The Mystical Unicorn

The irony in an independent, educated young woman asserting her freedom and right to wear what she pleases and sing along and dance to whichever item song she wants, cannot be missed. In this post, I will outline the objectification of women in Bollywood dance numbers as analyzed and discussed by Ms. Deebanjana Pal, at the "Gender in Cinema: Gendering Film Screens" workshop I attended this semester. Ms. Pal presented her talk with the help of 4 clips from Indian movies from different time periods. Using these, she criticized notions about women even as they evolved. She also explored the sexuality of leading ladies in these films, in terms of overtly sexy behavior. The first clip she showed us was Dimple Kapadia's infamous sarong scene in Bobby. Ms Kapadia's striptease there was a demonstration of the constant scrutiny femalekind are subject to: The heroine in that clip is shown to be unaware of being watched. She has no idea about the creepy man in the backgroun...

Some characteristics in potential dating partners are very grey areas - physical appearance, dating history, matching interests, and age, for instance. For the longest time, I firmly held the belief that I should only date someone older than me. I held the view that since boys (in general) are dumber than girls their age, it would be safe to assume that I'd never gain anything out of a relationship with a younger boy. My stance can be debunked on many counts. Firstly, many boys older than me are still dumber than me - case in point: Dumbshit. Also, Anant is both smarter and wiser than me, and he's two years younger than me. Secondly, what if I were to date a girl? Would I want her to be older or younger than me? Thirdly, what if I had never known about his/her age? I'd probably fall for him/her. The personality would (and should) suffice. Lastly, I'd linked age with maturity, which is perhaps a fail approach. There is at least one conscientious, hel...

For the uninitiated, Hobo Saturday is every Saturday that you are forced to attend class on, and to pretend to care about getting an education, and when you wear your most drab clothes and no makeup or accessories and go through those few hours of class purely out of obligation. Here's a jingle about the same: Hobo Saturday Doesn't matter day Don't bother with your hair Doesn't matter what you wear  Roll out of bed Shake your sleepy head And walk into class on Hobo Saturday Hobo Saturday is less a state of mind, more a welcome break from the urge to dress well and look on point every single day of the week. It's an opportunity for 15 more minutes of sleep in the morning; a day when you can just relax and focus on more important things like enduring class, and let your true colors (or lack thereof) shine through. It is a day when you are encouraged to not let your dark circles or muted clothing affect your valuation of yourself, and a blessed day of liberat...

February is the last month of winter and the last month of low-pressure dressing up we have left. No more jackets, sweaters, scarves, tights or layers, and although that makes me and my insecurities very sad, I shall make the most of the three weeks that remain. And in order to help you do the same, here is a pictorial: This week in Instructables: Winter Dressing for the Pear Shaped! This guide is more about easy warmth, so I assume you already have on well-fit clothes such as your favorite basic LBD or jeans and plain tee or regular formals, along with appropriate footwear. Layering, quite intuitively, is the simplest, most affordable way of keeping warm, allowing you to pair your good ol’ sundress with a chic cardigan or jacket, and spruce up your everyday college clothes with trendy sweaters and scarves. As always, be playful with colors and prints, contrasts and textures, and DFTSA.

How to Slack Politely We are all far too familiar with the dreaded but inevitable mid-lecture emotional breakdown of our less tolerable professors. Classroom discipline is a task when the professor is incompetent or the lecture useless. However, in the greater interests of humanity, and as an act of kindness, it is important to zone out or discuss vacation plans or even doodle - with tact and stealth. To begin with, let me remind you of talking-relevant cheats in the mindless videogame that is, say, a Psych lecture. Firstly, never look at the person you're talking to. Conduct your conversation with your eyes on the professor or slides and your hands Dumbledore-style inconspicuously hovering near your face. Do not gesticulate or move your head too much. Also, if it weren't obvious, hush. This way, you will appear thoughtful and contemplative as opposed to rude and a painful reminder of the vanity of the professor's efforts. Naturally, this applies only in cases where yo...

I've been thinking about superhero movies, as in the superhero trope, and I feel that humanity no longer has use for it. The only purpose it serves now is to make bigger, cooler heroes and bigger, badder supervillains. Or to mutate the hero as an accidental hero or a transformed villain. What do you think?

Magnificat starts tomorrow and I am too excited to possibly blog about anything else. As you know (if you've stalked this blog (like some people :3)) I'm in my college choir and it is fun and takes up 73% of my life but I'm not complaining. We organize an annual 3-day open-to-all Christmas concert called Magnificat - A Song of Hope in the first weekend of December and choirs from all over the city come and perform and delight us with their choral harmony in the spirit of Christmas. Magnificat is presently in its 10th year, and this year, it's going to be 4 days - 4th, 5th, 6th and 12th December! We have been slogging for the backdrop and props creation for two weeks now and we have these adorable glittery string lanterns ready that we made using some mad string and glue and starch and water and the bonds of friendship, and holly and wreaths and a cool rad set list and even though other choirs are probably going to be more cheerful and Christmas-ey, we are still the...

This week I shall review the TrulyMadly app for those that are curious to know how, or rather if, it works. Okay, ladies, you have many,  many  options to choose from. A large bunch of the boys I was shown were really cute. You can set your preference as per age, height, state and city; furthermore the app matches the books you've read, movies you've watched, music you listen to and restaurants you visit to those of your "matches" (as the boys whose profiles you're shown are called). The app uses hashtags (minimum 3, maximum 5) to match personality traits, I'm guessing, since the suggestions that matched #artist #bookworm #writer #singer #vegan were mostly foodies, adventure junkies, music snobs, nature seekers, travel buffs, photography types or animal lovers. In the beginning I went a little like-happy, "liking" almost 75% of the profiles I was shown. After conversations with a few of them I realized the necessity for scrutiny and filtering an...

Is it? Why is being clueless about your beauty considered an addition to it? Doesn't it imply either stupidity or insecurity or both? In all the time that I've had to think in this past week, especially with the absence of my phone, I've concluded that being unaware of your beauty is just another cultural imposition, like "How sweet, she doesn't know she's beautiful. What a darling." There's a billion songs out there, too, reinforcing this nonsense modesty and actually making insecurity an important contributor to teenage likeability.  I'm sorry, but if an attractive person did not see himself/herself that way, they would either be unhealthily insecure, stupid or (I mean this with no disrespect) blind. Unfortunately, though, in today's world, if you're clueless about how pretty you are, you're cute and adorable, but if you're aware of how pretty you are, you're considered (very rarely) intimidatingly beautiful or (most ...

Of the numerous genres available in the film industry today, action is the worst offender as far as the perpetration of blind hate, violence, sexism and amorality is concerned. Granted, the various censor boards deserve recognition for their enthusiastic campaign against sleaze, tobacco, booze, graphic details and the associated evils. However, their utter indifference regarding the CONTENT of action movies is disturbing. Young, impressionable children, when exposed to the attitude their favorite movie-stars have to adopt when portraying gangsters or mafia, begin to emulate it. The concepts of masculinity, masochism and chauvinism cease to be different, and they grow up to be "tough guys", who have learned how to treat women, from criminals. Movies today propagate the 'bad boy' image as cool, popular and ideal. And young schoolboys who don't know better accept this image. At this rate, the Indian society can only be described as kicking down the doors to crime, c...

In an entire day, a hostel or pg-dweller does more damage to the environment than he/she would do in a week at home. Starting from midnight (because most are usually awake until much after), the obvious offenses are: keeping multiple lights on (if more than one light is available), keeping the chargers (yes, multiple chargers – for the phone, laptop, mp3 player, roommate’s phone’s charger, roommate’s laptop’s charger etc) plugged in, leaving the fan switched on while huddled under a nice, soft comforter, playing loud music (yes it’s an offense. What do you think your neighbors would term it as?) (especially after midnight) and so on. The less obvious offenses are: ordering takeout just before closing time, eating the pizza/noodles/whatever hours later, realizing that it’s cold and no longer delicious, and then heating it in the microwave and, realizing that it just isn’t the same and upon loss of appetite, throwing it in the  bin , which, quite likely, is the same for wet and...

Love for another, for oneself, romantic, platonic, familial, maternal, paternal, tough love, unrequited love, love for a subject, your work, an object, a pet, a hobby - but love in the end.