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I read ‘They Never Learn’ by Layne Fargo on Kindle after fruitlessly waiting to get my hands on a physical copy for months. I couldn’t wait anymore. The anticipation was too much. And the book lived up to the hype. It’s a solid story, one you find yourself rushing through (you want to know what happens) and simultaneously slowing down (you want the story to never end). Centered on a university professor who kills ‘bad’ men, They Never Learn, unlike most other suspense novels, is a thriller that poses a moral dilemma. The social drama aspect of it plays out beautifully and you struggle to decide what morality means in an increasingly hostile world.

Scarlett Clark is an English professor at Gorman University. She is also a serial killer. Scarlett only targets those who she believes “deserve to be murdered”, mostly men who have a reputation of harassing women or haven’t been punished for their crimes. She studies her victims in advance, plots elaborate plans, and stages the perfect deaths. So much so that, though she has been killing since college, she has never been caught.

In Scarlett’s mind, she’s doing the world a favor by getting rid of these abhorrent personalities. But then she gets a little too personal and murders someone she has a grudge against. At the same time, the university puts together a task force to look into all the mysterious deaths on campus. Dr. Mina Pierce who heads the committee sort of figures out that many of the suicides and accidental deaths are actually murders and carried out by the same person. (Curiously, Mina is the ex-wife of Scarlett’s most recent kill.)

There’s also a parallel narrative of a student, Carly Schiller, who comes to Gorman after escaping a suffocating and abusive household. All she wants is to be invisible and survive college. Then she gets to know her roommate, Ashley Hadley, and the two become close. When Ashley is assaulted at a party, Carly becomes obsessed with making the attacker pay.

The dual stories of Scarlett and Carly play out in alternating chapters, and the similarities between them make it starkly clear that deep-rooted misogyny is the harbinger of violence against women. They Never Learn isn’t bone-chilling. But it’s intense. The feminist rage is palpable. And at times, even if you don’t believe in the idea of revenge, it feels strangely cathartic.

3.5 stars

Fiction

They Never Learn

Layne Fargo

Published: 2020

Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press

Pages: 352, Hardcover

For someone introduced to Bollywood in the 90s, Madhuri Dixit is a quintessential figure and a benchmark for acting and artistry. Known for her unmatchable dancing skills and easy expressions, Dixit sizzled the screens from the late 80s to early 2000s. She was the ultimate star, a heartthrob who had young boys and men swooning over her. As an artist too Dixit enticed some of the biggest Bollywood producers to cast her, winning the love and support of critics and fans alike.

But had it not been for Netflix (or OTT platforms in general), we would probably have never seen her make a comeback in a lead role, as she does in the new TV series “The Fame Game.” Created by Sri Rao, directed by Bejoy Nambiar and Karishma Kohli, and produced under the Dharmatic Entertainment banner, The Fame Game is a Hindi-language thriller that marks the comeback of Dixit and also her once co-star Sanjay Kapoor.

Dixit plays Anamika Anand, an aging Bollywood star struggling to maintain her glamorous image and stay relevant. Her husband Nikhil More (Sanjay Kapoor) is her manager and film producer who is trying to squeeze the most out of her career before it dries up. Anamika is a revered movie star. At home though, she struggles with an introverted daughter, a suicidal son, and a husband who both mentally and physically abuses her.

When her co-star and former lover Manish Khanna (Manav Kaul) comes back into her life, Anamika sees some hope at the end of the dark tunnel. But one day, she just vanishes into thin air from her home. There’s no ransom call or threat and as her family, friends and the police frantically search for her, various truths about her dark life and dysfunctional family surface. The investigating officer Shobha Trivedi (Rajshri Deshpande) is led into a wild goose chase, with the plot getting thicker and thicker.

The Fame Game is a thriller that can be enjoyed with the family, with little of sexual innuendos, gimmicks and physical violence. The screenplay and direction keep the series entertaining throughout. But the series does have flaws. An air of mediocrity hangs around the whole production: The Fame Game is never boring but then it would be a stretch to call it an out-and-out entertainer either.

Dixit has starred in over five dozen films, with a good percentage of them becoming box office hits, but her comeback in The Fame Game feels rusty. While I showered praises for Dixit at the beginning of this review, now comes the difficult part of criticizing her performance. As the main protagonist, Dixit gets plenty of time and opportunity to own the screen, but her performance is inconsistent. In some scenes, she is spectacular, while she looks lost in others. Maybe it is the long hiatus, or transitioning from films to multi-episode series is not sitting well with the actor.

And it is not only Dixit who fails to impress. None of her co-stars stands out. Yesteryears actor Sanjay Kapoor, who has not had a particularly successful acting career, demands a little attention, but that’s probably because expectations do not burden him. The rest of the cast will need to step up their game if there is to be a second season.

Who should watch it?

The acting in The Fame Game is mediocre. Still, writing and direction offer some compensation. If you can enjoy a suspense-thriller without being too distracted by the underwhelming acting, The Fame Game is a good time-pass. And remember, good or bad, it’s Madhuari Dixit we are talking about.

Rating: 2.5 stars

Actors: Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Kapoor, Manav Kaul

Director: Bejoy Nambiar, Karishma Kohli

Genre: Thriller

Run time: 6hrs approx.

Have there been moments in your life when you had certain thoughts and feelings but kept those to yourself? This could be a question you wanted to ask, a concern you wanted to voice out, an idea you wanted to share or a mistake you wanted to admit. You aren’t alone. As human beings, we have different thoughts and feelings but we don’t necessarily voice them. Why? The answer is simple: we fear being judged, humiliated or punished. This reluctance to speak or question can be referred to as ‘psychological danger’.

Impact of psychologically unsafe environments

When operating from a perceived sense of psychological danger, we keep things to ourselves. While it may seem like a safe option in the short run, we risk growing resentful towards those we don’t open up to. We may also risk compounding the adverse impact of our mistakes. Our ideas don’t find room to nurture and grow and curiosity slowly dies due to the questions that remain unasked.

Psychological safety

The antidote is Psychological safety: a climate for ‘interpersonal risk-taking’ like:

1. Asking questions

2. Raising concerns

3. Sharing ideas

4. Admitting mistakes

In psychologically safe environments, people don’t hesitate to say things like:

‘I don’t know.’

‘I made a mistake.’

‘I disagree.’

‘I have a concern.’

‘I have an idea.’

In psychologically safe teams, members don’t hesitate to speak up because they have a firm belief that what they say or do won’t be held against them. An example could be a family where its head openly shares their struggles, younger ones are encouraged to chip in with their ideas, where there is a healthy discussion of disagreements, and a genuine openness to listen and understand each other better. All these behaviors are easier to exhibit because family members feel ‘safe’ around each other, not just physically but also psychologically.

What are the benefits of psychological safety?

When people feel a sense of safety in groups, they are more likely to speak up. This means more inclusion. There’s minimization of errors as root causes of existing problems are openly discussed (as opposed to low accountability due to fear of punishment). There are also better chances of innovation as sharing ideas is actively encouraged.

Is psychological safety the same as trust?

Although they seem similar, psychological safety and trust are two different ideas. Let’s take an example. We might be going on a trek. On the inside, I’m struggling. I don’t think I can make it to the summit. I trust that my team will help me and not leave me behind. However, I might not feel safe to open up about my struggles because I fear they might make a joke out of my inability to walk as easily as them. Also, trust is more concerned with how one individual thinks about another—whether or not one person can rely on another. Psychological safety is more of a group dynamic—whether all members in a team feel safe or not sharing their concerns, questions, ideas or mistakes.

Ensuring psychological safety

To ensure psychological safety, we have to start from the root level, i.e. in making team members feel they belong. Only when they feel they belong, are they likely to then engage in other ways like asking questions and contributing their ideas. As defined by Timothy R. Clark, there are four stages of psychological safety:

Inclusion safety: This is stage one safety where members feel they belong in the team.

Learner safety: This is stage two where members feel safe to ask questions.

Contributor safety: This is stage three where members feel safe to share their ideas and opinions.

Challenger safety: This is stage four where members feel safe to challenge existing rules and norms.

Reflection questions:

1. What are some behaviors of others that make you feel psychologically unsafe around them?

2. What are some ways you try to ensure you’re contributing to psychological safety in your family/work team?

The author is co-founder of My Emotions Matter, an education initiative that helps individuals and teams learn the mindset and skills of Emotional Intelligence. Learn more at myemotionsmatter.com

On 12 February 2021, Anshu Khanal was the centerpiece of a symbolic rally held in Kathmandu to protest violence against women.

Laid down supine on a stretcher, a yellow cloth draped over her body, Khanal was carried from Basantapur to Singha Durbar in the rally attended by hundreds of people. Khanal’s ‘dead body’ represented the girls and women who had been raped and murdered but never got justice. The rally, dubbed ‘Women’s March’, had been instigated by the rape and murder of a 17-year-old schoolgirl in Baitadi district a week ago. 

“At that moment, I was thinking about the suffering and pain the victims of rape and violence must go through,” says 22-year-old Khanal.

Images of Khanal being paraded on the streets of Kathmandu as a dead body struck a chord with many and garnered much media coverage.

While the rally brought Khanal to press and public attention, it was not the first time she had taken part in a demonstration. She has in fact long been a fixture of rallies for women’s rights and justice.  

Born in a small village of Aarupokhari in Gorkha district, Khanal says she was a sickly but rebellious child. 

“My parents had three daughters. Growing up, I witnessed villagers telling my parents to have a son, and that bothered me a lot. I didn’t understand why,” she says. “I think the feeling that I was somehow less important than a boy turned me into a rebel.” 

Khanal wanted to prove to her villagers that she was as capable and competent as any boy.    

When she moved to Dhading Besi in Dhading district to complete her high school, Khanal truly learned what it is to be a woman. She was exposed to a whole different circle of friends and people from different communities and found out the true extent of violence and injustice women and girls encounter.

“Until then I had only known of the preference of sons over daughters as gender inequality, but I was wrong. There were so many things that needed to be addressed,” says Khanal.   

She then started expressing her feelings and frustrations through social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. 

In 2018, Khanal came to Kathmandu for higher studies and enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program in Psychology and Social Works at Padma Kanya Campus, Bagbazar. While in the capital city, she saw many student protests happening all around for different causes but never thought that she would ever participate in one. 

“I used to get scared when I saw p0lice arrest the people I knew. There was also the fear of my parents. What would they say if they found out their daughter was protesting in Kathmandu?” Khanal says.

But she could also not watch from the sidelines amid fast-multiplying incidents of violence and injustice against girls and women. Khanal wanted to find a more creative and artistic way to express dissent.

Around this time, she met her now-husband Rashik Raj and they formed a small group of writers and performance artists, called Aabha for Creativity. Initially the group was only involved in activities related to arts and literature. But with so many injustices happening in the society, Khanal says they were forced to take up social causes.

“We also wanted to protest in a more creative way, to bring an element of art to it,” she says.

Gender-based inequality and violence was one issue that Khanal wanted to address, so Aabha for Creativity started taking their art to the streets. 

In her first-ever protest, Khanal recited a poem in front of a crowd.

“It was then I realized that every individual voice counts and my voice is important too,” she says of that experience.

Khanal was deeply affected by the 2018 rape and murder of Nirmala Pant in Kanchanpur and enacted a symbolic play against the heinous crime at Basantapur.

Khanal has continued to express herself against violence and injustice against women since, be it in the form of poetry or street drama.

“I’ve never been good at bottling up my feelings,” she says. And she doesn’t plan on starting now.

The Women’s March rally was one of the most important and difficult things she has done. It brought her attention, but not all positive. She had to deal with a series of online abuses after the rally.

Khanal says the barrage of online abuses didn’t faze her as she believes in her causes and she has friends and family members who support her.  

“I have seen the conservative views of my own friends and relatives change because of my protests,” she says. “That is deeply satisfying. But so long as there is violence against women I won’t stop fighting against it.”