O.P. Sharma Photography: Pioneering Indian Pictorialist’s Artistic Vision and Legacy | Retrospective Exhibition 1950s-1990s
The first thing you saw at the retrospective titled “O.P. Sharma & the Fine Art of Photography: 1950s-1990s” (September 5 to October 3)—organised by the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts in collaboration with Art Heritage, at Shridharani Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi—was not a photograph. It was a watercolour,
Ahead of Her Times: Freedom and Feminism As Seen Through Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay’s Eyes
Autumn 1947, New Delhi. British rule in India had ended. Cyril Radcliffe had drawn a line dividing the subcontinent into two. In the violent Partition riots that ensued, half a million people died and 10 million fled. Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay arrived at the newly created Relief and Rehabilitation Secretariat in New
The restless traveller: A vignette | A Bengali Story in Translation
He was walking through an impassable thorny way. At one stage he turned back and saw millions of steadfast gazes fixed upon him. An incandescent lustre of seething excitement and expectation radiated from those gazes. It filled the traveller’s heart with an intoxicating pride. With a smile of profound satisfaction,
Bookshelf | New Books on the Shelves This Fortnight (November 1, 2024)
Francis Itty Cora T.D. Ramakrishnan, translated by Priya K Nair HarperCollins India Rs.399 This Malayalam classic is a genre-bender combining history, myth, mystery and magic. Set in present-day Kerala, war-torn Iraq, ancient Alexandria, and Renaissance Florence, the novel is a romp through history. ___ Jahanara Sukumaran Eka Rs.399 Shah Jahan’s
Ranjit Hoskote’s Translation of Mir Taqi Mir: An Attempt of Failure
Mir Taqi Mir in 1786. | Photo Credit: Wiki Commons Let me admit that I am a votary of the following falsifiable proposition that is almost a cliché among those who follow Urdu poetry: A great poet creates a new idiom for the language. This proposition yields the following corollary
Baburao Bagul’s ‘Lootaloot’: A Deep Dive into the Struggles of the Oppressed in Mumbai
In the titular story of Baburao Bagul’s classic short story collection Maran Swasta Hot Aahe (Death is Becoming Cheap)—published in Marathi in 1969 and now available in translation as Lootaloot—a poet and short story writer walks through the city in search of a muse but finds, instead, sordid stories of the dispossessed. “This
The Flood of Mediocrity: Examining Art’s Value in the Digital Age
Not too long ago, one of the more common refrains from adults was that things were much better when they were growing up. However intolerant, churlish, and prejudiced that sounded, there was some truth to it, at least in the quality of our cultural and artistic life. Today an unmitigated