Dal, a lentil-based soup, is a staple of Bengali cooking — at least in my family. It didn’t matter that we grew up in Ohio, about as far from Kolkata and Dhaka as you can get, we had dal with dinner almost every night. Moog dal, musoor dal, cholar dal, toor dal, yellow split-pea dal. You… Read More Never a Dal Moment: A Recipe and a Reflection
Vikramaditya Motwane’s period drama Lootera (“Thief”) is appropriately titled, as it steals slowly into your consciousness and deftly exploits your vulnerabilities before leaving you alone with nothing but your thoughts. This is not a loud film; it features no dance numbers, no bombastic “Bollywood moments,” but it still delivers the beautifully melodramatic payload that makes… Read More Lootera Will Steal Your Heart
Sometimes, when I talk about “white people” in front of actual white people, there’s this pause…this moment of awkward. It’s a combination of “Did she just call out our skin color?” and “But…we’re people.” Yes. Welcome to my world on a daily basis. How does it feel? That, my friends, is the luxury of being… Read More Ordinary (White) People
When I was in my late teens, visiting Calcutta (this was pre-“Kolkata” conversion, not that renaming a place changes its ethos), I was groped by a guy as my cousins, my mom and I stood on a curb waiting to cross over to a shopping mall. Stunned, I whirled around and glared — I was… Read More Agni Pariksha: Violence Against Women and the Test of Fire
“It’s difficult to consider the American Durga Pujo as even a mildly authentic experience,” says Arnab Ray in a rather jaw-droppingly short-sighted piece at the New York Times India blog— one that has me seeing red and wishing I had eight more arms so I could shake 10 fists in his general direction. “I have… Read More Keeping Durga Puja alive is what keeps it real
I keep stumbling upon the assertion that The Mindy Project and Mindy Kaling’s Office character Kelly Kapoor are somehow “too white” or “too privileged.” As if the only valid South Asian narrative is curry-soaked and accented, a tale of oppression and being The Other. Are those really our two options: too white or too Outsourced-and-Apu? Bullshit. There isn’t… Read More The Mindy Project: Just One of Many Stories
Sujoy Ghosh spins a Kahaani featuring a heroine you can’t help but root for. With the backdrop of Kolkata’s Durga Puja celebration and the overarching metaphor of the mother goddess coming to life to accomplish what the gods never could, Ghosh crafts a masterful thriller…and a wrenchingly human story of loss. At the center of… Read More Kahaani: Once Upon a Time in Kolkata
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