To the ‘bahus’ of the world
TO THE ‘BAHUS’ OF THE WORLD Please don’t believe what they show on the ‘saas-bahu’ serials in India – the relationship between the ‘bahus’ (sisters-in-laws) of a joint household need not be all jealousy, hatred, [...]
Rituporno & My Past
When Rituporno Ghosh died suddenly on 30 May 2013, I felt a deep sense of personal loss. I had never known him, never met him, he was not related to me in any way - [...]
My Srishti, My Sunshine
My bond with Srishti predates the womb. She had been a spectral presence in my life long before she was born – through all my years of waiting to be a mother. I’d always wanted [...]
Shakespeare’s talented sister
Every year, on April 23rd, William Shakespeare’s birthday is celebrated by lovers of English literature all across the Anglophone world. Born in Elizabethan England, the ‘Bard of Avon’ remains the world’s most famous dramatist, and [...]
Franziska Tiburtius & Aletta Jacobs: European Women Pioneers in Medicine
From old wives & witches to nurses & doctors In a rare 1975 television Interview, the French feminist icon and author of The Second Sex (1949), Simone de Beauvoir, in trying to give a concrete [...]
My Loving Baba
Distance, they say, lends enchantment to the view. It – the distance of both space and time - also gives fresh perspectives to relationships. Having lived almost a decade away from India and my loved [...]
When the world is white & the tress are bare
When the world is white outside your window, you will have to stand and stare. Especially if you are a creature from the tropics. You may curse the weather in whichever part of the white [...]
Saraswati Puja in Holland
KALLOL’s founding President, the late Pallab Bagchi, performing the Saraswati Puja in January 2009. Bengalis are notorious for their associations. Whichever part of the world you may live, you are sure to find [...]
Gulzaar’s Ijaazat deconstructed
Storyline: A photographer (Mahender/ Naseeruddin) and a school-teacher (Sudha/ Rekha) get engaged, but not by their own choice. It is brought about by his uncle (Shammi Kapoor) who is also her mentor. It HAS TO [...]
Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara: Immortalizing the refugee woman on celluloid
Ritwik Ghatak & Partition India’s moment of liberation from the British was also a moment of rupture: with independence came partition on 15 August 1947, in what was one of the greatest ironies of 20th [...]
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