Jenny Erpenbeck’s Kairos: East Germany’s Past Haunts Toxic Romance
The 1993 revised edition of the popular German language primer Sprachkurs Deutsch 1 contains a small text about Germany, Austria, and Switzerland meant for simple reading comprehension. About German reunification it says pithily: “The wall has fallen, but the deep economic differences, the social differences, the psychological differences are not going away
Mangifera Indica: Sopan Joshi’s New Book Details India’s Never-Ending Love Affair With the Mango
Sopan Joshi is an independent journalist and author based in Delhi. | Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement There is no other country that has a compulsive relationship with a fruit like India has with mangoes, said Sopan Joshi, journalist and author of the book Mangifera Indica: A Biography of the
Why Is Ukraine’s Theater Scene Thriving Amid War?
“For these occasions I choose a beautiful dress, do my makeup, and wear perfume. These are rare opportunities we lost during the war,” Olena Vdovychenko, a theatergoer living in Kyiv tells DW. For her, the theatre is a beautiful escape. It had always been special—long before the Russian invasion. And the daily air
James Baldwin, Influential Writer and Civil Rights Figure Turns 100
James Baldwin in London on February 22, 1965. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives James Baldwin was born in the New York district of Harlem in 1924, when the world was already deeply racist. Poverty was rampant and there was police violence. Baldwin grew up with eight siblings. His stepfather
Redefining Masculinity in South Asian Cinema: The Pathetic Man as Hero
Pay Rs.50 and you can enter Thiruvananthapuram’s C Theater. A few streets away from the city’s bustling centre of temples and palaces, the theatre’s facade has crumbled, with the overgrowth of monsoon foliage left untended for its regular clientele—men who gather in rhythmic routines around 11:30 am, 2:30 pm, 6:30
Why We Must Read More Women Writers | Celebrating Women In Translation Month (#WITMonth)
Writers, especially those from different backgrounds, experiences, and cultural contexts, must be given a voice that would enable readers to experience the world through someone else’s eyes. | Photo Credit: Aaron Burden/Unsplash As someone who began reviewing books online at the age of 11, research biologist and book blogger Meytal
Tribute | James Baldwin: Remembering the Iconic Writer and Civil Rights Activist in his Centenary Year
Thinking with Baldwin. Yes, this happens when you read an author and cannot get their words out of your head. Their words become the background music to your thoughts. For this to happen, writers must be incredibly in love with life while in search of their roots, battling their own
Kerala’s IDSFFK: Where Political Cinema Challenges Mainstream Narratives
At a private screening in Soho House, Mumbai, of Karan Tejpal’s Stolen, a slick and tightly wound independent film that premiered at Venice International Film Festival 2023, something snagged within me. The film traces two brothers (played by Abhishek Banerjee and Shubham), belonging to the cream of Delhi, who somehow get
Controversy | Justice Hema Committee Report Reveals Harassment Female Actors Face in Malayalam Film Industry
The much-awaited report of the Justice Hema Committee, the government-appointed panel in 2019 that studied issues faced by women in the Malayalam film industry, comprises explosive accounts of harassment, exploitation, and ill-treatment being faced by women. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives The Justice Hema Committee report released on August
Destination India: Foreign Artists’ Vivid Portrayals of Colonial India (1857-1947)
The English geographer, historian, and cartographer James Rennell, known for his strikingly accurate maps of India, wrote in the preface to his 1788 book, Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan; or The Mogul Empire “…almost every particular relating to Hindoostan is [sic] become an object of popular curiosity.” Rennell, of course, was using the