In the history of Indian societies ‘marriage’ as an institution has garnered a special place and has been ubiquitous in all sections and classes of the society. Within this finding a groom is a very seasoned activity. Mira Nair’s newest web series ‘A suitable boy’ is an adaptation of a novel by the same name authored by Vikram Seth in[Read More...]
The idea of ‘return’ holds different meanings for different people caught in different circumstances. Calcutta-based Supriyo Sen’s Abar Ashibo Phirey (Way Back Home, Bangla with English sub-titles, video, colour, 120 mins, 2002) is a wrenching and liberating journey into the heart and soul of an elderly Bengali couple – the director’s parents – as they go back in time, space[Read More...]
there is a purple poem on my mother’s neck that my father writes for her every full moon night instead, most poets write on paper but my father writes on mother’s skin she smiles, she says she doesn’t mind says, the purple poem is truly a thing of pride and beauty yet, she keeps it covered, carefully with the ends[Read More...]
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Oh God! End this, the young man begged, As he lay on earth covered in mud, Streaks of hot blood pouring down his form And limbs that lay battered and numb. He knew he had done nothing wrong, He hadn’t snubbed or brought disdain. Yet they called him a “filthy sinner” As they struck his head with intense wrath.[Read More...]
The post Innocence Lynched appeared first on Countercurrents.
In 2014, Joshy Joseph directed a long documentary called A Poet, A City & A Footballer which won him the Special Jury Prize at the national awards. The film is about juxtapositions, like night and day, abundant life and impending death, energy amidst decay, and silence that shouts to be heard. The film is a meditation on death, but it[Read More...]
The Symphony No 5 was inside Beethovan’s brain, when he first conceived it. A group of musicians invoke that experience, aurally, from the atmosphere every time they meet to perform. And a sound, non-existent before, suddenly acquires tones of flesh and blood. The cinema, like music, is an art of time, film makers have said. Rabindranath Tagore called it an[Read More...]
Through the panic, through the fear. I felt you there, you were near. Every message, every call. Every time I hit a wall. Every time the road would bend, Every time it was the end. I heard your voice through the noise. I heard you say that I would rise. Some drove by, left me to die. Some jumped in[Read More...]
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Don’t tell me You’re ‘like’ A mother to me A sister to me A daughter to me Or compare me To a deity Like Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswathi My heart beats Because of me Because I am my own Identity Shailaja Rao, Core Member, Dhanak of Humanity (NGO) SIGN UP FOR COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
The post The Woman in Me appeared first on Countercurrents.
Laal Juto (Red Shoes, Bangla, 23 minutes, 35 mm, colour), adapted from a short story by the iconic Bengali writer, artist and intellectual Kamal Kumar Majumdar, is about 15-year-old Nitish who goes to a shoe shop to buy shoes for himself. What Nitish had not bargained for is a self-discovery leading to a change in his feelings towards Gouri, his[Read More...]
The untouchable body is touched until it can be touched no more, touched so often and in so many ways, just to purge you of fears She is powerful for she is woman, you make of her an anthem, her breasts are in mourning, her tortured cries haunt your ripped manhood’s Her sisters are bodies draped over mango trees, gargoyles[Read More...]
The post Erasure appeared first on Countercurrents.
