Category: The Margin
Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen: tv show of the week
Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen Netflix review: eight episodes of a feeling that has no name. It dropped on Netflix on March 26th. It is already in the top ten in most of the countries Netflix tracks. And if you have a taste for slow dread, for the horror of anticipation rather than…
What I learnt from a cab driver in london
What I learnt from a cab driver in London is probably something not many people have even if they are frequent passengers in London. This encounter revealed how change, belonging, and loss intertwine in ways that resist simple stories or easy judgments. I got in the cab because I needed to stop thinking. I did…
The Tiger in the Tunnel by Ruskin Bond: the story about what fathers leave behind
The Tiger in the Tunnel by Ruskin Bond is not really about a tiger. You suspected this the first time you read it. You probably could not have said why. Now you can. It is about an axe. It is about a lamp. It is about a twelve-year-old boy sitting alone in the dark with…
What I learnt from my kurdish barber in london
What I learnt from my barber in London is something I realised only after the haircut was done and when I was already outside. That is the thing about a good story. It keeps you warm long enough that you do not notice you are leaving with less than you came for. It was one…
An Astrologers Day by RK Narayan: The con man who told the truth
An Astrologer’s Day by RK Narayan is a story about a fraud. A man who knows nothing about the stars. Who cannot read the future. Who sits under a tamarind tree every day in a busy market and tells people what they need to hear so they will pay him and go home. He is…
The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty: the last line that changes everything
The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty is not a long story. You can read it in eight minutes. Maybe ten if you pause at the ending, which you will. Most people do. You were probably fourteen or fifteen when you first met it. A classroom. A textbook. A teacher asking about themes and literary devices. You…
Tagore’s The Postmaster: a story about being left behind
The Postmaster by Rabindranath Tagore is twelve pages long. Twelve pages. Written in 1891. And yet here you are, years after Class 9, still thinking about Ratan standing in a doorway. Still thinking about a lamp being lit in the dark. Still thinking about a girl who refused the money. That is not an accident.…
Why south asian parents don’t say I love you
Why South Asian parents don’t say I love you is one of those questions that gets asked in hushed tones, usually between friends who grew up in the same kind of house, usually after a few drinks, usually with a laugh that has something else underneath it. You know the house. The one where love…
What the Ipod nano reveals about how we listen now
The Ipod nano review, the device still turns on. That is the first surprise. A thin rectangle pulled from a drawer, screen scratched, buttons slightly stiff, battery no longer reliable, but alive. It wakes without ceremony. No boot animation. No update screen. No agreement to accept before proceeding. Just a menu. There is something unsettling…
