Laugh: Brown Paper Bag
Inspired by the quirky storytelling of One Piece (a renowned Japanese manga and anime series), Brown Paper Bag is a slice-of-life webcomic that brings to life the hilarity in the mundane, everyday shenanigans of a stereotypical, middle-class Indian family.
Available to browse as a self-published canvas on WEBTOON, a website showcasing various comic series, Brown Paper Bag has over 4.4 million views as of April 9. The creator of the webcomic, Sailesh Gopalan, better known by his online moniker Saigo, serves as both the author and illustrator. According to him, each four-panelled episode is a satirical portrayal of Indian society as it really is. It also aims to give the reader a hearty chuckle with its punny headlines and straightforward concepts.
In addition to the humour, the webcomic also acts as a conduit in its exploration of the hypocrisies and ironies perpetuated in Indian society. An example is in the episode titled “Wasted Effort”, where the daily segregation of wet and dry waste is presented as a fruitless endeavour, as the garbage bags are usually thrown together into the same truck.
Read: Malgudi Days
Written by notable Indian author R.K. Narayan, Malgudi Days is a compilation of 32 short stories that takes place in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. The plot points revolve around the lives of the residents from all walks of life.
These diverse narratives – from an astrologer that survives a chance encounter with a man he thought he killed to a family frustrated with their guard dog that befriends thieves – offer an unadulterated glimpse into the slower-paced life of small towns across India.
Praised by a reader on GoodReads as “mundanely beautiful”, these ten-minute tales come together to create a beautiful narrative mosaic, which illustrates the extraordinary in ordinary moments that most would not have considered.
Listen: Masakali
Composed by A. R. Rahman, Masakali is a melodic masterpiece that explores the themes of individual liberty and tradition amidst the hustle and bustle of Old Delhi. The track is featured in the 2009 Hindi film Delhi 6, which stars Abhishek Bachchan as a Non-Resident Indian who returns to his ancestral home so that his ailing grandmother can live out her final days there.
His love interest, played by Sonam Kapoor, is a naive young girl named Bittu Sharma, who is the focal point of Masakali. In the upbeat track, she expresses her freedom with zeal and ardour by dancing on vibrant-coloured terraced rooftops and subway platforms, rewriting the societal expectations of Indian women.
Likened to a carefree pigeon called “masakali”, she ultimately portrays the ‘Desi’ spirit of joy, emphasised by communal scenes of children building scarecrows on the winding ‘galiyans’ (narrow lanes) and street hawkers selling their wares alongside crowded roads.
Shalibeth Tiffany
RELATED STORIES
19 Mar 2026 18:34
