Mayank Austen Soofi recently attended a Ramayan paath (reading and recitation) in Delhi and has a wonderful write-up with some pictures about it:
The Ramayan Paath is an important event in the Singhs’ social calendar. Mrs Singh’s daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter came the day before. Her niece arrived from Aligarh. The reading lasts for 24 hours. [...]
Archive for the 'Literature' Category
Ashtanayika – eight kinds of female protagonists in dance
Published by December 19th, 2009 in Art, Literature and Women. 0 CommentsAnandita has a lovely compilation of the Ashtanayika or the eight different kinds of female protagonists and how they are depicted in dance forms:
Jai Deva’s Geet Govinda talks beautiful about the Ashtanaikas. I haven’t yet read it but i had a chance to attend a workshop on the Ashtanayikas conducted by my dear teacher. She [...]
A very though-provoking article on the Foreign Policy blog about how (or does) writing an article, a short story or a novel in English about India and Indians actually water down the “Indian-ness” of the content:
But the tension has taken on a new form amid the growing appeal of the “global novel” — a story [...]
Anupam has posted a lovely poem:
Janabai, poet for all times
Published by October 17th, 2009 in Caste, Language, Literature, Poetry, Prejudice and Women. 2 CommentsJanabai shares dais with her contemporaries Sant Dynaeshwar and Sant Namdev – poet saints of Maharastra. Her 300 odd abhangs have become part of Namdev’s repertoire of devotional songs to Lord Vittal. Here is one where the Lord Vittal works alongside her. These are not household chores as is usually described for a housemaid. This [...]
How not to impress a publisher
Published by August 14th, 2009 in Humour, Literature and Media. 0 CommentsAll ye budding writers, take note. Pradipta Sarkar shares her list of things not to do if you really want to get your book published:
Asking them to mail you academic qualifications so you can judge whether they’re fit to evaluate your work.
As follow up to query letter, sending updates regarding property purchases.
Abusing them because they [...]
Call for Entries
Published by July 21st, 2009 in Announcement, Books, Fiction, Literature and Poetry. 0 CommentsEntries are invited from young poets in India writing in English for the inaugural
Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize.
The Prize was instituted by the Srinivas Rayaprol Literary Trust to recognize excellence in poetry written in English and is being administered jointly by the Department of English, University of Hyderabad. The prize consisting of a cash award of [...]
‘Madhavikutty’
Published by June 3rd, 2009 in Books, Feminism, Gender & Sexuality, Language, Literature, Media and Women. 1 CommentJo is ’sad because she wouldn’t be there anymore to speak of love’:
For most of the Malayalees, Madhavikutty was a porn writer. Ask the common public, who couldn’t see the truly original soul that she was, about Madhavikutty and they would say, “I know, I know… she is the one who wrote “Ente Katha” (My [...]
Kamala Das, RIP
Published by May 31st, 2009 in Books, Culture, Literature, Patriarchy, Poetry, Society and Women. 1 CommentGift him all,
Gift him what makes you woman,
The scent of
Long hair, the musk of sweat between
The breasts.
The warm shock of menstrual blood
And all your
Endless female hungers. Oh, yes,
Getting a man to love is easy but living
Without him afterwards may have to be faced.
Don Suseelan remembers Kamala Das:
Madhavikutty, Kamala Das, Amy, Kamala Suarayya. Each equally hated [...]
Mridula Koshy on knowing writers:
I think knowing the writer can shrink the work. The best kind of knowledge, best in the sense of it aiding a good reading of a work, is one in which the reader has access to the socio-political-economic picture of the times the writer lived in. Ideally from the distance of [...]
The Carvakas
Published by May 25th, 2009 in Culture, History, India, Literature, Religion and Secularism. 0 CommentsNamit Arora throws some light on the Carvakas, the tradition of materialistic thought in ancient India:
According to the Carvaka, the soul is only the body qualified by intelligence. It has no existence apart from the body, only this world exists, there is no beyond—the Vedas are a cheat; they serve to make men submissive through [...]
Science Fiction Writing Workshop At IIT Kanpur
Published by March 30th, 2009 in Fiction and Literature. 1 CommentVinod has the details.
Goal & Plan: The workshop will help new Indian authors develop their skills and encourage SF with a south-Asian focus. Specifically, the students will read and critique some of the best SF writing in the field, both classic and modern. Second, the daily writing exercises and group-critiques of the weekly story submissions will [...]
Art Futures Kolkata
Published by March 16th, 2009 in Art, Culture, Literature, Music, Personal, Photography, Poetry, Society and Theatre. 0 CommentsRama, fellow Blogbhartian, has started a new art blog, Art Futures Kolkata, with this admirable goal: Making Art Accessible, Relating Art to Community.
In the latest post, Rama questions the been-there, seen-that smugness of some Kolkatans:
Do they visit other painting or scuplture exhibitions of local or Indian artists in galleries or museums in Calcutta or elsewhere [...]
Phoenix has been writing a short story by that name: “A beautiful stranger”. Here is the third part of the series:
Pushing open the sliding doors to the veranda, Noyona stood staring at the horizon with her coffee in the hand. She put her palms closer to the sides of the mug with the heat emitting [...]
Crystal pens a b-e-a-u-tiful love story:
I shot back right at him and said “D-uh! I don’t need to open any of your chapters, you’re already clear right from head to toe”
“Aw bad! I was just trying to find the key to lock your book!”,and guffawed loudly.
“Huh..so whatever, lets get to the point..What’s your name?”,I ignorantly [...]
A new group blog that exhorts you to Read Banned Books. Find out more here.
Classical Status for Kannada
Published by November 3rd, 2008 in Language, Literature and Politics. 1 CommentPS is happy that Kannada has finally been granted the Classical Language status that it so richly deserves:
The Halmidi inscription, the earliest known use of full-length Kannada, dates back to circa 450 CE. 1500 known years of continuous use surely deserves something. The kingdoms and dynasties which ruled over ancient Karnataka all switched their loyalties [...]
‘There was a time when a story used to be a story…’
Published by October 17th, 2008 in Books and Literature. 0 CommentsSandeep tries to explain at length why Aravind Adiga is just another ‘template-filler’, like Kiran Desai and Arundhati Roy before him:
In the beginning of an essay on contemporary literary criticism, S.L. Bhyrappa dissects a Kannada short story, entitled Rotti (a dish made of rice flour) and cites numerous similar stories written in that vein. He [...]
The truth about the Ramayanas
Published by September 21st, 2008 in Culture, Literature, Religion and Secularism. 0 CommentsRimi Chatterjee questions the Parivar’s right to meddle with what happens in the classroom:
The irony of it is, the Ramayanas the BJP is so het up about are so often subaltern texts, created and sustained by groups marginalised from the Indian mainstream, which may now only find a haven in the rarefied realms of academia, [...]
The history in the epics
Published by September 15th, 2008 in History, India and Literature. 0 CommentsDipta Chaudhuri takes us for a trivia tour hidden in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and how they relate to actual places in India:
The geographical coordinates of Mahabharat are also firmly entrenched around the Delhi NCR. For services rendered in teaching the Hastinapur princes, Dronacharya was given a village on the outskirts of the capital. [...]
Vidya asks: does literature have to be depressing?
My son recently asked me –“Mom, what is the difference between fiction and literature?” My instinctive reply was, “In literature everyone suffers!” Certainly it seems that in recent examples of literature, especially from Indian writers, the emphasis is on trying to make the characters in the book go [...]
Qurratulain Hyder: More on the Grand Dame of Urdu Novel
Published by August 26th, 2007 in India, Literature and South Asia. 0 CommentsIndscribe has a most comprehensive obituary on the Marquez of Urdu literature.
Her name meant ‘the delight of eyes’. The daughter of an illustrious couple, Sajjad Hyder Yaldaram and Nazar Zehra, brought Urdu fiction at par with writings in other major languages of the world.
Raza Rumi links to an audio clip from the BBC and also [...]
By the middle of 1935, the final manifesto of the Progressive Writers Association (PWA) was ready. Zaheer returned to India with the document and circulated it among prominent Indian literary figures. The manifesto found an immediate champion in Premchand, one of the most highly respected figures in Hindustani literature, who published its Hindi translation in [...]
zamaanaa baRe shauq se sun rahaa thaaham hii so gaye daastaaN kahte kahte
Mohib writes on the passing away of legendary Urdu writer Qurratulain Hyder
Monks with Computers
Published by August 8th, 2007 in Culture, India, Literature and Society. 0 CommentsI have seen monks with cell phones in Ladakh but not Monks in cyber cafes. Vistet points out to one such picture and muses about technology, religion and the argumentative India.
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