The Living Storybooks of Kolkata – A Photo Essay
Photo-essay: In long walks across Kolkata, Sufia Khatoon comes across lives in motion, lives continuously moving forward, each person an immortal story that fuels the city and adds to its history.
Punking The Public
In their latest live release Grugs Are Dood, Mumbai band Punk on Toast present a melodic, controlled chaos, a politically-charged sound of young Indians in musical rebellion. - by Karan Madhok.
My City in Flames
Poem by Aaqib Khatibi: ‘I see them drifting along the smoke by the ocean / to lavish lands which are mine no more’.
Punk on Toast, Lori Gottlieb, and Deshdrohi - What's The Chakkar?
What’s The Chakkar? Episode 6: We’re listening to Punk on Toast; reading Lori Gottlieb and Franz Kafka; and watching India’s best worst film, Deshdrohi. Featuring Ady Manral, Shaista Vaishnav, and Prateek Santram. Hosted by Karan Madhok.
Finding Ginger
Matchmaking can be a tricky exercise, especially for cats. In a poignant essay, Barnali Ray Shukla shares the story of Zorro and Ginger, and the complex fissures of politics and morality that tug apart a pucca rishta.
Whose Freedoms are Our Freedoms?
The book Our Freedoms: Essays and Stories from India’s Best Writers confronts the challenges of the present, with remarks on religion, caste, sexuality, politics, and more. Saurabh Sharma argues that the collection has the elixir to inspire the soul of the nation.
Saraf Ali Bhat’s Literature of Sorrow, Ignorance, and Enlightenment
Last year, 21-year-old Saraf Bhat became the first Kashmiri author to bag the Global Reader’s Award. Akhila Damodaran explores the young writer’s work, inspirations, and path ahead.
Golchakkar: Imagining Place in Literature
Golchakkar Series - The April panel of our virtual literary talk features Anuradha Kumar and Rochelle Potkar: Imaginging Place in Literature.
The Inscrutable Oddity of Youth
Megha Ramaswamy’s What Are the Odds? (2019) is a film unlike any other about Indian young adults, harkening the uncertainty of youth on screen to present an experience that is at once innovative, surreal, and profound. By Paromita Patranobish
‘Is this what the desperate call a life?’ Four ghazals by Amrit Lal “Ishrat” Madhok
Ghazals by Amrit Lal “Ishrat” Madhok, translated from Urdu by Karan Madhok: ‘Are we mere companions, or do we swim / Together in the fountains of heaven, waters blue?’
‘Poetry a turmoil / born out of nothingness’: Two poems by Santasree Chaudhuri
Two poems by Santasree Chaudhuri: ‘Blissful acceptance / Staring at the moon / with an empty stomach.’