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2 weeks ago | 
thehindu.com | Priya Ramani
Giant arcs of metal and concrete dominate the landscape. Skyscrapers with sea views have balcony seats to the excavation of Mumbai’s soul. As three figures from the Holocaust gaze silently into the city’s bowels where a grave of bodies lies forgotten and surrounded by demolished homes, a red wave on a highway leads cars to a gate on the upper right corner of the painting: the doorway to Auschwitz. ‘Work liberates’, the Nazis had emblazoned on the concentration camp gate.
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3 weeks ago | 
thequint.com | Priya Ramani
The film offers a free-spirited critique of all the country’s political parties, writes Priya Ramani. How do you review a political film in 2025 without talking about its politics? You only have to read the reviews of L2: Empuraan (Overlord) to master this art. The Malayalam film has managed to divert attention away from the usual Salman Khan Eid blockbuster largely because of its depiction of the 2002 Gujarat riots.
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3 weeks ago | 
priyaramani.substack.com | Priya Ramani
As if there aren’t enough cases clogging our legal system, the Madras High Court recently had to spend time and energy giving an Indian man some basic education: Watching porn or masturbation does not constitute “cruelty” and cannot be grounds for him to divorce his wife. Even if the habits did have side effects such as interfering with one’s “conjugal duty”. No wonder standup comics have taken to speaking truth to power—they can’t compete with the best jokes that unfold in our courts every day.
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4 weeks ago | 
thehindu.com | Priya Ramani
Life can crash-land and go up in flames in six hours. Your only child, a healthy five-year-old sunbeam, your primary source of joy, can step off the school bus, devour his snack, head off for a nap — and never wake up. How does any parent find the strength to emerge from this?
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1 month ago | 
priyaramani.substack.com | Priya Ramani
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1 month ago | 
priyaramani.substack.com | Priya Ramani
No generation before us has witnessed a live streamed genocide. And certainly no generation before us has witnessed a live streamed genocide while shopping for hand-tufted woollen rugs, rolling eyes at yet another influencer’s ‘hidden gem’ and grooving to a little girl dancing to Jerusalema while practising the ‘greatest core exercise you’ve never heard of’. Of all the social media I’m on, Instagram is peak cognitive dissonance. Ground Zero, as they say.
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1 month ago | 
priyaramani.substack.com | Priya Ramani
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -5:26Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Today’s episode travels the not-so-long arc from Trump to Aurangzeb. Discussion about this episodeAll the latest peeves and pasands from your favourite cranky customerAll the latest peeves and pasands from your favourite cranky customerSamar HalarnkarWrites Samar Halarnkar Subscribe • Priya Ramani and Samar Halarnkar • Priya Ramani and Samar Halarnkar • Priya Ramani and Samar Halarnkar
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1 month ago | 
priyaramani.substack.com | Priya Ramani
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -4:41Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. The husband still gets his news offline, and when he reads it out to me every morning, I find it’s not the news I encounter on my social media feed. Today’s episode will inject some fun in your day. We talk about what the humble momo and cancer research have in common. Hint: It involves money.
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1 month ago | 
priyaramani.substack.com | Priya Ramani
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -4:14Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. For those of you who missed the first episode, I turned the husband’s endearing-irritating habit of reading the newspapers to me into a podcast party. Alas, today’s episode is not a party at all. There’s the riot you may not have heard of, what you need to do to get ahead in Remade India and a question of law and order.
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1 month ago | 
priyaramani.substack.com | Priya Ramani
I decided to turn the husband’s endearing-irritating habit of reading the newspapers to me every day into a podcast party. Tell me if you want more :)
