July 28 was the fifth death anniversary of Mahasweta Devi’s death. Re-visiting Joshy Joseph’s 2009 road documentary about the writer is a worthy way to remember her
Unarguably, it is a big leap for a plantation labourer to clear an exam and qualify to become a government high school teacher. But driven by a passion to prove herself, 28-year-old S Selvamari doggedly pursued her dreams with single-minded determination to achieve what she has done today. It has been an arduous journey but this intrepid girl doesn’t want to stop dreaming and is eyeing the Civil Services Examination as her next goal.
Pa Ranjith’s 'Sarpatta Parambarai' is being received well not only for its story and casting, but also for documenting Tamil Nadu politics of 1970s on celluloid. This is probably one of few movies in the Tamil film industry, which weaves in real political parties such as the two Dravidian majors – the DMK and AIADMK – into the story.
It is said that you look at an elephant, sea or train and the feeling is that you are seeing it for the first time. Oscar-winning film director Satyajit Ray’s debut film, 'Pather Panchali' (1955), falls in the same category. Film critics say that watching the film every time helps you discover a different element as if it was hidden somewhere in th...
Writer CP Surendran talks about his latest novel, the dysfunctionality of its characters, its political undertones and the broader issues of society that it touches upon
Availability of the green coconut in almost all wellness centres and grocery stores indicates a high jump in the health awareness levels of the Indians.
As the demand to divide the state of Tamil Nadu gain some traction, two recent Tamil novels shed new light on what happened to ancient ‘Tamilakam’, after the fall of three kingdoms. These two novels also provide some crucial lessons on the importance of being united and fostering pluralism.
For an average human, the next thing worse to death is perhaps the thought of losing a loved one. So, when the entire family of Rashmi Rekha Das, an Odisha-based journalist, was down with COVID-19 last year, she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Barely having reconciled with the loss of her father a few years back, Rashmi was terrified fo...
I own a small piece of farmland in Rakad village, located on the outskirts of Dharamshala. I prefer a life close to nature, in sync with nature. My wife, 7-year-old son, and I stay in a mud house. The recent cloudburst and subsequent flashfloods that raged through Dharamshala moved me to the core and prompted me to write down a few words about what...
Cloudburst and resultant flash floods in Dharamshala, a popular tourist destination in Himachal Pradesh, on Monday (July 12) should wake up the state authorities and local municipal administration to the haphazard development happening in this once-serene and scenic city.
Dharamshala is bursting with activities with hordes of tourists flocking t...
Pictures of Maratha kings with swords are common, but how about one in which a king holds a musket? A rare sketch of king Sambhaji (eldest son of Chhatrapati Shivaji) holding the musket in the recently-released e-book Rare Prints: A tribute to Thanjavur Maharaja Serfoji’s Sarasvati Mahal Library shows how advanced our weapons were even a couple of ...
It is possible that Dilip Kumar and Ashokamitran could have met in the studio and developed a friendship, which prompted the author to write a novel titled 'Manasarovar'. The novel published in 1989 is ostensibly based on the life of Dilip Kumar.In the novel, the character Satyan Kumar like the Bollywood actor, was born in Peshawar and left Pakistan to India before the partition. He also had a Muslim name, which was changed to a Hindu one, after he entered the film industry.
At a time when political cauldron is on the boil in Lakshadweep, another problem is brewing in the Union Territory -- far away from the land, right in the middle of the sea.
A recent research paper published in Biological Conservation by Mayuresh Gangal et al., shows that overgrazing of seagrass meadows by the endangered green sea turtles in the...
“This is just the tip of the iceberg. The nexus between builders and government officials runs deep,” said Ghazala Abdullah, an environment activist based in McLeodganj, near Dharamshala in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, when asked about the hotel and restaurant structure erected on forest land in McLeodganj in violation of the Forest Cons...
In the 1961 Hindi film classic, 'Ganga Jamuna', two brothers are pitted against each other. Actor Dilip Kumar plays the elder brother, Ganga, who has a heart of gold but is wronged by an evil zamindar and ends up joining a group of bandits.
While, his younger brother Jamuna (essayed by Nasir Khan, the real-life brother of Dilip Kumar), goes on t...
The storyline of the Bollywood classic Mera Naam Joker seems to be playing out in the real life of thousands of circus artistes across the country as the industry dies a slow death.
In the 1970 movie, directed and produced by Raj Kapoor, the protagonist, a clown named Raju (essayed by Kapoor himself) working with the Gemini Circus, ignores his p...
Kerala’s Silver Line project, a semi-highspeed railway line that proposes to connect the north and south of the coastal state, could bring an unimaginable disaster to the fragile ecology of the region.
For instance, the Madayipara Biodiversity heritage site in North Kerala’s Kannur district is a laterite hillock surrounded by Kuppam, Ramapuram a...
While history is written by victors, diaries corroborate or counter their narrative truthfully, copiously and colourfully; is it time to adopt them as an official source of information?
The film revolves around an adolescent girl named Yosana, who belongs to the Puthirai Vannars caste, (which is the most oppressed Dalit sub-caste group) and what happens to her when she crosses the boundary laid down by caste Hindu villagers.The script while dealing with caste discrimination as a major theme also talks about how women are the first target, when it comes to asserting one's 'upper caste' identity.
About 65% Indians are against inter-faith and inter-community marriages, says a survey by US-based organisation, which studied religious identity, nationalism and tolerance in Indian society.
Palm oil is ubiquitous in the Indian market – from the government’s public distribution system to products of our daily use such as shampoo, cosmetics, soap, detergents, toothpaste and edible products like biscuits, cooking oil, snacks, chocolate, instant noodles, packaged bread and more. Behind the scenes though is a complex supply chain, riddled ...
An agriculture expert in search of a native but lost variety of paddy recently found it in the collection of a youth in Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu. The youth, Ganapathi Thamizhselvan, is a natural farmer, who has been distributing native paddy seeds to poor farmers at his farm in Thiruputkuzhi, a village in Kancheepuram district.
Jaguar, Mercedes, Tata, Morris Garage, Hyundai and Mahindra have so far launched electric vehicles (EV) is India and many more would come up as the country laps up the environment-friendly mobility movement going on across the world. But are we ready to tackle the potential waste problem caused by the batteries that will be thrown in landfills in the years to come?
It is a widely believed that Tamil historical fiction as a genre begins with Kalki (R Krishnamurthy) and ends with Kalki. But a walk into Sundar Krishnan’s private library in Tiruttani, a town 90 km from Chennai, reveals otherwise
