I can’t say I managed to escape my childhood unscathed. I had an awfully bockety gait, which would inevitably result in an abrasion here, or a laceration there. More often than not, these injuries would leave ineffaceable marks on me, the most conspicuous one being the scar on my forehead…

Back in the summers of 2003, I had an altogether fresh zest for life. Well, why wouldn’t I, I was 5 years old, teeming with energy and curiosity. Every Saturday, I would religiously plead with my mother to take me to Clown Town, an amusement park in the heart of…

I found my father online and it was a revelation. Because I have always been told that I look so much like him, but had it not been for his name, which bore a resounding resemblance to someone I may have known, I would never have been able to recognize…

ABSTRACT: As the first Netflix series, primarily in Yiddish, Unorthodox is a German-American mini-series that is inspired by Deborah Feldman’s 2012 autobiography, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of my Hasidic Roots. It traces the story of a 19-year-old Jewish woman who escapes an unhappy, arranged marriage in an orthodox Jewish community…

I did not adhere to any plans I made in 2021. I have worked out once in all the 39 days of this year, I have not a clue about my semester syllabus, let alone starting work on it and I have been as disconnected from the world around me…

Loneliness and the urge to reconnect. A couple of days back, I was standing in my balcony. The afternoon sun was beating down on me, the weather was sweltering and humid and ironically, I could not remember the last time I stood in my balcony. But I had a motive…

Culture, class and language in online zoom classes with children. I have grown up speaking English for most part of my childhood, Bengali at home or with friends and rare smithereens of Hindi. Having completed my schooling from one of the better-known private schools of Kolkata, I was reprimanded by…