Author: Sweetlena Mandal

Butter in Bandra? What HYBE’s Mumbai Office Means for Indian K-Pop Fans If you felt the K-wave wash over India in fits and starts for the past decade, the arrival of HYBE’s Mumbai office this September 2025 feels like the dam finally opening. This isn’t a PR stunt or a one-off concert booking. HYBE, the South Korean entertainment giant behind BTS, SEVENTEEN, TXT and a roster of global acts, has established an Indian subsidiary with a clear brief: hold local auditions, set up a training system tailored to Indian culture, and build artists who can live on both local playlists…

Snake on the Beats, Enrique on the Streets: India’s Concert Fever 2025 What’s louder than a Mumbai traffic jam, flashier than a Bollywood award show, and wilder than an IPL after-party? The answer this year is India’s live music scene. (Image courtesy: moneycontrol) And leading the charge? Our very own French DJ with desi swagger, DJ Snake. The man who made the world scream Turn Down for What is gearing up to bring his six-city arena tour to India. Picture it: a stadium full of fans, phones lit up like a galaxy, and the bass drop of Magenta Riddim shaking…

When Ya Ali Played, We Dreamed: Remembering Zubeen Garg Some voices sing not just to be heard, but to live inside you. They find their way into your first crush, your puberty breakup, your after-midnight drives. Zubeen Garg was such a voice for our generation of 90s children. He passed away on September 19, 2025, and with him, a part of our childhood. A scuba diving accident in Singapore cut short the life of a singer whose melodies seemed to be endless; but even in sorrow, we recall, we rejoice, and we play his songs on repeat. (Image courtesy: livemint)…

These Indian Roast Comedians serve burns hotter than your mom’s ‘beta job kab milega?’ If you are the type who laughs hardest when the joke is on you, welcome to your spiritual home. India’s roast comedy scene isn’t just alive, it’s thriving, flaming, and flambéing egos with style. These comedians aren’t here to tell you dad jokes or heartwarming anecdotes. They are here to drag you through the mud, wrap it up in punchlines, and serve it with a side of mic-drop swagger. Let’s be honest. We are a nation of uncles with opinions, aunties with unsolicited advice, and cousins…

Words That Heal, Words That Ignite: Tamil & Telugu Motivators You Must Hear If you have ever lost yourself in the rhythm of words, you will know this truth that language has power, but storytelling is magic. And South India has been weaving this magic for centuries. Sangam literature, the crown jewel of Tamil heritage, is one of the oldest surviving literatures in the world. It spoke of courage, love, war, ethics, and wisdom long before motivational speakers became a thing. So maybe it is not surprising that the South, particularly Telugu and Tamil voices, even today maintain this strange…

The Left Foot That Conquered Continents Now Turns Indian Soil Into Sacred Ground There are moments in football that live beyond the ninety minutes. Maradona’s “Hand of God.” Zidane’s headbutt. Iniesta’s World Cup strike. And for Indian fans, there’s always been another kind of dream: what if Lionel Messi, the man who made football poetry, ever played on our soil? In 2025, that dream turns real. Not in YouTube highlights. Not on 2 a.m. streams with dodgy commentary. But live, under our skies, with our chants, on our turf. Messi and India: A Love Story That Took 14 Years Messi…

When the English Teacher Got Engaged to the Gym Teacher, and We Went Crazy! Swifties, grab your scrunchies, hit play on You Belong With Me, and possibly even break out your cringe-worthy 90’s journals, because ultimate Mother Taylor Swift has not only given birth to not only her next Billboard record breaker song, but her ideal love. Taylor Swift is engaged to Travis Kelce, and the internet is going collectively crazy. She took to Instagram to bless the world with the news; she literally added the song So High School, which is the best, given it was written for him.…

When a song became a set, and “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara” became the new anthem of clean comedy There is a certain kind of laugh that lingers. It doesn’t come from a cheap gag or an overused punchline. It doesn’t come from profanity or shock value. It comes from recognition, from warmth, from something so real that the whole room smiles at once. (Image courtesy: ytimg) That was the laugh echoing through auditoriums when Shraddha Jain, better known as Aiyyo Shraddha, took the stage with her latest show, Mile Sur Mera Tumhara. And in doing so, she didn’t just perform…

Madison Square met Indore’s finest, and history was written in Hindi On 17th August 2025, the unthinkable happened in New York. No Bollywood dance troupe, no pop idol, no cricket victory parade, just a mic, a stage, and one Indore boy with a sakht heart and soft punchlines. (Image courtesy: deadant) Zakir Khan, India’s most beloved stand-up storyteller, became the first Indian comedian to headline Madison Square Garden with a full Hindi show. And just like that, the man who once told us “sakht launda hai, pighalta nahi” melted the entire Garden. A Sakht Journey, A Soft Victory There is…

Divyanshu Ganatra turns loss into design power, proving inclusion fuels adventure, leadership and systemic change The world loves a comeback story, but what makes Divyanshu Ganatra’s life feel less like a comeback and more like a quiet revolution is the way he rewrites the script on limitation. He didn’t just survive losing his eyesight at 19, he re-engineered a life of curiosity, risk and service that pushes the rest of us to rethink courage and design inclusion into adventure. If you want the short version: Divyanshu Ganatra is a clinical psychologist, a researcher, a serial social entrepreneur, an inclusion champion…