The actor’s book ‘My Experiments with Silence’ that hit the stands on November 27…reports Asian Lite News.
Actor Samir Soni, who has turned an author with his ‘My Experiments with Silence’, which stems from diary entries, gives a glimpse of what goes in the mind of an introvert like him, in a world that is inherently outgoing given the social nature of human beings, and how he made his way through it.
The actor’s book ‘My Experiments with Silence’ hit the stands on November 27.
In case you missed it, we spoke with actor and director Samir Soni (@samirsoni123) about his new book My Experiments with Silence (@ombooksdelhi)
Talking about the book, Samir said: “These diary entries are an introvert’s entries of how I look at the world, how I have gotten my way through showbiz despite being someone who is not very outgoing. I have put together my heart in this book. At a time where people seek validation, I chose to turn to my safe place, my diary, and that’s how I discovered my real self”.
Explaining how being an introvert had its share of disadvantages and benefits.
He added: “I haven’t been someone who is socially very active and that might have been a disadvantage on most instances, but as an actor, it was an advantage for me because it enabled me to connect with my character better”.
Through his diary, the actor provides an insight on how healing is never a linear process and hopes that the book will help the readers with answers to the questions that have long agitated the human mind.
Speaking about one instance where his diary bailed him out of the troubled waters of uneasy days, he concluded: “When I received my first award and my name was announced, it was rock silence, there was no one clapping for me but my diary helped me get through such days. I have put myself out there despite such lows, but in the end, I am also thankful for my highs, and my diary has truly helped me through all of it.”
Published by Garuda Prakashan decades after the original manuscript, it puts all pieces of the story together with maps and photographs and offers a unique insight into what really happened during the War of 1857…reports Asian Lite News.
Drawn from the details provided by a Brahmin-turned-amateur-historian, this is a real story that follows two learned men as they traverse India during the 1857 uprising on foot, unearthing history from a new vantage point
As the First War of Independence raged, a Brahmin from Maharashtra, Vishnubhat Godse, on a pilgrimage found himself caught right in the middle of the action. He, along with his uncle Rambhat, went through a series of adventures, including barely escaping hanging.
Upon his return home, Godse wrote it all down in Marathi so that his forthcoming generations could have an idea of how things were during that tumultuous period. “The Walking Brahmin” by Maneesh Madhukar Godbole retells that journey, which is a rare eyewitness account from a common Indian’s point-of-view.
Published by Garuda Prakashan decades after the original manuscript, it puts all pieces of the story together with maps and photographs and offers a unique insight into what really happened during the War of 1857.
This tale starts in 1857, as the protagonist duo starts on a ‘teertha yatra’ from Varsai, a small Maharashtrian village, and walk smack in the middle of the mutinous upheaval of 1857. Having the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, they were caught in the crossfire between the loyalist Indian troops and the British.
Narrativising historical incidents through an Indian lens, such as the fall of Jhansi, they survived the aftermath of British savagery, were robbed of all their belongings multiple times, and even managed to avoid getting hanged twice. Being on the road for over two years, they finally returned to Varsai, which was where Vishnubhat penned down his adventure for his descendants.
“His original manuscript, which ran into 297 pages, comprised two notebooks and twenty-two individual pages. It was eventually published as a Marathi book in 1907, a few years after Vishnubhat’s death. This is probably the only known instance of a document that talks about 1857 from an Indian perspective,” the Pune-based Godbole said.
“Not only does it give us the story from the perspective of the vanquished, but it is also more reliable as it is a first-hand account of experiences and not based merely on hearsay. Thus, the value of this book, in the annals of history, is quite priceless.
Vishnubhat Godse undertook a pilgrimage amid the 1857 War of Independence, where he witnessed British brutality first hand. He wrote down his memoirs when he came home.
Maneesh Godbole retells the story in "The Walking Brahmin".
“Vishnubhat’s book offered me a unique and authentic insight on how our ancestors lived. What they believed in, the social structure of those times, the hardships, the never-give-up attitude, their fortitude, their beliefs and their ability to even put their lives at risk to fulfill their responsibility,” added Godbole, who learnt about this lesser-known story when he was busy writing blogs related to his travel to northeast India and subsequent research.
Sharing his insights on the book, Uday S. Kulkarni, historian and author of “The Extraordinary Epoch of Nanasaheb Peshwa”, said that it “gives us a graphic account of the cruelty perpetrated by British forces in cities such as Jhansi, where troops looted and massacred the populace in retaliation for the stiff resistance the city offered the attacking force. It’s a short book, which brings alive the times, the dangers, the smell of war and of death…a first-rate historical account of those turbulent times.”
Not Mukherjee, who was made of sterner stuff. She called her chemo doctor, who coolly informed her: “Yes, in most people, the chemo does stop her periods.”…writes Vishnu Makhijani
Not Mukherjee, who was made of sterner stuff. She called her chemo doctor, who coolly informed her: “Yes, in most people, the chemo does stop her periods.”…writes Vishnu Makhijani
When Shormistha Mukherjee, whose Linkedin profile describes her as a storyteller, creative strategist, problem solver, connection maker, team builder and entrepreneur, was diagnosed with cancer, she kept wondering why people were so awkward around her.
Then she realised it was because they didn’t know what to say because in India, “we don’t talk about cancer, we just neatly sidestep it like dog poo on a pavement”.
But Mukherjee was made of sterner stuff. Aided by a husband beyond compare, Anirban, a host of friends, principally Oindrilla (Oinx) and Ziba, three doctors at Kokilaben Hospital (among many other caregivers) and her parents, she not only survived breast cancer — and even sorted a midlife crisis — but emerged from the experience roaring to write a book about what she had gone through.
The outcome: “Cancer, You Picked The Wrong Girl” (HarperCollins).
“Not just the mastectomy, reconstruction, chemo, hair loss, but also the mental see-saw, the loss of dignity, the constipation, the hot flashes. To write about it, was to face up to it. It was the most life altering thing to happen to me, but it also had its moments of humour and lightness. And I want anyone, who god forbid, has to go through this, or a caregiver, or a friend or even a reader who is too scared to say the word cancer, I want them to find hope in this book, and of course snort out their tea in laughter,” she says.
Like, for instance, when during chemotherapy she felt she looked like “a baby hedgehog with a swollen face”.
Or, when she’s buying things at a fancy store “with my bald head and my mask, and a lady just keeps staring at me…So, finally, I walk up to her, lower my mask, and in a loud whisper announce ‘I have cancer’. She left the shop faster than you can say bhindi,” Mukherjee writes.
Or the 6 a.m. “magic hour” in hospitals.
“I don’t know what is with their fascination for doing everything at that unearthly hour. So, my IV was put in at 6 a.m. My catheter was taken out at 6 a.m. My first medicine was given at 6 a.m. Oh my god. Just stop. Let the patient sleep. All that’s needed is a roll call parade, so you feel like you’re in jail,” Mukherjee writes.
“When I look back,” she writes, “I realise the one person who saw me through everything was of course Anirban. But it wasn’t just seeing me through, it was like we both lived it. In the hospital, I’d be all happy and chirpy all day, and then before I slept something would trigger a meltdown. Some days I would be feeling scared, some days I would be wanting to just go home. And every night, Anirban would hold me and we’d both cry.”
The nine months from diagnosis, through the surgery, the chemotherapy and the radiation therapy “also released me”, Mukherjee writes.
“It was like a blank slate, we were starting all over again…It’s not easy being married. And we got married when we were kids. Twenty-two and twenty-three (Mukherjee was 45 at the time of surgery). But let me also tell you, that sometimes it takes cancer to tell you that this is the person you want to grow old with. This is the only person who truly gets you,” Mukherjee writes.
“It taught me how much I was loved. By my parents, who put their lives on hold so they could be there for me. They’d literally fly down (from Delhi to Mumbai) before every chemo, wait till I felt better and then go back, and then do this all over again. They lived out of suitcases for that entire period. Only so I could be looked after, and yet have my space. As my chemo progressed, they also learnt to deal with it. There were days when we’d laugh, they’d take me for long drives in the rain, they’d cook my favourite food. It was always going to be hard watching their daughter (their only child) go through this,” Mukherjee writes.
To read @agentgreenglass’s book Cancer, You Picked the Wrong Girl is like being pushed into a raging river rushing through its inexorable course and just when you think your going down being handed this big strong oar with which you navigate yourself to the safety of the shore. pic.twitter.com/lDLGCZYFbN
Then there were her friends, Oinx, “who cancelled her holiday abroad. Ziba, who can never wake up early, came for every early morning appointment. My friends and partners at work, Parag and Dixit, who for nine months did their share of work, and mine too. It was bloody hard for them, especially since one day I was at work and in their lives, and the next day I was gone. But they never said one thing to me except ‘All you have to do is beat this’,” Mukherjee writes.
There was also the realisation that as her physical struggle with the chemo reduced, “my fight with my mind became more serious. And I think in the end that’s what made me stronger. I was never in a fight with my body, it was always my mind that I had to control.”
“I was dealing with all this, when another bolt from the blue hit me. My periods stopped. Just after my second chemo, I kept waiting for my period to knock on my fallopian doors, and all I got was some stray spots of blood. Now, nobody tells you this stuff, Not your doctors, nurses, no one. Maybe they’re pretty sure people will Google this.”
Not Mukherjee, who was made of sterner stuff. She called her chemo doctor, who coolly informed her: “Yes, in most people, the chemo does stop her periods.”
Will they come back after the chemo is over, she asked.
“Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. There is no fixed time period. You are forty-five. They might not come back and you might have forced menopause,” the doctor said.
Cancer You Picked The Wrong Girl – A True Story by a cyclist @agentgreenglass Shormistha is one of those millions who have defeated breast cancer and narrates her journey of treatment from diagnosis to cure in this book. @flyingcursor Buy online or pick a copy from a book shop. pic.twitter.com/PTTtVh5QeL
“Menopause. Now I also have menopause to deal with. Just like that, with no warning,” Mukherjee writes.
What a time for a midlife crisis to strike!
“Ooh boy. So much unbidden stuff rushed into my head. Menopause means I am now old. Off the shelf. In a dusty, dowdy little corner. How could that be? I was fit and slim and beautiful a couple of months back. And now you tell me I’m over the hill, and past my prime,” Mukherjee writes.
That too passed.
And today, “guess what, menopause is just fine. Sweaty suits me, adds a sheen to my face. For too long, this shit has been kept under wraps. I’m not past my prime or off the shelf or a ‘poor thing’. I’m just getting older, and that’s fine. I can still do everything I want, without some eggs getting in the way.
“Wait a minute. It took cancer to sort out a midlife crisis! Damn, next time, the universe, just deal me a sports car or something,” Mukherjee concludes on a jocular high.
KLF 2022 will host 200 plus sessions boasting writers, experts, and performers from across India and more than 12 nations globally…reports Asian Lite News.
The sixth edition of the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF 2022) will be held at the beaches of Calicut (Kozhikode) from January 20 to January 23.
Over 400 speakers including Jeffrey Archer, Ada Yonath, Abhijit Banerjee, Arundhati Roy, Remo Fernandes, Sagarika Ghose, Wendy Doniger, Shashi Tharoor, Manu S. Pillai, Devdutt Pattanaik, Chris Kraus and Sudhir Kakar among others will be part of the festival.
Organised by the DC Kizhakemuri Foundation, the event is supported by the Government of Kerala and Kerala Tourism Board. Well-known poet, critic, and writer Prof. K. Satchidanandan is the festive director of KLF 2022.
Set along the shores of the Arabian Sea, the four-day festival brings artists, actors, celebrities, writers, thinkers, and activists closer to people of different backgrounds and interests. With an aggregate footfall of more than 3 lakhs, KLF is the second largest festival of its kind in Asia, combining the best of literary and popular cultures.
The sessions at KLF aim to map literature through discussions on aspects of science & technology, art, cinema, politics, music, environment, literature, pandemic & its Impacts, business & entrepreneurship, health, art & leisure, travel & tourism, gender, economy, culture genomics, history & politics, and various facets that shape human consciousness.
Speakers include major award-winning writers, film and theatre personalities, performers and artists, designers, media personalities, sports icons, diplomats and celebrities from diverse backgrounds.
KLF 2022 will host 200 plus sessions boasting writers, experts, and performers from across India and more than 12 nations globally.
This year the organisers will introduce curated gastronomical exuberance with food trucks and ethnic cuisines.
Exceptional individuals from all walks of life were using the same concepts and sometimes even the exact words as they described what got them to the top…writes Vishnu Makhijani
There are the achievers and there are the exceptionals.
In his first book, “The Innovation Biome”, Kumar Mehta, one of whose many hats is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Southern California, had identified the common elements across the most successful corporations in history.
From there, he embarked on a similar exercise to identify the characteristics and traits shared by the most exceptional people in the world and why certain individuals in sports, business, science, music, and other fields are able to separate themselves from the rest.
The result is his current book, “The Exceptionals – How The Best Become The Best And How You Can Too” (Rupa).
“Several years of research have gone into developing and writing this book,” Mehta told in an interview, adding: “The process started with a series of conversations and interviews with many of the most exceptional individuals in the world, including Nobel laureates, Olympic gold medalists and other world-class athletes, business icons, musicians, and people in other professions who reached the very elite levels in their fields.”
It is very important to focus on maximizing what you can achieve overall rather than doing a little better than you did the last time.
This helps you stop taking a short-cut view of incremental improvement & take a longer-term transformational view of achieving success. pic.twitter.com/jKF2HTQZh9
He tried to understand their lives and their stories and how they could scale the pyramid when many others could not and as he spoke to more people, themes started emerging.
“Exceptional individuals from all walks of life were using the same concepts and sometimes even the exact words as they described what got them to the top.
“Additionally, I studied the growth and development of many people who have reached the top rungs in their fields. Some of these people are household names, while others come from areas that often don’t make the headlines but require the same qualities of extreme success. I have studied countless interviews to understand the factors that have helped them develop into the most extraordinary individuals in the world,” Mehta explained.
Also, with the field of what it takes to become exceptional having been researched extensively by researchers and academicians around the world, he studied numerous research papers and articles to understand what other researchers have learned, all of which further shaped his thinking.
“The themes shared in ‘The Exceptionals’ have emerged from a deep immersion into the topic, learning from all possible sources. I feel confident that the book covers the essential elements required for becoming exceptional,” Mehta elaborated.
What then are the five main take-aways from this book?
* Fifty per cent of what makes someone exceptional is genetic. You have to have a certain amount of natural talent or innate abilities in your discipline. The good news is that everybody is “gifted” at something. Your gift may be athletic, logical/mathematical skills, spatial skills, musical abilities, etc. To become exceptional, you need to identify where your innate abilities lie and build upon them.
Very cool and unexpected to see the Audiofile review of The Exceptionals and the top award the audiobook received.https://t.co/xY3B6wTtwO
* Twenty-five per cent of what makes you exceptional is the amount of effort you put into developing your skills. Intense effort or hard work is the hallmark of every outstanding individual. The most common phrase I heard from the most exceptional people in the world is “no one will outwork me.”
* The final 25 per cent of what it takes to become the best in the world at something is a set of enabling traits that include:
Being in an environment that supports skill development (e.g., Bill Gates had access to computers at an early age when they were rare, and Usain Bolt came from a country with a strong running culture)
Self-belief — every exceptional believed they could become the best
Total commitment: Exceptionals do not have a plan B; they fully focus on Plan A
Micro-excellence: The attention to the minutest detail is what sets the exceptionals apart from everyone else
Mentors and learning: Exceptionals realize that they can’t do it alone; they are open to learning new ideas from other people and other fields.
* The best one can do is fulfil the physical, mental and social potential available to them, and Mehta calls this achieving “your possible best”. The book also offers specific and practical advice on achieving your possible best and becoming exceptional in your domain.
* Becoming exceptional is multi-dimensional. While popular culture may say that 10,000 hours of grit or a certain mindset is the key to growth, the reality is that multiple elements are necessary, and they are listed in the book.
A well-researched book, it’s an easy read filled with stories of the most exceptional individuals — Mahatma Gandhi, Ian Fleming, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Jesse Owens, Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, The Beatles, Sachin Tendulkar et al — the world has known.
“It will genuinely help readers who want to scale the pyramid in whatever career they have chosen. The elements of excellence are common across all professions,” Mehta maintains.
What next? What’s his next project?
“My next project is putting the principles developed in ‘The Exceptionals’ into practice. I have developed a program to help aspiring athletes fulfil their potential. This program (called EPIC) is designed to understand the specific elements that are holding back talented individuals from achieving their potential and breaking through them so more people can achieve their possible best,” Mehta concluded.
Her earlier book, also co-authored with Irfan Nabi — ‘Alluring Kashmir: The Inner Spirit’ — has found a home in the Library of Congress…writes Vishnu Makhijani
Author and filmmaker Nilosree Biswas have shot various documentaries in Banaras since her first visit to the city in 1996. The idea of a book took root in 2013 and she was initially apprehensive whether she would come out “fully scathed or oblivious”. The outcome of this true labour of love is a book that combines her rich prose with the powerful images of photographer Irfan Nabi that explores the fascinating nuances of the holy city.
“My relationship with Banaras dates back to the 90’s; my first trip to the city was in the early winter of 1996. Since then I have visited Banaras numerous times; I have shot various documentaries there. The seed idea of the book initiated way back in 2013; we started working on it in 2017.
“And I decided to visit the place once again, apprehensive of whether I would come out fully scathed or oblivious, that is, pining for more or not wanting to ever go back again,” Biswas told in an interview of ‘Banaras – Of Gods, Humans and Stories’ (Niyogi Books).
“All the captivating elements — the ghats, the rickety stalls, the winding lanes, and the daily lure of sweet and savoury Banarasi delectables — too many visual imageries stuffed my mind. I wanted to capture all that and more,” she added.
Noting that a book always has a wider canvas to work on and therefore, creates possibilities to tell more about a location, Biswas said: “Banaras is endless, one book is not enough, but it’s a great start.”
Considerable research that went into the book, from primary sources to secondary sources, field data, interviews; From the seminal works of Diana Eck, a scholar of religious studies who is a Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Harvard, to travel accounts of European travellers, to English translations of scriptural texts, colonial records, to studying the art of British painters like (1749-1840).
“Apart from the published material, all my first-hand encounters with the artisans engaged in Banarasi-sari weaving, the meenakaris, the wooden toymakers, the tabla makers, the flower sellers, the snack makers and more have provided the most ‘real’ experiences for the research for this book,” Biswas explained.
“You cannot ever have or experience all that Banaras has to offer. It is imperative that one must visit the place, if not possible physically, then by turning the pages of this book. As I said, one book may not be enough, but it is surely a great start,” she maintained.
A cascading effect of events unravels in Banaras through the book — on its ghats and in its lanes. Myriad lanes emerge like an umbilical cord out of the ghats to the womb of the sacred geography, to the infinite spots where the believers pause to experience the divine. Its waterfront, a grid of stairs leads one’s vision up and the eye meets a world that is frantic of the mundane and magnum opus, a scene that appears chaotic yet in sync.
Biswas and Nabi discern the engaging narrative of a unique chromosome that makes Banaras. Traversing within the maze, its sacred topography, craft traditions, and gastronomic plethora, the book examines the tenets of its weave. There is a singular, unified, and unstoppable momentum to all this — akin to the unfolding of a scroll of a painting.
“A lovingly-written and profoundly personal meditation on the City of Light in all its different dimensions and avatars; vaulting from mythology to history and back through the ancient scriptures and epics to the living landscape, this is a warmly affectionate love letter to the holiest of all Indian cities,” says historian, art historian, author, and curator William Dalrymple.
Nilosree Biswas was trained in Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and later in cinema. Her interests include history, cultural studies of pre-modern, colonial South Asia, and early Hindi cinema. Her works, both film, and writing have appeared in various print media and screened worldwide including at Cannes Film Festival.
‘Broken Memory, Shining Dust’, her prominent documentary, has been archived by the Oscar Library, also known as The Margaret Herrick Library, a world-renowned, non-circulating reference and research collection devoted to the history and development of the motion picture as an art form and an industry established in 1928 and located in Beverly Hills
Her earlier book, also co-authored with Irfan Nabi — ‘Alluring Kashmir: The Inner Spirit’ — has found a home in the Library of Congress.
A wonderful add on in my personal collection. Alluring Kashmir, The inner Spirit by @errfanseye & @Peachtreespeaks With amazing portraits & text exploring culture landscapes of beautiful land. A must read for heritage lovers & travellers #heritage#Kashmirpic.twitter.com/5kNJr7MOmj
— Tawarikh Khwani تواریخ خوانی (@tawairkh) May 17, 2021
Biswas is working on her next book on food stories during British rule in India.
Irfan Nabi studied in Srinagar’s prestigious Irish Catholic Burn Hall School. He photographs often and writes intermittently; his images have been part of major exhibitions in Amsterdam, Washington, Kolkata, and New Delhi among many other cities around the globe. He has shot and travelled solo across various terrains.
Indulgence in food and music is what keeps him going in his spare time. A book on Ladakh is in progress. Culturally nuanced photo elements are what his lens seeks.
She brings a practitioner’s keen eye to the labyrinth of negotiations and official interactions that took place between the two countries from 1949 to 1962…writes Vishnu Makhijani.
The Sino-Indian border stand-off is set for a long haul as Beijing seems “to have lost the plot” and within China, nationalism and authoritarianism “make for a toxic cocktail” that is steadily rising levels of tension in the region, says Nirupama Rao, a former Indian Foreign Secretary who has served ambassadorial stints in Beijing and Washington.
She also asserts that the Government must bring the Opposition on the same page on its dealings with China and formulate an effective communication policy that articulates a balanced approach, while the media must act responsibly on the issue.
“I certainly do not see any rainbows on the horizon ahead. The Chinese stand on the boundary question has steadily grown more rigid, inflexible and aggressively assertive in recent years,” Rao told in an interview on her book “The Fractured Himalaya – India, Tibet, China 1949-1962” (Penguin).
“They seem to have lost the plot. You have an increasing number of transgressions along the Line of Actual Control in the border areas. We have to deal with the situation by ensuring that the Chinese advances across the Line of Actual Control in all sectors of the boundary are dealt with firmness and by adequate and effective defensive measures.
“The pattern of Chinese behaviour is witnessed all across the region including in the maritime environment of the East and South China Seas. In China, nationalism and authoritarianism make for a toxic cocktail that is steadily rising levels of tension in the region,” Rao maintained.
At the bottom line, she writes in the book that losing the future “because of our ongoing quarrel between past and present in the quest for vengeful indictment can yield little by way of value. Beyond emotion and sentiment, the space for mutually acceptable solutions does exist and must be exploited.”
However, “the possibilities and prospects of realising such a scenario may increasingly be fewer and fewer if we do not learn from the lessons of history. Because of this, optimism is a scarce commodity and the road is long. We must for now accept the smallness, and the restricted, confining nature of the present.”
“Perhaps, one can visualise the dramatis personae in our history, most of them taken by the Grim Reaper, congregating one last time in some galactic hideaway as they take stock of the enormous liabilities that stem from the gambles they made – and the burden this inheritance imposes on future generations, yet unborn,” Rao writes.
Noting that India and China “are still writing the second act in the story of the life of their relationship”, Rao writes: “Around them, and within their own borders, worlds have changed unalterably. But a clear and unbiased reading of the history of the fifties and the early sixties of the last century in their bilateral interaction to yields useful pointers. Diplomacy may be life without maps, but an understanding of its history enables us to chart new paths and address fault lines. Only a combination of hindsight about history, and foresight, can help illuminate the pathways to an ultimate solution.”
“The Fractured Himalaya” unknots the intensely complex saga of the early years of the India-China relationship. Rao’s telling is based not only on archival material from India, China, Britain and the United States but also on a deep personal knowledge of China. In addition, she brings a practitioner’s keen eye to the labyrinth of negotiations and official interactions that took place between the two countries from 1949 to 1962.
The book looks at the inflexion points when the trajectory of diplomacy between the two nations could have course-corrected but was not. Importantly, it dwells on the strategic dilemma posed by Tibet in relations between India and China-a dilemma that is far from being resolved. The question of Tibet is closely interwoven into the fabric of this history. It also turns the searchlight on the key personalities involved – Jawaharlal Nehru, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and the 14th Dalai Lama – and their interactions as the tournament of those years was played out, moving step by closer step to the conflict of 1962.
It is quite clear that the Government and the Opposition are at daggers drawn on the LAC standoff. How can this situation be resolved to bring everyone on the same page?
“Only dialogue in a reasoned and transparent manner between the Government and the Opposition can be the prescribed solution. The Opposition also needs to understand the complex issues we are dealing with, as also the history of the problem. This is an issue of national interest as well as national security that we must close ranks in the political space of a democratic society, Rao asserted.
“Noise and more noise, in the public space – and here, the media must also act responsibly – can never help the nation. The Government also needs an effective communication policy that is always anticipatory of the direction in which the public debate is going and is able to lead the discussion by articulating the balanced approach that is greatly needed in such matters,” she added.
At 6pm: join @NMenonRao and me – on her masterly book – The Fractured Himalaya: India Tibet China 1949-1962. The roots of today's crisis remain enmeshed in a web of historic differences between Indian and Chinese leaders. We can only fix the present if we understand the past. pic.twitter.com/O6qd5JeAVb
What impact would the developments in Afghanistan have on India-China relations – both in the short term and in the long run?
“China’s closeness and strategic alliance with Pakistan make for a regional posture that has generated more tension, alienation and distance between India and China. China’s intentions and strategic outlook vis-a-vis Afghanistan lack clarity. For that matter, the entire situation in Afghanistan today is marked by great uncertainty about the future and rising levels of human suffering among the ordinary population of the country.
“China must engage India in helping to bring about a viable regional understanding and path forward on Afghanistan that has the welfare, the human security and the development of the people of Afghanistan at its core,” Rao maintained.
“I was curious to know about the local gay scene and how to photograph it. Everything was very hidden and no one wanted to be ‘out’ and be photographed, so it was very complicated. I did the best I could and made a few pictures.”… Sunil Gupta speaks with Sukant Deepak.
He says that the world generally looks a lot better when viewed through a camera’s viewfinder.
Internationally acclaimed, London-based photographer Sunil Gupta, whose career has revolved around making his work respond to the injustices suffered by gay men across the globe, himself included has lived across continents before calling London home.
Migration, he feels has made him a detached observer. “It has helped me in finding the nuances in everyday lives as none of it seems ‘natural’. Nature didn’t make borders anyway, humans did,” he tells.
Gupta, whose works were presented by Vadehra Art Gallery at Frieze London recently, besides those of a host of contemporary Indian artists including B.V. Doshi, Rameshwar Broota, Atul Dodiya, Shilpa Gupta and Anju Dodiya in a curation titled ‘A Brief Current’, was born in 1953 in New Delhi, holds a master’s of arts from the Royal College of Art, London, and a PhD from University of Westminster, London. He has been involved with independent photography as a critical practice for many years focusing on race, migration and queer issues.
With his works in many private and public collections including George Eastman House (Rochester, USA); Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Royal Ontario Museum; Tate Modern; Harvard University and the Museum of Modern Art, the artist remembers the years between 1980-82 when he was making his first visits back to India as a working professional photographer from London, after having left Delhi at the age of 15.
“I was curious to know about the local gay scene and how to photograph it. Everything was very hidden and no one wanted to be ‘out’ and be photographed, so it was very complicated. I did the best I could and made a few pictures.”
Ask him if the reception of his work has changed in India after Section 377 was abolished here, and the artist asserts, “No it was possible to show the work in 2004 at the Habitat Gallery in Delhi organised by Radhika Singh, and it was very well received. This was followed by a big solo show at Vadehra Art Gallery in 2008. The law only changed later. Culture tends to be ahead of the law as it is the artists’ job is to ask questions about life.”
And what did he feel looking at ‘From Here to Eternity’, the much talked about retrospective chronicled his work of over five decades? He says, “Looking at it, all I felt was love, friendship and kinship. Across borders, genders and generations. I have met many wonderful people who I love.”
For someone who left India when he was still in his teens, does he think about how things would be different if he had not? “Yes, frequently, as I saw what happened to some of my classmates from my school in Delhi. Forced marriages, unhappy lives and very unhappy trapped spouses. I may have gone that route; I was certainly expecting to get married when I lived there as a teenager. Everyone got married in the 1960s, there was no question about it.”
All his life, Gupta, who was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1995 may have explored the complexities of homosexual life, race and migration among others, but there are many other themes that he would like to explore at this stage of his career. “What is it like to be an older gay man of Indian origin living with HIV? What does it mean to be a man when gender is so fluid? What does it mean to be gay when sexuality is so fluid?”
Gupta, who admires the works of photographers including Dayanita Singh, Gauri Gill, Sheba Chhachhi, Sooni Taraporevala, Ketaki Sheth, Susan Lipper, Emily Andersen, Anna Fox and Rosy Martin among many others, talking about the long lockdowns in England says, “Medically I was fine as HIV is also immune system related, so I was well looked after in London. The UK has a brilliant National Health Service and it’s free. It was a drag not to be able to travel and do shows etc, but I was lucky in that I have a husband (photographer Charan Singh) and a great loft studio where we live, so there was company and space. I made work about my local street as my lockdown project. One day we will show it somewhere.”
The artist’s book on London Street life in 1982, was launched at The Photographers’ Gallery in London on November 9 and he is working on a new book of his writing with Aperture, New York which will be out in September 2022.
“I am also working on a commission from Studio Voltaire and the Imperial Health Trust in London this year that is looking at long term HIV survivors and people who have recently had gender reassignment surgery in London. Should be on show early next year,” he concludes.
It is an attempt to capture the understanding that both of them make when working in tandem. This possibly makes it an artwork…reports Olivia Sarkar.
The art series, “Paradigm of Oneness,” is the artist, Dr Kalra’s internal dialogue, a journey of art as a personal expression. His art is not about deciphering or finding reasons but simplifying the complexities. The intangible and invisible spirit become a manifestation in this series through the verses that become symbolic of the beauty of nature.
This personal expression of setting text in artworks has been part of Dr Kalra’s style for more than a decade. When his mother left for her eternal journey, it transformed into an interpretation. The artworks have metaphors and signs that not only take forms but also attempt to express the essence through iconography.
The word ‘Sab Tera’ is colloquially also interpreted as ‘terah’, or thirteen, and in keeping with this concept, thirteen Shabads have been taken to create this series of artworks. The Oneness of Humans, Gender, Nature, Universe, Divinity, and the Value of Sharing are all addressed in Shabads by Baba Nanak, Kabirdas, and Sheikh Farid. This series encourages the soul to reflect on itself. Each stroke or piece of artwork is a process of discovering and comprehending the Divine through His creations.
The engagement with the artisan at Sangraha Sacha Sauda Atelier transfers the artist to a state of bliss as the minds and expressions connect. It is an attempt to capture the understanding that both of them make when working in tandem. This possibly makes it an artwork.
Through the words of Dr Kalra, and through the medium of embroidery, I work towards the discovery of spiritual realism and the truthfulness of my soul. Shabads, with their full grace, have been lovingly sketched and embroidered in zardosi and chikankari.”
Dr Kalra’s relationship with the pencil and colours began at a young age. His artistic expression was not restricted to flat surfaces; from the age of fifteen, he began creating three-dimensional artworks for the theatre. He went on to earn a professional degree in design and pursued graduate, master’s, and doctoral studies in the field. Throughout his education and afterwards as an academician, he maintained an interest in art and a passion for workmanship.
Students of Indian origin throng the world’s greatest colleges. Yet, there were no books contextual to Indian experiences and dreams…Viral Doshi and Mridula Maluste interact with Vishnu Makhijani.
With the essay commanding up to a hefty 25 per cent weightage for admission to a tony US college, aspirants must learn to master the craft, say two prominent educational consultants who have curated a book of 85 essays by students they have mentored that got them into an Ivy League University and Stanford — with a recurring theme being “the mission to actualize knowledge and learning for a better world”.
“Scholarship, innovative thinking, risk taking, following their own North Star, and unafraid of being different are the traits that Ivy League aspirants must possess but overall, it is the mastery of the essay, Mumbai-based Viral Doshi and Mridula Maluste told in a joint interview of their book “Indian Roots, Ivy Admits” (Amaryllis).
“We have worked with students in Canada, the US, Sri Lanka, UK, South and South East Asia, Peru, Beijing, Greece as well as India. The essays in this book are drawn from across India, from Patna to Mumbai, Kolkata, Jalandhar, and the Indian diaspora — Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore, UK and Dubai,” they said.
“The selection emphasizes the diversity of not only applicant profiles and stories but also distinctive writing styles. While some essays directly address an academic field of interest, most of them discuss and engage with narratives that have barely any relevance to the student’s eventual major.
“Each essay is uniquely personal in its own right, containing chronicles from the student’s life,” the authors explained.
Thus, within the pages of the book, you will find a committed theatre artiste who loves chemistry, a sparrow conservator, a student who has been indelibly shaped by the forests she visited as a child, a writing enthusiast who established a community writing centre in Ahmedabad, a maths aficionado whose love for math evolved from her childhood love for paper craft and gift making, a boy from Jalandhar who reshaped the work and future of tour-guides in his city, a boy from Patna who saved snakes, a bird watcher who attempted to innovate packaging material out of banana peel, a student from Gorakhpur who started chai pe charcha, and other epiphanic tales and heartfelt stories of rising from tragedy, self-transformation.
“We looked for common threads when it was time to thematically group them into chapters — there are many essays that centre around Family, so ‘The Family Crucible’ came into being and these included quite funny parts. There are those incredible students who are working towards the planet’s future, and it was a no-brainer that they would be clubbed together in a chapter we decided to call ‘The Heavy Lifters’. The music and dance artistes and maestros would naturally be in the chapter ‘The Virtuosos’, and those who innovatively used a striking metaphor to tell their story, we congregated in ‘The Analogists’. And so on.
“So, there may be commonalities in theme, but not in approach and detail,” the authors said.
“Each essay is startlingly unique and a stand-out story. However, if one were to identify the one common thread across all chapters, it would be the ability to recognize and show a transformation of self, of heart and mind. And another recurring theme in each essay is the mission to actualize knowledge and learning for a better world,” Doshi and Maluste added.
How did the book come about?
“It’s an idea whose time had come. Students of Indian origin throng the world’s greatest colleges. Yet, there were no books contextual to Indian experiences and dreams.
“Our motivation behind this book was to reach out to all hopeful university applicants and ease some of their application anxieties. After years of assisting countless bright, young people of Indian origin from across the world, we have developed keen instincts for what makes admission essays compelling,” the authors said.
“We have found that most applicants, particularly those of Indian origin, in spite of stellar academic and other achievements, are apprehensive about the essay components of a college application,” they added.
“How had others written their essays” was a question that was often asked; how do their peers, those who applied before them think; how did they showcase their experiences when they applied? Students were seeking inspiration.
“Our stock of successful essays whose authors allowed sharing proved illuminating and inspiring,” the authors said.
So that’s how the book germinated.
“We especially hope to reach out to students world-wide, students we cannot mentor personally, and throughout India, including in tier 2 and tier 3 cities where applicants are on the rise,” Doshi and Maluste explained.
How were the 85 essays featured in the book selected?
“Our students have written countless exceptional essays that have got them into the colleges of their dreams. This collection focuses on Common Application essays that gained them admission into America’s most demanding undergraduate programmes at Ivy League universities and Stanford. We wanted essays that were inventive, brave, reflective, differentiated and above all, authentic.
“We brainstormed, made lists, went into archives – we never really selected, the students featured here had already been selected! So, their experiences were transformative, and the exposition of their essays was stellar. We remembered exceptional stories and wanted to showcase them in the book,” the authors said.
They wrote to 100 students thinking, ah well, 50 would agree to be in the book. Eighty-five wrote back enthusiastically, in the affirmative — and the book took shape
“We used the first year of the pandemic and lockdown for the rewarding process of analysing and critiquing the essays. What made them work? How could they be inspirational?”
Are there any personal favourites among the 85?
They loved each essay in the book, but chose five that are “hugely memorable”. Some of these employ humour, others are quietly reflective, some use one moment to amplify a life goal:
Shiven Dewan wrote on reimagining education for the Millennials and Gen Z. He went to UPenn.
Ninya Hinduja wrote a heartfelt essay on her work with autistic children – which consolidated her mission. She went to Columbia.
Anonymous wrote on Superheroes and how they moulded him. He is at Princeton.
Avantika Shah’s essay was on the impact of jungle safaris on her life and her values. She is at Stanford.
Riyaan Bakhda’s hilarious essay, ‘This Bombay Birder’s Banana Republic’ is about his serendipitous invention of eco-friendly banana peel packaging. He is going to Columbia.
What next? What’s their next project?
“This is our second book together. Our first joint book was ‘An Undefiled Heritage’ a beautifully produced history of (Mumbai’s) Cathedral and John Connon School (their alma mater). The school has since seen dynamic development and expansion. So, the book, too, needs to update,” the authors concluded.
