Sonepur Mela: At the Festival of Beasts
Photo Essay: 13 years ago, Siddharth Jain visited the largest animal fair in the world in Sonepur (Bihar), discovering the contrast of mythology and trade, and life and death, under the auspicious full moon.
Propaganda films force upon us the grand question, writes Sanjay Basak: Are we loudly applauding the breathtaking production on screen, or are we quietly absorbing the idea that someone, somewhere, deserves to be feared, hated, or erased?
Short story by Debi Mukherjee: “Unlike the little girls I see outside temples, draped in their pano bhaju’s stringing garlands of Marigolds, I dare not play with the flowers in our garden. Papa cautions me against the rows of Mogras, Shoe-flowers, Frangipanis and a multitude of others. He says that I must not be lured by a flower’s fragrance.”
Photo Essay: 13 years ago, Siddharth Jain visited the largest animal fair in the world in Sonepur (Bihar), discovering the contrast of mythology and trade, and life and death, under the auspicious full moon.
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