The odd angle

  Image Credit:IMDB Atonement: A Reflection By: Ravi Jonwar Okay, so let me start by saying, I almost missed this one. If you’re from India and you spend more time than you should on Instagram Reels, there’s a chance you’ve already seen those beautiful, aching clips from Atonement. The ones where snippets from the movie appear with that soothing background tune “ Pawan udave batiya ”. At least that’s how I stumbled upon this beautiful movie. A random reel. Thirty seconds, or may be less. And yet, something about it stayed with me like a half-remembered dream. I added it to my watchlist and then, like most things on watchlists, it just... sat there. For a long time. And then, in true college-student fashion, I finally watched it when I absolutely shouldn’t have, right in the middle of a submission deadline. I put it on as “background noise.” You know how that goes. Ten minutes in, the assignment was forgotten. By the time the first act ended, I had completely given up any pretence o...

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...