When communal frenzy Was at its peak And hatred led to Massacres of Innocents While India celebrated It’s ‘ freedom at Midnight’, You slept with Strife – torn victims When communal frenzy Is at its peak , Caste conflicts, lynchings, Communal violence Continue unabated, While those who supported Your murderers Are ‘ celebrating ‘ your birth anniversary Where will you[Read More...]
This effort seems to be a bit of camping out on the part of director Bruce Beresford, whose list of cinematic achievements include Driving Miss Daisy and Breaker Morant. There are many smiles, a few distributed tears and occasional sighs of regret, but generally speaking, little by way of controversial stings. Ladies in Black, in other words, is all entertainment[Read More...]
Dear Aruna Roy, I received your statement “Reclaiming our Heritage: Statement condemning the attack on classical musical expression in south India” for endorsement. As you are aware, I grew up immersed in (or force fed) Carnatic music for the first 20 years of my life. I have attended perhaps a thousand concerts in that period, not all out of choice. Long[Read More...]
Fascinated by black holes Which do not allow even light Ray’s To pass? They are hypothetical Scientific marvel…. Look at the real holes On Earth …. They drag red blooded human ‘stars’ Squeeze their lives Leave their families In tatters! Look at the forced labor Cleaning humus and sewer Entering death traps Breathing stench with excreta …. No statistics or[Read More...]
The narrative is the story of a community of people , Dogistan, named after the dogs that its every household owns. The Dogistan’s dogs are of two kinds: tailless and curly tailed dogs. The former are gentle and docile, while latter are very mean and abject. The curly tailed dogs outnumber the tailless dogs. A Dogistani lady, Miss Ruby, does[Read More...]
The beginning and the end of cinema halls in Kashmir is linked with the turmoil it has witnessed for about nine decades now. During the early 1930s, when Kashmir was passing through an uncertain situation following the massacre of about two dozen unarmed civilians on 13 July 1931 and the consequent public revolt against an autocratic rule, a Punjabi speaking[Read More...]
Do not be afraid, my dear For your fear is what they want And if you agree with them You will become a stagnant slave. Do not become a slave, my child For your slavery is what they want And if you agree with them You will vanish from this landscape. Do not vanish my darling For your disappearance is[Read More...]
The water rose in our house to the first floor The water came suddenly from the river to where it had never come before as the dam had been unleashed into it and it had overflowed even to the midst of the town We left without further ado An old man and an old woman a daughter and her husband[Read More...]
V. S. Naipaul, the Nobel winning author who just died, was, like so many people, an enigma, at least in his writing. Lauded for his prose style and exquisite way with words, he was seriously criticized for his demeaning of Islam, women, Africans, and others in post-colonial countries, including the Caribbean from whence he came. Such criticism was amply justified. [Read More...]
The iconic poster of that memorable film ‘Garm Hava’(hot winds), with the inimitable Balraj Sahni’s grim face and downcast, apparently moist eyes reflecting a quiet determination, has these lines on it in comparatively small print: ‘…. every pain of mine, I hid even from myself.’ The recently released ‘Mulk’, in some ways reminds one of ‘Garm Hava’- and these[Read More...]
