Capturing the Politics and Poetics of Everyday Life....

For years, wars in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Vietnam, and elsewhere reached Kerala only through television screens and social media debates. They were tragedies we witnessed from afar. But the escalating crisis around Iran has changed something. Suddenly the Strait of Hormuz, global oil routes, and geopolitical tensions are no longer abstract ideas. They are entering our homes—through something as simple and essential as cooking gas. When war reaches the kitchen, it forces us to rethink the illusion that distant conflicts have nothing to do with our everyday lives. W hen War Enters the Kitchen: From Distant Headlines to Empty Gas Cylinders For years, wars across the world have arrived in Kerala as images, headlines, and hashtags. Afghanistan. Vietnam. Ukraine. Iran. Each of these conflicts dominated global conversations at different moments. Sitting at the southern tip of India, Kerala has largely watched them from a safe distance. We discussed them in drawing rooms and classrooms, debated...

Kerala constantly confuses the political vocabulary of India. Here, a person can vote for the Left, visit the temple, celebrate Eid with neighbours, and enjoy fish curry without seeing any contradiction. As elections approach, Kerala once again reminds us that its society refuses to fit into neat ideological boxes. The Political Puzzle Called Keralam Kerala has a curious habit of confusing the political vocabulary of India. The tidy categories that often dominate national debates — Left versus Right, believer versus rationalist, vegetarian versus non-vegetarian, secular versus religious — tend to collapse the moment they encounter everyday life in this small state on the southwestern coast. In Kerala, it is not unusual for a person to vote for a Left party, stop by a temple on the way home, exchange Eid sweets with neighbours, and later sit down to a plate of fish curry — all without feeling the slightest ideological contradiction. As election season approaches, this peculiar social re...

  “Outraging the modesty of a woman” is one of the most cited legal phrases in India. But what exactly is modesty —and why does the law still depend on a concept shaped by colonial morality and patriarchal expectations? Outraging “Modesty”: Law, Patriarchy, and the Politics of Women’s Bodies “Outraging the modesty of a woman” is one of the most frequently cited allegations in complaints related to sexual misconduct in India. Like the definition of sexual harassment under the POSH Act (2013), the idea embedded in this phrase is not limited to physical violence. It also includes verbal or non-verbal conduct that insults or violates a woman’s dignity. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (2023) retains this language in its legal framework. Article 74 states: Assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty.—Whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any woman, intending to outrage or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty, shall be punishe...

“Boys don’t cry.” A sentence we casually repeat in childhood. But when emotional vulnerability is suppressed and aggression is celebrated as courage, the consequences do not stop in classrooms or playgrounds - they travel into politics, power, and even wars. Boys Don’t Cry? Rethinking Gender, Emotions, and the World We Are Making Across India - and even in a socially progressive state like Kerala - childhood remains deeply gendered. Regardless of the class or caste into which they are born, most children grow up learning subtle lessons about what it means to be a “boy” or a “girl.” These lessons do not come from a single source. They are stitched together through family expectations, school environments, playground conversations, television shows, and social media narratives. From the moment children begin to interact with the world, they are gently - but persistently - trained to perform certain versions of gender. These performances become so normalized that they often pass unnotice...