― George Orwell, Why I Write
Issy Jinarmo’s essay: The Birth Of Issy Jinarmo
Jill – 2020 was nearly half way done and dusted and the novelty of Covid was fast wearing off. I’d enjoyed the quiet time at first but enough is enough. Creative writing had kept me entertained, stories, plays and an occasional poem had flown off my pen, but now I’d run out of ideas. Enter…
Anindya Sundar Paul’s essay: The Two Bhootnaths
One, born a Bengali in body and soul. The other, evolved into the very embodiment of Bangaliana(Bengaliness). Both were born into Brahmin families, one Bengali, the other a Kannadiga Saraswat. Arun Kumar Chatterjee was born at his maternal uncle’s house in Ahiritola, north Calcutta (as it was then) on September 3, 1926 and Vasantha Kumar…
Peter Cordwell’s essay: Mr Harris’s smile
Mr. Harris, our history teacher at secondary school (ages 11-16), was very smart, very posh, quite handsome with his crinkly, post-war hairstyle, and had a wonderfully self-confident smile. I like to think the smile intended to incorporate the rest of us as well as advertise his many personal achievements and professional advantages. The self-confidence got…
Peter Cordwell’s essay: Frozen Legs Syndrome
Note: This is a personal essay, akin to a page from a diary of a person who wants to share his state of being with the world. I’m writing this to inform and entertain as usual but also in some desperation. What it is, I suffer from what I call Frozen Legs Syndrome, which sounds…
Shraddha Sharma’s essay: From Temples to Flyovers: The Changing Soul of Jammu
Introduction: Where the Past Still Echoes If you grew up in Jammu, you’d remember the slow pace of life — the sound of temple bells in the morning, the chatter of sabziwalas in the lanes, and the simple joy of a kulfi after school. People didn’t rush much. There was time for evening walks by…
Renz Chester R. Gumaru’s essay: A Century of Change: Tracing the Evolution of Generations
The Lost Generation, born in the early 1900s, came of age during World War I and reacted to the trauma and upheaval with a profound sense of disillusionment and a crisis of values. This is reflected in the literature of the era, as seen in the works of Hemingway and Fitzgerald, which capture the profound…
Mark Blickley’s ekprasis: Tiresias Disrobes
"A prayer for the wild at heart kept in cages." ~ Tennessee Williams One day in ancient Greece, Tiresias was walking down a path when he was interrupted by two snakes copulating on the road, blocking his way. Tiresias got so angry that he took his staff and killed one of the snakes. It turned…
Indranil Banerjee’s essay: The Unsung Maestro of Indian Cricket: A Tribute to Syed Abid Ali
Cricket, in the Indian consciousness, has always been far more than a sport. It is a passion, a religion, and a shared language that unites millions across the vast tapestry of the subcontinent. From dusty maidans to grand stadiums, from the chatter in bustling chai stalls to the hushed reverence of radio commentaries, cricket evokes…
Vedant Agrawal’s essay: The Key To Success
“The most important investment you can make is in yourself.” — Warren Buffet. Despite being the 5th largest economy, with a GDP of almost $ 4 trillion, we have a GDP per Capita of merely $2,500, significantly lower compared to other nations. If you ask a common man in India whether he is financially literate, he will answer, "Yes, I have a job and I get a salary." But earning…
Tim Crook’s essay: Foreword to One Georgie Orwell
I am sure George Orwell, born originally as Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari in British India in 1903, liked a good sing song. And like his son Richard, he would have been enchanted and entertained by Peter Cordwell and Carl Picton’s musical. As George was a writer who wanted to craft his political writing into…
Peter Cordwell’s essay: Tony Byrne Remembered
As someone who, at 77, still calls himself a semi-retired journalist and one-time half-arsed footballer, I occasionally Google on both fronts just for the fun of it. My latest was Keith Fisher, a staffer at Sunday Mirror Sport I worked with on Saturday shifts throughout the 1980s under legendary sports editor Tony Smith, whose funeral…
Wendy Freborg’s essay: Apology For Hamlet’s Mother
Introduction What did she know and when did she know it? That is the question for Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother. The situation, for those unfamiliar with the play, is that Hamlet’s father (also named Hamlet) dies while Hamlet is away at school. By the time young Hamlet gets home, his uncle Claudius has seized the crown and his…
Amy Fox-Angerer’s essay: Comfortably Numb
The crowd and crush of people at Keeneland’s Opening Day moved but went nowhere. People pushed back and forth from the betting counters to the bartenders, where a can of beer cost over six dollars. While standing in line, he talked me through betting, but I couldn’t remember his instructions a few minutes later. After…
Indranil Banerjee’s essay: The Last Great Spin Alchemist
There is something almost hypnotic about an off-spinner at work—the slow, looping flight, the teasing drift, the subtle revolution of the ball whispering secrets to the surface below. It is not sheer pace or brute force but patience, deception, and relentless precision that make him an artist. He tempts the batsman forward, luring him into…
Ciara McGinty’s essay: The Invisible Injury
Sport is something that is proven to be beneficial both physically and mentally within an individual’s life. Research has shown the overall positive benefits of physical activity, such as increasing our endorphins and enkephalins, two of the hormones within the human body that makes us feel happy. We hear many aspirational young people today say…
Anindya Sundar Paul’s review of a novel by Ramsha Rais – Tears Of The Innocent
Ramsha Rais just finished her schooling from Saifee Hall Golden Jubilee School in Kolkata. But she has had a very eventful teenage so far. Her "gift of the gab" was evident right from class 4, when she was 9 years old. She had her own way with words and her description of everyday things was…
Alex Cordwell’s essay: Graft Dodgers FC v The Hurricanes
FOR four or five summers ago – or was it six? – the lives of a motley but lovable collection of families and friends had the undoubted and unforgettable highlight of Sunday morning football (soccer) on Blackheath. SE London. Not kick-abouts and nowhere near football’s pyramid, but it meant more to us than England versus…
Ndaba Sibanda’s essay: An Attempt At Committing A Coup Against The Constitution
The fact that there is an acute lack of medical supplies, basic equipment and manpower in public health institutions— not to mention alarming unemployment, crime and poverty levels, industrial paralysis, pathetically potholed main roads is evidence enough that there is a chronic maintenance syndrome that stems from an age-old notorious, noxious leadership crisis. Zimbabwe`s constitution…
Harrison Bishop’s film review: A Complete Unknown
First and foremost, I’d like to dedicate this review to my Grandad, Pete. As a creative and outspoken individual, he taught me from a young age to find my passion and love it. One of his passions is the man himself, Bob Dylan. If there was a fan club for Bob, Pete wouldn’t be a…
Arav Jain’s essay: AI: A Catalyst for Progress
“A future shaped by AI is not a threat, but a promise of limitless innovation.” Every algorithm in artificial intelligence is an architect of tomorrow. A tomorrow painted with the brush of progress colouring a world where dreams are boundless. AI is a waterfall. Menacing, frightening and intimidating initially, but a mesmerizing force of beauty…
Pritha Banerjee Chattopadhyay’s essay: A Note On Gary’s Day
In the story ‘Gary’s Day’, the author, Simon Belgard, skilfully immerses the reader in Garry's everyday world, using rich details and thoughtful pacing to build an authentic connection with the protagonist. However, while the first half of the story is engaging and well-developed, the latter portion, particularly the transition to the financial office scene, feels…
Pritha Banerjee Chattopadhyay’s essay: Transcending Borders: A Critical Examination of Urban Life and Existentialism in Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar and Aki Kaurismäki’s The Match Factory Girl
Satyajit Ray’s Mahanagar (1963) and Aki Kaurismäki’s The Match Factory Girl (1990) represent two distinct cinematic cultures, yet they converge on universal themes of economic hardship, gender roles, and the quiet, often overlooked dignity of the working class. While the two films differ drastically in tone, style, and cultural context, both directors explore the personal…
Alex Cordwell’s essay: The Pencil Man
When I was 19 and having relief-managed almost every E. Coomes betting shop from Peckham to Mile End, I was finally given my own shop. It was a cosy little number in a small parade of shops on the Sidcup bypass, and during the week I was a one-man band – I took the bets,…
Peter Cordwell’s essay: The Catcher
The crux of The Catcher in the Rye, if you’ll excuse the use of the word, is Holden Caulfield feeling ‘sad’ and ‘lonesome.’ He’s the great communicator with no one to communicate with, like so many of us. People, mainly teachers, but even also his little sister Phoebe want him to ‘adapt.’ But how can…
Timothy Tarkelly’s essay: Big Cities
One time while I was in Chicago for work, I found the time to sneak away from my companions to write. I went to the bookstore attached to DePaul University (a sort of half-ass fulfilment of a dream I had of going there to study theatre, but instead studied somewhere affordable and in Kansas). I…
Rawshan Tabassum’s essay: Patroclus in Homer’s The Iliad is an unmanifest jewel and shining idol for modern youth.
Patroclus is not quite as well-known as many other figures in The Iliad, nor is his name as widely recognized as that of Achilles. Despite this, his name narrative role, and characterization have a large bearing on Homer’s epic poem The Iliad. Amid the heroes of The Iliad, Patroclus is hardly the most well-known, but he is…
Manya Maheshwari’s essay: Fashion: Art Of The Masses Or Game Of The Rulers?
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word “Fashion”? Well, for most, it’s an image of an ultra-skinny model who has gone through months of starvation and endless beauty treatments to fit into a very uncomfortable piece of fabric, which makes her look like she’s exclusive, different and…
Peter Cordwell’s essay: Dylan/Salinger/Orwell
Yet another lovable side of Bob Dylan is his expansive and invariably colourful praise for fellow artists and influences, from Woody Guthrie to The Kinks (as it says online) and dozens in between. But he’s also very careful, as we all know, to use obfuscation when it suits him, which is nearly always. Dylan’s book Chronicles:…
Renz Chester R. Gumaru’s essay: Numbers Beyond The Classroom
Mathematics is perceived as a difficult subject by most students. Their heads are spinning when they see different equations, shapes, and numbers. Usually, students' fear of mathematics starts from their childhood when they are not able to master the basics and foundational skills in order to fully understand the subject. As time goes on, this…
Terry Cordwell’s essay: Betting on a Charlton victory
CIRCA 2003 – not long after my Charlton Athletic (CAFC) employers procured a small contract with Ladbrokes amidst the burgeoning football betting boom of the early Naughties – your press office junior was entrusted with the task of producing a weekly betting/tipping column to promote both the club and the said high street bookmaker, who…
Abhipsa Munsi’s essay: Heteronormative gender understandings are not purely based on biological differences.
Heteronormativity is a social and cultural framework that prescribes specific gender roles and expectations. In a heteronormative context, gender identities are often expected to align with traditional gender roles and be by one's sex means that if one is assigned male at birth, then they are expected to identify as a man and conform to…
Pawel Markiewicz’s essay: The prayer for a golden-eyed monk
When my dog was dying in agony, I suddenly understood that no Catholic religion could help me. No lying church saints who boast about their holiness could help me or the dog. I wanted to become a Buddha. I have been studying the teachings of Buddha for a few days. I simply want to become a…
Indranil Banerjee’s essay: Derek “Deadly” Underwood, England’s greatest spinner
In cricket the battle between the batter and bowler rises to a level of folklore when one of the parties involved or both even, have somehow created an aura of supernatural ability. The modern cricket is mostly a batter’s game, with heavy and carefully crafted bats, rules of fielding restrictions and the constant demand for…
Indranil Banerjee’s essay: Ajay Basu: the voice, the legend.
Sports commentary is a very special performance art. In days of interactive audio-visual media, artificial intelligence and entertainment-is-all broadcasting madness, the subtlety and nuances of sports commentary is beginning to lose its form and identity. When radio-sets were a thing of treasured possession and the only medium of connecting with the grandeur of events, sport…
Paromita Goswami’s essay: Notting Hill needs Saving
I was with Al, 72, a retired professor of a university near Chicago. He and I served in the editorial board of a special issue of a journal. As he dipped into his koraishutir kochuri into cholar dal at the café at crafts museum near purana qilla in Delhi, with a fiery whole red chilli, said…
Ujjaini Roy’s essay: Can and Do We ‘Teach’?
You are a teacher. Maybe a fancier name describes you. Go all the way. Prise out the one you think makes you feel gratified (in the role that is!). The moment you walk into a classroom full of 25 (give or take) odd 'learners', you feel a sense of power. Especially if you are that…
Pritha Banerjee Chattopadhyay’s essay: Motherhood: Just A Social Construct?
Adrienne Rich opens her Of Women Born with the announcement “All human life on the planet is born of women.” Mother’ (Mata: mother, mater, maternal; Latvian equivalent “mate”) is one of the oldest known words. Roman Jakobson claims that the nasal sound in ‘mama’ comes from the nasal murmur that babies produce during breastfeeding when…
Carlo Rey Lacsamana’s essay: “Let me see you..even in a dream” (notes from a street demonstration for Palestine)
1 Saturday. 11 November, 2023. After weeks of heavy rain, slashing winds, and dark ominous skies come today: a lavishly brilliant sun breaks through the thicket of purplish gray clouds, patches of blue in the sky are beginning to appear; light spreads over the hills and fields; despite the gravity of late autumn the leaves…
Rajeev Singh‘s essay: A Journey of Resilience and Identity
Editor’s note: This creative piece could well be categorised as a photostory and yet the text in this one has its own power. Therefore this is kept in the essay section. In the bustling city of joy, where life moved at a frenetic pace, I found myself, like every Sunday, wandering the vibrant streets with…
Beas Roy‘s essay: According to me…
Identity is a quintessential part of our existence. Identity is literally how we want to identify ourselves. What is that one thing we are proud of about ourselves? Does that thought make us vain? Or does that drive us to become better human beings? For some, identity is the name we carry, for some it…
Ndaba Sibanda‘s book review of Trouble For Sale (by author Maina Wahome)
Editor’s note: A book review is a perspective that renders a specific identity to a book. That’s why this is published in this section for this issue. 'Trouble for Sale' is a rare and rebellious work of art whose title is intriguing and apt. Just like an opening, a good title can tantalize and magnetize…
Paromita Goswami‘s essay: ‘Yes, I am Sexually Harassed. And No, I will Not Complain’
Story 1 (circa 1996): Mansi is a masters’ student at a public University. In his introductory session, visiting faculty, Professor A, asks each student in his class what their background and aspirations are. Mansi says she has a 6-month old daughter. Professor A sounds delighted, and says that his daughter is now a teen; he…
Sneha Dasgupta‘s essay: Joining Dots…Old, New, and More
It's my second year away from home, and so much has changed since then. The delicate glass bowls that were to be brought out for only special occasions have now been replaced with paltry, albeit more forgiving microwavable plastic containers. Waking up to a gazillion phone calls from distant relatives wishing me luck for the…
Carlo Rey Lacsamana‘s essay: A Kind of Mourning: A Theory of Nostalgia in Black and White
After lunch the conversation shifts to the old farmers’ market in Piazza Anfiteatro. It was a beautiful, busy market, Giuliana remarks as we drink our coffee in fond recollection of one of those lively extinguished local scenes now replaced by supermarkets. While she recounts her childhood memories of her home town, Roberto takes a photo…
Indranil Banerjee‘s essay: Listening with Sarayia
Cricket lovers of the yesteryear can never get over their nostalgic attachment to the radio broadcast of the test matches. The fact that those words from the commentators created the essential visuals that were happening on the ground, somehow impacted the minds of those cricket lovers in the most immaculate manner. The radio commentators enjoyed…
Chandraneev Das‘s essay: Why I would re-visit Agra.
People from across the world visit India for a couple of reasons. Two of the primary attractions being: the chance to see a cow on the streets of a large metropolitan city, or, experience one of the ‘Wonders of the World’ – the Taj Mahal. Both these objectives are successfully met in the city of…
Tanima Dey‘s essay: Emotions on Display: Feelings not Found!
When I first let myself be intrigued by the comparatively new method of studying history, history of emotions had sailed through many trajectories, for almost two decades, taking into its boat psychoanalysts, sociologists, linguists, scientists, neurologists, and historians for the new journey ahead. I was already a decade late in fathoming the incredible and fantastic…
Indranil Banerjee‘s essay: Oval Test Victory, Indelible Memory In Indian Cricket’s History
Indian Cricket, as we see it today as a mark of financial and administrative power in the form of BCCI, or a bank of unbelievably talented group of individuals both in the team and the bench, came through its own journey of slow starts, huge losses and of course marvellous moments of glory. There were…
Ujjaini Roy‘s essay: Random Thoughts
My mother and I are on the front porch, in one of my earliest memories. It was the end of December. Her tiny palms cupped the tinier orange in the hope of making it warmer. At around 2 in the afternoon, this was a sort of ritual, she lovingly stuck to. A neighbour or two…
Pawel Markiewicz‘s essay: The broken soul in my homeland
Do you know where this world has got so much evil in it? When I was in the Osuszek-grove for the first time, I was fully grown. I went there on a bike after finding out about it on the internet, a few years ago. I drove south through my whole town, on the road…
Anissa Sboui‘s essay: Othello: The Black ‘Other’ within a White Venetian Society
There are Westerners, and there are Orientals. The former dominate; the latter must be dominated, which usually means having their land occupied, their internal affairs rigidly controlled, their blood and treasure put at the disposal of one or another Western power. (Said, Orientalism 36) Abstract During the Elizabethan era, European nations have realised “the potential…
Sambuddha Sanyal‘s essay: Defining One Kilogram In Modern Times
How much is one kilogram ? It is not a question that we ask often to ourselves but we accept a standard answer in the form of a piece of metal that we see everyday in the grocery shops. However in this article I will try to link this question to some of the latest…
Hargun Gujral‘s essay: Listening From The Counsellor’s Desk
Early in the morning, while queuing up to punch in the identity card at the school gate, a seven year old who’s seen walking in, in the most leisurely fashion is hurriedly stopped by the guard “I-Card dikhao” (show me your I-Card) he says. Much to his amusement, his response, “dekh lijiye, kal jaisa hi…
Niño Saavedra Manaog‘s essay: Turning Japanese
UNTIL NOW, I still feel conflicted about the Japanese. Who wouldn’t be inspired by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who in the past year resigned his post due to his failing health, once again raising the ethical bar for public servants and government officials? If the Japanese come out on the news these days, they often…
Indranil Banerjee‘s essay: Caught Kirmani – Bowled Kapil Dev
The idea of a partnership transcends all possible genre of human activities. And in sports we, perhaps have seen the most iconic examples of camaraderie or partnership between individuals who are masters themselves. There is a lesson of life that one gathers from those instances and that lesson is of the need to find an…
Indranil Banerjee‘s essay: Salim Durani, The undisputed Prince of Indian Cricket
The sport of cricket, if not anything else, had always promised grace and style in its execution and form. In the modern formats of quick entertainment the fast pace and result-at-any-cost have taken over that charm, but yet the romanticism of a graceful exhibition of the skills have kept the oldest format alive. The rhythm…
Anirban Ghosh and Sharmili Bhowmik‘s essay: Inception – The Art Exhibition
This reportage is about a recent endeavour of Pexel SQ holding on to that vision of the founders. Pexel Square is a platform for passionate and enthusiastic artists from India to show and exhibit their Artwork. Our mission is to primarily promote emerging and talented artists, including painters, sculptors and photographers. Keeping that vision in…
Prachi Srivastava‘s essay: Why do Children not respond well to scolding?
According to Oxford dictionary, scolding means “an angry rebuke or reprimand”. When our children don’t meet our expectations we reprimand them in different ways and the most common style is by pasting labels to their ‘Entity’. We don’t want children to repeat any mistake and ‘always’ be on the right track. Screaming, lecturing & name…
Ndaba Sibanda‘s essay: Dudula Is A Sad Symptom of Unresolved Perennial, Colonial And Political Issues
The author was inspired to pen his thoughts down following the recent resurgent spates of xenophobic attacks, threats, deaths and persecutions. This time around these terrible turbulence, protests and afrophobic attacks are initiated, directed and executed under the banner of the Dudula Vigilante groups or the so-called Dudula movement. Roots and Rules Dudula means to drive…
Ujjaini Roy‘s essay: Toeing Lines
“We live on a mountain Right at the top This beautiful view From the top of the mountain Every morning I walk towards the edge And throw little things off Like car parts, bottles and cutlery Or whatever I find lying around It’s become a habit, a way to start the day I go through…
Victor Mukherjee‘s essay: Reinterpreting ‘Mohamed Singh Azad’: The Politics of Resistance and Religious Syncretism in Shaheed Udham Singh
New religion…. for the whole world… firmly founded on a behalf on the One God, the same in the Vedas, the same in the Old, the same in the New Testament, the same in Koran, the same also in the hearts of those who have no longer any Vedas or Upanishads or any Sacred Book…
Sambit Roychowdhury‘s essay: On Fatherhood
A bohemian person like my father should probably have never married and settled down. Don’t get me wrong, I am very happy that he did so – I am positively chuffed to have existed than not to. What I mean is that my father was not equipped with the calculating mind that the bread earner…
Arjun Shivaji Jain‘s essay: On Success and Failure
I haven’t written an ‘essay’ like this in years — haven’t taken out the time to clarify, in words, I mean, such reflections that are in fact ever ongoing. Last I did, it seems, was in August 2020, when I tried to answer for myself, in quite a fit of despair, why precisely I continued…
Indranil Banerjee‘s essay: Eknath Solkar, the unforgettable doyen of Indian fielding history
The recent crop of excellent fielders in the Indian cricket contingent includes very famous names. There was a time though when the Indian team’s fielding prowess was considered much less in comparison to the likes of South Africans, Australians or English cricketers. There were though some shining names, gracing the cricket field in whites and…
Cherilynn Fiver‘s essay: You’re Only as Sick as Your Most Shameful Secret
It was the early 80s, so I must have been seven or eight, making my brother five or six. Our mother seemed to always be in her room, preoccupied with the college classes she’d never completed. My little brother’s dad worked full time as a pharmacist. Our mom used to work at the same pharmacy,…
Yaaminey Mubayi’s essay: Hussainiwala Bridge: A Spectator of History
The land lies, dry and dusty, witness to the rise and fall of empires, the making and breaking of nations. They say past events, if sufficiently intense, leave behind impressions as deep as footprints on the fabric of time. Ferozepur has witnessed some of the most evocative scenes in the recent history of the subcontinent.…
Sanil M. Neelakandan‘s essay: Republic of Barriers
Colonial and postcolonial questions have been haunting India over a long period of time. Diaspora of academic communities are articulating the question of colonialism and they are creating the field of postcolonial critiques. At the same time, there are majority of high priests of post-colonialism and minimum supporters of colonialism. Majoritarianism and minorities in the context…
Svetlin Trendafilov‘s essay: On optimism and art
An old saying goes that the optimist invented the plane and the pessimist – the parachute. There are optimists and pessimists in life. Some people want to fly, while others are afraid of the mere thought of flying. Some are ready to change the world and others feel nervous of the things life offers. In…
Paromita Goswami‘s essay: Hijab ban? What about Christian cross or Sikh turbans? Identity and Consumption Angle to Dressing
still telling women what to wear facepalm -Anannya Dasgupta, 27 Feb 22 From skirts to ripped jeans to hijab-women’s clothing is not their choice. The recent hijab and saffron scarf ban in Karnataka has been in media highlight of late. There is a difference between saffron scarves and hijab though. Saffron scarves are not something…
Shreya Kulkarni‘s essay: Men- (s)- t -(ru) -al Health
“What are the layers of epidermis?” Prof repeated the question but my mind wasn’t in the right place. I have always been an absent minded kid but it has now begun to interfere with my final year viva. It was for the first time I noticed something was up with me. Premenstrual syndrome was exponentially…
Shreya Kulkarni‘s essay: An ode to a feeling which you haven’s felt in a long long time.
June’19 BC (Before Covid) You are at a restaurant- cum bar sipping cocktail with your close friends. You’re on “the” vacation, the one you planned for years and it’s finally happening, after few fuck ups and heated arguments and fellow feeling night stays. You’re meandering about how things work out and how lucky you are…
Sayari Ghosh‘s essay Celebrating Science
I have always been a fan of science, there is no doubt about that. My childhood dream was to be an astronomer and I spent long hours after dinner trying to stargaze in the smog filled polluted skies of Calcutta. I followed spacecraft launches, kept the whole family awake to watch the Leonid Meteor Showers,…
Indranil Banerjee‘s essay: Nightwatchman is cricket
Cricket is a sport that even after being played internationally in few nations among many, has been able to capture the human imagination in the most romantic way. The great cricket romantic and writer Neville Cardus once famously wrote – . “We remember not the scores and the results in after years; it is the…
Isha Pungaliya‘s essay: City centre
The sun sets late and allows for aimless wandering a little longer. A little longer is always better because there is an alley that you hadn’t noticed or a Sushi place or a pub with warm lights and happy faces. And they create impressions; personal, subtle yet intense; resembling none of the general categories of…
Sambit Roychowdhury‘s essay: Stardust
“Prthivyapastejovayuriti tattvani Tatsamudaye sarirendriyavisayasamjnah Tebhyaschaitanyam … … Chaitanyavisitha kayah purusah Sarirad eva” Earth, water, fire and air are the principles, nothing else Their combination is called the “body”, “sense” and “object” Consciousness arises/is manifested out of these … … The “self” is nothing but the body endowed with consciousness from the body itself 1 The above lines are…
Meghali Roy‘s essay: Other
‘Other’ this word elicits different ideas and reactions in everyone. As a Social Science teacher, every time when I hear this word, am reminded of different conversations that I have witnessed or have been part of. During a class discussion on the blatant display of economic disparity during the pandemic last year, one of my…
Hargun Gujral‘s essay: The A(c)rt of dressing up
Its 9:58 PM on a Sunday evening. Dinner is all wrapped up and after a long gap and a terrifying time of having seen family, friends and people we may know suffer in the second wave, we finally are “ready” to go back to physical school, the next day. The pressing concerns plague one’s mind-…
Isha Pungaliya‘s essay: The bay
Horse-shoe Bay: A terminal for Ferries; and according to Wikipedia the 3rd biggest terminal for British Columbia ferries. It is at the western tip of West Vancouver. Some would argue it is situated so extremely to the west that it practically is the east, courtesy the roundness of the world. I visited Horse-Shoe Bay when…
Shefali Chowdhary’s essay: When to stop worrying
Till the date I became a mother I did not understand the true meaning of worry. Yes worrying for an assignment not completed, exam preparation not being there etc but worrying about another being?? Nobody tells you that once a mother always a worrier! No it is not a typo, I do mean worrier and…
Stefani Fesora‘s essay: Self-love – 5 easy tools to integrate into your everyday life
If I loved myself, I wouldn’t be defensive, when someone criticises me. If I loved myself, I wouldn’t feel wrong, when someone makes a jokes on my account. If I loved myself, I would be full of love and understanding for myself and others. If I loved myself, I would look into the mirror and…
Sambit Roychowdhury’s essay: Of poets and emperors
“Saaghi haadise sarv-o gol-o laaleh miravad / Vin bahs ba salase-ye ghassaleh miravad …* O Cup-bearer, the tale of the cypress, the rose and the tulip is going on And even after washing down three cups, this conversation is going on …” So starts a ghazal, the first line above penned by Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah, sultan of Bengal during the last decade of the fourteenth…
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