Meeting the man who brought Oonga to life, twice
If human lives are the price we’re paying for development, it may not be worth it: Devashish Makhija, writer of the Young Adult novel, Oonga. As told to Neha Kirpal. First published in India Currents. “What rights do these trees have, if the cityfolk make all the laws? And if all these laws are of […]
Folklore, folk music, and the rhythm of Rajasthan
Interview with Nitin Harsh, founder of Rhythm of Rajasthan, a group that works to coral folk musicians from across Rajasthan and give them a fighting chance in a rapidly changing world. You mentioned that your journey with Rajasthan Folklore started by documenting videos for Padma Bhushan Komal Kothari Ji. Before that, what was your relationship […]
One Love and the many lives of Osip B
C.P. Surendran’s One love and the many lives of Osip B is a work of dystopian fiction that captures the chaos of individual memory and a nation’s change. The novel is dedicated to ‘the victims and their victims’ by establishing a connection between the past and present and ruling out any general notions of right […]
The emotional cost of war in A Passage North
Anuk Arudpragasam’s A Passage North is an attempt to come to terms with a long war that destroys generations before it ends, leaving behind wounds that refuse to heal. Wounds in the lives of people who lost their loved ones, who can’t seem to move forward in time because that would mean leaving behind their […]
Unequal rhythm in Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music
Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent, Victor Hugo is credited to have said. Reading An Equal Music by Vikram Seth is the manifestation of this. Seth tries, in nearly 400 pages, to take us with his protagonist Michael on an artist’s quest for his love, and […]
