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Showing posts from January, 2023

Everything The Light Touches

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  We meet Shai. We meet Evelyn. We meet Johann. Each of them – I notice – is set out on a journey. Shai visits her parents in Shillong. Her work Delhi is almost over. A publishing company printing travel magazines cannot sustain long. She is going through a career crisis. What next? A question that haunts us once in a while. She indulges her father chatting ‘ about plant communication, their immense aromatic vocabulary, their capacity for memory ’. She charts an unexpected journey to a remote village in Meghalaya, amidst pine trees and bamboo thickets, to visit her nanny. There she learns the rural way of life, closer to the earth, learning to sow and harvest. Mountain deities, sacred grooves, trees known by their individual names. Life seems relevant ‘ in learning to tend and grow, prune and harvest ’. A purpose at last. A calm in understanding seasons. “ What will happen will happen, and sometimes just being open to that means a new path might unfurl before you.” “Everyth

Hyderabad - Book Review

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  Title: Hyderabad (Book II of The Partition Trilogy) Author: Manreet Sodhi Someshwar Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher: HarperCollins India Pages: 347 Published: September 2022 Rating: 3/5 Buy at: Buy on Amazon Blurb Mir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII, the Nizam of Hyderabad, the largest Princely State of the Crown. It sits in the belly of newly independent India to which Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel want Hyderabad to accede. The Communist have concurrently mounted a state-wide rebellion. But the Nizam’s family has ruled Hyderabad for 200 years. As the wealthiest man in the world, whom the British consider numero uno amongst India’s princes, he will not deal with two-penny Indian politicians! An ancient prophecy, however, hangs over the Nizam – the Asaf Jahi dynasty will last only seven generations. So, he keeps his jewel-laden trucks ready for flight even as he schemes with his army of militant Razakars. Meanwhile, in the palace thick with intrigue, the maid Uzma must decid

Queeristan by Parmesh Sahani

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  Queeristan (Amazon Link) Thanks to Audible Free Trial I listened to this amazing non-fiction on LGBTQ inclusion in Indian workplaces. Author Parmesh Sahani identifies as gay Indian, working closely with Godrej higher management and employees for years to create an inclusive workplace, both legally and in spirit. This book is a result of those years of experience, research, collaboration with individuals from difference spectrum of the society and organizations who has successfully transitioned into a queer friendly one.   Indian history is inclusive. From the Khajuraho temple architectures, to Konark to the Rig Veda, there is existing proofs even 2000 years ago of Indian inclusiveness of queer. It’s the draconian British law that criminalised it, which was scraped in 2009, came into effect once again following a sad judgement in 2013 and eventually was scraped off for good in 2018. I am in awe of the lawyers who fought this legal battle- colleagues and partners – Arundhati Katju

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