An Analyst

If there’s one story that has been making waves across Tamil Nadu, it’s the case of Madhampatty Rangaraj and celebrity stylist Joy Crizildaa . Rangaraj is married to Shruthi Priya , who also happens to be his cousin, and they are parents to two boys. Despite this, Joy took to Instagram to announce that she was now married to Rangaraj — and revealed that she was already six months pregnant at the time of their marriage.  As usual, it was Joy — not Rangaraj — who faced brutal cyber abuse , with many calling her a gold digger. Meanwhile, Rangaraj tried to repair his image by attending public events with his wife, projecting that he had returned to his family life.   A Woman the Public Loved to Hate I pity this woman, Joy. Being a divorcee herself, she must have known that her marriage was not legally valid and that the public would not easily accept it. Yet, she tried hard to convince people that theirs was a genuine marriage — not a casual relationship.  She often re...

  I grew up in a timescale when internet connection was confined to PCs , and PCs weren’t a commodity in Indian homes. This was the time when I was in school. Fast forward to my sophomore year at college — smartphones had forayed into the Indian market. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong — among the slightly expensive models, Samsung was the first to introduce an affordable yet sleek, holistic phone, which back then cost ₹5,000. In the next few years, smartphones weren’t a luxury show-off; they became bare essentials for survival. I found browsing easier when I owned a smartphone because earlier I had to turn on my desktop every time I had to browse something as trivial as “how to make a plain vanilla cake.” But that was it. Google’s search engine didn’t always resolve my doubts. Say I had a query like “Are BJTs still in use?” — I had to browse through multiple pages to find the right answer. I had to search for online forums to know why I had gotten a particular synta...

A few days ago, several newspapers reported that the Tamil Nadu government was preparing to introduce a bill empowering it to ban Hindi hoardings across the state, along with a few other related proposals. In the days that followed, reports suggested that the move had been stalled after facing opposition from certain sections. However, the state government’s official fact-checking unit later dismissed these claims as mere rumours. Tamil–Hindi politics , however, is not a new phenomenon in Tamil Nadu — its roots stretch back even before the state’s official formation. Through this article, I aim to elucidate the origins, underlying psychology, and political motives that continue to shape this enduring linguistic debate.  Origin of Hindi Imposition — The Pre-Independence Spark    The tension over language in India didn’t begin today. It goes back to the late 1930s, when the then Madras Presidency government under C. Rajagopalachari made Hindi compulsory in secondary sc...

A few days ago, a video featuring Tamil influencer Indraja Shankar , daughter of the late actor Robo Shankar , caught the public’s attention. In a candid moment, Indraja opened up about her family’s recent financial struggles , shedding light on a reality that contrasted sharply with their once-glamorous image. According to Indraja, her father had spent a fortune on her wedding. The reason was rooted in a familiar cultural pressure: the fear of community judgment. He didn’t want to be the subject of typical taunts like, “Look at him — he couldn’t even afford a grand wedding for his only child.” Determined to silence such remarks, he hosted a lavish celebration that became the talk of the town . The scale of the wedding suggested expenses easily running into a crore. The family’s subsequent celebrations — from her baby shower to her child’s six-month birthday — projected an image of effortless privilege. In interviews around that time, Indraja herself showcased her expensive wedding ...