The odd angle

Gendered perceptions in the stories of love: The Odd Angle  By: Jatin Mathur Last week I read Kanta Bharti’s ‘Ret Ki Machhli’ (RKM henceforth), a Hindi autobiographical novel based on her life events which presents a close look into the life of litterateurs which gets obscured into their writings. The book builds upon the internal world of feelings, emotions of the author exposing the lust, love and longing. The book is considered a real account of the acclaimed story by Dharamveer Bharti in ‘Gunahon ka devta’ (GKD henceforth).  GKD is an excellent story in terms of its emotional appeal, it seems as if it destroys all preconceived notions of love and attachments while convincing yourself to ‘fall’ in love despite the involved pain. It seems as if the novel presents the internal deliberations of the human mind where your amygdala pulls you towards ideas of love and your hypothalamus argues for sexual pleasure. Despite this internal struggle you finally lose your mind and settl...

Lessons that Taught me nothing: Classroom Abuse in India -Jatin Mathur Unspoken Trauma in Indian Schools Once a teacher called me “gandi machhli” in front of the whole class, I was humiliated, disgraced and disrespected and this childhood memory is a nightmare for me, almost every child face child abuse in school but no one speaks, Indian education system and the training and pressure on students to blindly respect their teachers and professors who themselves have a very egoistic limited world view is the reason students kill their dreams. Schools and colleges train students to fit in, to join the rat race and to dream with their limited understanding, they’re trained to get marks and jobs, not education and exposure. Almost all faculty during both my degrees were stuck in the same job with very limited understanding of the dynamic paradigm shift in the industry, every doubt would result in ridicule, every missed class would result in disrespectful disgusting remarks publicly. The teac...

Between Poetry and Sex: The Stillness of 'Dhammic' Love -  Jatin Mathur  and Ravi Jonwar When a poetic mind falls in love, it seeks to create. When an instinctive mind falls in love, it seeks to consume. And when either of these fails to find fulfillment, love often turns into resentment and disdain. Broadly, love manifests in two ways—one marked by ideals, care, and sacrifice, and the other driven by persuasion, lust, and physical desire. I call the former Poetic Love and the latter Sexual Love. While poetic love requires letting go of desires and carries a spiritual essence, sexual love  latter has its origin in attraction. Poetic and Sexual Love However, both of these forms of love are commonly considered exclusive - which is not always the case. Poetic love may end in a sexual encounter or Sexual love may lead to spiritual experience. Interestingly, the unifying force in both these kinds of love is that both require you to lose ‘yourself’ in the other person. You pr...

You are ‘too right’ to be loved By: Jatin Mathur I recently met this friend of mine who told me how it's hard for her to feel loved or believe her instincts about the right partner. Actually most probable partners seemed uninteresting to her after a point as it happens with most ‘nice guys’ or they were simply not her choice. However when I asked her about her previous partners or when I enquired about them, one pattern that I could notice was this consistent attraction towards slightly sadistic and distant individuals who seemed interesting to her and she was curious about them. This happens with most of us, we all fall for people who are adventurous in some sense, they are not just simple, sweet and caring people but with some sort of troubles in personalities. One reason can be these people may seem more confident and hence provide some sort of security. However this is not about attraction towards the confidence that comes along with these deviant personalities but some sort of...

Making up for what? Authored by: Jatin Mathur  A few days ago I was having this conversation with some of my friends and we were talking about make-up and beautification. I argued that make ups are based upon the dissatisfaction with your natural form and based upon an insecurity which is induced by companies. However they said not everyone made-up due to their insecurities, people might feel good in the process of making up or they might want to try new looks. Both the arguments seemed appealing to me. Though the latter argument is also based upon trying to change oneself to fit into a certain type which is validated or approved by people. Even if someone makes up for oneself then one can actually pose this question about very instinct or desire to see oneself with beauty products.  My perspective comes from this dissatisfaction that we all encounter with ourselves where we fail to accept ourselves naturally beautiful. There is this ideal type or benchmark of confident indivi...

Save Earth, or Save Humans? "If you really think that the environment is less important than the economy, try holding your breath while you count your money." - Guy McPherson For a long time the reactions of Earth to our human actions remained unnoticed, but in recent times, we are forced to view the consequences of our human action. The age is often defined in terms as anthropocene, the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. One must look at the manifestations of climate change in various ways including: Extreme Weather Events: Hurricanes, floods, wildfires, landslides,flash floods and heatwaves have become more frequent and severe. We have witnessed Kerala Floods (2018): Unprecedented rainfall caused flash floods in Kerala. This resulted in extensive damage to infrastructure, agriculture, and loss of lives.  Rising Sea Levels: Coastal communities face threats from erosion and ...