ATOMIC RAKSHASI
the Art of Rhea Daniel

In this episode of Rakshasi’s Ramblings , I talk about German writer Michael Ende’s children’s fantasy novel, Momo . In  Momo , the writer asks us to pause, to see time not as a resource to be hoarded, but as something we inhabit. Through the symbolic Grey Men and the innocent perception of young Momo, Ende unpacks how modern life’s obsession with productivity and efficiency corrodes our connection to the present. I explore how the book reveals the costs of our hurried exist

Should you come across a female narcissist, your safest option is to get away quickly; that is, if you even have the discernment to spot her. Not all of them are perched comfortably at the top and can’t always be identified by rank.

Why Choose the Bear?   The ‘Choose the Bear’ social experiment on social media, where specifically women were asked whether they would rather come across a bear in the woods or a man, caused such a reaction on the internet that it reached the news .   The question, farcical to begin with, places the hypothetical victim between two potential predators, one from the animal world and the other from one’s own world, that is, human civilisation, with its unwritten and legal rules

You can watch my fan art process video of You and Baby Reindeer here . You the series has been one of my favs, but I delayed watching it because I thought it glorified stalkers. I was right, but without the nuance. After a four year delay I finally watched the series, then read the book and wrote an essay, with a little research on what makes a stalker a stalker. I hope that's good enough for a blog post 😉 It helped me distance myself from any personal experiences with st

In art school lore there’s a story that commonly turns up about an art teacher who made all his students pile up their sketchbooks on a table and then, to their horror, poured a cup of coffee all over the pile. He was trying to make a point to his students about detachment, practice and the misguided urge to create the perfect drawing while learning. That is a great lesson in itself, but I’m not going to ask you to do that. I believe sketchbooks should be cherished because th

Vincent van Gogh, Withered Sunflowers , 1887 I had a classmate in college whose laid-back approach to work used to annoy me, but as I spent more time with her, her easygoing attitude began to rub off. I had chosen a stream that required an intense amount of labour, and putting one's assignments on a back-burner was a bad idea. After one year in her company, though, my approach to everyday life changed from an anxiety-ridden, forced discipline to an easygoing, placid existence

Beauty is important female currency in patriarchy, and everyone, consciously or unconsciously, advocates for it.

The generic stalker has a relationship with his prey, and the relationship only goes so far as the prey gives. Anything is encouragement...

While we were yearning for the perfect American life, we didn’t think about the reality of child care, because we were kids ourselves.

(copyright enidblytonsociety.co.uk) Ever been shocked to find out that a celebrity figure you thought you knew might be narcissistic, petty and vindictive? In any respectable library in post-colonial India Enid Blyton’s books were in high demand. At the age of nine, her books inspired me to write shoddy copies of imaginary adventures (and may those childhood drafts burn in eternal hellfire). My friends and I swapped and re-read tattered copies of The Secret Island , The Boy N