The abandoned seed, Martyr of its creed, helps others to grow. The first random rain-drops Falling from the dark clouds On the scorching earth below Vanish into thin vapours, And yet…! Wakes up The languorous land, To take in The torrential rains With open arms. For each great shift Seeks sacrifices Of some pious souls, […]
Penguin India presents The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. The English edition was published simultaneously across the world on 13th September. About the book: In The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben shares his deep love of woods and forests and explains the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in the woodland […]
Ramachandra Guha’s Democrats and Dissenters (Penguin) contains essays on subjects of great contemporary relevance like threats to freedom of expression in India . About the book: Democrats and Dissenters is a work of rigorous scholarship on topics of compelling contemporary interest, written with elegance and wit. The book covers a wide range of themes: from […]
For Mental Health Week (Oct 4 – Oct 10), Penguin Random House India releases a definitive book on understanding suicide and suicide prevention. With Death is not the Answer, Understanding Suicide and the Ways to Prevent it, Dr Anjali Chhabria hopes to promote social and emotional well-being, encourage people to overcome grief, enhance the […]
A Paradise for travel and film buffs, DIFF 2016 which will be held from 3-6 November in McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala also gets a new look and venue. Among other highlights, docu features-A Syrian Love Story by British director Sean McAllister, the Iranian director Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami’s much-lauded Sonita, and fiction features -Thailand’s first female […]
One newspaper memory lingers from the terrifying months of the Kargil war. There were two photos side by side on the front page of a national daily. One celebrating India’s win over Pakistan in a World Cup match and another one referring to the Army recapturing a key sector, if I remember correctly. In their […]
The Honourable Sports Minister of India, upon his return from the recently held Olympic Games 2016, has taken stock of the remarkable infrastructure, facilities, opportunities, fund allocation (for players and not personal betterment of those involved in the chain of funds disbursement) and collective Government and bureaucratic apathy towards Indians who may have even the […]
Poet Majaz Lakhnawi wrote once, “Yeh tera zard rukh yeh khushk lab yeh waham, yeh wahshat.. Tu apne sar se yeh baadal hata leti to accha tha.. Tere maathe pe yeh aanchal bahot hi khoob hai lekin.. Tu is aanchal se ek parcham bana leti to accha tha..” (Your pale face, your parched lips..these doubts..this […]
The country is suffering, while the elite are engaged in Facebook wars. Nothing is going to change till each of us makes up his or her mind to fight patriarchy, caste, communalism and injustice. The working class continues to exist on a pittance, and the politicians continue to roll in rivers of money. I was […]
“… cutting up women is a sport older than cricket but just as popular and equally full of obscure rituals and intricate rules that everyone seems to know…” ~ Mohammed Hanif, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti I’m reading Our Lady of Alice Bhatti as I travel trip my way across India, meeting women for the newest campaign of our NGO- an […]
First a sort of disclaimer: I grew up on a steady diet of Corbett’s tales of the man-eaters he had encountered and bested; and later on, I grew to really like Stephen Alter’s accounts of life of men and mountains. So this was a double delight for me: Stephen Alter in the voice […]
After spending my formative years in a terrorism scarred state, I feel almost invulnerable on the streets of Bangalore. This is a fundamentally gentle city, usually too diffident and polite to give offence. This is the city where I fell asleep during a bus commute in the early nineties and woke up in the middle […]