Veiled Mistresses

By: Chandra Goswami 5:30 a.m. I tossed to the other side of the bed, trying to ignore the beeping alarm that threatened to spoil my sleep. Mentally, I was already awake, as the small devil in my head nudged, “Sleep you lousy cow, and keep expanding like a balloon.”  As my body shivered at the thought of getting up this early, the six months of potent will power to start a morning walk slowly gave in, to the placid sleep of a winter morning. “Good, occupy two seats on a bus with that butt of yours, which is outgrowing you every day. Stay as round as you wish to be, ” the mind prodded again. I made an effort to open my eyes like a drunkard. Physically, I felt drained as my mind spoke again, “Should you get up this early? You are not sleeping well. You slept at 3 last night”. I loved this version of my mind, my angel who always uttered things I wanted to hear. My body lay there wanting to save itself from the coldness outside my blanket, and the bitterness outside my home. B

By: Mehnaz Farooque Thank God my flatmate is equally affirmative in dancing and outing just like me. So, to abide by the rules of one of the most happening cities in our country, Bangalore, I hopped on a roller-coaster of clubs every weekend since I moved here. Besides the usual liking of going out all dressed up and dancing like I-RULE-THIS-WORLD (for no reason), I happen to like pubs just to notice the people around. Although it's the same music everywhere as in like there will be "Shape of You" and "Tamma Tamma" as default, it's interesting to notice the same type of “men” in these pubs. Image Source: Internet So, with an experience of mere 3 months of excessive clubbing, I came to know that there are 8 types of men that we come across every Friday in every club. The Geeks: These are the well-paid employees of some posh MNCs who didn’t have any social life prior to their jobs. They studied their asses off to be in a positio

By: Satarupa Mishra Image Source: Getty Image When life gives you lemons, make your own lemon cheese cake out of it. In case you are in doubt about the recipe, shift to lemon and coriander soup or any recipe that you know. But for God’s sake, do not allow master cooks from neighbourhood to cook a lemon dish for you. You never know when the authority over your kitchen is seized in a flicker by your neighbours, leaving you kitchen-less and hungry. Oh! If only Syria could have had a chance to follow this! When political stagnation had given Syria dictatorship personified in Hafez al-Assad, and later in his son Bashar al-Assad, the country decided to follow the footsteps of Tunisia to unleash an era of democracy. But what began as a revolution for democracy in the line of Arab Spring, have turned into a spoilt broth of civil war… err reinforcement of Islamic fundamentalism… err the clash of the neighbours called Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey… err the clash of the titans

By: Mehnaz Farooque In these times of terror, no I am not talking about the sudden Donald Trump invasion, I am talking about the issue that is as old as global warming..."Women's Equality". But hey don't think this is going to be yet another piece of the article stating the devastating plights of women under the social oppressions of the masculine force. Yes, we have read and written those many times that don't really seem to be reaching out to the grey cells of our male gender by any means. They just happen to meet the fate of some Facebook shares, that's all! But let's not go there. Image Source: Fine Art America So yes, women find preconceptions not only from men but also from our breasted counterparts. Yes, the ones which we meet in our day to day lives. How many of us have not ill-spoken or prejudiced another lady?? I bet not many there. And why not? On one side we are talking about feminism and women equality in a men's world, w

By: Arastah Jannat Islam Act 1 Scene I: A studio set up. A man and a lady speaking in a dramatic tone. Scene II: An (preferably) outdoor location. A man (or a lady) speaking in a high decibel tone with over dramatic, over expressive and asthmatic (just in a way that they have trouble breathing)  manner. Loud dramatic background score playing at the background. (The act and scene arrangement repeats itself with few thematic changes. The scene set up keeps on repeating as well.) Nope! This is not a scene from our desi daily soaps. Not even an over-the-top, melodramatic Bollywood flick from the 90s. Any guesses? Anyone? Okay. Let's just cut....the drama short. This is our very own, super informative, thought provoking, educative, revolutionary, life changing, greatness incurring... Ladies and gentlemen...here's presenting to you... NEWS CHANNELS.......!!!   Do I hear claps? Come on people! Let's p

By: Satarupa Mishra Being a woman isn't a mug of beer, where you can choose to relax on a comfy couch and get ‘comfortably numb’ to the tunes of Pink Floyd. Being a woman is more like Hakka noodles, where you have to fight with the chopsticks and tame the noodles so that they are placed exactly where they should be – the mouth – and not on the table or your lap (Remember, it’s not lady-like at all to slurp those juicy noodles either). But when a woman has crossed the dangerous mark of ‘30’ and is in love with her beer, the Hakka noodles are hurled like hand grenades, landing on accidental enemies. I might not have inherited sharp brains from my maternal family; but one thing I have definitely inherited is my younger-looking genes. Thanks to my genes, I can deceive men into believing that I am still young, docile and happening. But some sort of chemical reaction seems to be going on inside these days. I could feel my veins carrying acid instead of blood of late.

By: Chandra Goswami Image Source: Merinews So how many of you have followed the news on GST? Before I begin, I must put it as a disclaimer that I am not an authority to speak on this subject, because I am a blissfully ignorant citizen of this country. But, I will speak anyways. Why? Because anything can happen over a cup of coffee! You can suddenly turn into a budget analyst at a cafeteria, after paying a surcharge tax on chocolate and cream that you gulped with your drink. Frankly, these surcharges are pushing me towards a healthier lifestyle, something that even my mum could not persuade me to do. But, on days when I really feel upbeat to gamble away my hard-earned fortune, I make a turn towards the fine-dine restaurants of my city. The final bill looks like a letter of my bankruptcy status. There's a long list of fields that speaks of entertainment tax, luxury tax, Swachh Bharat cess, education cess, service tax, VAT... I am sure they tax me for being alive