By Mosarrap H. Khan
About a month after I watched these two films in Kolkata, I landed in Dhaka toward the middle of December, 2011 with the twin purpose of attending a conference of Bengal studies and conducting research for my study on Muslim everyday life in the sub-continent. Once in Dhaka, I could feel an air of excitement and celebration on the occasion of Bangladesh’s fortieth anniversary of its independence.
By Rafikul Islam
Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, presided over the inauguration. Sukalyan Bhattacharya choreographed Down Memory Lane, which showcased 100 years of Indian Cinema. Dev and Koel felicitated Big B. Ranjit Mallick gave the inaugural speech. In the opening ceremony, a clipping of Brand Bengal was screened.
By Abigail Licad
Added to the constant need to negotiate between perspectives in poems is the paradoxical use of English, the colonizer’s language, to enact verbal resistance against the colonizer’s deeds and legacies. Further, the effort to find precise correspondences between ideas and English words is limited by the use of a foreign language.
By Akshatha Shetty & Piyush Goswami
While some of the children travel with the villagers all round the year hopping from one fair to another, the others live in the neighboring slum areas. These kids cannot afford to go to school but they are quite happy doing what they do. When they are not hassling tourists, the kids are often seen collecting camel or cow dung, which is dried and later sold to herders and villagers as fuel.
By Ashley Tellis
Being a gay activist in India over the last two decades – from the repressed and political runt of a lad in Bombay you were then to the thick-skinned whore you are today in Delhi – has been one hell of a ride. It has been most of all, salutary and educative. It has taught you that the business of being a minority means negotiating the sharp and abrasive asymmetries of the various struggles you are simultaneously part of because constituents of all those struggles form who you are.
By Nick Matlin
It is almost cliché to emphasize the fact that while racial frontiers have begun to break down, the frontiers of class remain stubbornly entrenched. Much of the country’s wealth still rests in the hands of the white minority.
By Akshatha Shetty
Despite the early onset of winter, the scorching heat of Rajasthan enslaves every soul. Dust rose and settled like smoke from a dragon’s flared nostrils. Far ahead, we heard the familiar chattering of three Rajasthani women clad in vibrant colors. Their hips swayed to the tunes of the earth, while their shoulders bore the burden of poverty.
By Mosarrap H. Khan
But why is the ‘speaking up’ so selective? Even if one leaves aside cases of rapes in the rural areas and those perpetrated by the Indian Army, what about the gruesome rape cases and killings during the Muzaffarnagar Riots in early-2013? Almost three months have passed since the Muzaffarnagar Riots, has the social media ‘spoken up’ for the rape victims?
By Shreya Ila Anasuya
The ‘Take Back the Night Calcutta’ event I hurriedly announced over the microphone at my university reunion, after having spontaneously decided with a friend to hold one in solidarity with those happening in Delhi and Mumbai, was similarly re-casted.
By Mosarrap H. Khan
Both the ANHAD and the Citizens’ Report detail the gruesome killings, looting, and assault on women during the riots. Vaseela from village Laakh narrates that her daughter was brutally gang raped and then burnt alive. On the 8th of September, when the family was fleeing their village, her daughter, who was keeping unwell, was caught by four men and gang raped. She was then burnt alive.
By Rama Akhtar
I live in a Muslim ghetto in Jogeshwari (East). I am aware that this sounds jarring and may reek of stereotyping right from the first sentence since ‘Muslims’ and ‘ghettoes’ have been co-related more often than not. My house is inside a narrow by-lane seconds from the main road and across this road lies a Hindu ghetto.
By Vishal Thomas
After finishing my school, I took a year off and assisted Mr. Anil Kumar. I learned photography from him more thoroughly and, also, understood the commercial world of photography. I was very lucky to be able to learn photography from such a great photographer. He introduced me to lighting.
Cafe Dissensus Everyday 