Arts & Culture News - Page 30
Marie-Antoinette's diamond bracelets to be auctioned in Geneva
The bracelets, each coated in 112 diamonds, will be sold together and are estimated to fetch between $2-4 million when they go under the hammer on 9 November.
Anand Gandhi announces new board game Azadi, designed by Zain Memon
SHASN: AZADI is launching on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter on 7 September.
Art collective founder Omaid Sharifi opposes Taliban's erasing of Kabul murals
Within weeks of the Islamists taking the capital, many of the street art pieces have been painted over, replaced by drab propaganda slogans as the Taliban reimpose their austere vision on Afghanistan.
In Royal Textiles of Mewar, a look at how fabrics are used to express the rulers' authority and personality
Documenting the heritage and culture of a region renowned for its uniqueness, the book preserves the sanctity attached to them.
Bullets Over Bombay book review: Uday Bhatia's Satya rewind is a capsule of the '90s
Bullets Over Bombay is quite an immersive treatise on Satya because it does not just detail the making of the movie, but also gives a sense of what the real world was like back then, in the not-so-nice '90s.
In Regrets, None, Dolly Thakore opens up about her life and relationships
In this book, time periods melt into each other. Events spark off sudden associations. Places become conduits of emotion.
Ami Ganatra on book Mahabharata Unravelled, clarifying misconceptions about the epic
Ganatra discusses the book, how it changed her understanding of the epic and its characters, and the Mahabharata’s enduring relevance.
Trams, part of Kolkata heritage, are little more than a nostalgia ride today
In recent years, hit by natural disasters and official neglect, the city’s tram system has become little more than a nostalgia ride, its passengers more often looking for a lark than an efficient trip home.
Book review: In Sparks Like Stars, the story of a girl's determination set against Afghanistan's turbulent history
Author Nadia Hashimi will tug at your heartstrings with this story, and also make you think hard about the history behind what is happening in Afghanistan today.
Ramya Nair on working with indigenous Yimkhiung Naga, exploring wildlife despite hunting pressure
Ramya Nair is a researcher leading a project in Thanamir village, Nagaland. The indigenous Yimkhiung Naga residents own and manage a roughly 65-square-kilometre community forest.
With Tomatoes For Neela, Padma Lakshmi enters world of children's books
The words are brought to life with beautiful artwork by Juana Martinez-Neal, who was awarded a Caldecott Honor for Alma and How She Got Her Name.
The politics of convenience at the centre of Arivu's recent erasure
Both Rolling Stone India and maajja have been accused of being casteist and diminishing, as opposed to amplifying, the voice of Arivu, who is among the few Dalit musicians to have achieved a good degree of mainstream success.
Online exhibition archives oral histories of the Kolis, degradation of Mumbai's coastal ecology
The online exhibition Through the Eyes of the Kolis uses their photos to highlights how Mumbai's ecology has been disturbed and how the fishermen community are adapting.
India, that is Bharat book review: J Sai Deepak makes pressing arguments about colonialism
In the book, J Sai Deepak argues that while the colonisation of the Indian landscape may have been reversed, the minds continue to be possessed, and ultimately handicapped by a historical narrative that the outsider set for us.
Vaibhav Purandare on book Hitler and India, myths around the Fuhrer, and the lasting romance for dictatorship in a democracy
Vaibhav Purandare discusses the research for his book, the discoveries that were surprising or fortuitous, as well as the shifting (but ultimately, cruel) attitudes of the Nazis towards India.
Westland announces acquisition of The New BJP by journalist Nalin Mehta
The book will be published in October 2021.
Book excerpt: In Life and Death of Sambhaji, a peek into the court of the Maratha ruler and whether he lived up to Shivaji's legacy
Author Medha Deshmukh Bhaskaran's latest novel tells the story of the illustrious Sambhaji, from dealing with the Maratha-Mughal conflict at a young age to becoming Chhatrapati soon after, and more.
The Cult of We Review: Brown and Farrell's definitive documentation of how WeWork thrived and eventually crashed
The larger question the book addresses is: What made a startup which was once valued at close to $96 billion in September 2018 (and was on the precipice of going public) implode so quickly that its valuation was stripped down to $2.9 billion by May 2021?
Book review: In Women Who Wear Only Themselves, an honest exploration of spiritual life through the sacred journeys of four travellers
The women you will encounter in this book are not four different iterations of the same template. They seek a dissolution of ego, not an extinction of personality.
AfsanaBadosh ep 3: Listen to Mannu Bhandari's 'Alagaav' | Presented by Firstpost and Jashn-E-Qalam
AfsanaBadosh, presented by Firstpost and Jashn-E-Qalam, celebrates the spirit of storytelling through narrations of the greatest Hindi and Urdu stories. This is Episode 3 — Mannu Bhandari's 'Alagaav', as performed by Shashwita Sharma.
AfsanaBadosh ep 4: Listen to Manto's 'Mera Naam Radha Hai' | Presented by Firstpost and Jashn-E-Qalam
AfsanaBadosh, presented by Firstpost and Jashn-E-Qalam, celebrates the spirit of storytelling through narrations of the greatest Hindi and Urdu stories. This is Episode 4 — Saadat Hasan Manto's 'Mera Naam Radha Hai', as performed by KC Shankar.
AfsanaBadosh ep 6: Listen to Salam Bin Razzaq's 'Kamdhenu' | Presented by Firstpost and Jashn-E-Qalam
AfsanaBadosh, presented by Firstpost and Jashn-E-Qalam, celebrates the spirit of storytelling through narrations of the greatest Hindi and Urdu stories. This is Episode 6 — Salam Bin Razzaq's 'Kamdhenu', as performed by KC Shankar.
AfsanaBadosh ep 5: Listen to Krishan Chander's 'Jamun Ka Ped' | Presented by Firstpost and Jashn-E-Qalam
AfsanaBadosh, presented by Firstpost and Jashn-E-Qalam, celebrates the spirit of storytelling through narrations of the greatest Hindi and Urdu stories. This is Episode 5 — Krishan Chander's 'Jamun Ka Ped', performed by Shashwita Sharma.
Of experimental embroidery and quiet sophistication: Kunal Rawal lays bare his vision for men's couture
'I want to mix threadwork with print, washes with embroideries, denim with embroideries. I like playing with things that don’t belong and making them belong,' says Kunal Rawal.
Ashtanayika of Indian classical dance: On the khandita, a woman who stands up to her unfaithful lover
This series is an exploration of the ashtanayika of classical dance — the eight types of heroines which depict a woman's many thoughts and emotional states. In the last essay, part 8, a look at the khandita.
LGBTQ community finds homophobia has a free run on Instagram, and pleas for help don't really work
A live video aimed to provide a safe space for the LGBTQIA+ community to express freely soon turned into a homophobic nightmare but Instagram did little to secure their space
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: The price of pursuing endeavours that nourish us — and diminish us
I'll Be Gone in the Dark is a psychological portrait of an artist. Its emotional hook lies not so much in the investigation involving the Golden State Killer as Michelle McNamara’s journey from true-crime blogger to full-time author.
Explained: Why is the National Gallery of Australia returning 14 artworks to India?
These include six bronze or stone sculptures, a painted scroll, a brass processional stand, and six photographs. The entire collection is worth around $2.2 million (approximately Rs 16.34 crore).
Watch: May's Firstpost Book Club | In conversation with Premanka Goswami, Riddhi Goswami, and Pinaki De
The Firstpost Book Club read Satyajit Ray’s The Final Adventures of Professor Shonku in May.
In Anindita Ghose's debut novel, lunar metaphors, myriad literary references and a depiction of women's inner lives
The premise of The Illuminated betrays a familiarity — as it seemingly revolves around the lives of a mother-daughter duo, Shashi and Tara Mallick, and the all-important men in their lives — only to catch the reader off-guard with its nuanced, sensitive, and often complex mappings of its protagonists' minds.