Books
Pratiti Ganatra

Subversive Verses

Dr Kalburgi and MM Basheer are only the latest in a long line of intellectuals who have been targeted by “fringe elements” for expressing views that challenge orthodoxy. This month’s issue of Kindle Magazine seeks to understand what it means

Politics & Society
Deepa Bhasthi

Harmless Pens. Harmful Pens.

I was gifted a Pelikan fountain pen some time ago, a beloved gift from someone beloved. It is yellow, like sunshine. I need to fix ink cartridges into it, a relief, for I get the joy of writing with a

Politics & Society
Soumabrata Chatterjee

The Revolution Will Not Be Contextualised

Case 1: I was attending a public talk a few weeks ago at the India International Centre in Delhi, when I noticed something extremely curious. The talk was supposed to discuss the future of the humanities, both as a discipline

Politics & Society
Muhammad Tahir

Peer-ing into the Abyss

Last month, we learnt from highly placed sources that the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mufti Sayeed was undergoing hallucinatory experiences; his advanced age of 79 summers taking a toll on his old mind and bladder made him see

And Quiet Flows The Luit
Debashree Dattaray

Songs of the Red River

“And over the village slipped the days, passing into the nights; the weeks flowed by, the months crept on, the wind howled, and, glassified with an autumnal, translucent, greenish-azure, the Don flowed tranquilly down to the sea.” —And Quiet Flows

Politics & Society
Thomas Crowley

Guests, Some More Equal Than Others

Delhi’s hoardings usually skew towards the political. These days, they are prey to the ongoing battle between the local government and the national one, or—to put it in terms of its protagonists—between Mr Kejriwal and Mr Modi. (Sample Aam Aadmi

Politics & Society
Ajachi Chakrabarti

Fault Lines

  Is baar danga bahut bada tha Khoob hui thi khoon ki baarish Agle saal achchhi hogi fasal Matdaan ki (This time the riot was very big There was a heavy rain of blood Next year, there will be an

Politics & Society
Sayan Bhattacharya

The Politics of Porn

  “Nothing can more efficiently destroy a person, fizzle their mind, evaporate their future, eliminate their potential or destroy society like pornography…It is worse than Hitler, worse than AIDS, cancer or any other epidemic. It is more catastrophic than nuclear

Politics & Society
Paramita Banerjee

The Sex Wars

Growing up in an academic family, it was inevitable that I would be exposed to shelves full of books from a very early age. The supply of books and children’s magazines was also far more regular than that of new

Politics & Society
Kaushik Gupta

Lewd and Lascivious

When was the last time a government with an absolute majority withdrew an executive order within a week of its issue? That, my friend, is the power of porn! The varied demographic structure of India has always evoked difference of