Critical theories aren’t dry puzzles meant to confuse—they’re vibrant, living ideas, more like juicy stems than hard nuts. When approached with curiosity and the right tools, they can nourish the mind and open up exciting new ways of seeing the world. Critical theories are largely seen as intellectual labyrinths, as challenging to navigate as the intricacies of rocket science. A core paper invariantly offered in courses on Literary Studies, most of the students and even teachers have a hard time grappling with the discussions under its purview. The very reason for the inclusion of Critical theories -  the strengthening of Humanities perspectives - fails miserably when approached as an intellectual burden that cannot be wished away. Most of my teaching assignments since the past 8 years have included texts from Critical theories for postgraduate students. These seven years of teaching theories have been a learning experience to identify the reasons for the skewed perceptions on theo...