Parmesh Shahani encounters some audacious voices of young Indians in a new book
I simply couldn’t put down journalist Snigdha Poonam’s timely debut Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World when I received a preview copy. I knew that I had to invite her to our Culture Lab for a conversation. As it panned out, we got to host the book’s official India launch.
I have been a huge fan of Indian non-fiction ever since I read Pankaj Mishra’s Butter Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India in college His sardonic account of our newly post-liberalised country whetted my appetite for narratives that explored facets of modern India through the lives of its ordinary individuals.
I went on to devour books like William Dalrymple’s Nine Lives that explored religion and belief systems, Siddhartha Deb’s The Beautiful and the Damned: A Portrait of The New India, with its banned chapter on Arindam Chaudhuri and his Great Gatsby-esque ambition, Shefalee Vasudev’s incisive Powder Room, and Sonia Faleiro’s gritty Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay’s Dance Bars, that detailed the lives of Mumbai’s bar dancers.
Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers lefta deep impression on me, with its intensely detailed account of the lives and hopes of the inhabitants of Annawadi, a slum located behind one of Mumbai’s suburban five-star hotels. My own book Gay Bombay, an ethnography, was a much more modest attempt to add to the rich body of Indian non-fiction, with its account of internet-mediated queer desire and identity in urban India.
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Esta historia es de la edición April 2018 de Verve.
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Making Amends
This generation’s penchant for thoughtless consumption gets Madhu Jain roiled up, and she wonders if nature is getting its own back for our missteps…
Diamonds With Provenance
In keeping with the company’s commitment to environmental and social responsibility, Anisa Kamadoli Costa, chief sustainability officer at Tiffany & Co. and chairman and president at The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, enlightens Shirin Mehta on the efforts that make the jewellery giant an industry leader in transparency
SARTORIAL ECONOMICS
Sisters Tashi and Tara Mitra demonstrate to Akanksha Pandey how deviating from the mainstream can bend the way we think, live and dress
NOTES TO SELF
An anthropomorphized tiger’s perspective, a viscerally worded futuristic interpretation of loss, a critique of performative activism, a meta reflection on the earth’s crises. Told through different lenses, Janaki Lenin, Indrapramit Das, Keshava Guha and Roshan Ali’s stories — written exclusively for Verve — attempt to make sense of the fraught reality that we exist in today
The Eternal Optimist
As Generation X and xennials grapple with fully transitioning to conscious living, young millennials and Generation Z are leading the charge to reverse human-caused environmental damage. Sahar Mansoor, founder and CEO of the Bengaluru-based zero-waste social enterprise Bare Necessities, has a simple overarching philosophy: consume less and stay positive. Verve gets deeper into the mindset of the action-oriented earth advocate
Redemption SONGS
Indian music festivals have been demonstrating a refreshing sense of responsibility in terms of their ecological impact. Interacting with stakeholders who strive to make these large-scale events greener, Akhil Sood investigates the reasons behind the improved attitudes of audiences and the increase in corporate support.
earth hour
Crafted using nature’s elements, these dials draw inspiration from the many heterogeneous materials and hues around us.Verve turns its lens onto a mesmerising few
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
Children are holding adults accountable for both the grim future they are facing and the toll this is taking on their mental health. Madhumita Bhattacharyya initiates conversations with families of young climate activists and observes the extent to which parenting has changed in the face of catastrophe
NATURAL JUSTICE
Most of us are only just waking up to the urgency of climatic action. When the stakes are so high, what can individual action solve? Mridula Mary Paul, an environmental policy expert, is proof of the tenacity needed to effect systemic change. It’s not glamorous, and the rewards are few and far between, but that doesn’t stop her from aiming big, finds Anandita Bhalerao
Along For The Ride
Navigating Indian streets as a woman is hard enough. But what is it like while riding a bicycle? Bengaluru-based Shreya Dasgupta, a regular cyclist, speaks to five urban women about the pros and cons of this increasingly popular means of transport.
