The pain of man wrings stories of pain from my pen I cannot write of happiness as the world weeps, weeps on pyres and graves with smoke spiralling up the scape; as bodies in desecration lie in bags and cardboard boxes; as democracy asserts amidst the chaos of dead bodies and unsensitised souls that have lost their conscience[Read More…]
To care, Nurture and Cherish till Death do us part — A day to celebrate the Fecundity Fertility and the Rites of the passage of Time. Make the Earth Green again. In darkness bathed, Starlight speckles out a Welcome — to the distant Nebulae that stream across the skies Celebrating the dimming of electric lights. Today,[Read More…]
Defaced by a virus, the Earth stands all alone. Humanity — will it survive the crackling of the coronal core? Write, write of the masked men. Faces forgotten. Lipsticks abandoned. How long will it last? Few frightened haggard monied move towards an exodus to Mars. Waterlogged, virus-worn stands the home, the hearth. Frightening in desolation, abandoned. But what[Read More…]
“…the destruction of what you people call evil, is less just and desirable than the conversion of this evil into what you call good…” — The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov We play with the colours of dawn, spraying the world with spring, with happiness, with birds that are willing to sing. Liturgies lace our lives with absolutes.[Read More…]
Left and Right. The witch finder’s army hunts each night. In stealth, the army seeps prowls, creeps under floorboards. The army, hooded and masked, takes tiny ants to task when they bite. Each bite costs the ant its Life. The witch finder’s army parades, drills. You better take sides. If you are not Left or Right, you[Read More…]
The tree, shimmering in a puddle, ripples as a bird pauses for a drink. The sun peeps from behind the grey lined with silver. The river mirrors the sky replete with clouds and sunshine. Water drifts over a lifetime spanning your story and mine — narratives of our Times, of an eon that sweeps the Earth, mankind’s own[Read More…]
An online conversation with Avik Chanda, the best-selling author of Dara Shukoh: The Man Who Would Be King While we grapple in the throes of not just the pandemic but worldwide disruptions of democratic traditions, protests gone awry and a questioning of divisions that deepen rifts among humans, perhaps it is time to explore more syncretic lore in history and to[Read More…]
kitnaa hai badnasiib zafar dafan ke liye do gaz zamiin bhii na milii kuu-e-yaar men Exiled in Rangoon in the colonial British India, the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar wrote these lines, which expresses regret for the fact that he was not allowed a burial in his own beloved country. Used emblematically as the figurehead for the 1857 revolt,[Read More…]
Freedom — All the while, they talk of freedom. What has freedom rendered them? Has it given them the ability to soar? To fly? Has it given voice to their inner souls? Has it helped them rise? Has it got rid of diseases? Has it got rid of prisons that bar the mind — of human constructs[Read More…]
‘Follow your dreams and don’t be frightened of orthodoxy’ A woman who at eighty-eight brought out her autobiography based on the urgings of among others, Alice Walker, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Colour Purple , and Doris Lessing, the Nobel Laureate — only much later. Like Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, her biography is called The Brass Notebook. Does it talk anti-war or feminism or[Read More…]
A woman who weaves stories from the past, from history, from what has been and makes them so real that they become a part of ones’ own existence – this has been my experience of Dr Aruna Chakravarti and her writing. A winner of the Sahitya Akademi award for her translation of Sarat Chandra’s Srikanta, Vaitalik award and Sarat Puraskar, Chakravarti was[Read More…]
With the farmers marching out to demand their rights in India, with more consciousness of the need to close gaps between the privileged and non-privileged worldwide, with climate crisis becoming a major force to redefine our thinking, perhaps the time has come to rethink how literature can be moulded to serve the needs of the masses. That we wake up[Read More…]
Aysha Baqir, an expat in Singapore, grew up in Pakistan. Her time in college sparked a passion for economic development. In 1998 she founded a pioneering not for profit economic development organization, Kaarvan Crafts Foundation, with a mission to alleviate poverty by providing business and marketing training to girls and women in low-income communities. Her novel Beyond the Fields was published in[Read More…]
“It has often been said that the only thing that could unite mankind was a threat from space.” I read this in Arthur C Clarke’s novel, 2061, Odyssey Three. The threat in Clarke’s science fiction was a second star — which mankind renamed Lucifer but was actually Jupiter set ablaze by superior space engineering by an intelligent species far more[Read More…]
Teresa Rehman is a journalist with a difference. She is woman who feels and conquers with her pen. She does not hanker for anything more than being the spokesperson for voices in the remote areas of North-eastern India. In that spirit, she started her own magazine: The Thumb Print, and also wrote a couple of books which have found their way[Read More…]
The mass migrants to Mars stood poised to take their first step. The Red Planet crimsoned further by the blood of scientists who realised the vision of a musky monied man odoured with fame, made into godhead. Out of deep freeze, led by the god who saved them, stood more monied men. They had left a planet in turmoil.[Read More…]
I watch with my lips sealed Watch each girl burn burn the stains of Predators’ Hands till their life is done I watch with my ears closed Watch rancid hands leap and lustfully Immolate last night’s Fun Clear the mess. The job is done. Unemployed, porn-ridden mobiles watch, watch with closed eyes the horror, horror of a life[Read More…]
Rome burnt as Nero* played the fiddle. Fiery flames walk highways, creep into homes, stalking, burning, killing not only coronal heat but hearths. Inflamed by the surreptitious smoke seeping under the smouldering trees, breeze rips incensing fierce fires that unquenched swallow clean air and belch apocalyptic hellish skies. Did Nero build palaces by burning Rome? I[Read More…]
Forgotten souls that weep for an Unfinished dream, for a life Half-lived that ended in an agony of twin blasted Implosions. Forgetting the past — Al Qaeda Osama the terror the horror of tumbling towers the cries that pierced the silences of death and yet triumphing Arabian perfumes silver bricks Clear the stench of corpses, Wars for Holy[Read More…]
Why does Hate extend her reign? Why do divides raise ugly sides? When will mankind unite? Casteist fervour, abhorrence and race Manmade borders that breaches create, tolerance break, love annihilate, rancours breed Marginalised, classified — we still remain broken, fragmented with spite When can love colour all our kind? There is no North, no[Read More…]
Cats came into Preeti’s life long before camels, around the time cows found a way out of her heart but into her life. She had seen cows ever since she could remember…while riding horse driven tongas in Haridwar in 1970s, creating traffic jams in Delhi, Haridwar, Kolkata, Dehradun, Lucknow and wherever she happened to visit in India. From long before[Read More…]
The best introduction to Kathleen Burkinshaw is that she a humanitarian. She wrote a novel that has been taken up by The United Nations as a part of its peacekeeping effort. She has been actively participating in efforts to ban nuclear weapons, including presenting with Nobel Laureates. Kathleen Burkinshaw, the author of The Last Cherry Blossom, a book that is in[Read More…]
A 40 kg silver brick overrides the threat of the grim Saffron coronal rim that explodes in the stomach of a fever-ravaged populace Hunger floods the Green challenging it to celebrate internecine borders crimsoned by the wheel, the sickle, the crescent Hatred bubbles under hooded jobless seekers of truth. Jails clang with differences between Left and Right. [Read More…]
Did the caveman laugh? Did he have a toothache? The cheering thing for him would have been, he would not have to visit a dentist. Or, is that a cheering thought for me? And he would continue in pain while his tooth rotted and fell! And mine gets pulled out or repaired by a dentist peering into my numb anaesthetised[Read More…]
Was Ram a Nepali, Indian or Thai Or was he from Indonesia? Celebrated worldwide human rights The story trumpeted with fanfare as Ravana inflamed burns evils to ashes and dust Exquisite dances with long- nailed grace Or wayang kulit puppets elaborate stories of a hero blue coloured ruler of democrats that to appease his protectorate questioned[Read More…]
Can you interview an online site? You can’t. So, I did the next best thing. I interviewed Binu Mathew, the man behind the award-winning million readers a month or three million-page views a month online journal, Countercurrents. Mathew claims this is not a big thing except that his journal is based on ideology and openness. He calls it a “people’s journal”[Read More…]
Am I white, black, purple or pink? Names given by mankind to diverse reflections of light Names given to create borders between colours Colours earlier that rainbow spelt Now lead only to bloodshed, violence, gore, hatred. Where is the love that Lalon sang? Where is the note that played on the flute harmonising black with[Read More…]
Where were we one hundred years ago? Mankind was out of caves long ago and Asia was learning lessons from colonials about drawing boundaries. Colonialism was still an accepted way of life — it was twenty-five years before a nuclear bomb condemned fascist aspirations in history. Historically, India was in the middle of the Non-cooperation and Khilafat movements. USA was[Read More…]
On the edge of annihilation, a tiny virus rimmed by an aging sun draws on the sap of bread earned by man The conquistador of Nature, the hunter, the seeker — all have stopped The seller sadly winds his words in a lonely home Television sets blare old shows Man depressed into unrest slowly crawls towards the rim[Read More…]
Dustin Pickering in conversation with Mitali Chakravarty He talks of love and religion and writes poetry that is often critiqued by some as similar to verses from the past. And his role model is from the Renaissance — Michelangelo. To some, he is a loyal friend in need, a person who whips up essays and articles on demand. He is[Read More…]
Sometimes, One needs to get away from the torrid darkness of words. A darkness that annihilates. Swirling, twirling a blackness laced with blood, anger, hate Marginalised — Sometimes from a brutal knee Sometimes a mob or a bloody bullet kiss — Violent Death Drops in the ocean connect all lands called continents Mourning Mothers’[Read More…]
How many people cried? How many people died? Sunderbans submerged Nearly five thousand starved Will they die of Corona Hunger or Amphan? And the animals? Biodiversity Day — what happened to them? Lakeside Gardens No water No electricity No internet Poles broken Cars shattered Distress, distress, distress. The cities are all in a mess! In Sunderban, Do they have access[Read More…]
Mutiu Olawuyi in conversation with Mitali Chakravarty He is a maker of dreams for writers – a man who believes in dreams that are woven in words and multimedia across the world. He connects writing with multimedia, not just by writing and YouTube screenings but also by putting upcoming writers on his television show to battle out challenging questions about how[Read More…]
Was Man made for Money? Was Money made for Man? On which side lies the land What is the truth? Did Man for Money walk straight — From Ape to Homo Habilis 2.8 million years ago? Where was the Money, the Economy? And then came Homo Sapiens — smart, intellectual, established Money, Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, all the isms that divide[Read More…]
To dream of uniting mankind, pieced and classified into multiple nations, religions, sects and sub sects is a mammoth, impractical and ideologically impossible task — but this time a little virus has taken it on and united us with its virulence. It was interesting to come across an imagined interview with the virus, in which the interviewer questioned the virus[Read More…]
I have to admit I suffer from acute katsaridaphobia — My Kastaridaphobia is stronger than my fear of COVID19 or cows. While COVID is being kept at bay with isolation, masks, lockdowns and quarantines and cows can be kept at bay by gates in India and can only be seen in restricted areas in Singapore, creatures that cause Katsaridaphobia cannot[Read More…]
Stay Safe. Stay Home. The birds flew home. They had nests. Stay Safe. Stay Home. But, men? Did all men have a place to stay? A place they could rest? A place that housed their beds? “1.6 billion worldwide lack adequate housing”. Stay Safe. Stay Home. A place that shelters them from Death by[Read More…]
In the 1990s, the three Cs — credit card, condo, car — defined “status” among the bourgeoisie. Now, another C has overtaken all the three Cs, the Big C — Corona. A tiny virus has brought mankind to its knees with all kinds of stories, rumours and the threat of depleted numbers and economies. As with anything big, many narratives[Read More…]
Dear Dad, I am glad you did not live to see these. You died. Died before you saw them collapse by the roadside. Gandhi called them his friend. And so did you. Why did God not have mercy on them? Why is it they have no food? No water, no shoes? Why is it they[Read More…]
From the womb of the Earth, She rose — Fiery, like the volcanic core, unfolding each limb. soaring, phoenix like, from the ash left behind out of the gore the rotting Core of the Death Sun. Cremation smoke. From the womb of the Earth She rose — Death crept. Silenced factory smoke. She strode[Read More…]
Marginalised? Who said we are marginalised? We are humans walking side by side. Women, Men and Children Dalits, Tribals and the Abused — Who said we are different? Who said that Woman is born of Man’s rib? Who said caste is by God writ? Who said women cannot enter temples or mosques? Who said Menstruation[Read More…]
I have seen the world recede behind the trees; the world that was for you and me — a vibrant blue world, dotted with green, swirls of ocean and breeze painted by Van Gogh — A Starry Night, and then came a tsunami that wiped it all from site. A fakir overnight, as Lalan, I sing afloat in space[Read More…]
We see And yet we will see — The war clouds turn the sky aflame The razing ground do much the same Neanderthals died of unknown cause Homosapiens crossed a borderless world. Civilisation spread Nuclear Armament Bloodied wars Unhouse the ones who read Shroud them Beat them till they bleed Only one can lead[Read More…]
Rapes — How many a day? How many a week? How many a year? The victim stays till Doused with kerosene and burnt The victim stays till Pelted with stones and killed The victim stays till Lynched by mobs to death Twelve or twenty-three, What was their fault? Being a woman? Beasts drawn by untasted flesh Tempted by images drawn[Read More…]
Do these women have rights? These women who break rocks These women who carry bricks These women who in Temples please Gods What Gods? Devdasis? Can they Me Too? Farmers’ wives, sweepers, Women who clean dirt From homes and yet Live in dirt themselves. Women who could not go to school Can they Me Too? Women who remain Unlettered, Unfed,[Read More…]
Oh house of Gods! Oh house of Gods! Temples or Mosques Churches or Synagogues Displaced they stand— A black stone Rectangle or phallic Does it matter? In streams refugees pour out Bloodshed, Gore Hatred and More More and More Ring- a- round the roses Pocketful of doses You think when they Burnt, Singed, they would have learnt Flames should be[Read More…]
Children in unison rise Crying for the ultimate reprise. Bus fares hike Water jets strike Murderers walk free The land is no longer safe Asperger bound The world round Children protest In anger and unrest Where do they stand? Why have they become the voice of The angry clans? Why is it they scream In angst against the regime? Why[Read More…]
Oh, how weeps Mother Earth! Near her toes, the forests burn. Animals in death throes churn. Sumatran anacondas die. Smoke blinds the eye. Hazy skies, poison air People choke. Life comes to a halt. Brazil, her lungs they say, Now fiery flames breathe. With so much smoke, Will Mother Earth choke? Oh, how weeps Mother Earth! Young blood is spilt[Read More…]
Amazon burns Each flame licks a life Each ember leads to strife How will man survive? From the meat roasted by the flames That rise as if from Earth’s insides? The birds that no longer fly Lie roasted, toasted, drained of colour. The brilliant macaw with its plumes of blue and yellow, The golden monkey that leaps from tree to[Read More…]
Celebrate, Celebrate the Independence Day While Munch-like screams explode Like fireworks lighting the night sky Silent, vociferous, full of angst Unable to speak Bleak, bleak, bleak. Oh, the cruelty of life! The anger and strife Guernica revisited each time. This is not just about soldiers who die. But about all those who silently cry For a dozen different whys? A[Read More…]
The True Meaning of the Afghan “Withdrawal” 
People’s Vaccine Alliance lauds US decision to break open Covid-19 monopolies and urges others to follow 
Boris Johnson walks away laughing with India’s Serum Institute in tow 
‘Fractured freedom’ of Kobad Ghandy is a classic in it’s own right but with aberrations 
Climate change will be disastrous even after latest world pledges, says report 
In Responding To COVID Crisis, Prioritise Human And Environmental Health, Learning Lessons From The First Wave 
Comprehensive Health Reform Program Will Benefit All Developing Countries 
The Second Wave of Covid: The role of the political leaders – Has self-interest superseded people’s welfare? 
Spending More On Nukes: STRATCOM’s Nuclear Death Wish 
Guru Tegh Bahadur, Sikhism and Mughals 
India and the Second Wave of COVID-19: How the Modi Government Complacency Caused the Horror 
Palestine’s Moment of Reckoning: On Abbas’ Dangerous Decision to ‘Postpone’ Elections 
Hartosh Singh Bal to be given the first Mooknayak journalism award 
Marx in this pandemic point 
BJP Suffers Defeat in Strongholds Varanasi, Ayodhya and Mathura in Panchayat Elections 
Torch of farmers agitation in Delhi border continues to shimmer like a Prairie fire Migrant Workers Stranded Yet Again 
Critical Comments on the Principal Scientific Advisor’s Interview 
COVID Disaster Is Transforming How India Handles Its Dead 
Going to Court: The EU Sues AstraZeneca 
U.S.’s new normal: hotter, wetter, shorter, heavier, drier and more extreme weather 
Decimation of an Empire: Understanding the Left Front’s Debacle in West Bengal Assembly Elections 2021 
The Hindutva Cow Urine Cultural Nationalism And The Corona Crisis 
Despite Giving Good Results, Cess-Based Welfare of Workers Faces Uncertain Future 
Tackling Corona: Think Local, Act Local 
Can Guantánamo Ever Be Shut Down? 
Wage Stagnation in the Global North 
Humanity Must Choose Between Two Very Different Approaches to Checking Climate Change 
Question and Resist the Power 
Breakthrough in Afghan peace process! 
Tribute to actress Nargis on 40th death anniversary 
Release Akhil Gogoi Immediately 
Surveillance, counter Russian “propaganda”, Snowden and World Press Freedom Day 
African Human Rights Vs. Western Human Rights 
Is America hoping its withdrawal from Afghanistan makes that war-ravaged country China’s problem now? 
67 Years In The Peace Movement 
Understanding the Wider Health Crisis is Important for Adequate Response 
Burning on Both Ends–Relations of Dominance Cause Distress on Both Sides 
Hurricane alert! 
Squad & Co: Unite as a Block to Downsize Biden’s Military Budget 
When I founded Countercurrents.org in 2002, Disha Ravi who was arrested for sedition yesterday was a two-year-old toddler. In 2002, the CO2 level in the atmosphere was 370 ppm. Now it is 415 ppm. In just 19 years CO2 levels increased by just over 2ppm/year. The level of cumulative greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, including Methane, Nitrous Oxide etc is[Read More…]
