It’s been a crazy year, but name a year which hasn’t been and we will show you a year in which you were in a coma. And as the last two days of the year finally (oh finally) slow to a mollasses-like speed we help you answer the one question that troubles civilisation: “Where did this year go?” You spent a small chunk of it reading The Finger, hanging out with us on Facebook and Twitter. Here are some of the stories you read and loved this year.
A bunch of young people in Kochi took it upon themselves to protest against moral policing by declaring a Kiss Day, on which they planned to gather in large numbers in public and kiss each other. They made a Facebook page and all for the shor-sharaba, is when all the troll sena wing of the moral police decided to drop by. In response to the troll comments, the Kiss Of Love administrators released a set of FAQs, translated here for your entertainment.
If you don’t get this feminism-sheminism, gender-shender stuff, yaar, but want to know where to start, look no further. Here’s an incredible list of books guaranteed to provide endless pleasure. Looking for gender-bending sci-fi? Some theory to sink your teeth into? A graphic novel or some killer short stories? Read on!
What’s it like being young and driven, and on an insane trajectory to success? What could possibly prompt you to give it all up? We had one woman tell us about why she chose to put the brakes on her ascent to opt for a life more fulfilling. And why women should be unashamed about wanting time away from work, even when they’re not mothers and wives.
The superstar of Malayalam cinema wrote a heartfelt piece about the irrelevance of moral policing in today’s times. We couldn’t help but get this one translated and put it out there. Lalettan fangirl style!
What’s the two-finger test? Is it legal? Why is it still being used to examine survivors of sexual assault? We spoke to medical students in different cities across the country to learn how the test continues to be taught in medical colleges with outdated textbooks and outdated attitudes to women and sexual assault. And how doctors continue to be taught to treat rape survivors as liars.
Anurag Kashyap went off on an angry rant on his personal social media about having watched the CCTV footage from a high-profile case of sexual assault, and came to some dodgy conclusions. We had to ask: Why this Kolaveri?
7. Arnab and Meenakshi: The Soap
Who knew that that infamous, song-worthy showdown on Times Now between news anchor Arnab Goswami and BJP member Meenakshi Lekhi was really just a release of sexual tension? A YouTube comedy sketch with comedians Aditi Mittal and Alekh Sangal probed the endless possibilities of their fictional romance.
In the first weekend of this superhit’s release, we went deep into the multiplex territory of Mahavir Nagar, Kandivali and watched the movie in a housefull show to learn what possibilities one of the biggest hits of the year threw up for women in mainstream cinema.
9. Th
Running in grief, running from grief. In different countries, different climates, different states of mind. A runner tells us why her running shoes are never far from her sight.
A macho man tried to provide a mansplanation for why women can’t fly fighter jets. We decided to take his comments with buckets of salt, add some spice of our own and go our usual tralalalala way.
“Moochhey ho toh Nathulal jaisi ho, warna na ho!” said Amitabh Bachchan’s character in the superhit film Sharaabi. “Bollywood breakdown ho toh Aneelaji jaisa ho, warna na ho!” said we, when we first heard about her thoughts on Hindi movies. (Of course, then we fainted with pleasure when we read the draft, which is now this set of brilliant pieces. Just in case you can’t find part 2, here’s the link.)
On the Malayali nurses too dark to excite his sexual imagination and other half-baked ideas from the mind of AAP politician Kumar Vishwas.
(Landing image credit: Modified from “Ladies” by Simply CVR via CC BY-SA 2.0)