Twilight Karma

Feminism and Male Feminism

For the past several months, I was enamored with this lad, even though he was incredibly unsupportive of me– I had to massage his ego all the effing time. At one point, he refused to read my work– so competitive was he as a white male uber privileged lad — though WOCs and POCs already have it difficult in terms of getting published and even though much of my writing isn’t about me, but addresses…

You have the capacity to hurt me, I decided tonight.   What does that mean, that I am still vulnerable enough to admit this to myself while fearing an actual purge on your end? What does it mean that I am not immune enough to desist you? Why should I? When did I become this vulnerable?  Why did we argue for so long? How and why did I? Was it the fear you would leave? Why did I care, when you were…

32 Things About Happiness That I Wish I Knew at 20

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about what life looked like for me in my early 20s. I was living the college dream- partying up extra, in student government, had amazing friends, fun beaus, and all this was within a stone’s throw of New York City. I was young, idealistic, writing up a storm and thinking through Foucault’s pan optic while devouring Derrida and wondering about what our…

Fast Casual Meets Bengali Tints at NYC’s Inday

by Raad Rahman Ferns and artfully arranged birds of paradise greet the visitor to Inday, the new Indian fast-casual restaurant in Midtown South. Inday was already receiving hype when the WSJ placed the restaurant in a list of one of the most anticipated fast-casual dining experiences of the year, inspired by Bengali overtones in Midtown south. It seems to have already lived up to its hype. In its…

It always warms me to commemorate India, regardless of the fact that it is a country that refuses to give me citizenship regardless of the fact that three of my four grandparents were born and brought up there, and I’ve spent my formative teen years in the Indian Himalayas. On the best of days, I mourn the fact that Indian citizenship to a person of Indian origin is limited to all those who did…

The Promise of Balloons

A few weeks ago, I was feeling alone and a bit sad to be an adult during a festive holiday that brings forth memories of semolina noodles with cardamom, almonds, cinnamon and raisins, and mouthwatering kebabs that are glorious to behold and melt- Muthiya, boti, keema, sheekh, tikka, shashlik, bhuna, mutton chops, curried liver with puris, naans, raita, rotis, biryani and parathas. Then I found a…

In my life, I’ve struggled intensely with rationalizing what it means to be “civilized.” Here’s why: I’ve had one first cousin murdered in ‘an act of passion’ by her ex (why are vengeful sociopaths termed as passionate?), several family members assassinated, been attacked by neo-nazis in Budapest, fractured my right thumb twice, torn four ligaments, and been in a nasty accident in NYC, the…

Recently, I have been curious about those articles on Harper’s, Mental Floss, Electric Lit, Vogue, or other such mags/sites, which are titled “Things you don’t know about Alice in Wonderland” or “How this grooming technique is way cooler than anything you could have come up with,” and other such rubbish. I am starting to wonder who these articles are geared towards, and why they are popular in…

“Aren’t you worried about what people will think?” “No. I spent the last ten years of my life trying to curb my writing, just because I played into this belief that I am doing something wrong by speaking up.” “But what about your family’s safety? You’re writing about corruption related to a man who singlehandedly controls 5% of the Bangladeshi economy.” “And what good will my silence do? It will…

Every year, since 1999, on June 9, I have been drawn to remember the horrific murder of Jibran Tayyabi, an Indian national living and working in Bangladesh with his then wife. He was gunned down in broad daylight on her birthday in the city of Chittagong. The murder was conducted by the son of one of Bangladesh’s largest shipbreaking, garments, and steel tycoons. Tito was recently sentenced to…