A visual memoir asks what it means for Germany to reckon with its past
By: Parul Sehgal In German, “original sin” is known as “inherited sin.” As a child, the artist Nora Krug found the concept instantly familiar — it was what being German felt like, “history in our blood, shame in our genes.” “Belonging,” Krug’s new visual memoir, is a mazy and ingenious reckoning with the past. Born […]
Remembering T.S. Eliot on his 130th anniversary this month
On T.S. Eliot’s 130th anniversary this month, we are still asking the overwhelming questions about art, life and society that he had posed for the first time
By: Vaishna Roy It was five years ago that I stumbled upon Julian Peters’ online comic book version of T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’. It felt as if the iconic poem, which has probably made a bumbling poet of every undergrad ever, had come mysteriously alive, enticing us into the ‘streets […]
From John Keats to Nick Cave: poems for every stage in life
This National Poetry Day, whether you’re in need of some verse for a wedding or to mark a death at 104, Chris Riddell selects his favourite poems for key life moments
By: Chris Riddell The great power of poetry is its ability to distil thought, observation and emotion into a form that moves us profoundly. We turn to poetry to help us express our feelings at key stages of our lives – birth, marriage and death. But poetry has the ability to seep into other life […]
Technique meets technology in work of young artists
10 young awardees of Birla Academy’s Annual has unsparingly invested much thought and effort in fashioning an individual idiom
BY: Rita Datta A welcome balance between age-old techniques and new-age technology at Svikriti assures purist and ‘techist’ alike that both have a place in contemporary Indian art; neither need exile the other. Each of the 10 young awardees of Birla Academy’s Annual has unsparingly invested much thought and effort in fashioning an individual idiom. […]
It was nerve-wracking: Jim Sarbh on how Julio the clown was born
He delivers a power-packed performance in Rajat Kumar's MacBeth: What Is Done, Is Done
BY: Ushnota Paul Jim Sarbh, who stood out as the terrifying terrorist Khalil in Ram Madhvani’s Neerja, plays one of two clowns in Rajat Kumar’s stage production MacBeth: What Is Done, Is Done. Kapoor’s modern retelling of Macbeth and Hamlet The Clown Prince has power-packed performances by Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Tillotama Shome, Neil Bhoopalam, […]
Mahatma Gandhi doesn’t live here anymore
Before Gandhi's 149th birthday, we stop by at Hyderi Manzil, where he lived for a brief but crucial while
By: Manasi Shah The description reads: “It was a very shabby house without any sort of facility… There was only one usable room where everybody and everything had to be accommodated, including Bapu himself, his luggage, and guests. Hindu demonstrators raised black flags and asked him why he is not going to Hindu quarters to […]
AFGHAN CRICKET
By: Sameer Fida Hussain Coups, wars, bombings, suicide attacks and guerrillas are some of the words which come to mind when we talk about Afghanistan. The restive south Asian country has remained the hotbed for numerous military campaigns. The eyewitness account of one of my journalist friends who has worked as an editor in the […]
A Kerala Botanist’s Affair With an Unlikely 17th Century Book
K.S. Manilal first chanced upon the 'Hortus Malabaricus' in his father’s clippings from Malayalam newspapers of the 1950s, when he was still in school.
By: Akshai Jain Some books just get under your skin. Like flagposts, they could draw and guide you at different points of your life. Others, especially religious works, lay the tracks on which lives run. Then there are a few that make you fall hopelessly in love with them because they approximate human infatuation, drawing […]
Attitudes towards suicide worsen the problem
Suicide is the top cause of death among young Indians, yet we lack a national awareness programme that relates it to individual and social health
By: Bhaswati Chakravorty September 10 was World Suicide Prevention Day. On that day this year, according to media reports, a 15-year-old girl in Aligarh set herself alight with kerosene after telling her father that she had been raped by two men when she went outside to the toilet on September 7. Reportedly, the police said […]
Bappa-An emotion!
By: Shalini Sinha In India, festivals are the one thing that unite all castes, genders, races and classes. Festival week is the true mirror to the saying ‘unity in diversity’. One of such festivals is Ganesh Chathurthi. Ganesh Chaturthi is a 10 day long Hindu festival, celebrating the birth of the Hindu god, lord Ganesh. […]
