parotechnics

  REGISTER HERE   A rollicking trip through the grey worlds of copyright, art and the market in a story about love, money and crime.   WHERE: St. Paul’s Academy of Education, Alberione Hall, Opp Duorello Convent, Bandra (W) WHEN: Wednesday, May 31, 6 pm     ABOUT THE FILM   Who owns a song – the person who made it or the person who paid for it? Are those who download for free living out a brand new cultural freedom – or are they criminals? Is piracy organized crime or class struggle? Are alternative artists who want to hold rights over their art and go it alone in the market, visionaries or nutcases? Is the fine line between plagiarism and inspiration a cop-out or a whole other way of looking at the fluid nature of authorship? What are the ethics of art in a digital era?   Full of wicked irony, great music and thorny questions Partners in Crime meets metal heads, folklorists, music archivists, anti-piracy fanatics, smooth street salesman, media mogul

  Because many people have been asking me, I'm collating links to most of my writing on SRK here. I say most of, because I don't even remember now how many types of things I've written on the subject and also, one short story which draws on his persona is not online so. And there are columns I wrote that I can't remember the names of, so I can't actually find them. A life of plenitude can be a life of chaos I guss! But for the rest.. 2013 On Chennai Express and how SRK makes space for different kinds of women Heroine Express 2015 On Sharukh Khan and the politics of love as a conceptual frame in my Mumbai Mirror column How To Find Indian Love Who is Worth Loving? On an alternative interpretation of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, which builds on that same thought, on the film's 20th anniversary  DDLJ Bees Saal Baad  2016  A long essay commissioned by Amrita Dutta for Indian Express Eye's special issue on 25 years of liberalisation in India, looked at what it m

    It’s said that the patriarchal violence women face gets acknowledged only when it kills her – when a case of domestic or intimate partner violence becomes a case of murder. At what point then do we recognise the violence that patriarchy enacts on men? The NCRB report for 2021, Crime in India, reveals that in 2021, nearly13,000 people killed themselves over love. 64% of these were young men aged 18-30. The fact that men disappointed in love do violence – either to others or themselves has little to do with love and much to do with what men are expected to be. Masculinity is a script each man must play out as a hero, which must end in triumph. Patriarchy tells men they are special and entitled to primacy – but it only celebrates those men who succeed by its narrow standards. Life is an exam question with one right and one wrong answer–dominate or be dominated. If you are not the winner, you are, obviously the loser, worthy of humiliation.   To feel anguishe

  ABSTRACT In India's censorial climate where debates about pornography exist only in terms of criminality, illegality, and the underground circuit, a feminist and pleasure-positive space has emerged under the aegis of (non-state-sponsored) sex education. In this playing field, the multimedia project and website Agents of Ishq (AoI) has emerged as a major voice in normalizing conversations about sex, pleasure, and even porn. Founded by the feminist filmmaker, artist, and curator Paromita Vohra, AoI carries essays, videos, and images that focus on fostering a community of readers/interlocutors that talk, teach, and learn freely about sex. In a sense, AoI approaches these matters in the same spirit as Vohra does in her filmmaking and her other work. In this interview, Paromita Vohra speaks to us about her films, artwork, AoI, and the effort to create a stigma-free ‘private public’ where people can talk about their desires, pleasure and sexuality. Introduction Speak

This piece originally appeared in Time Out Mumbai, I think in October or November 2004 or 2005. It's a pity their archive is not online.   There’s nightclubs. And then there’s nightlife, that netherworld of the heart, easily unbound by a peg or two. For those who bemoan Bombay’s lack of café culture,where have you been? Bombay’s quarter bars – unexceptional, no-class drinking rooms – are full of men, the occasional women, and the moist buzz of a crowd drinking and talking about love, loss, art, stocks, office politics and cosmic truth. They are all here, salesmen, admen, managers, actors, teachers; the overworked, the unemployed, the enigmatically solitary, the habitually melancholic or alcoholic, the naturally gregarious or drunk on one beer, the eternally unrequited, the perpetually hopeful. Not seeing or being seen – just the citizenry, celebrating the bittersweet life and cheap booze.   Like many things in the clickety-clack rhythm of this city’s life, quarter bars are conc