didn’t have a great first impression of. Set in 1989, the show follows four parallel stories, almost like Life In A Metro.  It’s a slow burn, but one that rewards patience. It feels incredibly real, beautiful and completely human. One thing I especially loved was how the women are written. I often feel that the women we meet in real life are far more interesting than the ones films and television usually give us. This show finally does them justice. The men too, are written with equal warmth and vulnerability. Life really does become more beautiful when adults learn to communicate and more importantly, communicate the right things at the right time. “When you begin to trust someone, it’s love.” This line!!! E...
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Reckless Once. Careful Now… Because the kindest people learn to love carefully

​ This is a conversation that shows up often, when you are sitting with friends over coffee or a drink. Someone says you are so independent; and it sounds like praise. No one asks where it came from. Independence is not always a personality trait. It is something built slowly after being disappointed more times than expected. After showing up without it being returned. After learning how to hold yourself together in rooms where you really wanted to be held. Over time self-reliance feels safer than expectation. That is usually when trust begins to change. The people who say they have trust issues are often the kindest. They wear their heart on their sleeves. But, after being hurt in the same place too many times they stop loving recklessly. They begin loving carefully. Then there are those who say they do not expect too much. It sounds mature and grounded. Often it is protection. It is lowering the bar before someone else can drop it. It is telling yourself that less is enough...
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If 30 is “old” why is 30 “too young” to die

​ I came across a reel on YouTube that said, “Don’t let society rush you.” It sounded simple. Almost cliché. But it struck a nerve People call you old at 30. And if someone dies at 30, they say, “So young.” Same age. Different tone. At 30, they ask what you’ve achieved. Are you married? Do you own a house? Why aren’t you further ahead? But when someone’s gone, no one asks about promotions or timelines. They just say, “There was so much life left.” It makes you realise most of the pressure was never real. It was noise. At 30, people expect you to have it figured out. Career stable. Relationship sorted. Savings done. Body perfect. Emotions mature. That’s the thing. We act like 30 is late, until it’s too late. But 30 is still just… living. Still trying. Still making mistakes. Still becoming. There is no alarm that goes off at midnight saying, “Congratulations. You must now be complete.” You’re allowed to be unsure. You’re allowed to change dir...
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From “Ranjhnaa” to “Tere Ishq Mein” Why Bollywood Still Gets Love Wrong!!!!

​ Just when you think Raanjhanaa is Anand L Rai’s worst film, he surprises you with another disaster “Tere Ishq Mein”. Two words “toxic masculinity!” In Bollywood the fu*kboy always gets upgraded into a demigod. His obsession is sold as devotion, his entitlement as passion and somehow we are expected to root for him. It makes me want to puke. To everyone who writes, directs, acts and glorifies characters like these; I have a question. Hypothetically if you had a daughter would you be happy if she dated or married a toxic “alpha” male??? That is exactly why we need more portrayals of men like Deepaks from Masaan. When he lost the woman he loved, he did not take his pain out on the world. He did not turn violent or bitter. He grieved…He cried and made all of us cry with him. And that is exactly the kind of person you should settle down with. The gentle one…The one who is not afraid of their emotions… In my early twenties, I believed love had to be intense dramatic and almost dest...
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“One Indian Girl” - A Crash Course in How Not to Write a Feminist Character

For as long as I’ve been reading, I’ve tried to avoid outright bashing a book unless it’s really, really awful. I respect the effort, imagination and time that authors invest into their work.  But One Indian Girl by Chetan Bhagat? That’s a book I will bash unapologetically! I bought this book almost a decade ago, during a time when Chetan Bhagat was a gateway author for many young Indian readers. I have no shame in admitting that I got hooked on reading thanks to Five Point Someone and 2 States. They were breezy, entertaining and easy to digest. But now, the 30-something me is genuinely terrified to revisit those books. I have a feeling I’d cringe at every other page. As for One Indian Girl, it’s not just a poorly written book; it’s an actively harmful one. This isn’t a story told from a female protagonist’s point of view. This is a story about what a man thinks a feminist woman sounds like. And trust me, that’s far worse than it sounds. If you’re ever sitting around on a cold day...
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Rewatching with New Eyes.. Turns out, perspective isn’t fixed; it grows with you.

I’ve always believed that you should re-read the same books and re-watch the same movies at two different stages in your life. Because you change, your beliefs shift, your empathy deepens and your boundaries get clearer. Something you once loved might suddenly make you cringe. Something you dismissed before might now hit you right in the gut. So this week, I rewatched two movies. Gehraiyaan The first was Gehraiyaan. I remember watching it during COVID and absolutely hating everything about it. Maybe because, back then, I was someone who could only see the world in black and white. I may not love Gehraiyaan, but I understand it now. The messiness, the emotional baggage, the intergenerational trauma, the relationships that defy labels, they make sense in a way they didn’t before. But if you ask me now, five years later? I’d say there are greys everywhere. My perspective has definitely changed.But that’s a story for another time. The movie I really want to talk about is Thappad We watched...
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