I DIAGRESS Movies, Books and More Soft Light & Loud Laughs Mythos

I Diagress · Every room, every story

All Digressions

Films and books, school corridors and hostel rumours, old gods and almanac leaves. Every story on one long road that never takes the short way round.Start anywhere. Get lost properly.

A sunny illustrated map at dusk: a dotted road wanders from a boy and his dog past a river bridge and a little train, a pav bhaji stall, a single-screen cinema, a school gate under a crescent, a football field, a hostel with waving boys, a tea stall under a mango tree, a Christmas party, a fair with a giant wheel and a wedding pandal, up to cheerful little Grahas in the sky as one runs off with a pot of Amrut
Room
Length
Find

Films · books · plays · web series

Movies, Books and More

This isn't a review section. This is where stories start conversations.

Visit the room →
  1. The Long Way Round

    Guide: The Book, The Movie, and Then the Other Movie

    How Guide Rewrote Its Guide

     10 min
  2. The Short Way Round

    Miत्रों (Mitron)

    A Pav Bhaji of a Comedy

     6 min
  3. The Short Way Round

    Ingenuity of Limitations

    Shrimant Damodar Pant: the natak, the movie, and why less is more

     7 min
  4. The Long Way Round

    Anand Gandhi: Anatomy of a Decision

    A silent monk navigating the Ship of Theseus

     7 min
  5. The Short Way Round

    Choricha Mamla

    Who Is the Real Chor?

     5 min
  6. The Long Way Round

    Snowpiercer: Varna on Wheels

    An Indian Reading of a Closed System

     11 min
  7. The Short Way Round

    To Be or Not to Be: The John Abraham Question

    From Madras Cafe to Parmanu, where Antakshari guards a nuclear facility

     8 min
  8. The Long Way Round

    Drishyam 2: A Writer's Conscience

    Georgekutty got away from prison. Did he get away from punishment?

     12 min
  9. The Short Way Round

    Nasti Uthathev, Ingrazi Mein

    Lower Marathi, Higher Pu La: An English-Medium Boy's Return to Nasti Uthathev

     7 min
  10. The Short Way Round

    विकी वेलिंगकर

    दहा जीव, एक घड्याळ आणि आजीचा ब्लू झोन

     5 min
A 1990s Pune childhood · मराठी + English

Soft Light & LOUD LAUGHS

Stories seen, heard and half-remembered from a 1990s Pune childhood, and the years just after.

Visit the room →
  1. Fables & Parables

    For You It Will Always Be Free

    A child's war against inflation, fought over a samosa

     11 min
  2. Days Under the Crescent Sun

    100 Days, Zero Sleep

    A horror film, three bench mates, and a title nobody could explain

     6 min
  3. Days Under the Crescent Sun

    Neither Early Bird nor Late Owl

    Morning schools, afternoon schools, and Crescent

     4 min
  4. Days Under the Crescent Sun · The staff room

    Saeeed Mujawar - The Nirvana Method of Teaching Maths

    Jeans, a map stencil, and the calmest man in Crescent

     5 min
  5. Days Under the Crescent Sun

    Punish Meant

    Four Crescent experiments in unintended consequences

     4 min
  6. Fables & Parables

    Geometric Progression

    One fable, five exams, and an answer that kept growing while the moral stood still

     6 min
  7. ऐकलेले किस्से · Aiklele Kisse

    Chapter 14

    Combined study, a twelve-chapter Geography book, and a wall clock moved three hours ahead

     11 min
  8. Days Under the Crescent Sun · The staff room

    Ideas Over Commas

    Reshma Shaikh Miss, one ten-minute essay, and a verdict I still live by

     7 min
  9. Fables & Parables

    Poetic Justice, and Other Lessons

    Four English phrases, and the Crescent days that explained them

     6 min
  10. Days Under the Crescent Sun

    The Curious Case of a Little Book

    One glossy magazine, three suspects, and a father who agreed with everything

     7 min
  11. Days Under the Crescent Sun · The staff room

    Nazia Ruby Miss: The Wild West of Crescent

    One late return from lunch, five grammar corrections, and the fastest teacher in the West

     4 min
  12. Days Under the Crescent Sun · The staff room

    Waheeda Miss: The Mary Kom of Crescent

    Broad shoulders, a hockey player’s stride, and an English teacher you did not want to make angry

     5 min
  13. Days Under the Crescent Sun

    Where Is the Paper?

    Six exams a year, two weeks each, and the calm of a true-blood Crescentian

     6 min
  14. Days Under the Crescent Sun

    Lessons from the Christmas Party

    Shared gulab jamuns, crumbling ladoos, a rigged lottery and the game theory of a ₹30 gift

     5 min
  15. Days Under the Crescent Sun

    Board de Merite

    Toppers, prodigies, a hundred relatives, and what you actually get for coming in the merit list

     5 min
  16. Days Under the Crescent Sun

    Yellow Yellow, Dirty Fellow

    Six colours, one tie nobody can tie, and the riddles Crescent never explained

     3 min
  17. Fables & Parables

    Fourteen Owen Harts

    Bread stickers, trump cards, a home-made football deck, and five PhD theses nobody will ever write

     11 min
  18. Fables & Parables

    Kuber Rush

    One forwarded text, one 11.3 BHP bike, and the day all of Pune went looking for Lord Kuber before 8:30 pm

     18 min
  19. ऐकलेले किस्से · Aiklele Kisse

    The Football Match Nobody Sawनुसती ऐकलेली फुटबॉल मॅच

    One Sunday, nine roommates, a match they never reached, and a self-goal that won a prize

     6 min
  20. ऐकलेले किस्से · Aiklele Kisse

    The Sermon Mangu Heardऐकलेले प्रवचन

    One Sunday, one cupboard of books, and a king who conquered four kingdoms and lost to breakfast

     4 min
  21. ऐकलेले किस्से · Aiklele Kisse

    The Bus Depot We Heard Aboutऐकलेला बस डेपो

    One newspaper, one grand theory about bus stamps, and one question from Mangu

     2 min
Myths · Jyotish · found texts

Mythos

Old gods, nine Grahas and a found text nobody can quite place. Stories that end in a question.

Visit the room →
  1. Myths & Meanings

    Dashagriva

    Ravan, the nine Grahas, and the one who stepped outside the circle.

     5 min
  2. Myths & Meanings

    Rahu: The Descent into Chaos

    Swarbhanu, the stolen Amrut, and a head that can never be full.

     7 min
  3. Myths & Meanings

    Karma Is Not Justice

    A ledger that never closes in one life, and a wheel that keeps turning.

     5 min
  4. Myths & Meanings

    Dance of Marriage

    Fire, seven rounds, and Shvetaketu, the rebel who wrote the rules of marriage.

     10 min
  5. Myths & Meanings

    Nachiketa

    A boy waits three days at Death's door, and Yama answers him with another seeker's story.

     10 min
  6. The Jyotish Series · Part I

    Basics of Astrology

    Why twelve signs and not eleven? Where the Nakshatras, the chart and the days of the week come from.

     8 min
  7. The Jyotish Series · Part II

    Understanding Accountability in Astrology

    The scientist gets a long rope; the Jyotishi gets a short one. Why we measure them with two different yardsticks.

     7 min
  8. The Jyotish Series · Part III

    Clearing Up the (Mis)understandings of Manglik Yog

    Mangal means auspicious. So why does Mangal Dosh frighten so many families at marriage time?

     8 min
  9. The Jyotish Series · Part IV

    Birth Time Rectification

    A chart is only as good as the minute it starts from. And who, in a busy labour room, keeps the time?

     6 min
  10. Karshanya · Leaf I

    Shimmering Shadows

    The night the great King Ndra fell, and the words he died with.

     15 min
  11. Karshanya · Leaf II

    A Neither Nor Desire

    Uhan leads twelve baguls into Aranya after Mskar, and hears of a guardian that is neither man nor woman.

     14 min
  12. Karshanya · Leaf III

    Betrayal’s Strike

    In the court of the last free Gan Pati, a son learns what his father truly wants.

     12 min