In the opening essay of Ways of Seeing (1972), a volume of seven critical essays- four of which are a combination of words and pictures, while three are exclusively pictorial in composition- based on a BBC television series of the
If culture is a way of life, as Raymond Williams wrote, then the image of realism and fantasy is all about the Ways of Seeing, said John Berger. Seeing is both believing, not believing, creating a false construct, distorting the
In course of my work, I had to inaugurate a beauty pageant of transwomen from the north-eastern states of India just a few years ago. An array of emotions fought inside as I lit the inaugural lamp along with the
When the intrepid editor of a relatively small poetry publishing outfit called Copper Coin read a handful of poems by John Berger (1926-2017), little did he know his thirst, instead of being quenched, would increase. So much so that Berger
In this era of ‘Alternative Facts’, more than ever, the truth really matters, not only as a matter of “speaking truth to power” the way many ordinary people and journalists alike are doing in order to resist the likes of
Wikipedia mentions you as a person who is popularly known as the ‘Great Bong’. And well, we see that your Twitter handle is of the same moniker. Tell us what does it mean to you? For me, the ‘Bongness’ essentially
Adjudged the Grand Poetry Slam Champion of the Nuyorican Poets Café in 1990 (though he refuses to call himself a ‘performance poet’), Paul Beatty has moved on from writing poetry to fiction and non-fiction- The White Boy Shuffle (1996), Tuff
Jerry Pinto is the author of the autobiographical novel Em and the Big Hoom and the non-fiction work A Book of Light. He has also written novels for children and in most of his life he has dealt with
In the span of two months, Omar Hafiz, a well-known development practitioner from Kashmir travelled to 17 states of India and met young artists in an attempt to sensitise them about the Kashmir issue. Hafiz has in the
Indian folklore and epics are the two recurring motifs in your narrative. In this country, there is a tradition of passing on of stories from one generation to another, from the mother to her daughter, from the grandfather to his