Described by Amit Chaudhuri as the best debut novel I’ve read for a long time, Anjali Joseph’s Saraswati Park is released today. It tells the tale of Mohan, a letter writer who sits outside the main post-office in Bombay, his wife Lakshmi, and their nephew Ashish, a sexually uncertain 19 year old who comes to […]
The Honey Gatherers, By Mimlu Sen Reviewed by Piers Moore Ede from the Independent on Sunday, 2 May 2010 Living a bohemian life in France, Mimlu Sen witnesses a performance by the Baul, a group of wandering mystic-minstrels from West Bengal. Captivated by the music, and by one of the musicians in particular, she returns […]
Among the astonishing array of jewels and gems left behind by the great Islamic empires, emeralds stand out for their size and prominence. For the Safavids, Mughals, and Ottomans, green was – as it remains for all Muslims – the colour of Paradise, reserved for the Prophet Muhammad and his descendants. Tapping a wide range […]
In April 2004, Piers Moore Ede embarked on a very unusual journey. Disheartened by a world seemingly hooked on material wealth and scientific fact, he decided to travel the world in search of something completely other – the magical, the mystical, the numinous. In All Kinds of Magic, Piers recounts this voyage of re-enchantment, which […]
Roy Moxham seems to have a knack for the bizarre. In his last book, The Great Hedge of India, he discovered the existence of a 2000 mile customs barrier, a great hedge, once used to facilitate the collecting of a salt levy by the British Raj. Undaunted by the fact that no one knew anything […]
Winning the Man Booker prize is something that most authors dream of, although not generally with their first novel. Mirroring India’s rise as a global economy, the novel takes the form of a series of letters written late at night by Balram Halwai, the protagonist, to Wen Jiabao, the Premier of the State Council of […]
This incredible documentary covers the world politics of power, war, corporations, deception and exploitation. It visualizes the words of Arundhati Roy, specifically her famous Come September speech, where she spoke on such things as the war on terror, corporate globalization, justice and the growing civil unrest. It’s witty, moving, alarming and quite a lesson in […]
Since 1989, when the separatist movement exploded, more than seventy thousand people have been killed in the battle between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Born and raised in the war-torn region, Basharat Peer brings this little-known part of the world to life in haunting, vivid detail. Peer tells stories from his youth and gives gut-wrenching […]