जिन दिनकर को समस्त भारतवर्ष ने राष्ट्रवादी चेतना एवं वीर रस के प्रखरतम राष्ट्रकवि के रूप मे जाना, उन्हीं रामधारी सिंह को जीवन के अंतिम वर्षों में विरक्ति-सी हो गयी थी । उनका आखिरी समय बहुत अवसाद में कटा । मद्रास में बीती अपनी अंतिम संध्या पर दिनकर ने डायरी में लिखा- “सब कुछ पाकर…
Category: Literature
M.M.Godbole’s The Walking Brahmin – A First Person Account of the First War of Independence
Vishnubhat Godse was a poor Brahmin who resided in Varsai village in Maharashtra. Together with his uncle Rambhat, he embarked upon a yatra in 1857, crisscrossed the country on foot, conducted yajnas and anushthans at many places, earned a bit but lost it all, survived the mayhem of the first war of independence and returned…
Ambedkar’s WAITING FOR A VISA – Six Cases depicting the practice of Untouchability
The so-called untouchables were not considered as full-fledged citizens, and were denied any kind of recognition and rights. It is they, who were supposed to be eternally in wait for visa. I am not sure if Ambedkar coined the title himself, or someone else did, for the autobiography was published by People’s Education Society as…
Rakesh Maria’s Let Me Say it Now- A Biography of Mumbai Crime Scene from 1980s to 2015
The name ‘Rakesh Maria’ evokes two responses- I am reminded of Kay Kay Menon’s marvellous portrayal of the famed cop in Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday, and Ganapati Bappa Maria rings in my ears, God knows from where! (the autobiography confirms that he was indeed cheered like that early on in his career in Akola). For…
A Discussion on Ambedkar’s Own Introduction to ‘Pakistan or The Partition of India’
I do not understand why ‘Thoughts on Pakistan’ is now marketed as ‘Pakistan or The Partition of India’. Does it have to do with the controversy it generated in the tumultuous decade of its publication? It was first published in the early 1940s after the Muslim League Resolution had called for the creation of Pakistan,…
Kenneth Anderson’s Tales from the Indian Jungles – The Best of Shikar Literature
Sample the prose- “The man sits with his back to a tree and the light from the campfire waxes and wanes, throwing him into sharp relief along with the tree-trunk against which he rests, to fade the next instant into obscurity and gloom. Leaning against the tree beside him is a .405 Winchester rifle of…
Vijay Gokhale’s Tiananmen Square – A Diplomat Looks Back & Exposes the Hollowness of Western Propaganda
Tiananmen Square is in the city centre of Beijing, located near the City’s Central Business District, and named after Tiananmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace) which separates it from the Forbidden City. The western part of the Forbidden City houses the Chinese Communist Party HQs, and is known as Zhongnanhai. Tiananmen Square has an area of…
Andrey Kurkov’s The Gardener from Ochakov – Are you a Gardener or a Forester?
Andrey Kurkov was born in St. Petersburg in 1961, and has worked as a translator, journalist, prison warder as well as a film cameraman. He is a Ukrainian, and it is there that his stories are based, but he writes them in Russian. I was introduced to his writings with Death and the Penguin, and…
Manoranjan Byapari’s There’s Gunpowder in the Air – On an Attempted Jailbreak
The doyen of Bangla literature, Mahashweta Devi, once hailed a rickshaw-puller who was engrossed in reading a book. Reluctantly, he agreed to drop Didi home. During the ride, he pleasantly surprised the ‘vidushi’ by asking the meaning of the word जिजीविषा. From that moment began the literary career of Manoranjan Byapari, whom Didi asked to…
दूर हटो – हम सबकी कहानियों पर तुम्हारा कोई कॉपीराइट नहीं !
ओ दुमका वाले नीलोत्पल मृणाल भैया ! ओ एस्पिरेंट्स के लेखक दीपेश सुमित्र जगदीश जी ! दूर हटो, साला ई सिविल सेवा की तैयारी करने वालों की कहानियों के कॉपीराइट्स से । अब सिविल की तैयारी के लिए अगर कोई कहीं जाएगा है तो दिल्ली ही न जाएगा । आईआईटी के लिए तो फिर भी…
SL Bhyrappa’s Gruhabhanga (गृहभंग) – The Tale of a Woman’s Struggle against Poverty & Plague in pre-Independence Mysore
Bhyrappa’s semi-autographical masterpiece, Gruhabhanga, was published in 1970. In scope of its tragedy, and depth of the characters, the novel is perhaps unsurpassed in modern Indian literature. Gruhabhanga is the story of the heroic struggle of a woman, Nanjamma, who refused to give up in face of adversity and apathy. She battled against poverty, epidemic,…
Deep Halder’s BENGAL 2021: An Election Diary – Masala Peanuts as Pastime till May the Second
Deep Halder appreciates the pressing need of poll junkies to keep themselves up-to-date, or rather one-up over their adda members in the countdown to the Bengal polls, and has come out with a brief overview of the state’s politics. Of course, the common issues are covered- the promises of development-employment-quotas, election sops, Sarada-Narada-Rose Valley, Syndicate,…
Abhinav Pancholi 