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How did I become the very thing I once hated the most?

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  How did I become the very thing I once hated the most? How did I become the person I had promised myself I would never be? The person I was so sure I would have done differently made better choices, known better, done better. And somewhere along the way, I became exactly what I thought I would never understand. Where did it all go wrong? Maybe that is one of life’s strange ways of making us humble. It doesn’t always teach gently. Sometimes, it breaks you into pieces scatters them so far apart that you have no choice but to sit with the fragments and slowly learn how to put yourself back together. But somehow, every time life has puzzled me, I have discovered a different picture in the pieces. A new version of me. A new landscape. A life I could not have imagined before everything fell apart. And strangely enough, when I look back, the things I once thought had ruined me often turned out to be the things that changed me for the better. I know I have l...
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Amruthadhare (2005): A Film That Has Aged Like Fine Wine.

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There are films that tell you a love story and then there are films that make you reconsider what a love story ought to look like. Amruthadhare , directed by Nagathihalli Chandrashekhar and starring Dhyan as Purandar (Puru) and Divya Spandana (Ramya) as Amrutha, belongs to the latter category. I recently watched this film, having been drawn in by its rather captivating title song- " Nee Amruthadhaare".  Made 21 years ago, around the time my parents had just got married, it is fascinating to revisit a film from that era and discover how much it has to say about relationships, companionship and the rather complicated business of building a life together. Spoiler Alert : The following section discusses the plot (and a little bit of the ending!). You might want to read it for some context, or simply skip ahead to “my two cents on the movie.” The story revolves around Puru and Amrutha, a married couple who have an unusual arrangement. Basically, they refuse to stop behaving like l...
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Operation Shivshakti, Operation Mahadev, Operation Sindoor: Are India's Military Operations Reflecting Religious Majoritarianism??

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“As India’s armed forces adopt increasingly religious nomenclature, are we blurring the line between national defense and ideological assertion?” A recent remark by a senior congress political leader drew attention to the naming conventions of Indian military operations as many of which appear to be drawn disproportionately from Hindu religious terminology. As someone who identifies as an atheist, I hold no animosity toward any particular religion. However, I believe it’s worth critically examining how state institutions, especially the armed forces, engage with symbolic language. Whenever these institutions employ names that reflect the dominant religion of the ruling political party, it risks sending a message that is not just exclusionary, but provocative. In a region like Jammu & Kashmir, where the local population overwhelmingly follows Islam, naming operations with overtly Hindu religious connotations can be seen as an imposition rather than a strategy. It sends a subtle yet ...
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