By Ranita Raha Paul
I am coming back to life. For I am the undead. I am a predator. I am Dracula’s descendent. I am immortal. I am a vampire. This is the absolute reality, and my agreement with reality defines my life. Before you crucify me with your malevolent puritanism, know this: I am a by-product of mutation. I am a survivalist.
By Ananya S Guha
If internet connectivity through the mobile phone has created wider spaces of information and knowledge, it has also shrunk those spaces in the most harmful of ways. However much we talk about education abetted by technology, e-learning, and online learning, this hasn’t led to a holistic education that can counter hate, prejudice, and bigotry.
By Murtaza Ali Khan
Italian filmmaker Salvatore Allocca’s award-winning comedy film Taranta on the Road tells the story of a Tunisian man and a woman, Tarek and Amira, who have illegally come to Italy with the hope of a better future, after having closely witnessed the revolution in Tunisia.
By Kamalini Natesan
Eleanor reminding us repeatedly through her plain-as-day, in-your-face wisdom how we live after all. She’s full and yet she’s broken, and devises a way of living through daily machinations with unerring regularity: timing herself, feeding herself with the exact same food, and drinking Vodka, plenty of it.
By Ratna Ghosal
The suckermouth catfish, a native to South America and a popular aquarium species, has spread into the open waters in several states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal. These catfish have a hard external armor and are highly oxygen tolerant, with no value as a food fish and face no predation pressure in the introduced range.
By Fatima Zehra
nevertheless I found peace in
your lewd reciprocity and
tragic seasonal violence,
your trapped sunset hues;
By Prashila Naik
Bhumi Pednekar, a generally fine actress, does wonders with this role. The scene where she serves tea to the two sets of parents and then walks towards the bedroom to serve the younger ‘couple’, is a stunning indictment of how deep-rooted class-divides will continue to remain, even if physical and sexual boundaries are crossed.
By Imtiyaz Assad
Every day, a snare of lurid nightmare
Hangs around my neck,
And every night,
My tongue is nailed
To the macabre cross of silent tragedy.
By Rameez Raja
Bukhari’s only fault was his attempt for a peaceful settlement of the unresolved Kashmir dispute. Additionally, he never hesitated to speak against the wrong policies and double-standards of the government in the valley. While he might not have won the hearts of the haters of peace, he is now a role model for the new faces of the Kashmiri people, who believe that pen is mightier than the gun.
By Rimli Bhattacharya
If you are desperate to hear the word, ‘Mother’, you can always go for adoption and give an orphan a home. My friend, who I started the article with, dealt with her depression by seeking help from a therapist. When all medical interventions failed, she too went for an adoption and adopted a girl child. While it’s a blessing to pass on the bloodline, it is a double blessing to adopt an orphan. Be kind, be grateful for the fact that you are infertile. So that you can be a mother to all those orphans, who had a mother once but are motherless and in need to love.
We have time and again stressed that many women, men and transgender persons voluntary engage in sex work and would request NGOs, governmental agencies, media and others to respect that. Many NGOs and government agencies are using the ‘raid-and-rescue’ and ‘rehabilitation’ strategy that causes immense harm to our communities. Under these circumstances branding us as merely “oppressed women” will only make matters worse.
By Usha Nellore
The Buddha said, be detached.
I can’t be detached.
You can’t be detached.
No one should be detached.
When another human is attacked,
what is it like to be detached
what is it like not to fight back.
Cafe Dissensus Everyday 