Columns

Setting new borders in a geographical or personal sense can be complicated, finds Madhu Jain. Erasing them, even more so…
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The number of mother tongues spoken in India runs into the thousands, yet in the arena of mainstream literature, where English continues to dominate, only a fraction of the significant writing being produced finds a platform. Verve highlights flash fiction in Urdu, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam, exclusively authored for us by four bilingual wordsmiths...
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Emojis, acronyms, memes, GIFs and other forms of internet shorthand are helping us express emotions and open up to each other in a hyperconnected world. Infusing nuance and personality, they transcend the limits of traditional speech and writing and add a level of intimacy, letting us communicate in a more uninhibited way.
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Madhu Jain looks back to a time of simple games and pleasures and compares these to the multitude of on-demand diversions available to all, in the present day
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The newest means to go viral, TikTok, has also emerged as a democratising desi alternative to homogeneous and exclusionary Western social media. Influencer and first ‘regular’ Indian woman to be ‘crowned’ on the app, Nagma Mirajkar, opens up to Verve about fame being a double-edged sword....
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The internet, especially its various gateways to self-empowerment, has proven to be a boon for a country as diverse and socially stratified as India, but its work is far from done. Verve investigates…
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