Remember when
this was everything?

Bukhaar is an independent publication about India’s passing obsessions. We go back to the apps, toys, jokes and everyday rituals that once mattered much more than we’d care to admit.

We’re interested in the bit between “what is this?” and “oh god, remember this?” How a small thing becomes everyone’s thing. What makes people join in. And what’s left once the group chat finds something else to talk about.

A little more than “remember when”.

Nostalgia is a good way into a story, but there’s usually more to find. A craze can tell you about the phones people had, the places they spent time, what they wanted to belong to, or what they found funny on a very ordinary Tuesday.

Our case files follow that curiosity: where an obsession came from, its Indian chapter, and its life after the peak. Some belong to the playground. Others never made it out of a screen. Both deserve a closer look.

Memory is the starting point.

It isn’t the whole record. Each case file links to its sources, so you can follow the trail yourself. Dates beside a craze describe its moment; the filing date tells you when the article was published. The temperature readings are editorial judgements, rather than measured popularity scores.

We bring a little affection and a healthy interest in the absurd. After all, it’s easier to laugh at an old obsession when you remember you probably had one too.