Breaking Moulds: Meera Mukherjee’s Journey into Sculpture
Meera Mukherjee: Breaking Moulds by Vaishali Shroff (Published by Art1st Publications, 2023) is the story of a woman artist who overcame many hurdles in her art practice and philosophy to build a mould that captured her inner spirit. A bronze sculpture by Meera Mukherjee twists and turns into the sky. You can trace the strokes […]
We of the Forsaken World… A debut Indian writing in English you must read
The internet is slow to reach among the rubber trees of my mother’s native land. One is forced into communication with fallen barks, orange-coloured dragonflies and the two-tailed drongo in the violet light of evening. In sharp contrast, in the bustling city of Bangalore where home is, the sparrows have disappeared from neighbourhood skies. Although […]
Spirit Nights: The story of a Naga tribe, and their ancient wisdom
Naga writer Easterine Kire weaves a narrative of dreams and deep wisdom around the Chang Naga tribe’s fable of darkness, in her latest book, Spirit Nights. Any tribal culture is extensively intertwined with the land and its seasons. Consequently, a shift in the constant cycles of days or patterns of rain or wind causes much […]
Abanindranath’s House of Stories: An art book that is both history and adventure
A child enters art namelessly, in colours and light, sound and spirit. In our earliest memories, a dark corner may have contained a monster. And the loudness of thunderstorms, its gnashing teeth. Yet, through persuasion and the comfort of a parent or of a snuggly bed, we transform them into adventures with the intangible. We […]
All about Mumbai city in this collection of plays by Anju Makhija
Mumbai – the city of dreams, glitz and glamour, with a boiling cauldron of intense passion, be it political, religious or personal. Among the chaos of trains that ferry people from one end to the other, stars are born, live briefly, and die (or live eternally in our memories). Here, a silently turning wheel is […]
Find Support in Shreya Ramachandran’s book about mental health
The Worlds Within You by Shreya Ramachandran, a book about mental health, travels back and forth in memory and metaphors to confront mental health issues and find small moments of support within all the chaos. Introduction On some days, tears waiting to fall colour everything blurry. Ami, the protagonist of this book about mental health, […]
Magic and Lore in this graphic novel: Sharanya Manivannan’s Incantations over Water
Sharanya Manivannan’s Incantations over Water: A graphic novel that submerges into the deep blue oceans of diasporic longing and folklore. Meet Ila – a mermaid of the Indian Ocean, retelling narratives of war and trauma, myth and lore. There is a magic that thrives in the waters of the Earth’s wombs. We may have let […]
Mythographic Wisdom in Amruta Patil’s Aranyaka
Aranyaka is a mythographic tale re-written through a feminist lens, weaving pre-Vedic concepts with lessons gathered from Aranya. What place does a large woman inhabit in the annals of myth and our present spaces of interaction? How does she make and break traditions – defined for herself and other women in the spectrum? Which colours […]
Best miss this Dance to retain your Spirit
Sanjai Velayudhan’s Dance of Spirits opens with the promise of a culturally rich book but quickly dives into a sexist narrative, leaving the reader with a bad aftertaste. Introduction Folklore and rituals in India have mythic narratives woven into them. To enter this world is a surreal experience of history and culture passed down through […]
A hidden gem of Partition Literature
Sunlight on a Broken Column by Attia Hosain is a must-read for fans of Manto, Chughtai, and Partition Literature I discovered Partition literature long after history lessons in school. One story that still haunts me is Sadat Hasan Manto’s ‘Toba Tek Singh‘. In it, the titular character echoes the physical and emotional chaos of millions […]
