In Search of Shitala
Deities like Shitala represent a specific premodern response to disease. Paromita Patranobish explores what Bengal’s pox goddess could teach us about social ethics in Anthropocene times.
Short story by Vishnu Bagdawala: ‘Sometimes, I would lie in bed waiting for the tears to come. Sometimes, I would wonder how it was strange that we needed to sleep in order to be awake for the rest of our lives. Until the day when, like my grandfather, we fall into an eternal sleep.’
Set against the landslide-prone terrain of Kinnaur, plagued by environmental collapse and infrastructural neglect, the short film Tenfa (2026) provides a vision of hope through memory, ecology, and community. By Sohini Sengupta
Deities like Shitala represent a specific premodern response to disease. Paromita Patranobish explores what Bengal’s pox goddess could teach us about social ethics in Anthropocene times.
Q&A: Ruchir Joshi speaks about Great Eastern Hotel—a novel of changing times and changing minds—about Calcutta, and his inspirations from art and memory. By Amritesh Mukherjee