The Equator Line - July - September 2016

في هذه القضية

One mellow October afternoon last year I reached the Wagah border, like many others, to see the military parade on this side of the international border, mixing a sense of grandeur and heroism. The buildup was electrifying. Hit Hindi-movie numbers extolling the virtues of sacrifice and love for the motherland blared from the high- decibel sound system. From my seat – quite close to the gate that stands as barrier between India and Pakistan – I looked around taking in the atmosphere. It was a mix of Bollywood and one-day cricket, tension in the air. The most pulsating song was sung with deep intensity by AR Rahman – Ma tujhe salaam... India, we learnt in our younger days, is a Nehruvian project. The air was so surcharged many were dancing, holding the little Tricolours, to the tune of the songs. The members of a large family were among them. A tall hefty white man, apparently from somewhere in North America, was winging, his mixed-race child in his arms. His Indian wife, her sister, other children – they all were swaying and clapping. The redoubtable elderly woman in salwar kameez, sitting next to me, kept time and clicked her fingers to wahwah her grandchildren.

The Equator Line Magazine Description:

The Equator Line is to India what The New Yorker is to America, Cicero to Germany and Granta to England: cerebral, incisive and entertaining as well. TEL revives an old tradition of journalism which combines new writing with a close account of the fresh developments in areas like business, culture, cinema and lifestyle.
The great periodicals of the past threw up new writers and triggered fresh debates about many issues. With the advent of 24x7 television periodicals lost their predominant position in intellectual discourse, in benchmarking our culture. A ‘breaking-news’ fever swept through India. The beauty of good writing was no longer recommendation enough. Newspapers carried more pictures and less copy. News magazines readjusted themselves to the television era with a new snappy, sharp look. And in the deluge of visual news the sensitive, sharp, upwardly mobile man seemed lost. Nothing was put into perspective for him. Nothing really tested his intelligence. The delight of surveying an altogether new horizon across the serried lines of good prose was missing!
The Equator Line is a journey to rediscover the glory of the written word. Promoted by Palimpsest Publishing House, the monthly magazine offers a brilliant spread – clinical analysis of trends, new fiction, deep examination of political events, latest in diplomacy, spirituality, diaspora, the remote and exotic captured through a sensitive camera, news from the world of books, all that and much more. When repetitive surface news grates on your nerves The Equator Line takes you on a trip to the land of good writing with an impressive line-up of well-known writers.
Waiting for your flight at the airport or in a hotel room in an unfamiliar city, the latest issue of TEL will help you rediscover your world in a new light.