Ritika Ruminates

Image source- WildCat Tribune If you do not live under the rock and are active on Instagram, you would surely have come across many memes on Colleen Hoover (popularly known as CoHo), Chetan Bhagat, and the like. As funny as they are, and a good addition to the reviews, they can sometimes be quite judgemental and dismissive. After having seen memes on CoHo and her over-hyped books, I surely do not intend to read her books ever and waste my time. But in my early years as a reader, even I have come across and read books which aren't up to the standards and ended up disliking them or finding them just okay-ish. Those books which are considered average by the readers at large, I happened to even like a few of them.  Gatekeeping in literature can be in the form of not allowing one to be a part of book communities and book clubs, harshly judging and criticizing one's reading taste which can even demotivate one to read, etc. With time, having read sublime creations in literature, eithe...

A few days ago, an impromptu plan landed me and my friends on the Marine Drive (planned plans never work) and we were in for a major disappointment. What our eyes witnessed was water being turned into a dark shade of brown with a long line of what seemed like plastic and other garbage. Surely not the blue water and aesthetic look we were expecting.  It would always be pleasant when the water from the waves splashes on your face,  but not anymore. We were experiencing worry instead of calmness when we looks at the sea. Having come from far, we sat at the drive anyways, despite the horrifying colour of the water. Our only solace was the pleasant breeze hitting our faces. I didn't intend to write a blog post on this, so I didn't click a photo as proof. But sharing a photo I could get from Google which is as close as to what we witnessed. Image source- iStock Lost in our own thoughts, we were worried about the future of the Marine Drive if this continues. Mumbai would lose one of ...