Cultural Undercurrents

Undercurrents #7: Playtime

6.15pm, 30th March, Marine Drive

Undercurrents #6: Balls in the ears

12.30pm, 26th March, Nariman Point  
I’m heading out for lunch, the streets are quieter than normal. Fewer black and yellow taxis. The…

Undercurrents #5: Gender lines

11.50am, 11 March 2015, Mumbai Chatrapati Shivaji Airport, Domestic Terminal 1B

I turn the corner and see a familiar scene of the airport security gates.
The border marking the division between airside and landside*.
But something is ever so subtly…

Undercurrents #4: Meet the parents

4.30pm, 27th February, Café Coffee Day, Juhu In person conversation
 
Ashmita: “I was at an interview recently and I was the odd one out in…

Undercurrents #3: Mumbaikars at dawn

7am, 3rd April, Marine Drive

Undercurrents #2: Marriage of (in)convenience 

11.30am, 20th February, Marharastra State 

Overheard phone conversation
Sudha: “Hello, tell me”
Caller: “I want to divorce my husband. I need help to know what to put on the official forms”
Sudha: “What’s the reason you…

Undercurrents #1 : Searching for the edge

26th February, 8pm
Windy Hall Lane, Colaba, Mumbai

I’m on my way home from the local grocery store. I’m carrying a shopping bag full of basic supplies — milk, bread, juice, bananas. I turn the corner into…