The Writer’s Flight

  Demand for translating Indian language literature and nonfiction is expanding. Translation  can’t be left To machines. (Adobe stock photo) Writer Geetanjali Shree in May 2022 became the first Indian to win the International Booker Prize for her novel, 'Tomb of Sand', originally written in Hindi. The 50,000-pound prize money was split between Shree and her American translator Daisy Rockwell. “A world without translation would be impoverished,” said Shree in an interview in New Delhi. “We think of translation as a set of binaries – a journey between two texts, two languages, two writers, two places – but in actuality it is a continuum between these points,” Rockwell told the New York Times in June 2023. “Loss is the immediate outcome, and discovery occurs over the long term. Where does Geetanjali stop, and where do I begin? Are we one author, or two?” India has two official languages (Hindi and English) and 22 scheduled languages, according to the Eighth Schedule to the Constit

  The Partition Museum, Delhi recently inaugurated a gallery “The Lost Homeland of Sindh” which pays homage to the Sindhi community who lost everything in the 1947 Partition and rebuilt their lives in new lands across the world, relying on their wits, skills, and business acumen. Weaving architecture, crafts, memorabilia, and oral history with archival material and contemporary art, the gallery provides a living discourse of a displaced culture, which went on to integrate and thrive in its new avatar across the globe.  Namrata Kohli speaks with  Lady Kishwar Desai, Founder, Partition Museum and Chair of The Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust (TAACHT) on this gallery and more ·         What is the significance of the Partition Museum in today’s day and age? Many people would argue that let bygones be bygones and we need to move on… What is the tangible difference it makes to the lives of many Indians? I think the most important difference it makes is in understanding the past. Once you ha

  By Namrata Kohli   How can women decide the consumption habits of a family? Well to my mind, a woman lies at the very epicentre of purchasing decisions. She is the one who triggers most decisions for her home and family- be it related to retail, restaurant or even real estate. In fact, to borrow an analogy from the automobile sector, women have as pivotal a role as the steering wheel of a car, not that of a stepney, when it comes to decisions pertaining - to buy or not to buy.  As women, we ought to consider ourselves nothing less than the CEOs of our home. After all, you are the ones balancing budgets, nurturing individual members and yet integrating their goals with the overall family goals, looking at the micro and the macro- almost in the same breath. If your teenager is taking that important exam or a member is ailing, you would know that time is not right to get the home whitewashed, no matter how long overdue a thing that may be. You are the ones setting the values or norms fo

As Indians throw open their wallets to spend on festive gifts, take a moment to analyse what is the story behind that product you are gifting and the statement you are making through your gifts this Diwali   By Namrata Kohli   Are you a culture vulture, a fashion forward person or a nature enthusiast or a corporate czar promoting social causes? Your festive gift should reveal your innate personality and values by your choice of products and hampers, this festive season.   As many as 36 per cent Indians plan to spend more this Diwali from last year, according to a report by advertising agency Rediffusion. Ecommerce companies and online sellers are expected to ship merchandise worth $12 billion to consumers in India this festive season, up 23 per cent compared with about $9.7 billion last year, according to data from market research firm Datum Intelligence. According to Flipkart, its customers nationwide are buying phones, electronics, fashion, beauty and general merchandise items during

Mixed media art is a big area of interest for art connoisseurs and the art world. It allows the ability to blend different media and opens up avenues for storytelling, conveying complex emotions, and addressing social and political issues By Namrata Kohli Did you know that Bharti Kher's mixed media artwork which had bindis on life-size fibreglass elephants sold for approximately US$1.5 million at a recent Sotheby’s auction. The artwork titled "The Skin Speaks a Language Not Its Own" was a striking piece depicting a life-size female elephant covered in numerous bindis, arranged in a serpentine pattern, that added a textured and symbolic layer to the elephant’s surface. The use of bindis alluded to the Hindu concept of the ‘third eye’ and the numeral zero. Kher is fond of using resin, bindis, found objects, and hybrid creatures in her work and her mixed media installations incorporating the bindi as a recurring motif to explore identity, mythology, and gender. Welcome to th

  “Cinema is the single greatest cultural discipline of India ”-  Neville Tuli, Founder & President - The Tuli Research Centre for India Studies (T.R.I.S.)  tells Namrata Kohli  in an exclusive conversation in the backdrop of his recent exhibition “The World’s Greatest Mela – Respecting India’s Cinematic Heritage” at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. A  curated collection of 400,000 items from Indian cinema including rare film posters, vintage booklets, hand painted artworks, promotional material, original publications were showcased on themes ranging from The  Silent Era, The Kapoors- First Family of Cinema, The Devdas Legacy – From Barua to Bimal to Bhansali, Mughal-e-Azam, Cinematic-Chemistry- from Raj-Nargis to Hema-Dharmendra.  Student groups from various educational institutions visited the exhibition and enjoyed learning about history of Indian cinema How do you look at Indian cinema and its impact on Indian culture? Cinema is the single greatest cultural discipline of India