Observations and Reflections
– A dog eating a used sanitary pad in the girls’ bathroom.
– Movie stars over breakfast.
– A Bengali man and I going to town on bubble wrap, trying to finish wrapping a tower fan after the store had already closed.
– Singing old Hindi songs in a hostel mess with sixty strangers.
– Getting to know my home for the next two years—just a little better.
The theme for the 2025 Met Gala, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” drew inspiration from Monica L. Miller’s seminal book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity. On Monday morning in New York, celebrities embraced this celebration of Black elegance and resistance in fashion with varying degrees of depth and flair. Some were expected highlights—like Vogue livestream host Teyana Taylor in a sculptural red-and-black ensemble by Ruth E. Carter, or 2025 co-chair Lewis Hamilton in an ivory suit by Wales Bonner. Others, like Kim Kardashian in a dramatic Chrome Hearts two-piece, took more interpretive approaches. Yet among this sea of tailoring, symbolism, and spectacle, it was Punjabi singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh who emerged as the most compelling and surprisingly on-theme guest. Dressed in an ivory sherwani inspired by the regalia of the Maharaja of Patiala, Dosanjh reimagined the Black dandy’s sartorial strategy through the lens of South Asian colonial resistance and cultural reclamation. How does a Punjabi man in a turban, cape, and ceremonial sword manage to interpret the theme more effectively than those in the sharpest of suits? The answer lies in understanding style as not just tailoring—but storytelling.
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The last thing I expected from Zoya Akhtar’s The Archies was commentary on the current state of Indian politics. But cleverly hidden between the lines of what at a surface level seems like a whimsical romcom intended to launch a prestigious line of nepo babies is a story about the struggles of being a minority in a country that is driven by the capitalistic greed of certain businessmen.
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What’s with these boring war films in the past few weeks? Following in the footsteps of Ridley Scott’s Napoleon is Meghna Gulzar’s Sam Bahadur. Despite being a film about one of the most prolific military leaders in India’s recent history, the movie fails to feature even a single well-structured battle, let alone the war that defined the future of the entire Indian subcontinent.
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Midway through the tumultuous Battle of Waterloo, my patience for Napoleon’s portrayal grows wearisome. How is it possible to transform the narrative of one of history’s most brilliant minds into a dreary and lackluster cinematic experience? Ask Ridley Scott.
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This profile was written as a part of a graded assignment for a Fashion Journalism course conducted by Ms. Sathya Saran.
“Recall the face of the poorest you have ever seen – and ask yourself if your contemplating will be of any use to them.” For Rahul Mishra, these famous words by Mahatma Gandhi have become his guiding light. Born in a small village in the Kanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, Mishra’s name entered the hall of fame alongside the likes of Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent when he won the prestigious International Woolmark Prize at the Milan Fashion Week with his collection The Lotus Effect.
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“One of my only memories of my home in Lyallpur (modern-day Pakistan)”, my Nani said while showing me her old Phulkari Dupatta.
The earliest reference to Phulkari in Punjabi literature can be dated back to the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the 18th century, in Waris Shah’s “Heer Ranjha”, which describes Heer’s wedding trousseau, detailing the different clothing items. One of those was Phulkari. Grandmothers and mothers would start making a dupatta for a daughter as soon as she was born, since the birth of a daughter was considered to be auspicious in olden Punjab.
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This interview was written as a part of a graded assignment for a Fashion Journalism course conducted by Ms. Sathya Saran.
Richard Williams is a man of gravitas. That is the thought that first comes to my mind as he sits down opposite me. Over the years, he has developed a slight stoop, but his larger than life persona and lisp has stayed with him.
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One of the most celebrated documentary makers of all time, Bert Haanstra relies heavily on the use of music and montage to elevate his visual storytelling. Through a harmonious marriage of these cinematic techniques, “Zoo” transcends the boundaries of traditional documentary filmmaking, transforming a simple zoo into a stage for a captivating and multifaceted symphony of life.
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A spiritual successor to 2018’s Veere di Wedding, I expected Thank You for Coming to have the same issues – crass humour with an attempt at being audacious about women’s sexuality but being too scared to actually dip its toes in that water. Surprisingly, Thank You for Coming manages to be terrible in a completely different way.
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