‘Ambarsar.’ That’s how I used to hear it as a child. The pronunciation soft and flowing, echoing its meaning of lilting water: a place that was both temporal and divine, both real and rather magical. The name means “Pool of the nectar, of immortality.” For most Punjabis, particularly Sikhs, Ambarsar, or Amritsar as it’s more […]
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Remnants of Partition: 21 Objects from a Continent Divided
“We can bear the pain only by possessing something that belongs to that instant.” (Orhan Pamuk. Museum of Innocence) Book reviewing is hardly my craft but occasionally some books come along, demanding attention, time, and a place in our lives. Remnants of Partition by Aanchal Malhotra is one such book. Partition, the cataclysmic event still reverberating […]
Words In Pain
“O, but they say the tongues of dying men Enforce attention like deep harmony: Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain, For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain.” (Richard 11. Act 2. Scene 1. William Shakespeare) When life echoes itself, when different threads meet at the same place, at […]
Statement Turbans and Daring Tales
‘Even without speaking words, I’m walking down the street and saying things, just based on my turban. I think this is powerful and holds me accountable to my actions.’ Says Harinder Kaur Khalsa, Deputy Sheriff, Alameda County. Her portrait in the book Turbans and Tales, presents a woman with a solid, confident presence who looks […]
How a Powerful Politician Was Brought to Justice
It may be rather risky, but I always prefer to end the old year and begin the new one one on an optimistic note. In this year of Brexit blight, Trump tantrums and the tragedy of refugees fleeing violence I was beginning to fear I wouldn’t be able to keep this promise. So: Thank you […]
Bone-Saws and Bold Words
“Bombs and pistols do not make a revolution. The sword of revolution is sharpened on the whetting-stone of ideas.”(Bhagat Singh) As Jamal Khashoggi’s body, or its dismembered parts, remain to be discovered, and Raif Badawi continues to be incarcerated with the threat of 950 lashes still hanging over him (the first 50 were inflicted in […]
A Message
Apologies to everyone as I haven’t posted an article for a while. Holidays and other work intervened. While I finish up a couple of projects, here’re photos from an article in Youth Ki Awaz (the voice of youth) by P. Sainath, titled Visible Work, Invisible Women – A Lifetime Bending […]
Udham Singh and the Fight for Freedom
Introduction: This is a far longer post than I normally write. I wanted to mark the anniversary of Udham Singh’s execution at Pentonville Prison, but as I’d already written a post on him last year, Udham Singh, The Lonely Revolutionary, this year I decided to place him within the revolutionary struggle forming the turbulent landscape […]