Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
Does Gujarat Inspire the Ram Janmabhoomi Architecture?
Published on 25th October, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. The Ram Mandir will finally be built in Ayodhya. It is meant to establish a common political Hindutva identity to unite Hindus, who are divided by many castes, languages, gods and rituals. But much of the temple structure shows a strong influence of Gujarat and Gujarat-based ascetic…
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Articles
The Treacherous Truth
Who Is a Hindu? The Treacherous Truth Published on 11th October, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. Popular politics chooses to ignore the many strands of mythology in favour of convenient figureheads. Not long ago, a man on a television channel yelled, ‘Jaichand! Jaichand!’ –which is Hindutva for ‘traitor’. A few hours later, the man being yelled…
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Articles
View: Is the Corporate Pantheon Truly Diverse?
Published on 2nd October, 2020, in Economic Times. The corporate world is assumed to be masculine, one that needs to be forced to acknowledge the feminine and the queer through policies. But while the corporate world struggles to be inclusive, we see the opposite trend in the Hindu pantheon, as Hindutva becomes the governing political…
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Articles
Dark secrets of the sewers of Harappa
Who is a Hindu? Dark secrets of the sewers of Harappa. Published on 13th September, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. Indians have an uncomfortable relationship with the sanitary system. We have permitted and even justified manual scavenging. A place where the latrine is not connected to the drainage system and so humans have to come into…
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Articles
Making Do To Survive
Published on 5th September, 2020, in Reader’s Digest. If you have no resources, a government that pretends to care and a non-existent system in place, you have to make do with what you have and align whatever forces within access, to get what you want. To do so, is to do jugaad. And jugaad has…
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Articles
Menstrual Taboos Are Not Unique to Hinduism
Who is a Hindu? Menstrual taboos are not unique to Hinduism Published on 16th August, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. In Kerala, there is the story of a group of boys who found a rock bleeding. Those who touched it died instantly. The rest were told to wear women’s clothes and take it to the village,…
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Articles
My Father *Cannot* Be Gay
Published on 9th August, 2020, in Mid-day. When I came out to myself and my family in the 1990s, I found great joy in the ‘World of Homosexuals’, a book written by Shakuntala Devi, in 1977, long before HIV-AIDS made homosexuality a fashionable public discourse. In her interviews, she said this was to cope with…
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Articles
The Missing Horse Of Baghpat
WHO IS A HINDU? – The Missing Horse Of Baghpat. Published on 19th July, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. Ram rides out of Ayodhya on a horse-driven chariot. Krishna rides out of Vrindavana and into Kurukshetra in a horse-driven chariot. As per astronomical information, found in Ramayana and Mahabharata, traditionalists believe that Ramayana occurred 7,000 years…
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Articles
How Hindutva Threatens the History of Hindus
Who is a Hindu? How Hindutva threatens the history of Hindus Published on 5th July, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. Hindutva history makes the history of Hindus fragile — people whose temples were destroyed by Muslims and who need Hindutva politicians to help them recover. It gives power to Hindutva politicians but strips Hindus of power…
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Articles
An Unsuitable God
Published on 21st June, 2020, in Mid-day. In Vedic mythology we hear how the Ashwin Kumars were unsuitable gods, not allowed to partake the Soma offering. To get the offering, they approached Dadichi, who said that if he chanted the verses, then his head would split into a thousand pieces. So, the Ashwins replaced Dadichi’s…
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Articles
Being J. K. Rowling Today
Published on 14th June, 2020, in Mid-day. As long as JK Rowling tweeted against Trump, she was the darling of the liberals. Then, she expressed her views on transgenders, in December 2019, in a tweet that created an outrage. Suddenly, the creator of Harry Potter series was an evil oppressor. The wicked witch. A TERF…
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Articles
How ‘Breaking India’ Started
WHO IS A HINDU? How ‘breaking India’ started. Published on 7th June, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror. At the heart of Hindutva is the idea that Hinduism is under threat from external and internal forces and they must be countered at any cost. The proponents of Hindutva are wary of Muslims and Christians and Dalits, but…
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Articles
Did the Harappan know to write?
Published on 24th May, 2020, in Mid-day. Writing in India emerges only in the Mauryan period, 2,300 years ago. It is in the Ashokan edicts that we find the Brahmi script. Vedic hymns and Buddha’s lectures, before that, were orally transmitted. The Harappan civilisation, 4,000 years ago, with its sophisticated brick cities and sewage system,…
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Articles
Dharma During Crisis
Published on 12th April, 2020, in Mid-day As we go through a global pandemic which demands a major change in our lifestyle and which will have a major impact on the economy, it is a good time to remember a conversation in the Mahabharata, where Bhishma tells the Pandavas, about Apaddharma, or dharma during crisis.…
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Articles
Mythology As Politics
Published on 22nd March, 2020, in Mid-day As a child in Mumbai, I watched Rajan Uncle perform Chakyar Kootu. My parents were economic migrants from Odisha. My neighbours were from Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. And we got to see cultural performances that no one in Odisha, or Maharashtra, would have had access to, like…
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Articles
Aryans of the Freedom Struggle
Published on 15th March, 2020, in Mumbai Mirror The British had long justified colonisation using different stories. Before the 1857 Uprising, they said British were saving Hinduism from oppression of Muslim rulers. They propagated the lie that they were using Indian soldiers in Afghanistan not for Company interests but to get the doors of the…