Oct 17
By Bhaswati Ghosh
In one of his most powerful poems (Patraput, 15), Tagore declares himself an outcast, one who has renounced the bondage of religion and ritual. He likens himself to Bauls and their search for the man of the heart, a quest to find divinity in humanity, not in external or imagined symbols. This is the other, everyday Tagore – internalized in universes that don’t often feature in scholarly discourses.
By Bhaswati Ghosh
Sahana Bajpaie is a leading name in the realm of Rabindrasangeet singers. Brought up and educated in Santiniketan, Sahana trained in Indian classical music and Rabindra Sangeet under Bijoy Sinha, Madhumita Roy, Chitra Roy, Shyamoli Bandopadhyay, Chandan Munshi and Mita Huq (Bangladesh) among others. She speaks to Bhaswati Ghosh
By Manisha Banerjee
Coming to posters, Shyamali was the perfect ambassador for blending art with activism. Even in the prison in the USA, she made posters with her drawings and scribbled on them words of protest. These were long banners on cloth which she could hang from trees that spoke of her concern for the world.
By Aseem Asha Usman
The festival is celebrated for three days in the second week of May, to coincide with the birthday of Rabindranath Tagore and held in collaboration with Jamia Schools and Department of Sculpture, Faculty of Fine Art, Jamia Millia Islamia. It is always celebrated based on themes inspired by Tagore’s philosophy, life and works. This year (2015), the theme of the Utsav was ‘Santiniketan’.
By Goirick Brahmachari
Ma lost her voice the day Baba died. They had fallen in love in the winter of 1960. For years she sang and Baba sang through her.
By Ruma Chakravarti
Wilfred Owen was arguably Britain’s best war poet. Sir Rabindranath Tagore, as his mother Susan Owen addressed a letter that she wrote to Tagore in 1920, was certainly India’s finest.
By Koral Dasgupta
For quite some days I have been watching this house every time I cross it. I thought for once I will find its occupant lazing outside on the veranda. But it didn’t quite happen and each time I killed my instinct of knocking the door and going ahead uninvited. But the house makes a statement by itself, which draws my attention and my speed naturally slows down when I am walking past.
By Lisa D. Ellis
The desire of every writer included in this issue to relate his or her successes and frustrations in the hope that in the process, their story will ultimately help them form valuable connections. In coming together in this way to share our art, we all play a meaningful part to help keep good writing alive for future generations, regardless of whether the work is read in print, electronically, or in some other form we can’t yet anticipate.
By Kimberly Bunker
I’ve come to understand that getting published comes down to two main, and almost unrelated, things: 1. Good writing, and all that that entails, and 2. Connections. Of course, both are highly ambiguous and relative terms. How do you know if your writing is good enough, and if your connections are important enough?
By Kathy Brown Ramsperger
My most recent, encouraging rejection: “Although your manuscript seems a unique idea, we regret to inform you of our decision not to pursue further collaboration at this time.” How do I know that’s a personal rejection? A typo, and the words “unique idea.” That’s often the only clue you’ll get.
Yet triumphs do occur as well.
By Paige Bonnivier Hassall
When I contemplate the business side of writing, I can’t help sometimes but wonder: Am I writing fiction, or playing baseball? When did literature become something to be read aloud by a sportscaster? And is my daughter doomed to inherit this prosaic world?
By Robert Dorn
In order to keep myself writing on a regular basis and to connect with other writers, I joined a local writers group. This group, which meets monthly at the public library, challenges itself with monthly writing assignments that we share and comment on each meeting. I must admit that this North Attleboro Writer’s Group has been a significant catalyst in my writing career.
By Caren Begun
After starting my blog, I thought that writing a book would be a good next step. However, I was working full-time and raising a baby and time was just not possible to pen a memoir, novel, or even a self-help book. I did go to a writing seminar and learned that I must really be committed to a topic: body, mind, and soul, then I would know what to write about.
By Kanchana Banerjee
I’m fortunate that my publisher isn’t blatant about the economics of book selling. They are very polite, erudite, and yet clear. The author has to walk the long mile when it comes to marketing. Build an online profile. Focus on garnering a following through blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. QED: It’s not enough to just write a great story.
By Koshy A.V.
The changing marketplace affects us in that we are on a constant selling mode, which takes our mind away from the actual process of writing. This is because one keeps trying to be visible and popular and make an impact every day, rather than write. The writer has to be always in the news and keep churning out new stuff.
By Santosh Bakaya
Now, I realize that it is no use making haste. A manuscript should go to the publisher only when it is honed, polished, and scintillating. Bad proofreading and editing can kill a book. I have seen many an excellent book suffering dismally at the hands of self-publishing agencies that take exorbitant amounts from the writers, but do an extremely poor job.
By Namrata
The Indian literary industry is yet to warm to literary agents and, hence, most of the publishing houses are open to direct submissions and their requirements are very simple. Three sample chapters, author’s bio, and a synopsis about the story that you want to narrate. Sounds simple, right? Well, that is where the twist is.
Contents: Diasbility Arts and Culture (Issue 17)
By Shilpaa Anand & Nandini Ghosh
The aim of this issue was to present disabled artists’ conceptions of their art. This endeavour was undertaken keeping in mind that a disabled artist or a disabled writer’s work is received/ perceived in certain normative ways: in a paternalistic manner, the art may be attributed only to their disability; the Super Crip attitude that considers that the disabled artist has a talent using which he or she overcomes their disability; the artist’s disability may be hidden from the world under the assumption that they may not consider their disability as part of their individual identity.
By Partho Bhowmick
Photography by the blind is a social equaliser: it challenges perception and inspires social change. Many of the participants in the Blind with Camera project have expressed delight in the fact that they are doing something many people would not have thought possible. Blind with Camera is an ongoing project of creation, expression, and communication that helps address feelings of isolation and provides a means to engage with society and create a forum for dialogue between the seeing and non-seeing world.
By Prateeksha Sharma
Recovery from mental illness is a difficult process for anyone. One of the key engagements that I have thereafter got into is to first consolidate my recovery, and second, to conduct an analysis of recovery, via research. Having ‘lost’ two decades of life, it has taken time to put the train back on track, and then to be certain what the track could be.
By Ankur Advocacy Group
This video narrative, made by the Ankur Advocacy Group is one of the first endeavours of the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy’s (IICP) media lab team. We started the media lab as a space for creative expression through experimentation with language, visuals and sounds. This video is totally an in-house production.
By Shefalee Jain
Much of my work is about the diseased body and how we look at it. I am intrigued by the discomfort, the horror, the disgust, and simultaneously the invasive curiosity that the sight of a diseased (especially a diseased skin) or disabled body, creates in us. Why do we react to it in such terror and with such violence? Why is it that despite advances in modern medicine, there has been no positive change in our ways of seeing and accepting the fact of disease?
By Jyothsna Phanija
Intentionally or unintentionally, as artists with disabilities, we become part of promotion of such stereotypical disability aesthetics, although we do our best to minimize their intensity. In this context, certain ideas can promote a better view of art and disability and this may include negating the idea that a disabled artist’s art is a “gift”or a “blessing” and instead promoting the idea that the art is a form of expression of the voice of the disabled person.
Contents: Muslim Women on Hijab/Veil (Issue 16)
