Shrabonti Bagchi

Independent writer, previously with @Mint_Lounge @livemint writing on culture, tech x society, food, business.

Never calling this place 'X'

[Shrabonti Bagchi @Shrabonti]

Opposition does nothing: Look so useless they're doing nothing we have no alternative!

Opposition does something: Deep state conspiracy

[Shiva Mudgil @shivamudgil]

Surprisingly all kids who raised questions are meeting Rahul Gandhi. I mean either the kids think that we are idiots are they thing that Rahul Gandhi is smart enough to understand their issues. Either case it does not reflect well on their protest. If your protest is genuine you dont land up at the LOP house, something seems not so right about it.

CBSE Kids, UPSC kids, Dipke return, Wangchuk joining, it seems one Bangldesh styled protest.

[Shinie Antony @shinieantony]

Suno, suno...
BLF happening on Dec 12/13!
@BlrLitFest @Shrabonti @subodhsankar

[Shrabonti Bagchi @Shrabonti]

@somilagrawal No one's saying it's illegal, only inappropriate

[Shrabonti Bagchi @Shrabonti]

@lav_narayanan They won't understand the difference. You need a certain amount of political and media literacy to do that

[Shrabonti Bagchi @Shrabonti]

@Mrsinha Did FIFA organise this? No? Then stfu

[Shrabonti Bagchi @Shrabonti]

Feeling cheated because we read this in our book club but did even one of us have a meet-cute because of it?? Nope

[Aubrey Strobel @aubreystrobel]

The best beginning of a relationship I’ve ever heard:

“We sat next to each other and realised we were reading the same book, which is crazy. It’s called Trust [by Hernán Díaz] and I had just finished the first chapter and I told her and she looked at me and said, ‘I just finished the first chapter too.’ I said, ‘So we’re on the same page.’”

— Callum Turner on meeting Dua Lipa

[Lavanya 🎙️🎥👩🏻‍💻 @lav_narayanan]

Everyone flooding my mentions and dms with threats and abuses are also comparing the religious coding of the IPL mid innings show with religious themed celebrations of teams or individuals. Examples are drawn from nations that do have stated religious foundations or formative principles.

The whole point of the criticism is that India in its current geopolitical form is, or was, envisioned on secularism. How are people evading that very simple point like the plague?

It's one thing for players or teams to indulge and a whole other thing for it to come from a league's organiser.

Good luck to you all. 🤦‍♀️

[Shrabonti Bagchi @Shrabonti]

@SandeepHegde @ArecaCounty I agree. We're now very careful about selecting the kind of places we go to.

[Shrabonti Bagchi @Shrabonti]

I remember being at a resort in a remote corner of Wayanad, surrounded by hills with the mist rolling in, and an office group destroying the peace with their loud bonfire party where they insisted on playing Bollywood songs at top volume. Why is our first instinct to make a lot of noise?

[Arjun | Think In Points @think_in_points]

Given the recent debate around Indians doing Garba abroad and the broader conversations around civic sense, here’s honestly how I look at these things.

For me, it mostly comes down to one simple question:
Does what I’m doing fit the decorum and vibe of that place or not?

For example, while hiking last year, I noticed multiple groups playing loud Punjabi/Bollywood music on speakers during the trek. Now objectively there’s nothing wrong with the music itself, but on a quiet nature trail where people are there for peace, scenery and silence, it completely changes the experience for everyone around.

Similarly, I remember sitting at a beautiful canal-side café in Belgium with a colleague. The place was extremely calm and serene. Most cafés there don’t even play background music, so people were just quietly talking.

Suddenly he started streaming a cricket match of India on his phone at a very loud volume. People around us were visibly uncomfortable and eventually someone politely came and asked him to lower it.

What made it awkward for me was that he was quite senior to me professionally, so even though I personally felt the volume was too loud for that environment, it was difficult for me to directly point it out.

And I think that’s where civic sense mostly comes in. Not in some rigid moral policing way, but simply being mindful of whether your behaviour is affecting the people around you or disrupting the atmosphere of a place.

Of course, these things are subjective and vary across cultures. What’s normal somewhere may feel disruptive elsewhere.

But personally, that’s the lens through which I usually evaluate these things.

[Shrabonti Bagchi @Shrabonti]

@think_in_points Yup these are the hallmarks of a low-trust society

[Shrabonti Bagchi @Shrabonti]

@monikamanchanda I'm always scared I'm going to hit my head with the weight 😂

[Shruti Malhotra ‏‎ @Shruti_Malhotra]

An absolutely brilliant telling of the real India ⁦@jyotiyadaav⁩ ⁦⁦@livemint⁩

One that rarely comes up in our conversations on growth, tech, opportunity
The crisis keeps changing-Covid, migration, war. Headlines move on. Yet for some, the vulnerability is constant

[Shrabonti Bagchi @Shrabonti]

And a performance of majoritarianism that is actively encouraged back home

[AnnieZaidi PhD @anniezaidi]

And the problem of the badly behaved domestic tourist abroad is essentially the problem of the same behaviour at home: fear of one's own culture & hegemony being challenged in the smallest way, the need to dominate public space, a lack of curiosity about other people's cultures

[AnnieZaidi PhD @anniezaidi]

And the problem of the badly behaved domestic tourist abroad is essentially the problem of the same behaviour at home: fear of one's own culture & hegemony being challenged in the smallest way, the need to dominate public space, a lack of curiosity about other people's cultures

[Madeeha Fatima @madeeha__fatima]

I write with Dr Istikhar Ali, mental health researcher, for The Telegraph on the mental health of Indian Muslims.

The crisis for Muslims is not only about hospitals or policy gaps, but about what prolonged vigilance does to ordinary life.
Read & share.
https://t.co/LgxPNjoWsG

[Shrabonti Bagchi @Shrabonti]

Because she's literally the victim. Who's literally dead. So idk what card she's playing right now, being, as I said, dead

[Barkha Trehan 🇮🇳 / बरखा त्रेहन @barkhatrehan16]

@ShivaniGupta_5 Twisha Sharma was an empowered, married, able-bodied woman fully capable of taking her own decisions. Why play the victim card now? Shivani, independent women don't wait to be "saved" by aged parents, they walk out. True empowerment means individual accountability.

[Shrabonti Bagchi @Shrabonti]

@barkhatrehan16 @ShivaniGupta_5 She's literally dead. She's not playing any card

[Shrabonti Bagchi @Shrabonti]

@TurbulentTamizh Mint Lounge

[Anish Gawande @anishgawande]

Kindness matters, Prime Minister. But, with respect, a glass of water is not a policy.

Two months ago, alongside @Kumari_Selja, @_SandeepDikshit, @priyankac19, @_YogendraYadav, @bansalavani, and labour rights experts, workers, hawkers, and gig workers from across the country, we submitted an urgent demand letter to the Ministers of Labour, Home Affairs, Health, Housing, and Social Justice.

We asked for heatwaves to be declared a Notified National Disaster. We asked for the Heat Index (not just temperature, but temperature and humidity combined) to become the legal trigger for alerts, so coastal workers aren’t left out. We asked for Binding Heat Safety Rules under the OSHWC Code. We asked that digital platforms be prohibited from imposing delivery time penalties during heat alerts. We asked for cooling shelters at every labour chowk.

Today, 57% of districts across India are classified as heat-prone. We are in the middle of one of the worst heatwaves in history. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for a response.