2023

No one could ever imagine that an amputee could play cricket and bowl with one hand. What is only needed is the idea to impregnate your mind and nothing would be impossible. The movie actually brings out the real meaning of “differently abled”. We all are in one or the other way enabled differently. We just need to dream and one sense will replace the other, the mind will drive the body and the body will conquer the dream! The film Ghoomer is a writing on the wall that all they need is (…)

When The Epitaph Of Our Civilisation Is Written
Mothers are writing the names of their children on their arms, legs and face; they are writing with permanent ink so their tears do not erase; giving their beloved child one last, lingering embrace; lest they are found beneath the rubble; defaced. They can then be identified as their own, and buried with an epitaph:
‘Here lies my beloved, Noor The light of my eyes, Buried with a doll Her own size.’
And
‘My son, Anwar Aged four, Lain (…)

Write my name on my leg, Mama
Use the black permanent marker
with the ink that doesn’t bleed
if it gets wet, the one that doesn’t melt
if it’s exposed to heat
Write my name on my leg, Mama
Make the lines thick and clear
Add your special flourishes
so I can take comfort in seeing
my mama’s handwriting when I go to sleep
Write my name on my leg, Mama
and on the legs of my sisters and brothers
This way we will belong together
This way we will be known
as your children
Write my (…)

Translated and Introduced by Allan Cameron
The University of Chicago Press
1996

November 25, 2023
Without a higher moral vision, the left is just another player in an endless saga of bloodshed and suffering
The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is perhaps, the most complex political dispute on the planet. What makes it so complicated is that both sides see themselves as victims, and each depicts the other as an aggressor. And on one level, both are right.
Israel was born of antisemitism. This is an important starting point for understanding the conflict. There is a (…)

BOOK REVIEW
__0__ Liberalised India, Politicised Middle Class and Software Professionals
by Anshu Srivastava
Pages: 148 Price Rs 995 (hardback)
Routledge, an imprint of Francis & Taylor ISBN: 978-1-032-05489-6 (pbk)
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The title is interesting, any study of a ‘politicised’ middle class is always fascinating, though political labeling is changing rapidly. Who is Middle Class, who Upper Class or Lower can no longer be defined categorically, it is no longer a classically (…)

BOOK REVIEW
Reviewed by Maria Cristina Galmarini (College of William & Mary)
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The Afterlife of the

* Fixing Paradoxes in Climate Policy | Prakash C.J, Ecosystem People
* A tale of high morality | Faraz Ahmad
* Debating Deindustrialization | Radhakanta Barik
* On Prevention of Fatal road crashes in Southasia | Mridul Bhasin
* What is Home? | Mosab Abu Toha
* The Authoritarian Personality | Erich Fromm

Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, November 25, 2023
A highway tunnel being built through the mountains in the Char Dham Hindu pilgrimage zone caved in on November 12, 2023, trapping 41 workers on the Brahmakhal-Yamunotri national highway, in the mountain state of Uttarakhand. Ever since an expensive rescue operation has been underway involving multiple agencies, specialist firms, and the Indian military whose heavy aircraft have repeatedly been used to fly in tons of equipment. This has (…)

The opposition wants to bring back caste as a check on the BJP’s reach, but the strategy may not live up to expectations.
The results of the five state elections underway in India will be known on 3 December, and the next general election is just around the corner, in April 2024.
In most cases, state election results have no visible impact on general elections. However, this time around they are being watched closely. The big question is whether the demand for an all-India caste census (…)