Latest news with #FranzKafka
India.com
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- India.com
6 Best Works of Franz Kafka: Stories That Changed Modern Literature
photoDetails english 2908398 Franz Kafka, is renowned for his exploration of themes like alienation, existential anxiety, and the absurdity of bureaucracy. His distinct, surreal style often called "Kafkaesque" is evident in works such as The Metamorphosis, The Trial, The Castle, and In the Penal Colony. Scroll to read more about him. Updated:May 30, 2025, 03:23 PM IST About Kafka 1 / 7 Franz Kafka was born on 3rd July, 1833 in Prague, Czechia. His work explores themes of alienation, existential dread, and oppressive bureaucracy. Kafka's writing style is marked by dark humor, and nightmarish scenarios, often referred to as "Kafkaesque'. The Metamorphosis 2 / 7 This iconic novel was published in 1915, The story shows the tension between individual identity and societal roles. The protagonist's emotional journey highlights the cruelty of conditional love and the deep human need for understanding. The Castle 3 / 7 This novel was published in 1926 in an unfinished book, The novel delves into themes of bureaucracy, alienation, and the search for meaning. Kafka portrays a confusing, indifferent system that frustrates K's, the protagonist's every effort. In The Penal Colony 4 / 7 Published in 1919, this short story examines themes of justice, punishment, and blind adherence to tradition. Kafka's storytelling triggers discomfort and contemplation, using stark imagery and ethical ambiguity to challenge the reader's sense of fairness and authority. The Trial 5 / 7 This amazing novel was published in 1925. The book explores existential anxiety, powerlessness, and the human longing for clarity and justice. The protagonist, Josef K., is arrested and prosecuted by a mysterious and inaccessible legal system. The charges against him are never revealed. Letters to Milena 6 / 7 These deeply personal letters offer a rare glimpse into Kafka's emotional world. Addressed to Milena Jesenská, his beloved, they reveal themes of longing, vulnerability, love, and spiritual connection and the fact that despite their intimacy, Kafka and Milena never lived together which makes these letters more intimate. The Hunger Artist 7 / 7 Published in 1922, is a short story that follows a professional artist who performs public fasting as an art form. Over time, audiences lose interest in his act, and he is forgotten by his audience. The story explores themes of isolation, misunderstood artistry, and existential longing.
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India.com
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- India.com
6 Books You Should Read If You Are A Classics Lover - From Metamorphosis To Time Machine
photoDetails english 2906657 Updated:May 26, 2025, 10:03 PM IST Metamorphosis 1 / 7 Franz Kafka's 'Metamorphosis' shows the transformation of a man into an insect and how his family deals with it. The book explores themes of isolation and new identity. Jane Eyre 2 / 7 'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Brontë is a story of a woman who seeks love, independence, and a sense of belonging. To Kill A Mockingbird 3 / 7 Harper Lee's 'To Kill A Mockingbird' is the story of a young girl with adventures sprinkled in. Wuthering Heights 4 / 7 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Brontë is a story about love and anger, and is set in the windy countryside. Time Machine 5 / 7 HG Wells' 'The Time Machine' is an adventure tale where a scientist travels to the future, discovering new worlds and exploring the consequences of his travel. Diary Of A Young Girl 6 / 7 'The Diary of a Young Girl' by Anne Frank is a saga of a Jewish girl's life while hiding from the Nazis. Credits 7 / 7 (Photo Credit: Representational Image/ Freepik)
Indian Express
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Pendency has made justice a game of patience in India
By Shashank Maheshwari In Franz Kafka's haunting parable Before the Law, a man waits all his life to gain access to the law, stopped by a doorkeeper who never denies him entry in clear terms, leading to an indefinite delay. As he dies, the man is told the entrance was meant for him alone. The gate shuts. He never entered. This is the experience of millions of Indians today. The law isn't denied to them — it's simply never delivered. India's judicial system now groans under the weight of over 5 crore pending cases across courts. In subordinate courts, more than 50 per cent of these cases have been pending for over three years. According to government data presented in the Rajya Sabha in 2023, 1,514 cases in High Courts and 1,390 in subordinate and district courts have been pending for over 50 years. The pendency problem isn't just about bureaucratic inefficiency — it seems to be a constitutional breakdown. The judiciary's burden is worsened by gaps in its capacity. According to the India Justice Report (IJR) 2025, the average judicial vacancy in High Courts is 33 per cent, with Allahabad HC at 51 per cent and Punjab & Haryana HC at 40 per cent. Subordinate courts fare no better, with an average vacancy of 21 per cent, and states like Meghalaya (43 per cent), Mizoram (39 per cent), and Ladakh (35 per cent) reaching alarming levels. Meanwhile, there are only 15 judges for every 10 lakh Indians — a fraction of what the 1987 report of the Law Commission recommended: Fifty judges per 10 lakh people. The result? Cases pile up. Hearings are delayed. And justice remains out of reach. The Supreme Court, overwhelmed with its own backlog, has seen over 2,500 new pending cases added in early 2025 alone, as per SCC Observer. During the hearing of Amit Sahni v. Union of India, the Delhi High Court admitted that it was operating at just 60 per cent of its capacity, warning that delay at this scale 'virtually amounts to denial of justice'. In February, the SC demanded a status report on all HC judgments reserved before January 31, highlighting the silent tragedy of cases concluded but undecided. Nowhere is the pendency crisis more visible than in India's prisons. As of December 2022, 76 per cent of India's prison population are undertrials — people not yet convicted of any crime. Shockingly, 22 per cent of them have been detained for one to three years, and 2.6 per cent for over five years. In Uttar Pradesh, which alone accounts for 22 per cent of all undertrials, many have waited over half a decade in jail, often for petty charges. Bihar reports the highest share of undertrials at 89 per cent, while Mizoram recorded a steep increase from 57 per cent to 66 per cent in just one year. Recognising this, the SC has recently recommended the digitisation of all criminal appeals, the appointment of registrars for case management, and prioritisation of cases involving imprisoned accused. These are necessary first steps, but the underlying system must be repaired if they are to have any impact. Despite an increase in budget, there is considerable lag in infrastructural development. In 2022–23, India's sanctioned prison budget rose to Rs 8,725 crore — a 14.5 per cent increase. Seventeen states increased judicial spending more than their overall state expenditure. But systemic bottlenecks — vacancies, outdated infrastructure, and lack of digital capacity — continue to cripple outcomes. Staff vacancies in courts average 25 per cent in the HCs and 27 per cent in subordinate courts. In courts across India, e-Courts initiatives struggle due to poor connectivity, untrained personnel, and inadequate infrastructure. Even technology, heralded as a panacea, remains a half-built scaffold. E-sewa Kendras, e-filing systems, and live-streaming of proceedings show promise, but their reach is uneven and often symbolic. As the IJR cautions, 'technology cannot substitute structural reform.' Moreover, India's justice system remains fragmented. Police forces remain understaffed, with only 155 officers per 1 lakh population, well below the sanctioned 197. Forensic science labs face over 50 per cent vacancy rates, delaying investigations. Legal aid is crumbling. Paralegal volunteer deployment has dropped since 2019, and access at the grassroots is weakening. The proposed All India Judicial Services (AIJS) — a potentially game-changing reform to centralise and standardise judicial appointments — remains mired in political limbo. There is no national recruitment calendar, and many states fail to meet caste and gender representation quotas. As Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, former SC judge, writes in the IJR foreword: 'Justice reform is too important to be left solely to institutions — it must become a societal demand.' Pendency is no longer just a delay — it is a denial of democracy. It weakens economic enforcement, deepens inequality, and erodes faith in the Constitution. While reforms like digital tools, fast-track appointments, and increased funding are steps in the right direction, they must be tied to outcomes, not optics. The IJR makes it clear: Only a whole-of-system reform, touching courts, police, prisons, legal aid, and forensics, can break the pendency deadlock. This requires political will, administrative coordination, and civil society pressure. Above all, it requires a shift from courtroom firefighting to long-term institution-building. Justice in India must not remain a game of patience. It must become a guarantee — timely, fair, and real. The writer teaches at Jindal global law school
Scroll.in
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
Anthony Macris, The Conversation
Punishment in search of a crime: Franz Kafka's 'The Trial' turns 100 Kafka brings deferral and recursion to an abrupt halt in the form of the ultimate act of closure: death. Anthony Macris, The Conversation · 20 minutes ago Marguerite Duras's novel 'The Lover' is 'a great literary act of looking back' The book is a study in making and unmaking yourself, reinterpreting past selves through the lens of present and future selves. Anthony Macris, The Conversation · Apr 07, 2023 · 05:30 pm 'The Candy House': Jennifer Egan's new novel opens a window to the America that may come to be A 'sibling', and not a sequel, to Egan's bestselling 'A Visit from the Goon Squad'. Anthony Macris, The Conversation · Apr 27, 2022 · 05:30 pm
Express Tribune
17-02-2025
- General
- Express Tribune
You can't run from the void, but you can scroll past it
Why are we so afraid to be bored in the 21st century? In a world full of digital distraction—scrolling through Facebook, TikTok, Netflix, to chasing Instagram likes— why does the minor moment of boredom send a shiver down our spine? Why we don't want to truly embrace ourselves? Is it merely a desire for recognition, fear of being alone or something more sinister? Franz Kafka once said: "I am a cage, in search of a bird." Perhaps the answer lies in virulent truth: boredom exposes us to the 'hollow self', an emptiness, uncomfortable moments when we are forced to confront ourselves and our existence, which leads to an unnerving question that haunts us all: What is the point of it all? This is not only an idle curiosity but a profound existential crisis. In the 21st century, where digital distractions are omnipotent, the existential horrors of boredom are more relevant than ever. Our involuntary need to escape boredom illustrates a deeper fear, a fear of meaninglessness, of facing the void that veils itself under our curated digital lives. But by escaping from boredom, are we also fleeing from ourselves? I would bring the views of Heidegger on the subject. He did not perceive boredom as a trivial annoyance. In his famous book, 'Being and Time,' he breaks down it as an existential experience that pushes us to confront the nothingness at the heart of human existence. Martin Heidegger did not view boredom as a trivial annoyance. In "Being and Time", he dissected it as an existential experience that forces us to confront the nothingness at the heart of human existence. He identified three levels of boredom: Becoming bored by something specific which means a temporary irritation with a particular situation Being bored with something as a whole which means a generalized feeling of disinterest Profound boredom, which means the most terrifying form, where everything loses their meaning, revealing the void of existence. Profound boredom robs away distractions, forcing us to grapple with the tarrying emptiness beneath everyday existence. Heidegger accounts that this confrontation was essential for authenticity. However, in the 21st century, we have engineered a world where this confrontation is almost impossible. Digital gadgets, smartphones, social media, and endless content shield us from this void but at the expense of what? Are we losing our capacity for self-awareness, for authenticity, for meaning itself? Indeed, I would not like to forget the mention of Jean-Paul Sartre here. He explored a similar existential terror in 'Nausea' where the protagonist, Antoine Roquentin undergoes a nauseating realization: existence is absurd. People, objects and these routines, all lose their meaning, unveiling a grotesque reality. Sartre argued that humans are 'condemned to be free'— plunging into a meaningless world, loaded with responsibility to create our own purpose. But today, our freedom has transformed into something more horrifying. Our identities are curated by social media, yet these only amplify the existential crisis: Who am I, really? Beneath the hashtags, filters and virtual likes, who am I without the digital masks? Are we just empty mirrors of what we want other people to see, shadows projected onto virtual walls? Boredom was viewed and welcomed as a gateway to knowledge and self-discovery in the past. Sufi mystics interpreted this emptiness as a divine invitation to transcend the ego and establish a connection with the Divine through the practices of Sama (spiritual listening) and Muraqaba (deep meditation). They transformed boredom into spiritual rapture by dancing alone. Rumi captures the emptiness beautifully "When you are alone, you are with the Beloved. In that emptiness, you find fullness. In that silence, you hear the eternal voice." Similarly, the ancient philosophers embraced boredom as essential for deep thought and truth-seeking. They believed that only through solitude one could confront existence authentically. Buddhist monks embraced the discomfort of stillness through meditation, revealing the interconnectedness of existence. Hermits and mystics sought radical solitude by breaking free from worldly illusions and discovering truths. Yet today, as we try to escape digital distractions, we must ask: By fleeing from boredom, are we also fleeing from self-discovery? They embraced boredom as a teacher which opens the pace for wisdom and self-discovery. But in our world, we fear of being alone. We relate and equate solitude with loneliness and boredom with insignificance. We fill our smallest moments with digital noise. Rediscovering oneself in an era, dominated by digital garbage, requires strict discipline and modern techniques. First, cut digital consumption, choose quality over quantity, and reduce compulsive distractions. Mindful reading of good books encourages deep reflection. Engaging in meaningful conversation promotes creativity. Accept the existential journey as a path to self-discovery to fill the void and understand one's inner voice. Practice meditation early in the morning, maintain a mindful presence and engage in creative flow through writing, painting, or playing an instrument. Once a month, go for hiking or swimming. Rather than perceiving boredom as an enemy, choose it as a way towards truth in our existence. In a world where digital distractions are almost inescapable. How can we reconnect with ourselves, our families, our cordial relations? The choice is ours. Face the void or be consumed by it. Confronting the void is not easy. It requires courage and willingness to question. It demands us to shatter the illusions we have built behind the digital masks and confront the raw. Can you bear to face yourself, or will you keep running? Who are you when the screens go dark? Who are you in the silence, in the boredom, in the void? The void awaits. Will you confront it, or will it consume you?
