I don’t normally write book reviews, although some of my recent posts certainly belie that assertion. Lol. In my defence I can proudly say, all the books reviewed were written by women of colour, on topics not covered by other writers. The subject of this post, The Return of Faraz Ali by Aamina Ahmad, […]
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We, The Barbarians…
In a week when Vladimir Putin rained down missiles on Ukrainian cities, a Hollywood star mounted the stage at the annual Oscars bash and slapped the award presenter, Chris Rock. Putin invaded Ukraine, a democratic nation far smaller than the mighty Russian state, to “demilitarise and de-Nazify” it, so that Russia could feel “safe”. Will […]
“Bloody hell, Brown Women Are Strong.”
The title of this blog post is from the book, Brown Girl Like Me, By Jaspreet Kaur. Subtitled, The Essential Guidebook and Manifesto for South Asian Girls and Women, it tackles the complicated, multi-layered, and often painful existence of South Asian women with honesty, lived experience, empathy, research, and quotes from a variety of brown women and […]
Beware: Theft-in-Progress
Forget partygate, Sue Gray’s report (not that I demean its seriousness) or the calls for Johnson’s resignation (not that I approve of law-breaking) but none of these events will change the direction of travel for Britain; the co-ordinates have been set, the actors are in mid-play and the denouement appears inevitable. Authoritarianism. Accompanied by the […]
Vaccines and Big Fat Cats
If there was a God in the sky looking down on the human race, at its wars, enmity, injustice, hunger and homelessness, to name but a few of the torments being ruthlessly propagated on the third rock from the sun, She could be forgiven for becoming so enraged, that She decided to teach those two-legged […]
The Last Prince of Bengal
Everyone’s digging up the past. From the tv series Who Do You Think You Are to the booming business being done by ancestry and heritage companies, uncovering family history has become a serious social trend. Could it be we have a profound, visceral need to know our family’s past, the twists and turns of family […]
Assassination, Partition and Identity
‘Schools don’t teach us about Indian history or Independence,’ complain thousands in the Indian Diaspora. All those keen to learn more about their historical and social inheritance, should immediately get themselves a copy of the recently published book Exhumation, subtitled The Life and Death of Madan Lal Dhingra, and written by the actor Leena Dhingra; […]
Caste: In the United States of America
In 1944, as WW11 raged across continents, the school district in Columbus, Ohio, held an essay competition, challenging students to address the question “What to do with Hitler after the War?” A sixteen-year-old African-American girl, thought long and hard about the question. And won the competition with an essay of one sentence: “Put him in […]