Ritika Ruminates

Image Source- BookMyShow Recently, Kiran Rao's Laapata Ladies was released on Netflix, and it is worth every appreciation and hype there is for the movie on social media. My Instagram is filled with it, and many reels end up being shared on my Instagram stories (gonna be obsessing over the movie for some time now). It is a movie that rightly depicts feminism. Laapataa Ladies explore and respect the choices of both the lead female characters, along with Manju Mai (dadi). The feminist dialogues are on point. The only problematic statement was from Mai that women don't need men. Maybe not husbands, as marriage should be out of choice, but surely progressive fathers and brothers who are not threatened by women's independence, opinions, and professional work. The movie proved that feminism isn't about drinking, smoking, and cheating alone, as portrayed in a series on Amazon Prime and partly in Lipstick Under My Burkha. Feminism, as a concept/movement, is simple and aims for ...

Image Source- BookMyShow Last week, I watched the movie Maidaan in theatre. No doubt, it was entertaining, with heartbeat fluctutaing every few seconds during match scenes (much like a good game of football). Unfortunately, the movie tanked at box office as of now, despite its good content and overall acting.  Afterwards, while ruminating on it, I realized the right timing when the movie got launched in theatres. Initial part of the movie had the Indian football team struggling badly, and even in midst of the movie, where people did not have any faith in the team to win. This is the exact scenario currently with our Indian football team as well, where we are mostly on a losing streak and suffering badly. This one year is not going really well for our country. The team, coach and AIFF is facing backlash for losing against Afghanistan as well, a country that is under the rule of Taliban and isn't doing well in socio-political realm. Some of the football fans are demanding resignation...

Image Source- Inc. Magazine In recent times, as we all know, the attention span has reduced. Visual media, especially reels, have taken over reading. A few may even not read this blogpost till the end. 😅😂  BookTok and Bookstagram are abundant with book recommendations and reviews. But often, these books reels are flooded with smut. I know the pain for those who want real content in a book. When my Instagram was filled with these reels, I kept wandering which Insta algorithm I unknowingly tapped into.  A few viewers may get intrigued to read books motivated by the reels but can't bring themselves to read for whatever reasons. In this blogpost, I share names of some easy to read books (mostly from beginner point-of-view) to start your reading journey with, pick up your long lost hobby or even to get over the reading slump. If you are still here, let's go-  Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner- No reading list is complete without these 2 by ...

Image Source- Days for Girls International The suicide of a 14-year-old girl from Mumbai due to stress caused by first periods has made headlines in the news. As per reports, the girl was under stress and misinformation regarding the menstrual cycle. The drastic step has once again brought need of period and mental health education into the spotlight. Though her step was drastic, her fear and stress regarding periods have been shared by all the women and girls who experience period for first time. When I got my period for the first time, like many other girls, I thought that it was the last day of my life. Periods, even now, remains a taboo in the Indian society, especially in villages and lower-tier cities. Many girls get to know what periods are when they experience it for the first time. There is no prior knowledge of periods before the first cycle begins. Girls are instructed to not talk about periods with male members of the family and guy friends as well. This can lead to misinfo...

Image Source- Times Now Last week, on Republic Day, a Deepfake video of the idol of Lord Ram went viral, drawing a significant crowd to the recently inaugrated temple. The video showcased the idol animated with a smiling expression and moving eyes and face. Previously, Deepfakes of actress Rashmika Mandanna and dancer Nora Fatehi have also surfaced on the internet. This new technology can be really horrifying, distorting the reality. Deepfakes can be a new way of defaming an individual. It may also turn worse than explicitly morphing a (woman's) photo to violate someone's modesty or blackmail them.  So how does Deepfakes work? Deepfakes employ deep learning, specifically deep neural networks, to manipulate images or videos convincingly. By training on extensive datasets of the target person, these models learn facial features, expressions, and gestures. Utilizing generative models, like Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), the deepfake system then synthesizes content that mi...

Image Source - Medium Recently, Sandeep Reddy Vanga, director of the 'Animal,' gave a statement that if one can't slap, kiss or use cuss words towards their partner whenever one wants to, it is not love, that is he "doesn't see emotions there." It is uncertain whether it was his personal beliefs or he said it for negative publicity, but going by his past movies, I'd say he really means it. This brings us to the question - is love supposed to be unconditional? Does there not exist boundaries in love, especially for people with a mindset similar to this director? I don't believe that love can be unconditional, surely not between friends or a couple. Some say a mother's love for her child is unconditional, maybe. But don't these mothers (let us include fathers too) expect respectful behaviour from their kids once they are old enough to understand mannerisms? Respect is the foundation of love of any kind. If you don't respect them, you can'...

Image Source - dr. tc north Recently, N. R. Narayana Murthy requested/suggested that youngsters should work for 70hrs a week. Undoubtedly, this las led to debate among the citizens who favours the statement and also contending against it. Hustle culture is already on rise and this adds fuel to the fire, glorifying burn-out. Viewing this statement in respect to working professionally for a company, especially a job, has a lot of side effects. New lifestyle in urban areas and top-tier cities has already disposed younger population to various health concerns, and working for so long would only accelerate the possibilities of it. No doubt why people in their 30s and 40s are suffering cardiac arrest and pass away at such a young age. Diabetes, PCOS, stroke and other cardiac problems are on the rise too. Burn out is a badge of honour and taking rest is looked down upon in workaholic culture. This leads to extreme exhaustion and fatigue. Many won't be left to replenish themselves with hea...

Disclaimer- This post is a product of random thoughts and my opinion and not backed by any research. The books and movies/series are mentioned only for examples and I have no intention of condemning them. Image Source - IMDb With the humongous collection of books and movies & series, it's evident that similar narratives will be observed and followed in many books, especially contemporary works. While some may be looked down upon, many other tropes are even admired and recommended.  Tropes here refers to elements in a story or relationship dyamics which is similar in many works of fiction across different authors and screenwriters. Example of tropes include grumpy × sunshine , fake dating,   enemies to lovers,   friends to lovers , marriage of convenience , ex-lovers runiting after long time etc. As a reader & viwer of mostly comedy and romantic genre, I can only mention similar narratives found in these genres. Here are examples of other tropes from various genr...

Image Source- The Guardian Happy Teacher's Day! Teachers can contribute a lot to our academic, sports, and personal growth. A teacher can make or break someone's interest in a subject or field. We all have had our share of good and bad teachers. Teachers who teach a subject with so much passion, build your interest in the subject (or at least help you survive the subject like Maths), guide you where needed, motivate you when you doubt yourself, build your confidence, etc. Their teaching and general behavior is so good that you attend lecture out of interest, and not merely for 75% attendance. In contrast, I've also had teachers because of whom my interest in the subject dipped and now I am quite miserable at it (my Hindi getting worse is what hurts me the most). It was so much so that if I happened to see them in public, I would run away before they could see me😂 My interest in English started during 10th board exams when my English teacher in tuitions would give positive ...

 And India celebrates its 77th Independence Day today! Happy Independence Day. 77 years since our nation got independence from the Britishers. But are we really independent?  We are still mentally holding on to the manacles of the ideology invaders (Mughals and colonisers) imposed on us. We are still worried about our safety, are forced into the closet forever due to safety, and many are forced to live a life they didn't want because of society and its rules, etc.  Ancient India was way ahead of its time (maybe medieval too). Learning about ancient/medieval India and its practices via snippets from various authentic sources on different grounds gave us an idea of what independence actually was. Be it for women or people from LGBTQIA+ community. For example, before invaders and colonisers entered India, every region had different saree draping styles and in many of these draping styles, blouses or petticoats weren't a thing. It is only the British idea of appropriate cloth...