The problematic representation of women in many recent Telugu blockbusters like Peddi and the Pushpa films have stoked controversy. When mainstream commercial cinema consistently turns the sexualisation of women into entertainment, who should be responsible for the world these images help create? By Sumithra Prasanna
Poem by Anju Devadas R D: ‘someone once said / the soul is lighter than breath / but the soil keeps secrets / the sky cannot hold.’
Kavitha Rao’s Lady Doctors visits the forgotten history of six women who persisted to become pioneering practitioners in the field. With continuing roadblocks for women in medicine, their story remains prescient in our contemporary times. By Sohel Sarkar
Bena Sareen, winner of the Oxford Bookstore Book Cover Prize, speaks about her latest honour and the “huge responsibility” of designing a memorable literary cover. By Chittajit Mitra