Anesha is a features writer, sometimes a reader, who loves to eat and plan fitness goals she can never keep. She writes on food, culture and youth trends.
Articles by Anesha George
Cringe is in. Don’t back away from it; embrace that shrinking feeling
Memes, Reels, even the perfectly styled Taylor Swift are urging an Instagram generation to showcase their authentic selves.
Updated on Mar 17, 2023 06:06 PM IST
Scenes of a textual nature: The changing language of work
In the workplace, emojis are now loaded with layers of meaning. Jargon carries more baggage. Full stops can give away your age. Didn’t you get the memo?
Updated on Feb 25, 2023 01:54 PM IST
Play with your food: New indie games are serving up slices of culinary culture
Put down the gun, pick up the gunpowder chutney. Videogames are levelling up the gameplay. Idlis, spring rolls, chicken curry and fish fry are fuelling the stories.
Updated on Feb 24, 2023 07:08 PM IST
This again? Tired tropes it’s time to retire in the romance genre
The love triangle, the I-can’t-live-without-you love, the enemies to lovers, the endless will-they-won’t-they... which one is your pet peeve? Take a look.
Updated on Feb 10, 2023 07:57 PM IST
Whatever happened to great, big love on the big screen?
The love is still out there, but the good news is that even mainstream love stories aren’t aiming for the fairytale as often. Instead, they’re telling tales of loss and indecision, regret and impossible choices. Because love is messy. Love is hard. It’s joyous when true, but nothing lasts forever.
Updated on Feb 10, 2023 07:31 PM IST
K Narayanan & Anesha George
Strike a pose: What is voguing, and why is it catching on in India?
Chances are you’ve heard of voguing, perhaps through the Madonna song. But what is this dance form from the drag subculture? Why do the moves look like Egyptian hieroglyphs or magazine shoots? Who are the young Indians promoting it here at home? Take a look.
Updated on Feb 04, 2023 05:18 PM IST
It’s not you, it’s not them: The benefits of having friends across the aisle
The path to any change begins with a disagreement. No one has all the answers. In our troubled times of anger and distrust, here’s why you should work to preserve friendships with those you don’t always agree with.
Published on Jan 28, 2023 04:32 PM IST
Less hate, more clarity: Check out Pixstory, a new social-media app out of India
Pixstory aims to minimise polarisation, disincentivise hate, and rate users so that everyone has at least a sense of whom they’re engaging with. Can it work? Take a look.
Updated on Jan 20, 2023 05:35 PM IST
Diversions ahead: New terms to tag new stages in the search for love
It’s rarely smooth sailing in the dating world. There’s a new term for the pandemic era’s new degree of desperation; another for the kind of person who won’t stop talking about therapy; terms for worries over spending; and for the willingness to try anything in the quest for love.
Updated on Jan 14, 2023 03:31 PM IST
Music in the gaming world: From silence and plinky tunes to in-game gigs
The first videogame had no sound effects. Then came two-note ditties, later soundtracks, bestselling CDs, works by composers and music icons. Today, music helps tell the player how to feel, what to expect. And it lets artists from Ariana Grande to Lil Nas X reach all-new audiences.
Updated on Jan 14, 2023 02:26 PM IST
The door’s a jar: See how pickles are serving as gateways to niche cuisines
As urban India seeks newer culinary adventures, ancient recipes (bamboo shoot, hog plum) are being preserved and promoted as mom-and-pop outfits step up.
Updated on Jan 07, 2023 07:15 PM IST
Cracking an ancient code: A Wknd interview with Sanskrit scholar Rishi Rajpopat
He just solved a puzzle that has mystified generations of linguists. Because of his breakthrough, Pāņini’s 2,500-year-old language algorithm is finally working right. Here’s how Rajpopat did it, and what this could mean for the beauty and science of Sanskrit.
Updated on Dec 23, 2022 09:22 PM IST
Wrap sheet: How to get better at gifting
Through history, presents have been a way to say: I see you, I appreciate you. They’re also a way to say: This is who I am. What makes a good gift, and giver? Five tips for the season.
Updated on Dec 10, 2022 09:56 PM IST
The multiverse timeline: How everything went everywhere in pop culture
For decades, storytellers have been cashing in on the idea that many different realities can coexist. Take a look at how films, books and TV have leveraged the concept of the multiverse over the past 100 years.
Updated on Dec 02, 2022 06:09 PM IST
Criminals can be victims too: An interview with victimologist Sanjeev P Sahni
As the Indian behavioural scientist takes over as vice-president of the World Society of Victimology, a look at changing definitions, new scientific findings, and the need for reform.
Updated on Nov 05, 2022 02:45 PM IST
Millennial apology fantasy: A forgiving twist in the tale
Forget happily-ever-afters. The new fantasy in Hollywood films is an apology from a parent or grandparent that acknowledges unrealistic expectation, breaks a cycle and opens a door to healing.
Updated on Nov 05, 2022 02:04 PM IST
Meet the American author coining new English words for complicated feelings
English doesn’t have words for many of life’s little aches, joys, urges and emotions. So John Koenig decided to create some, marrying ancient tongues with existing terms. His Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows has a word for that feeling of keeping a secret; the dread of finally pursuing a lifelong dream; the sense of finding out life’s answers, only too late.
Updated on Oct 29, 2022 01:29 PM IST
More than he seams: A Wknd interview with designer Akshat Bansal
His label Bloni is only five years old, but featured prominently at this month’s Paris Fashion Week. Bansal’s designs are gender-fluid, size-agnostic, and comment on post-pandemic emotions and the state of the world. One can’t be a fashion designer without a strong point of view, he says.
Updated on Oct 15, 2022 03:25 PM IST
Mellow Milo or rage Rover: You can tell your dog’s mood from his face
A recent study suggests that humans can gauge basic emotions in dogs, from photographs of their eyes alone.
Updated on Oct 08, 2022 01:40 PM IST
Bonus tracks: Check out the voices of change in indie Punjabi music
Leave the luxury cars, guns and glamourised sexism to mainstream Punjabi music. For a taste of how the community is changing, tune in to its indie scene. This is where they’re singing in forgotten dialects, rhyming about identity and equal rights, mixing kirtans into jazz, reggae and alt-rock. The voices are fresh, the sound is original, and the world is listening in
Updated on Oct 01, 2022 12:37 AM IST
Dancing in the dark: Mallika Sarabhai on beating bulimia,finding dance amid loss
Sarabhai is usually described as beautiful and accomplished. For large parts of her life, she says, she felt like neither. Her new book, In Free Fall, traces how that changed.
Updated on Sep 24, 2022 06:44 PM IST
Stranger than fiction: What role would you play in the story of your life?
Have you been wondering if you have main character syndrome or side character energy? How seriously you take these tags could tell you more about yourself than which tag you choose.
Updated on Sep 10, 2022 08:19 PM IST
Treats shoots and leaves: At a unique plant hospital in Amritsar
At the Pushpa Tree and Plant Hospital and Dispensary, there are in-patients, a ‘medicare’ helpline, even an electric autorickshaw that serves as an ambulance. Treatment is free. ‘Our services are a thank-you to those making the world greener,’ its co-founders say.
Updated on Sep 03, 2022 05:37 PM IST
Extended play: Inside India’s plush new gaming houses
In exchange for a share of the winnings, these spaces offer accommodation, personalised streaming stations, swimming pools, party areas, rooftop cafés. Some even come with mental-health and gaming coaches, personalised diet plans and fitness instructors.
Updated on Sep 03, 2022 05:21 PM IST
New high score: Inside the Indian esports boom
As gaming transitions into esports, India is stepping onto the global stage. The first medals are arriving on our shores. Tournaments are being streamed live on major TV networks. Esports companies are wooing players with lucrative deals, plush gaming houses. As business booms, the one dark cloud: game bans, and the worry over which might be the next to go.
Updated on Sep 03, 2022 05:19 PM IST
Picnic time: Meet the India-born Londoner behind the new Enid Blyton mysteries
Sufiya Ahmed’s latest books in the Famous Five series offer a modern and inclusive spin on the classics, with new characters of colour added too.
Updated on Jul 30, 2022 03:28 PM IST
Does this ring a bell? Marg celebrates South Asia’s diverse temples
Marg’s general editor Naman P Ahuja discusses the art magazine’s recent 75th anniversary issue which focusses on the economic and cultural roles of temples, and what they have come to mean over the centuries
Updated on Jul 23, 2022 12:58 AM IST
Time to give conservation a tech update, says museologist Vinod Daniel
The member of the Board of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and chair of AusHeritage, Vinod Daniel, has been a part of several tech-driven heritage conservation initiatives across the globe. Excerpts from a Wknd interview, where he talks about the conservation challenges India faces
Updated on Jul 23, 2022 12:58 AM IST
Deep search: Tech-enabled discoveries of underwater treasures
Ocean-going robots, innovative diving suits and high-accuracy sonar scans are changing the way we dive into the past in the hunt for ancient shipwrecks and sunken cities
Updated on Jul 23, 2022 12:59 AM IST
Back to the future: Cutting-edge tech that helps us decode the past
To unlock old secrets, sometimes you need a little help from new technology. See how LiDAR systems, x-ray spectrometers, ground-penetrating radar and 3D photo scans are giving us a closer look at Egyptian mummies, recreating models of sunken cities and helping us study and conserve ancient temples
Updated on Jul 23, 2022 02:40 PM IST
