Book Review: “Theyyam: Indian Folk Ritual Theatre” is a Guide to North Malabar’s Captivating Folk Ritual
Theyyam, a captivating folk ritual of North Malabar, encompasses hundreds of variations: most performed annually, others intermittently, and a few as rarely as once in many decades. Deeply rooted in Malabar’s folk religion, this belief system involves local deities and spirits manifesting on earth by possessing men. This belief system
BOOK REVIEW | The Genesis of Indian Environmentalism in Ramachandra Guha’s “Speaking with Nature”
Tagore was one of the founders of Indian environmentalism,” Ram Guha told me, when I had finally managed to grab a seat near him and start a conversation. “Really?! How so?” I gasped. “You wait till my next book comes out,” he said. This was at a lit fest in
The Disposable Woman: How Indian Cinema Uses Sexual Violence to Build Male Heroes
A girl gets raped in Baby John, the Hindi remake of the Tamil film Theri, a crime that is repeated in Bagheera, Kannada cinema’s most successful film this past year, as also in Maharaja, starring Vijay Sethupathi, another Tamil blockbuster. In the Rajinikanth-starrer Vettaiyan, again, it is a woman who is assaulted, raped, and murdered. In Pushpa
INTERVIEW | Through Paintings, I Tell Stories of Those Who Are Being Erased from the Dominant Narrative: Labani Jangi
Labani Jangi says her award came at a time when she was being questioned by many about the validity and nuances of her art. | Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement Labani Jangi was born in Dhubulia, a village about 40 km away from Plassey, in the district of Nadia in West
One and Three Quarters Book Review: A Tale of Cats, Corruption and Political Ambition
Serendipity brought One and Three Quarters by Shrikant Bojewar, translated by Vikrant Pande, to your reviewer who, over the years, has found and loved books about cats. Most are Japanese, though there are scattered gems in the West, like Edgar Allen Poe’s memorable short story, “The Black Cat”. However, even Kathryn Hughes’
Bengal Biennale Breaks Art World’s Cloistered Walls
The recently concluded Bengal Biennale has been remarkably successful in its very first edition. Organised in tandem in Santiniketan and Kolkata, it ran from November 29 to December 22, 2024, in Santiniketan, and from December 6, 2024, to January 5, 2025, in Kolkata. Since the required infrastructure for holding such
PHOTO ESSAY | A Tribute to Malayalam Writer and Scenarist, M.T. Vasudevan Nair
MT was a man of many parts. A doyen of Malayalam literature who mentored many people with his trademark kindness, warmth, and genuine concern. M.T. Vasudevan Nair was an iconic figure in Kerala during my childhood. His versatility and creativity in literature, cinema, and journalism, combined with his star-like fame,
How Kashmir’s Sufi Shrines are a Reminder of an Accommodative Islam That Once Existed in the Valley
Kashmir has a rich Sufi heritage, which is enshrined in the ancient tombs and hermitages (or khanqahs) that dot its landscape. Its encounter with Sufism started in the 14th century, when wave upon wave of Sufi theologians from former Mongol and Timurid territories migrated to Kashmir. Historically, six Sufi monastic
M.T. Vasudevan Nair: The Chronicler of Kerala’s Inner Conflicts
He was officially M.T. Vasudevan Nair, but peers close to him and friends of the same or older generation called him Vasu; others generally used his initials “MT”. He chose the last for me when, in the 1980s, I wrote to him from Delhi to ask how I should address
How Jules Verne’s Visionary Works Inspired Modern Technology and Innovation
When French author Jules Verne died in 1905, powered air flight, which he put at the centre of his 1886 book Robur the Conqueror, had moved from fiction to reality. Just two years earlier, the Wright brothers had achieved the first manned air flight in human history. Yet more of