By Lopa Banerjee
Being born a girl, I should have sensed when invaders had pushed through the padding of closed doors, throwing me back into the irredeemable domain of bruise and hopelessness. By now, I should have learnt to focus on my own life as an outcast, to thrive in my madness and be pleased to walk alone amid the crowded city streets with impetuous fools.
By Achyut Dutt
That was the fun side of Nemo, but there was another side, the one he was trained to be. A killer. That was something everyone who came in contact with him had to remember, including his handler, me. Nemo was trained to be a cold-blooded killing machine when the order was given. And the kill order was usually a terse, “Get him!” Unless he happened to be a very good shot and quick on the draw, the other guy wouldn’t survive the encounter.
By Mosarrap H Khan
The unbearable pain of others might make us numb and fatigued, inducing moral resignation. As it happened in the case of a woman from Sarajevo during the Serbian War, who switched channels unable to consume an ‘oversaturation’ of images of the destruction of Vukovar.
By Mahmood Kooria
The long Jewish sufferings throughout the world history until the end of World War II are beyond any doubt. But how could someone justify the oppressors and psychopathic murderers like Hitler in order to question the activities and decisions of a contemporary Israeli state? And, how would the innocent children and women in Gaza be responsible for the terrorist activities (if it is at all happening) of some cowards in a distant land? Only because of their religious affiliation?
By Amber Webb
The mishandling of Gaza is nothing more than tragic and shameful. However, recognizing and validating the reasons for Israel’s insecurities opens the space to understand them as mutually vulnerable, and, possibly, creates a deeper understanding and will to cooperate.
By Arshi Khan
Muslims need the fulfillment of their constitutional rights for which the Republic of India was created. Muslims cannot accept a State worse than the colonial masters as they were not so cruel, dishonest and violent against their subjects. The citizens are not hosts to welcome a government but to watch it and to criticize it if it goes beyond the statutory rim.
By Achyut Dutt
Indian women, those days, didn’t feel sane unless they were battered in some way, even if it was by their own child. Is it perhaps universal with women everywhere? The more you treat a woman like dirt, the more she adores you and thinks you’re cool? I saw this in my own mother as a child and took full advantage of it.
By Bhaswati Ghosh
According to a new research, the number of missing or murdered women is more than 800. The most recent case came to light with the murder of Loretta Saunders, an Inuk aboriginal young woman, who, ironically, was writing a thesis on the missing or murdered aboriginal women.
By Abu Saleh
The book points out that from the very beginning of the investigation process, the Gujarat Government didn’t follow the standard forensic procedures that are the basic requirements in any criminal case. Mr. Nag corroborates this when he says that the burnt train was kept open and accessible to the public for many days and the forensic experts investigated it only after two months. Also, improper and inadequate record-keeping show a systematic effort to divert the investigation process.
By Indranil Dey
Why would the character of a girl, clothes she wears or the company she keeps be relevant to the investigation of a rape? Logically, it doesn’t. Lawfully, it doesn’t. But, somehow, morality, religion, and the dreaded word, ‘culture’, are mobilized to torment the victims.
By Mosarrap H. Khan
Then Mohanji and Indresh, both said: Yeh bahut achcha hain. Zaroori hain. Sangh se nahi jodna. Sangh nahin karenge. [unclear] Hindutva ke liye bhi aisa koi hain. Sangh ka yeh vichar nahi hain. (This is great. It’s very important that it be done. But don’t link it to the Sangh. The Sangh will not do this. [unclear]. Now Hindutva has someone like this on its side. But this is not the ideology of the Sangh.)
By Mary Ann Chacko & Mosarrap H. Khan
In this Cafe Dissensus Conversation, Director Jayan K. Cherian discusses his new film, Papilio Buddha, which deals with the land-struggles of dalits and adivasis in the Western Ghats of Kerala.
Cafe Dissensus Everyday 