C N Annadurai (1909-1969), popularly known as ‘Anna’ (elder brother), is one of Tamil Nadu’s greatest icons. His charisma and ideology resonate in Tamil politics even today.
In the Author’s Preface, Parthasarathy presents his play as exploring the ‘theme of mutually contradictory dispositions of the various characters’ going beyond ‘a mere narration of historical events’.
The first piece in the present collection of articles on Chennai was written in 1998 and the compilation in Tamil, Oru Parvaiyil Chennai Nagaram (‘Chennai at a Glance’) took shape gradually over the years.
2022
The novel’s supreme virtue is in its thesis that devolution alone will bring about a turnaround for the evils inflicted on any land and its inhabitants. Also noteworthy in the novel is the role of Father Felix Mullakkattil, the officiating priest of the whitewashed Church of the Virgin Mother at Kalluvayal.
Benyamin weaves a poignant narrative about a taxi driver contemplating robbery, only to be confronted by a passenger’s gripping tale about his own father’s honourable choices as a taxi driver.
2023
Consider this description of a woman’s mental state, as she contemplates her reluctance to lie on a bed that she had slept on alongside a man, in the past. It seemed to her ‘like a thin film of dust that collects on the surface of a table…
The novel’s bedrock is formed by the resilient and formidable friendship between its titular characters; indeed, the bite and brio of this relationship shape and colour every other bond, filial or otherwise, making it one of the great renditions of women’s solidarity in Malayalam literary tradition.
Chinnaiah Jangam’s translation of Telugu Dalit poet Gurram Jashuva’s Gabbilam, a re-writing in itself of Kalidasa’s Meghadutam, is a significant contribution to Dalit discourse in India and to the literatures of the marginalized in any part of the world.
In Ananthamurthy’s ancestral village in Karnataka, where he spent a significant part of his childhood and adolescence, the house had a front yard.
The story is that when Gandhiji came to the estate where her husband worked as a manager in February 1934, she insisted that the Mahatma visit her house too and went on a hunger strike, finally succeeded in getting the great man into her house when she gave all her gold jewels and took a vow to wear Khadi. She was just 21 at that time.
Two important Marathi texts—Adhantar: The Nowhere People (a play, 1999) by Jayant Pawar and Ringaan: The Full Circle (a novel, 2017) by Krishnat Khot are now available in English.
The Stepmother & Other Stories carries a small introductory note on Laxmibai Abhyankar’s life and times. The temporal nature of the book transports the reader to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the absence of a rooted, critical introduction
The overdose of theory served to the students of literature in the name of engendering critical rigour in research and reading has come under serious scrutiny of late.
The Modi script was non-literary and frequently used as swift encryption in business and administration to maintain accounts
To uncover these multiple layers and disentangle the warp and weft of the story, Ahmad takes the reader on a journey that starts in 1937 in Lahore and ends there in 1976, in the process giving us a glimpse into the creation of not one but two countries, Pakistan and Bangladesh, whose birth is a violent one and coming of age is fraught with brutality and strife amidst the shifting sands of power.
The stories are spicy, and the scope for scandal is much greater because of social strictures.
One wonders to what extent one can remain unaffected by things that threaten to rip apart one’s existence or life as we call it
2022
Cities are imbricated in the minds of the people in multiple ways woven through emotional experiences, subjectivities and various interactions. It is some specific moments of encounter that impinge on one’s mind to shape the imaginaries associated with cities.
2022
Vivek Narayanan’s After should be a rewarding experience for scholars and sceptics alike.
The story takes place in 1998, in the sleepy village of Sittanavasal in Tamil Nadu, where Sriveni has led a happy and sensitive childhood with her parents and brothers, aiding her midwife grandmother, and acquiring deep knowledge about plants and herbs.