Deep Adhya, PhD

When we were in high school, I was the shy guy in the group. It was a boys’ only school. Some of my friends had girlfriends. Others didn’t. I didn’t. I always felt like I was missing out on something. But I didn’t really want girlfriends. I just wanted to have some friends and some good experiences that I could share with my friends. All I ever did was study. I was made to study. It made me depressed. I was the only child. There were only my very neurotic parents who never had any patience for anything that didn’t appeal to them. They were begrudgingly married to each other by their ambitious parents and they had decided they were going to take out their grudges on everyone in the vicinity. They didn’t like each other. Not one bit. All their emotions were buried six feet under the ground. I don’t know what happened in their lives that killed their emotions. They didn’t like emotions. They didn’t like anyone who showed emotions. That included me. So they tried their best to keep me fr...

‘Caveat emptor’ is a legal term which means, “… the buyer alone is responsible for checking the quality and suitability of goods before a purchase is made.” In this information age where random words welded together into sentences are broadcast around the world more often than farts are broadcast through a room, the validity of the words need to be deeply scrutinized before believing. I have known this since the beginning of the internet, but before now never been able to put a name to it. I first heard this phrase on a news show where a woman TV journalist lashed at a woman victim of sexual abuse, who thought the TV journalist had a funny hairstyle. The said victim was accusing Aziz Ansari for acting weirdly and inappropriately on their first date. The incident brought about a lot of negative press for the accuser, and her credibility was being questioned, because said accuser was not doing justice to the #MeToo campaign by being mean to another woman and potential victim to ina...

I visited Tate Modern a few days ago. This is not the first visit, and honestly I am getting a bit tired of it. Yet, I am too lazy to go all the way up from South London to let’s say, the British museum. Tate Modern, as a result, has become the farthest point that I go for pleasure during my free time. Luckily for me, the people running Tate Modern are not as lazy, and I saw a number of new things this time around. First there is the large turbine hall of the former Bankside power station, which has now been transformed into an indoor playground for children and adults alike. It has swings meant more for adults who do not want to be seen on a swing out in the open. The new turbine hall décor (swings on the other side; not clicked to maintain privacy of embarrassed adults) As I kept venturing into the oversized corridors of the Tate Modern various artwork started pinging my eyes from all sides. There was one which quite struck me (and which I am sure I have seen before but ...