In the course of my anti-caste writing and advocacy, I’ve repeatedly come across one argument: namely, that it is unfair of me to criticise Brahmins, as they are not the ones perpetrating casteist violence. I’ve been asked many times: why am I not railing against other dominant castes who engage…

I cheated on the title of this. It was pilfered directly from a book I read recently: “Freedomville”, by Laura T. Murphy. I finished this slim treatise in a single setting, and immediately afterward I vowed to purchase a copy for everyone I know. The premise of Freedomville is modern…

I tried to come up with something piquant for this month’s blog post. Really, I did. I juggled a myriad of topics and reached toward the bags and shelves of books strewn around my apartment for inspiration. But I couldn’t. …

Or: How To Deal With Your Childhood Favourite Author Hating You — I am haunted by a ghost. He arrived in the pages of a book I recently bought, a complete collection of his horror stories. He has a moustache which could probably ingest small rodents single-handedly. Sometimes he calls me Beloved and enthralls me with folktales; sometimes he dismisses me as…

I generally enjoy reading letters. Many of my friends share my Victorian sentiments and will frequently send me touching hand-written missives on artfully aged paper. One even has her own wax sealing kit. Today, however, I read a letter which I emphatically did not enjoy. Thankfully, it was not penned…

My last essay was all about how I am not inherently evil. Today, I present to you the reasons why I’d like to be evil… …onstage, that is. It will surprise very few people to find out that I’m a theatre kid at heart. From elementary school onward I adored…

For Halloween 2022, I’ve decided to go as the scariest kind of monster: myself. But Aditi, you may say, you look like a ruffled baby owl in a hoodie. How on earth is that scary? Confused? I was too, initially. I used to believe that I was a writer of…

On Wednesday evening my family watched Dhamaka. The word means “explosion”, and the film certainly lived up to its title – in the sense that it was, well, explosively bad. The storyline follows a news anchor named Arjun Pathak, who gets a mysterious call from a man named Raghubeer Mhata…

The last time I visited London, at the age of seventeen, there was one thing I desperately wanted to do. Okay, two things: buy a lot of interesting old books… and go on the Jack the Ripper Walking Tour. I was prepared for that walk. Heck, I was sure I…