Witty Whispers

It has recently come to my attention that reading in public is apparently now an act, done for ' the aesthetics. ' Which, honestly, is a strange way to describe something that mostly involves squinting at small text while trying not to spill your coffee all over the page. The word 'aesthetic' is being thrown around these days- aesthetic cafés, aesthetic notebooks, aesthetic lighting. And now, it seems, reading too, has been aestheticized. If you’re reading in public, someone somewhere will probably assume that you’re being performative. This notion is extremely odd- when did the act of reading, what we once considered near sacred, become a problematised hobby? Maybe this is the inevitable consequence of living in an age of relentless documentation. The line between doing something and being seen doing it  has become extremely thin. You cannot even sip on a cappuccino without some stranger assuming it is for content. So, when I open a book in public, I sometimes sense an...

Every year, sometime in late October, the festive spirit takes over. The streets sparkle as if stitched with star, the air carries a hint of the aroma of roasted nuts and incense, and WhatsApp groups are flooded with messages that say “Diwali party when?”  And that’s when you know- the Diwali season has officially begun, that it brings with it chaos and calm both at once.  However, the festival of lights we celebrate today is not quite the one we grew up with. Don't get me wrong- at its core, it is still the same, it is merely the intricacies that Gen Z has altered to fit its own understanding of the world. Diwali has been remixed, filtered, and (let’s be honest) posted on Instagram, with the glow of ring lights replacing the glow of diyas. It continues to be, indubitably, a celebration of light, but it now comes with captions, playlists, and colour themes. Right at the center of this evolution stands a ritual that has been increasingly popularized over the last couple of year...