Looking into a row of tenement buildings, a gallery of working-class life in Delhi, a rich and a full world of intrigue and festering desires is unfolding. It is getting late, the evening rituals have begun.
Recently wed A-297 is delighted to discover a relatively unexplored, fertile playground for furtive games.
After being diagnosed with Type II diabetes, A-298 has become a badminton evangelist.
A-300 hates ceiling fans; they make his hair fly. His wife loves them on at full speed.
A-299 lives in a joint family and always feels unclean.
Morning and evening, A-302 practices Bikram yoga to enhance his virility, except he has no one to test it on.
A-303 is a section officer at the PWD, but his real interest in life is to measure and quantify it.
Every evening, bachelor A-305 returns home from work and watches family dramas till bedtime. He hopes that one day he will have one of his own- replete with siblings, sisters-in- law, retired colonel father, mother, wife, eccentric cousins and two precocious children.
Twenty years ago, A-306 was given a hobby electronics kit on Diwali. He has since grown into a wizard who can fix anything short of a nuclear reactor.
Acrylic and ink on paper, 42x42 in (each), 2011
Sarnath Banerjee is a graphic novelist, artist and filmmaker.
A303, Kidwai Nagar 28 November 2011
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By Sarnath Banerjee |
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Cinema as politics, politics as cinema 14 February 2014
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By N Manohar Reddy |
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A new book on Telugu film shows that the cultural industry was tied up with caste and regional politics.
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The art of statelessness 10 February 2014
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By Rudra Rakshit and Lora Tomas |
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Fragments of the lives of the Rohingya refugees in Jammu
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Reconstructing the North and democratising Sri Lanka 7 February 2014
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By Ahilan Kadirgamar |
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A recent talk on the need for democratic mobilisation of resources and a politics of self-reflexivity in rebuilding Sri Lanka’s...
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A room of his own 4 February 2014
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By Lora Tomas |
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In conversation with Goa-based poet Manohar Shetty
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Musharraf’s last stand 30 January 2014
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By Sher Ali Khan |
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A look at the difficulties and implications of trying a military ruler in Pakistan as Musharraf prepares to leave the country....
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There are many ways to destroy a city 23 January 2014
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By Taran N Khan |
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Reflections on the recent attack targetting a Kabul institution, the Taverna du Liban restaurant.
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Inside and Out 17 January 2014
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By Annie McCarthy |
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New queer writing from Southasia suggests shifts in attitudes since 2009.
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Archives of Southasia 14 January 2014
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By The Editors |
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In celebrating the reissue of Himal’s first print quarterly, we offer a series of articles on the state of archiving in...
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The life and letters of Elizabeth Draper 13 January 2014
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By N P Chekkutty |
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The world celebrated the tercentenary of writer Laurence Sterne (1713- 1768) in 2013. A tribute to the woman who inflamed...
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Courting prospects 9 January 2014
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By Sreedeep |
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Despite state overtures, localised identities provide a powerful argument against Baltistan’s coarsely wrought borders....
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Autonomy under siege 7 January 2014
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By Freny Manecksha |
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Three women in the militarised spaces of Kashmir describe traumatic accounts of sexual violence and their struggles to gain...
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Seeding the future 31 December 2013
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By Smriti Mallapaty |
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The use of modern seeds stands to erode the genetic diversity of local seed varieties in Nepal
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Himal Southasian is relaunched in print! |
Image: Penguin India
Penguin India withdraws The Hindus
On 11 February 2014, Penguin India decided to recall and destroy all remaining copies of Wendy Doniger’s book The Hindus: An Alternative History. The decision was part of an agreement between them and Shiksha Bachao Andolan, a Hindu campaign group that filed a case against the publishers in 2010, arguing that the book was insulting to Hindus and contained “heresies”.
From our archive:
Diwas Kc reviews The Hindus: An Alternative History. (March 2010)
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