Category: Uncategorized
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Haute Couture
There’s a certain fascination I have for couture shows – on days I can’t find anything to do, of which there are many, I will watch show after show, I now even have favourites. In them, I think, one can see both the exquisite beauty and the unimaginable cruelty this world is capable of.…
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On India
During my one trip to Europe, I was constantly surprised at how many people assumed I was from London, Spain, and Latin America – but no one ever thought I was from India. I usually corrected them, but it was almost always followed by questions I was not willing to answer. I have zero sense…
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Dear Nazim
Yesterday, an aunt asked me about my friends, and the conversation inevitably turned to marriage. I told her I couldn’t imagine how anyone could live with another person without a profound love. And she suddenly smiled, like some older people do when they think they know better, and told me that love is not like…
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The Hour of the Star / Clarice Lispector
At the end of The Hour of the Star, Macabéa goes to a fortune-teller, who tells her about her horrible life – Macabéa hadn’t realized it earlier – and how equally horrible her present is. But she predicts a complete turnaround for her the minute she steps out of that building, she was going to…
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Amrita / Imroz
Amrita Pritam, the famous Punjabi poet, used to have a recurrent dream for twenty years. A man stood painting by a window with his back on her. She could never see his face. In these twenty years, many things happened in her life. She got married, had two children, fell madly in love with Sahir…
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Exquisite memories of a corpse
Ancient stones are not only stones and dust, as I’ve always considered ghosts as their most intimate inhabitants, entities fully inserted in the most inner part of old monuments and past constructions, quietly furthering, remembrances of past lives, and councils to the living; one just need not be frightened of, but rather intimate with them.…
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Hasan Sijzi / After Tomorrow the Days Disappear
from the Northwestern University Press website: “HASAN SIJZI OF DELHI (1254–c. 1328) was a key figure in the development of Indo-Persian literary culture and its poetic forms following the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century… also known as Amir Hasan Sijzi Dehlavi, is considered the originator of the Indo-Persian ghazal, a poetic form that endures to…
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The story of an unknown man and a cup of tea
My grandfather was an unknown classical musician. He had run away from a comfortable home to pursue what he wanted. Which, of course, meant that he never had enough – or, any – money throughout his life. It was a particularly bad time for my grandparents, when one morning they realized they had absolutely no…
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Dasgupta / Menon
One relationship that has continued to intrigue me over the years is the one that was shared by Prabuddha Dasgupta and Lakshmi Menon. Dasgupta, one of the most important fashion photographers from India, fell in love with Menon, a young model 25 years his junior. They eventually moved in together in a small apartment in…
Beyond Six Rivers 