literature Archives

Half Girlfriend, Complete Moron: The Anatomy of a Chetan Bhagat Heroine

It’s not just real-life women with whom Chetan Bhagat seems to share a tetchy relationship. The author’s heroines are always one-dimensional, unattainable college girls. They are quite stupid when it comes to matters of the heart — which is why they inevitably end up with one of Bhagat’s douchebag protagonists.

Kahini Iyer July 2, 2016

Pop Culture

Not All Those Who Wander are Lost: Tolkien’s Tonic for the Millennial Quarter-Life Crisis

When faced with a crisis, some people turn to religion and seek divine deliverance from their problems. I’m not religious, but I do have idols, and out of the entire pantheon, JRR Tolkien is the one who rules them all.

Dushyant Shekhawat June 23, 2016

POV

Cause Kazuo Ishiguro is Not a Noble Man

I’ve never been to Japan but Nobelist Kazuo Ishiguro is perhaps its most engaging tourist guide: The man who narrates intolerable despair with an equally intolerable restraint.

B Saikumar June 19, 2016

Pop Culture

Why I Keep Going Back to My Young Adult Novels… Even at 32

There’s great pleasure in consuming literature that is cerebral and challenging. But I also really, really love the literature that has no greater purpose than to entertain in the moment and spark instant joy. The Princess Diaries, Sweet Valley High, The Fault In Our Stars remind me of who I was before I became who I’ve become.

Sonali Kokra May 25, 2016

Pop Culture

Love in the Time of Name-Dropping Márquez

Before reading Gabriel García Márquez, I had no idea that one was allowed to write like that. I have lived a different life because I’ve read his books.

Nimisha Misra April 30, 2016

Books

In Defence of Chetan Bhagat’s ‘Books’

For years I followed the dictum that rejecting Bhagat’s work was some sort of qualifier for a better, more intellectual palate. It is perhaps ‘woke’ to trash his books. But it took me years to realise that he may have done more for reading in this country, than any other author writing in his time.

Manik Sharma March 20, 2016

Gender

Where Are Our Female Sherlock Holmes & Dr House? Why It’s So Difficult to Write Disagreeable Women Characters

Male characters in books and pop culture can be disgusting assholes and own that personality, but women characters – barring a few outliers – are mostly pretty, passive, and perfect. Where are the women that behave like jerks simply because they can? Where are our female Sherlock Holmes and Mr Darcy?

Sonali Kokra March 20, 2016