image from mdean.tripod.com This post first published on Huffington Post U.K. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ravinder-randhawa/burning-oil-and-not-a-single-scream_b_9475460.html ‘…in the middle of beating her up, he picked up the pan of hot oil and poured it on her head, and that woman … that Jat woman … didn’t let out a single scream, not a squeak.’ That was a story […]
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British-Asian and All Things Wild and Wonderful
From BBC website. Nadiya Hussain, winner of The Great British Bake Off 2015 This post was first published on Huffington Post U.K. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ravinder-randhawa/british-asian-all-things-wild-and-wonderful_b_9374286.html I’m going to say something rather revolutionary: it’s an amazing thing to be a British-Asian, and in addition to be a British-Asian woman. This may be rather a different song to the […]
The British-Asian Secrets Project
British-Asians are invited to lighten their souls and unburden their secrets. We live in two worlds: the known and unknown, the revealed and the secret. Both travel together, like light and shade, night and day. Both shape our lives and destinies. And both live inside us. I doubt there’s a human being upon this planet […]
Modi, Brady and Omar Khayyam
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. (From The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, 1859. Translated by Edward Fitzgerald.) I had decided not to write an Old Year/New […]
Why We Need Diverse Books
http://kidlit.tv/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/shelf-159852_640-412×215.png We live in a diverse world, of diverse people with diverse cultures. The world contains a treasure trove of knowledge, philosophy, art, music, history and so many other subjects. Looking around our world, at the magnificent architecture, the technological achievements, the social and political organisations, I’m amazed, astonished and humbled by what […]
The Challenge of Writing British-Asian Characters.
That’s a long title. The challenge of writing British-Asian characters is almost the challenge of writing a new kind of human being, a new kind of character. Because they’re at the juncture, the confluence of major cultures (with lots of sub-cultures thrown in). Stir into this bubbling cauldron the history and legacy […]
Dialogue Not Drones
The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet Beating off hotly tipped favourites such as Pope Francis and Angela Merkel, the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize was won by the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet. ‘The Tunisian what…?’ asked everyone in surprise. Is it a string quartet? A debating society? Well, actually, it’s a rather unusual coming together of four […]
The Political Hunger Games
fasting, force-feeding and suicide bombers Day 1… day 2… day 27… day 90… day 118… day 174… day 200… day 253…. proceeding one after another, impossible numbers delivering both relief and pain, telling their tale of suffering, endurance and sacrifice. Cataloguing the body’s drawn out deterioration, the protracted anguish of its shrinking and shrivelling; […]