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Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor: A brutal, violence-laden exploration of toxic masculinity, of poverty and lawlessness
What happens in a town where the very systems meant to provide relief turns its people against each other?
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The Stationery Shop of Tehran by Marjan Kamali: Of love, loss and fate
The Stationery Shop, it’s carefully curated translated novels, the jewel-colored ink, Rumi’s vast collection reflect a life well-lived and a promise of a better future.
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A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry: A closer look at 1970s India
The novel painfully maps the corruption and lawlessness that pervaded India under the emergency rule; lootings, murders, dismemberment, and destruction of livelihood.
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Superior by Angela Saini: Deconstructing race science
One of the most important aspects of history and what we’ve come to know of it has been shaped by those in power. From human zoos, slavery and exploitation at the hands of white supremacists, our realities are now blurred. This superiority one has about the color of our skin is propagated by well-to-do scientists…
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A Burning by Megha Majumdar: Of hyper-nationalism, power dynamics and scapegoating.
A Burning, as the name itself, burns with a fire so strong, one continues to feel its warmth long after it’s been doused.
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Woman At Point Zero by Nawal El Sadawi: A powerful read about resistance, toxic patriarchy, and oppression.
When psychiatrist, Nawal El Sadwai, visits Qanatir prison in Egypt while conducting research into the neurosis of Egyptian women, she hears about Firdaus, a prisoner who is unlike any other inmates.
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The Family Tree by Sairish Hussain: An emotional roller-coaster
Sairish Hussain’s riveting debut novel is an emotional tale of a family reeling from unexplainable loss and the circumstances affecting them.
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She Said by Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey: Pulitzer-prize winning journalists expose Harvey Weinstein & Hollywood’s biggest secret.
NY Times journalists broke the burgeoning Harvey Weinstein story, ending his career, and opening floodgates for change.
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Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo: Of endemic sexism, patriarchy & oppression.
A south-korean woman’s plight seems to mirror that of several women all across the world.
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My Past Is A Foreign Country by Zeba Talkhani: Identifying as a muslim feminist & dealing with patriarchy
There is gentleness in Zeba’s intimate story; the fragile relationship with her mother, the silences lingering between them, the possessive nature only a child can have for a parent, the way Zeba would want to know her mother’s movement, watching her like a hawk. Zeba grew up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia but both her parents…
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How To Pitch Articles to Magazines/Online Publications
Follow these easy tips to pitch an article!
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Finding the ‘new’ normal: Dealing with uncertainty and navigating through life in the midst of a pandemic.
I gave myself six months at the start of 2020 to figure out a career plan. I quit my full-time job to pursue writing and editing as a freelancer. Naturally, I was skeptical and uncertain. It’s always nerve-wracking leaving the certainty of a monthly paycheck to dabble in something as shaky as freelancing. But I…
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Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal by Jeanette Winterson: A personal memoir of lost loss, and the search for love.
Winterson says, ‘Adopted children are dislodged. My mother felt that the whole of life was a grand dislodgement. We both wanted to go home.’ A harrowing childhood of being locked in a coal-hole, punishment by means of sleeping on the front porch all night, undergoing exorcism for having an affair with a girl, and spending…
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Boredom in the time of Quarantine: Finding comfort in stillness
Embracing stillness and adapting to the mundane.
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Coming Out As Dalit by Yashica Dutt: Caste violence, systemic oppression and owning one's identity.
In this memoir, Yashica with great sincerity reveals how she spent most of her life running away from her reality, one she didn’t even question. She writes, ‘ I never saw caste for what it really is—the invisible arm that turns the gears in nearly every system in our country. It’s been working silently for…
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15 crime thrillers that should be on your list: From psychological drama to sci-fi to classic whodunit.
All of us need that adrenaline rush once in a while. When your heart is pumping so fast, it’ll almost come out of your mouth. Thrillers are my got-to reads. I’ve been a sucker for psychological thrillers since the past year but I wouldn’t mind the classic cat and mouse chase either. If you’re looking…
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The Rape Trial by Bidisha Ghosal: When do we say,’ Enough is enough?’
What happens when women take justice in their own hands, going after their abusers, harassers, rapists–doing to them what men have been doing to women since centuries? What happens when the onus of protecting women lies no longer in the hands of the law? Women have been the victim of gruesome rape, of constantly being…
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The Little Prince by Antoine de-Saint Exupery: An emotional rollercoaster of a book.
The Little Prince is a novella that was written by Antoine de Saint- Expert in 1943. It has since been translated into several languages & has made its mark as a classic. Although meant for children, TLP carries poignant themes of love, loss, loneliness, and human nature. I don’t know what I was expecting while reading…
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Identity: Beyond Borders
The anti-narcotics team had arrived. We were about to go through another rigorous round of security check. Sheru, one of the sniffer dogs, was sun-bathing when he heard his name being called, after which, he jumped excitedly and proceeded towards us. If you’re a fully functional human being with a heart, the sight of a…
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Top Ten Favourite Books of 2019
To squeeze together everything about 2019 in a post is a herculean task. For I can never write in words how much books have changed me inside out, how every story has molded how I view the world and how every character taught me empathy, resilience and love.
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The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi: A Henna Artist’s struggle to live life fearlessly in post-independent India.
This book was born out of an attempt to imagine how her mother’s life would’ve turned out had she not been married and had kids at a tender age.
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Maybe You Should Talk To Someone by Lori Gottlieb: A therapist, her therapist, and our lives revealed.
In Maybe You Should Talk To Someone, I found my innermost thoughts, buried up until now, resurface and paraded out in the open. The vulnerability of peeling one’s own self in front of a stranger, to have them gently poke through the litany of feelings and to understand that they’re valid and worthy of existing encompass…