What has the history of trade got to do with Kerala Food? Find out
Art curator, educator, and writer Tanya Abraham, knows Kerala and Kerala food closely. Born and raised in Fort Kochi to parents from two different Christian communities, the differences in traditions and religious influences based on history always fascinated her. Eating with History: Ancient Trade-Influenced Cuisines of Kerala is one part recipe books and one part […]
The story of Tamil labourers by Raphaël Confiant
Translated from the French by Vidya Vencatesan A human saga that is both bleak and epic, The Cane Cutter’s Song tells the story of the indentured Tamil labourers who had been lured with the hope of a better life in America but landed in the French Colony of Martinique. Here, they had to toil in […]
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 […]
Mauni – A Writer’s Writer by S. Mani
Translated and Edited from the Tamil by Lakshmi Holmstrom Mauni, the pen-name of S. Mani, is a pioneer in the short story scene of Tamil literature. With just 24 short stories to his name, written between 1936 to 1971, he still stands as one of the undisputed masters of Tamil short stories. 15 of his […]
Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man by U.R. Ananthamurthy
Translated from Kannada by A.K. Ramanujan Samskara, originally written in Kannada in 1965, sheds light on the caste system and ways of Brahmanism in the contemporary world. The word ‘Samskara’ has several meanings: rite of passage, ritual, transformation as well as death rites. This short novella, it refers to the death rites of a man […]
Written in Tears by Arupa Patangia Kalita
Translated by Ranjita Biwas Assam’s struggle for identity and independence has always plagued the state; from the Assam Agitation in the 1980s to the protests against NRC and the Citizenship Amendment Bill of 2019. Without delving into the politics of right and wrong, Arupa Kalita, in Written in Tears, focuses on the life of ordinary […]
Woman to Woman, Stories by Madhulika Liddle
Woman to Woman Stories by Madhulika Liddle is a collection of a dozen short stories about women. The cover is a minimalistic yet stunning peak into the stories we are about to enter, filled with beauty, grace, violence and death. The Women and their Stories The women in these stories come from different social strata, […]
Aranyak by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
Translated from Bengali by Rimli Bhattarcharya Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, the author of Pather Panchali, is no new name in Indian literature. Aranyak, literally meaning ‘of the forest’, is a relatively underrated work of Bandyopadhyay. It is an ode to nature, based on the author’s experiences working as a manager of a forest estate in Bhagalpur in […]
