“On campus, boys used to creep up behind us when we weren’t looking, and undo our bra clasps for kicks. In the bus, we couldn’t tell where our bodies stopped and where their hands began.” My whole life, I feel as though I’ve heard a constant commentary on the rapidly approaching change on our horizon. How the horrors of past centuries are behind us. How things are going to get better. “My friend was assaulted by one of our teachers. She never reported it though. She was terrified that her parents would pull her out of college.” My mother, reflecting on her former college life in Delhi, is...

Persian has always been a language that I had admired and wanted to learn. This poem is my first attempt at writing a Persian poem after learning it for a few months. The poem consists of easy words that I picked up while learning the basics. While it is very difficult to write a poem in a foreign language due to its inherent nuances and grammatical intricacies, I found it to be a very entertaining and enlightening exercise for improving my skill in the language as well as learning it further. My accompanying transliteration has tried to bring forth the rhyme and intonation used in the poem...

Religion has always been a very controversial subject. But the question that arises is, how many of us really understand the concept of religion? I see lots of people saying that they don't believe in God. But what does God represent? For me God is a constant positive energy in my life. What I believe is that one doesn't need to believe in a deity if one believes in some positive force. This positive force can be their father, mother, siblings, grandparents, etc. Anyone can be a positive force as long as they help us to move in a positive direction. This positive force keeps you grounded and...

We are so used to using colloquial, simple words, that we sometimes forget to appreciate the beauties embedded in the English language—words that we rarely use, but which have meanings that are incredibly profound and eye-opening. That bestow us with new perspectives, and make us more aware of the unique world we live in… 8. Pareidolia: the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful, image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern The shapes we see in clouds, the familiarity we find in otherwise meaningless patterns. That moment when the clouds were shaped like a wispy feather, when the...

Homecoming literally means returning home. But I feel there are several more emotions attached to that word like the joy and excitement you feel when the day of your return home draws near, or when your mind gets filled with memories of the good times you had with your siblings - these are feelings or emotions which fill my mind when I hear the word 'homecoming'. Durga Puja is the biggest festival of Kolkata. Every year thousands of people come to Kolkata to experience this beautiful festival. What we sometimes do not notice is that during the puja holidays many people also leave Kolkata to...

The global pandemic, the quarantine, the isolation... is all very new for us. Most of us are not used to staying at home for this long a period. I was in the middle of my grade 10 examinations when the lockdown was announced. 10th grade examinations are a very important milestone for Indian students. Our teachers and parents prepare us for these all our lives. When my exams were postponed midway, a feeling of sorrow swept my mind for I had studied all year. After a few days, I overcame denial and started accepting facts. I was perplexed. I didn't know what to do in all this free time The...

If you’ve watched the acclaimed Netflix original ‘La Case de Papel’ (Money Heist), there is a high likelihood you remember the tune of Bella Ciao which represents the essence of the show as an anthem of resistance. It has featured on the show several times- the first time being an iconic scene in which The Professor and his brother, Berlin, break out into the song while at the dinner table during the night before their heist. Since then, it has taken over the minds of fans, its infectious melody playing on repeat. However, it shouldn’t simply be known as a catchy song from that famous TV show...

In this world, with 195 countries and over 7 billion people populating these places, we cannot imagine how many cultures exist. The art, literature, language, and religion of a community represent its culture. Our moral values represent our culture. Be it any country, a culture will shape the identity of a person, make them remember their past, think about the future, and to some extent, integrate with other cultures as well. So, by now we know why culture is that important to become a topic. We interact with different people everyday, belonging to some religion, speaking a different language...

Dance is one of the most powerful forms of expression, also serving as a mode of stress alleviation for many, including myself. I started dance, in the form of Mohiniyattam, at the age of 9, under the guidance of my Guru, in Mumbai, India. Mohiniyattam, also spelled Mohiniattam, is one of the eight classical dances of India and it originates from Kerala. It gets its name from the word Mohini – a mythical enchantress avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, and Attam which means Dance. Mohiniyattam's roots, like all classical Indian dances, are in the Natya Shastra, the ancient Hindu Sanskrit text on...

With education comes empowerment. Education changes minds and lives. "My mum often told me to study or else, I’d end up like her. I never really took these things seriously but now as I read about child marriages, I realise what she meant". Child marriage doesn’t just put an end to a girl’s hopes and dreams, it also hampers the efforts taken to end poverty and achieve economic growth and equality. Girls are powerful agents of the socio-economic change. Early marriage creates barriers and transforms the child’s life from playing and studying to dealing with unwanted social responsibilities. The...

The promising lightening creams displayed in nearly every store and marketplace visited are the embodiments of reinforced stereotypes, the representation of a culture with proclaimed guidelines about what constitutes as beauty, and the undoing of a painful colonial history. The seed of shame had been planted generations past; the weeds springing from it at once, constricting and suffocating. The advertisements of such products overtly displayed their message of “dark skin” needing fixing. The exhibit of dark-skinned women staring at their reflection with resentment, their smiles only appearing...

I was born and brought up in Delhi itself, but honestly, I was never a ‘fan’ of the national capital. Though, I like visiting typical Delhi markets, taking walks on long roads of Delhi, and visiting many monuments which are now in ruins because of the passage of time but still define Delhi. But again, i was never a person who could say, “Oh! I am a resident of Delhi, and I like my city so much.” To be upfront, Delhi, for me, was just another city till the time I read one of Mirza Ghalib’s, who was an Indian poet from the eighteenth century sher or couplet. It said– “Ek roz poocha apni rooh se...

Around 3 pm on a perfect happy Sunday, I received a call from my somewhat disgruntled senior. With sympathy and despair laced in his voice, he informed, "I am sorry, but we are going to have to take down your introductory Instagram post from our MUN (Model United Nations) page for two days.". The school management or the teacher in charge had decided that my attire in the said post looked, you guessed it, "inappropriate". Classic. Naturally, I was immediately infuriated. But, I maintained my composed demeanor and told him that it was alright since he had already done his best to convince them...

Technology, one of the most debated concepts of the 21st century. From the boons of wikipedia to the banes of piracy, it has become one of the foremost topics to argue today. So, the concept of technology and art must be explored in as much, if not more detail as all the other aspects surrounding this fad that has taken over the world in the last 50 years. Technology does not curate talent. Technology cannot instil in people what does not exist. Can a person improve? Yes. Can they find the resources to practice, to learn? Yes. However, can they use technology as a means to force skill? No. Nor...

For centuries, India has been the beacon of culture around the world; with a divine appreciation and respect for the arts. Classical Indian Dance is an art that forms the very base of this nation, beaming with expressions of over 50 dance forms. Every evening, you see young girls in their crisply ironed white kurtas on their way to riyaaz (practice); if you pay attention, you can hear the slight jingling of ghungroos (anklet bells) peeping from their jute, mirrorwork bags. Natya means drama. It means emotions and expression and feelings. The scowling of our brows when we’re upset is Natya; a...

During my final year of high school, I had conducted a case study to understand the marriage rituals that took place among certain Christian communities in India - such as the Christians of Kerala, Goa and Mizoram - compared to the marriage rituals among Christians in western countries. The objective of my case study was to highlight the noticeable differences in these marriage rituals among the Christian communities in India as opposed to the Christians living in the west. To begin, a questionnaire was sent out to twenty three respondents belonging to Christian communities in both India as...

What is a mother? A mother is someone who gives birth to us, loves us, nurtures us, takes care of us, protects us, and brings us up in the most patient and gentle way possible. Someone who makes sacrifices for us her whole life. No matter how the child may be, for a mother, they are the best child in the entire world and the twinkle of her eye. A woman does not only care for the child after they are born, but since the time that they start to grow inside her womb. Women have been blessed with a super power to give birth to a new life; their emotional and physical strength is incomparable to...