Schoolboy Fears and Literary Joys: The Adventures of Rusty by Ruskin Bond Review
Zoeb Matin reviews The Adventures of Rusty by Ruskin Bond (published by National Book Trust, 1995). It is curious, sometimes, when one thinks of it just how a particular day in childhood could hold a little of both excitement and fear within the space of an hour. For us, at school, it was inevitably the […]
What are Family Archives and How Can You Make One to Capture your Family Histories?
There is a common stereotype about family histories and the stories that evoke the family setup. Sitting with a loved one – a mother, father, grandparent, aunt – maybe before bedtime or lounging in the afternoon, as they recall their childhood, their years of growing up, fables they heard, games they played, their ancestral homes, […]
Art versus artist: New perspectives enrich this old question at The Purple Corner
Over the last month, two prominent names got embroiled in the now prominent, often discussed, but forever inconclusive debate around the art versus artist – the globally beloved Alice Munro and Neil Gaiman. This brought back a question that has been discussed, most prominently since the #meToo movement. If you like a piece of work, […]
Shatranj Ke Khilari: Analyzing Satyajit Ray’s Adaptation of Premchand’s Classic
Literary adaptations in Indian cinema are rare. Great literary adaptations in Indian cinema are rarer. Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977), adapted from the eponymous short story by Premchand (1924), easily falls into the latter category. If you’ve ever tried searching for sports adaptations from Indian literature, you’d be sorely disappointed by the meagre numbers, […]
My Riveting Journey Through Japanese Literature: From Higashino to Tanizaki
There comes a time in a reader’s life when nothing on the bookshelf inspires her enough to be picked up. Back in the summer of 2016, I found myself facing such a bookshelf in the capital of the southernmost of the northeastern states of India. I had just lost my mother, quit my high-paying, high-stress […]
Indian Feminist Literature Through the Ages
Indian feminist literature has evolved significantly through the decades and centuries, reflecting the evolution of the complex socio-cultural South Asian landscape. From the earliest reformist writings to the modern explorations of gender and identity, Indian feminist literature has a wide range of voices advocating for women’s rights and challenging the mainstream patriarchal norms. In this […]
15 Reasons Why Sports Stories Matter and Resonate With Us!
Do you remember the last time you were watching or reading a sports drama? Do you remember the climactic moments, those slo-mo, intensely detailed, nail-biting moments that shall be the defining moment in our protagonist(s)’s journey? But why are we so attracted to sports stories? Aren’t they essentially the same? Aren’t they elementally either the […]
Dead in Banaras by Ravi Nandan Singh: A Journey Of Life’s Last Guest In The Oldest City Of The World
Rahul Vishnoi reviews Dead in Banaras: An Ethnography of Funeral Travelling by Ravi Nandan Singh (published by Oxford University Press, 2022). Dead in Banaras by Ravi Nandan Singh stalks death. From a corner of life, it follows the dreaded visitor as soon as it captures life, extinguishes it, and turns a person into a ‘body’. […]
Rubbing A Star on Paper in Manoj Bajpayee: The Definitive Biography by Piyush Pandey
Rahul Vishnoi reviews Manoj Bajpayee: The Definitive Biography by Piyush Pandey (published by Penguin Ebury Press, 2024). What would you get if you rub a star on paper? A celestial glow, what else? Manoj Bajpayee, the original king of 90s alternate cinema, the ‘Mumbai-ka-king-kaun’ star, has reinvented himself time and again. For the Netfliz-Prime generation, […]
From Pennywise to Poundfoolish: Review of The Dirty Dozen by N. Sundaresha Subramanian
Rahul Vishnoi reviews The Dirty Dozen by N. Sundaresha Subramanian (published by Pan Macmillan India, 2024). The Dirty Dozen serves as an unsavoury reminder that there are people, even in the higher echelons, who manage to trick the system, sometimes by remaining behind the scenes and pulling the strings and sometimes by sheer audacity and […]
