LU Chronicles
Not all births are celebrated equally in this country. Some arrive with grandeur and dhol-baaje, while others do not have the fate of a happy arrival. More often than not, it is the girl child who is greeted this way, while the male child is celebrated, supposedly destined to take […]
If both are raised under the same roof, why do they grow up in different worlds? In many homes, the difference in how daughters and sons are raised is not always loud or obvious. It is quiet, woven into everyday habits, casual instructions, and unspoken expectations. It shows up in […]
âWhat are your hobbies?â It is one of the most common and simplest questions people ask out of genuine curiosity about you. It appears harmless, even friendly. The question shows up in first conversations, on dates, in classrooms, during interviews, and sometimes in the middle of casual small talk. Yet […]
When we speak of the golden age of Indian cinema, this is what I imagine – A time when films were not merely commercial products but works of art, created by artists who treated cinema like their own children. Kaagaz Ke Phool stands as one of the purest examples of […]
Today, in the wake of Dev Anand, I re-watched Guide, and it turned out to be a completely different experience. Earlier, when I watched it, it felt like just another old-school masterclass. But this time, something was different. I donât know what exactly changed, but it felt like a weight […]
Apparently, feminism has ruined humour. Now the room is quieter. The jokes no longer have the same impact they used to have. Men are cautious because they fear that one poor joke will bring out a feminist who will ruin the mood by posing awkward questions. It truly is a […]
Society, especially in India, unknowingly plays a very key role in shaping our thoughts- how we think and how we make decisions. We try to evolve from it and make our decisions with the help of our own conscience, but that evolution is also unintentionally shaped by the will of […]
Tyeb Mehta, the Paintings That Distanced Me, and the Film That Brought Me Back The first time I saw a Tyeb Mehta painting, I was too young to know what I was looking at. It was at a virtual tour of an exhibition in Mumbai, some corporate gallery in a […]
“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Anna Karenina, Tolstoy It’s in the quiet boredom of Holi after hours where we give in to our parents’ watch recommendations. So thatâs exactly how I landed in this uncharted corner of youtube watching a show […]
Whenever I talk about directors who significantly changed the traditional Hindi cinema, Anurag Kashyap’s name always comes up. He isnât a typical Bollywood director like others who focuses only on big stars, grand sets, and commercially successful formulas. Instead, he focuses more on the script of the story, the characters, […]
At first, the cultural branch of LU.LitcoreâIndiCore’sâtrip to Sanatkada, which was to take place at Safed Baradari, was initially meant to be their way of discovering a cultural event as part of the IndiCore team. However, it ended up being an adventure that brought them together to see, experience, and […]
You and I, weâre no strangers to discourse. Whether it is online or offline, it has become a core tenet of our lives as we know them. And why shouldnât it? Communication, as it stands, is more accessible than ever before and it has brought a revolutionary change to our […]
Kaantha is a heartfelt and straightforward drama about human connection and emotion. The film tells its story slowly and honestly, rather than through big plot developments or melodrama. It builds a calm tone of voice right at the start of the movie, and the tone never changes until the end. […]
Animals and Birds have been a huge part of our whole culture. Not just India but the whole world. Animals have been used as assets towards survival. Whether it be sheepâs fur, cow milk, cats and hens eradicating pests from fields, or a dog/horse as a genuine companion, almost everywhere […]
In a world where womanhood is often measured by marriage, what happens when that identity is taken away from a woman? This is the subject matter of the painting âI Cannot Be A Bride Anymoreâ by Yuko Tatsushima, whose works are often explorations of femininity, identity, trauma, and societal expectations. […]
The skyline of Lucknow is dotted by many historical sites – the ornate gates of Rumi Darwaza, the impressive Imambaras, and the winding Gomti River. However, on the northern bank of the river lies a building that has shaped generations upon generationsâ educational journey and needs: the University of Lucknow, […]
Are you a NICE person, or are you TOO NICE? The kind of person who lets others walk all over you and take you for granted? For a long time, I was the person with zero boundaries, enduring the “sweetest torture” of putting everyone on a pedestal while I lived […]
In Indian cinema, few surnames go beyond identity to become institutions. Kapoor is one such name. It is no longer just a family lineage; it has become a cinematic language in itself. Over the decades, this surname has carried stories, stardom, privilege, and pressure. It has shaped not just careers […]
âYeh Lucknow University ka campus hai janaab, yahan baat abhi bhi adab se ki jaati hai.â Lucknow ,famous for its tehzeeb in every sense of the word. Whether it is the gentle insistence of âpehle aapâ or the warmth of its khatirdari, the city carries a reputation for politeness that […]
We are in the age of social media, where everything from everywhere is present on our phones within seconds. We are so informed that sometimes it feels like we know everything. However, there was a time when people were mostly informed through reading newspapers, magazines, and many other print sources. […]
THE CIVILIZATIONAL APPROACH TO CHANGE IN INDIA- India stands as one of the few societies where the history has never been viewed as a burden. Rather, it has been challenged and transformed over ages. The argument of whether modernity and tradition can coexist in India frequently portrays them as opposing […]
I watched Jugnuma: The Fable today, and I was left speechless. When I went into this film, all I knew was that it had the classic Japanese 16mm film vibe, one of the best cinematography in Indian cinema of the decade starring Manoj Bajpayee. All this was enough for me […]
âThe repressed does not cease to exist; it merely changes its form.â-Sigmund Freud When you watch a movie like In the Mood for Love , it’s almost imperative you watch it with a notepad in your hand, because what might unfold in front of you is so hypnotic, you will […]
âNo one likes a mad woman – you made her like thatâ The above statement is extracted from the lyric of the song âMad Womanâ written by Taylor Swift. By saying “You made her like that,” Swift is pointing the finger back at the system. She is saying: My ‘messiness’ […]
A few days ago, I was in conversation with a friend. We were speaking casually, laughing about nothing in particular, when, without thinking- I addressed her as âAapâ while responding to something she said. A habit I have suffered since childhood. Her reaction was immediate, almost theatrical. She looked at […]
In todayâs era, when higher education is often defined by global benchmarks and technological prowess, there is a growing conversation around the need to preserve and integrate Indiaâs own intellectual traditions within modern academic frameworks. In recent years, Indian higher education has witnessed a renewed interest in the countryâs own […]
Lucknow University was not my first choice, and I arrived in the campus with mixed feelings and quiet doubts. Yet, with time, this campus has become more than just a place where I attend classes or prepare for examinations. It has slowly turned into a space where I am discovering […]
A common theme one can notice in the poetry written during the restoration period is satire. While in today’s world, one may scrunch up their nose in distaste when satire is used, in the mid 17th century, it was a landmark poetic device, mostly popularized by a poet named John […]
As we walk into today’s world, a man wearing a pearl necklace around his neck, rings in his fingers, earrings in his ears, often finds his masculinity put on trial. Comments and judgement begin: “Gay” “Chakka” “Hijda”. What is ironic is that these accusations come from a society that prides […]
Delhi NCR – 400+ AQIÂ Uttar Pradesh – 390+ AQI Gujarat – 170+ AQIÂ Rajasthan – 200+ AQI (Donât get confused why I gave this Air Quality Index data here. You will know soon.) So, These are the few air quality indices of a few states of India, and till now, if […]
Jolly LLB 3Â once again shows that while Indian cinema is capable of addressing serious and relevant issues, it often refuses to fully commit to them. The film touched upon themes of justice, power, and systemic failure, but repeatedly weakened its own message by inserting unnecessary clownery. The constant jokes, exaggerated […]
Just like any other educational institution, in 1920, Lucknow University was a dream stitched together by idealists, academicians, and visionariesâthose who believed that knowledge could uplift entire generations, democratize opportunity, erase social boundaries, and create thinking youth who would shape the nation and, hopefully, the world. A 105-year-old institution doesnât […]
When you think of Lucknow University, the first thing you will think of is its architecture; the way it looks pure aesthetic to your camera, the greenery which covers the whole campus. The history of Lucknow University is rich, grand and iconic. Will you, for a moment, think about the professors, the […]
Every year, thousands of Indian students sit before admission forms with trembling anticipation, ranking institutions not merely by convenience, but by hope. These preferences are not bureaucratic entries; they are confessions. They reveal where ambition points when no one is watching. It was while observing these quiet hierarchies of desire […]
You might wake up in the morning and brew a cup of coffee while a Spotify podcast hums in the background. As you step out and slide into a cab, thereâs an RJ on the radio narrating a conventional tale. Then, a remembrance ceremony is held at your college to […]
Have you ever felt that our campus sometimes feels very lonesome or empty? I couldnât shake that feeling, so I wanted to relate it to a poem to provide a greater reflection. The poem is âPresent in Absenceâ by John Donne. Itâs an example of a metaphysical poem, a movement […]
âTodayâs backlash against intellectual life cannot simply be written off as a popular celebration of mindlessness,â wrote Adam Waters and E.J. Dionne Jr. in Dissent. It was true of America in 2019. It is painfully true of India now. Books written in other countries, in other decades, often feel eerily […]
Lucknow University has stood for more than a century – 105 years of stories, footsteps, laughter, ambition, rebellion and countless memories buried within its campus. Every time I walk past the old red building, I canât help but wonder about the lives it has witnessed: the friendships, the heartbreaks, the […]
On most days at Lucknow University, learning doesnât begin with a timetable and it certainly doesnât end with the final bell. The true heartbeat of the campus lies in the spaces that almost seem accidental. The chai stalls with their metal kettles steaming through the afternoon, the shaded benches behind […]
I read George Orwell’s Animal Farm the other day, and felt a sense of hopelessness when I finished the novella. the story is set around a farm called the ‘Manor Farm’, owned by Mr. Jones, a farmer who was once a hardworking man who took care of his animals, but […]
Sometimes we get disappointed when the things that we have planned do not happen the way we imagined. And honestly, that is just human nature. We dream, we hope, we build entire movies in our heads about how life should look and when reality doesnât match the script, it stings. […]
In todayâs world, social media has become a huge part of our lives. It connects us, entertains us, and often shapes how we think and act. Every day, we scroll through countless posts, reels, and stories that set new trends â from fashion and fitness to opinions and lifestyles. But […]
25 November 2025 was not just another date on the calendar for us, but it felt like a full-fledged festival across the University of Lucknow. It was the Foundation Day of one of the oldest and the most historic universities of Uttar Pradesh. A day that holds a precious place […]
Walking into the Divya Kala Mela at Lucknow University, I did not expect the campus to feel so alive. The fair was full of colours, crafts, skills and dignity in neat little rows of stalls, each one telling its own story. The first thing that struck me was the warmth. […]
A recent issue of Vogue wrote, and I quote, âFashion is cyclical. No era is immune to a remix now and again.â And this is supported by what is called the 20-year theory, which suggests that fashion trends tend to return roughly every two decades, often driven by nostalgia from […]
Dear reader, It has been a while since we caught up. And because Iâve promised myself to stop oversharing, Iâll simply say this: I was busy, and writing had to wait. Now, as I nurse my way out of a stubborn writerâs block, I thought Iâd share a story from […]
How Sydney Sweeney, American Eagle, and a pair of blue pants unraveled a century of denim politics. Two blondes, two commercials, two different claims on Americana, and a nation that, as usual, read far more into the second one than the makers ever intended. BeyoncĂŠ, in Leviâs, has been playing […]
There is a peculiar Indianism , and, if one looks broadly enough, a globalism , to the way we manage the subject of sex: not by absence so much as by theatrical abstention. Sex is performed, packaged, policed, advertised, litigated, and monetized; but it is not, with any seriousness, discussed […]
In The New Yorker, Robert Samuels wrote, âI had envisioned book bans as modern morality plays, but the reality was far more complicated.â And it is. âCause what exactly are we protecting people from by banning books? Â When a government obsessed with optics is still afraid of paperbacks, one is […]
In Lucknow, the sounds that mark a life are ordinary: the cycle bell at dawn, the sputtering of an auto in traffic that refuses to move, the azaan threading through loudspeakers at dusk. For me, the one sound missing for about two decades of being born and raised in this […]
Three centuries ago, came the first stories of beings with impossible strength: gods, titans, monsters. They were warnings, wishes, and/or ways to make sense of the chaos and cruelty. Three decades ago, superheroes took their place: vigilantes, orphaned billionaires, aliens in capes, radioactive teenagers who flooded comic books and movie […]
Call it delusion, call it digital-age dharma, but everyoneâs living like the book deal is already in motion. âMain character energyâ has emerged as both a meme and a mantra: the idea that one should live as though the camera is following, the soundtrack is swelling, and the universe is […]
In the spring of 1983, Andrea Dworkin released a book that unsettled even her staunchest admirers. Right-Wing Women wasnât a call to arms but an x-ray, a forensic, unflinching study of a kind of political allegiance that confounds both liberals and radicals: the woman who kisses the hand that chains […]
The corporate world loves a woman who knows her place. Sheâs polite in meetings, punctual in email threads, and carries just the right amount of ambition to be seen as productive, but not enough to be seen as a threat. She smiles through interruptions, thanks people for stealing her ideas, […]
Letâs begin with a broken plate. Not metaphorically (though feel free to go there), but literally: a piece of fine china, fractured, splintered, and now reassembled not with dainty care but with steel bolts, barbed wire, and what looks suspiciously like industrial hardware pilfered from a junk drawer in a […]
Why todayâs most âimportantâ films feel like homework – and what weâre losing in the process. Thereâs a peculiar silence that follows the end of a prestige film – the kind reserved for funerals, or homework youâre proud to have completed. Itâs not the stunned, breathless silence that trails something […]
Once upon a time, understanding the mind meant stepping into battle – not with capes or superpowers, but with the monsters inside us. Freud, armed with his theories of the unconscious – forever searching for the mother of all answers (yes your mother).Jung with his archetypes asking us to see […]
In a country where indifference is rewarded, and reposting an infographic counts as activism, picking up a book might just be the most radical thing you can do. What we are witnessing is not the death of democracy, Itâs the theatre of it.The stage is intact – elections held, flags […]