Sometimes Mama, Sometimes Papa
Written By Nandini Nayar, Illustrated by Upamanyu Bhattacharyya Right from the time of birth, the life of a child situates around the two most important people – Mama and Papa. Sometimes, it is Mama who does things for the child and sometimes it is Papa who does everything possible under the sun to see the […]
Where do words go when people stop speaking them?
A few months ago, barely weeks into lockdown, I was having chai with my grandparents in the morning while they regaled me with anecdotes of their childhood. As they took turns describing what life was like in the villages and towns of India on the heels of attaining independence, they peppered their tales with rustic […]
Why you should read Gods and Ends by Lindsay Pereira
Lindsay Pereira presents an intimate portrait of a community of Roman Catholics, their relationship with each other, and with God in his book Gods and Ends, shortlisted for the JCB Prize in Literature 2021 Set in Orlem, Malad a northern suburb of Bombay in the 70s, Lindsay Pereira’s Gods and Ends is a series of […]
How to organize your book shelf, and Apps you can use to do so
Are you confused about how to organize your book shelf? Even though library science has been refined over hundreds of years, personal libraries continue to be a massive jigsaw puzzle – little piles scattered across all our space – nooks at home, office, with friends and families who have borrowed these, and more. The consequence? […]
Revisiting 1984 with Two and a Half Rivers by Anirudh Kala
When the slain Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s son remarked ‘when a big tree falls, the earth shakes’ in wake of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, little did the people of Punjab know that the earth would give way to a wide chasm that would swallow thousands of them. Anirudh Kala’s Two and a Half Rivers is […]
Books about India for children and young adults
This list of books about India for children and young adults has been created with inputs from Mansi Shetty, Founder, What Are You Reading Today? It is the stories of our past that prepare us to bring in our future. And what better way to celebrate the week of our 73rd Republic Day, the day […]
Indian Satirical Writing: An ongoing list
Looking for a good laugh? Purple Pencil Project has put together an ongoing list of Indian satirical writing from the length and breadth of India that serves as a pick me up for a bad day while also chronicling Indian history and its present. The Courtesan’s Keeper by Kshemendra Political satire has a long history […]
In Conversation With: Urvashi Butalia
Prakruti Maniar speaks to Urvashi Butalia, Founder of Zubaan Books, over email about the strategies and considerations involved in managing an independent press, the state of publishing in the various Indian languages, and more. Excerpts. I have been very intrigued by the stories outside the radar of the urban educated classes. With both Kali and Zubaan, […]
Chaotic women and male gaze in Salman Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence
The Enchantress of Florence, published in 2008, is Salman Rushdie’s most researched novel. It includes Indian, Persian, and Florentine history at large. In the late fifteenth century, India and Europe had their first encounter. It was a time when there was a philosophical shift – everything that was believed to be true turned out to […]
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 […]
