Mother, husband thrilled at Deepa's Booker honour for 'Heart Lamp'
A Madikeri-based writer, Deepa's fascination with stories began early--long before she became a journalist and translator. Her love for stories and writing began when she sat listening to the stories told by her grandmother.
'Deepa's grandmother used to tell amazing stories and she loved listening to them, mesmerized, and slowly falling in love with them,' she said. 'She then continued her passion for journalism at The New Indian Express,' reminisces Sudhamani.
Deepa's husband, Nanaiah, has supported her throughout her journey. 'I am very happy and proud of her. She had multiple deadlines but she don't give up because she did it out of her passion.
She was so immersed in it that she even started learning Urdu, to seep into the lives of the characters and to get the whole essence.'
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The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
A play about everyday feminism
Shatarupa Bhattacharyya found herself fascinated by Medea, the Greek mythological character, when she first read about the sorceress many years ago. 'I have been practising theatre for a good 14-15 years now, and in the middle of my theatre journey, I realised that I only wanted to do plays with strong female characters…which talk about women's journeys,' explains the Bengaluru-based theatre artist and social scientist. Medea, says Shatarupa, interested her because she (Medea) had empowered herself. 'I was intrigued by the storyline, the character's agency and the emotional drama, but I also wanted to make it a simpler version because Medea has been done a lot. I wanted to place that premise into contemporary times.' This is exactly what Shatarupa has done with Silvatein – The Wrinkles in Time, a Hindi play that she has written and directed. Performed by the Quissa Collective, it will be staged on August 17 at Medai – The Stage, Koramangala, as part of the third edition of Theatre Binge. This will be the 14th performance of the play, which premiered in Bengaluru in March 2024 and has travelled to Jaipur, Alwar, and Kolkata since its debut. Though originally written in English, the play was translated into Hindi by Puneet Gupta because of the context and a very Indian storyline, explains Shatarupa. 'I wanted its authenticity to come out and I wasn't getting that in English,' she says. 'Hindi made it conversational; English was making it dialogue-oriented.' Silvatein, which tells the story of an encounter between two seeming strangers, Rupali Choudhury and Arijit Mallick, is an 'autopsy of incompatibility,' says Shatarupa. 'As a playwright and director, my objective was not to sensationalise a breakup drama. What I wanted was an exploration of what happens after relationships have ended, and when people replay and reinterpret the past.' The form of the play is ambiguous, with the two people on stage remembering their relationship differently, making the audience question whose truth they are watching. Also, Shatarupa has attempted to structure the play to mimic how human memory seems to work. 'It is not a straight chronology; the narrative is fractured, like how memory works. We do not remember things in a linear fashion.' The play also comes from a personal space, says Shatarupa. 'One of the key elements that I wanted to have in this play is everyday feminism, something that I have seen in my family.' Her early understanding of feminism, came from her mother, grandmother and aunt, 'before I read Simone de Beauvoir or any other feminist scholar.' According to her, this sort of feminism is not about slogans and grand speeches. 'It is about very mundane, almost invisible microdynamics in a relationship.' One of the protagonists in the play, Rupali, played by Ujani Ghosh, for instance, refuses to be defined by past relationships, simply because a man insists, says Shatarupa. Ujani, who sees Rupali as a woman who carries herself with quiet strength, describes her character as 'someone who is stoic on the outside, but constantly navigating the undercurrents of the memory that is there. There are moments where she discovers that her history doesn't define her; it shapes her into a person with agency, choice, resilience…' The character of Arijit, played by Sagnik Sinha, on the other hand, appears to have more shades of grey to him. 'It is easy for someone like me, when I am playing Arijit, to see him as a bad person,' says Sagnik . But, over time, he realised that 'every person is justified in their own truth. It was essential for me to keep that judgment aside and treat the character like a normal person.' The play, Shatarupa says, does not vilify men. 'The male character that Sagnik plays is human and flawed. A lot of times, after the play ended, I've had audience members come up to me and say that they empathise with this character.' By showing the man's perspective, Shatarupa says, the play is trying to make the audience uncomfortable in a productive way. 'The point is not to punish the male characters but to reveal how two people can still live in completely different versions of the same reality.' Silvatein – The Wrinkles in Time will be staged on August 17 at Medai – The Stage, Koramangala, 3.30 pm onwards. Tickets, priced at ₹350, are available on BookMyShow
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
Singapore company employees get paid holiday and free tickets. Thanks to Rajinikanth's Coolie
Singapore firm offers paid holiday to Tamil employees More about Coolie Just two days before its much-anticipated release, Coolie, starring the legendary Rajinikanth and directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj , has already set the entertainment world abuzz. The excitement surrounding the film is unmatchable, with fans eagerly counting down the hours until they can witness the magic on the big screen. Fans are going crazy on Thalaivaa taking over the screen soon and we have proof!After a Madurai-based firm, a company in Singapore has made headlines by announcing a paid holiday for its Tamil-speaking employees to watch Coolie on its opening day. Not only that, the company is also providing free tickets and an additional allowance of 30 Singapore dollars per person for food and beverages. This initiative, described as part of workers' welfare and stress management, has gone viral on social Lokesh Kanagaraj, who has been heavily involved in the film's promotion, recently paid a spiritual visit to the Shiva temple in Tiruvannamalai, seeking blessings for the movie's to the film's buzz is its record-breaking overseas rights acquisition, making it the highest-selling Tamil film in international markets to date. Industry insiders speculate that Coolie will release in over 100 countries, marking an unprecedented global reach for a Tamil-language star-studded cast includes big names such as Nagarjuna, Sathyaraj, Aamir Khan, Upendra, Soubin Shahir, and Shruti Haasan, alongside Rajinikanth, promising powerful performances and diverse the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has rated Coolie with an 'A' certificate. This has raised concerns among fans, especially since Rajinikanth's movies traditionally attract a family audience, including children, who may now be restricted from viewing the film in Coolie prepares to hit cinemas worldwide on August 14, the film is going to clash with YRF's much-awaited spy movie War 2, featuring Jr NTR and Hrithik it will live up to the hype and break new box office records remains to be seen, but the excitement leading up to the premiere is undeniably at an all-time high.
Mint
3 hours ago
- Mint
Manu Joseph: The pressure on men to read novels can be insufferable
Now and then, there is a lecture given to men about how they must read, chiefly novels. And why the fact that most of them don't read novels is yet another reason why they are not better people, like women. A few days ago the New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote a column entitled, 'Attention, Men: Books Are Sexy!' This headline portended a genre of advice to men—that if they did what women did, they would be more attractive. You may have also come across articles that say, 'Men: Doing chores at home is sexy' and 'Men: Listening is sexy.' Once, on a Goan beach, I was practising yoga, or what I think is yoga, when two Western women nodded in appreciation as they walked by. What made me laugh in the warrior pose was not only their social confidence in complimenting a native practising his own culture, but also my suspicion that what they approved of was a man doing peaceful exercises, instead of pumping iron like 'toxic men' do. I wanted to tell them I have read Sally Rooney too; they would probably have taken me out to dinner. If I said Jane Austen, they might have swooned. Also Read: Mint Quick Edit | 'Heart Lamp': A Booker prize for empathy and light Dowd makes the rewards for men clearer in her NYT column: 'It was one of the most erotic things I ever heard. A man I know said he was reading all the novels of Jane Austen in one summer." This is part of an ongoing lament about the disappearance of men who read novels. 'I interviewed Ralph Fiennes, and it turned out that he loves Shakespeare and reciting Beckett at 3 a.m. under the stars," she writes, I guess in an appreciative way and not in alarm at the mental health of such a man. Alright, most men do not wish to recite an absurdist playwright at a late hour. Is that really a problem? As an expert on men, let me explain why most of them don't read novels. Because they find novels boring. There needs to be no other reason. Finding something uninteresting is a human emotion that does not need to explain itself. But still, you may want me to explain, so I will try: Most men have no curiosity about the lives of people they do not know, especially made-up people; and lack the narcissism to connect the drama of fictitious people with their own lives. As a result, they are unable to overlook unremarkable plot lines and unremarkable scenes, particularly in 'literary' novels. Also, if they are over the age of 30, they are entrapped by an imbecilic question: 'What is the takeaway?' If something is not entertaining, men can still soldier on, like going to a gym, but they need to know what 'use' it will be. I agree it is a foolish way to be, but this is how most adults, not just men, are today. Also Read: Children's literature is a generator of human capital In my view, reading is the highest form of entertainment, especially when a book gets going, but I completely understand why some people might find it boring. As the American writer David Foster Wallace said, 'I have friends—intelligent friends—who don't like to read because they get—it's not just bored—there's an almost dread that comes up... about having to be alone and having to be quiet." Actually, reading his 'great' novel, Infinite Jest, has been more dreadful to many people than loneliness. Also, anything by Thomas Pynchon. Their works are so dense that people admit to suffering through them. They do claim 'rewards,' but that could be something they are trained to say by the establishment. I can see the point of working a bit to enjoy a work of art, but suffering it for weeks only reflects a lack of self-confidence to toss an acclaimed book aside as unworthy of your time. The veneration of novels as predominant temples of wisdom and powerful schools of empathy is in great part the propaganda of writers and literary middlemen who have a vested interest in insulting those who don't consume their goods. Also Read: Our literary fiction written in English has lost its spark First of all, the novel, especially the vaunted literary novel, is a luxury enterprise, the preserve of the upper class. Most of world literature is the point of view of the top 2%. I would even say all of literature is just that when you consider that the top 2% regulates what counts as 'literature.' You don't have to be in awe of it. But I would say this: Of all the things the rich have made, this is probably the most enjoyable. As women are the primary market for novels today, they have created a world where the most powerful people in publishing are mostly women. Also Read: Manu Joseph: How to reform your son after you watched a TV show There are some male literary superstars, but even their fate rests on a special quality of women—they are generous to men, in the sense that they are somewhat interested in what men have to say. Men, in general, do not seem to have that generosity. A lot of men, in my experience, have no interest in reading the thoughts and stories of women. There is no villainy here; it is just the way they are. It is a bit like how Indians are interested in reading about America, but Americans have no such reciprocal interest. The male view, despite the generosity of women, is not so saleable anymore. In 2022, the novelist Joyce Carol Oates wrote on Twitter, 'A friend who is a literary agent told me that he cannot even get editors to read first novels by young white male writers, no matter how good." Women readers have been pushing male novelists out of the mainstream market because they are naturally drawn to what other women have to say. Perhaps this points to how natural it is for men not to be all that interested in the things that interest women. The author is a journalist, novelist and screenwriter. His latest book is 'Why the Poor Don't Kill Us.'
