Long Reads News - Page 7
For Real Kashmir FC, the challenges and thrills of hosting an I-League contest in Srinagar
“Holding a football match in Kashmir is not like holding it elsewhere in the country. The challenges here are all very different,” says Real Kashmir FC's co-owner Sandeep Chattoo | Read Shubham Pandey's story, offering a ringside view of the club's trials and achievements, amid a crucial home game.
A river runs through it: Tracing the Dahisar's meandering — and dwindling — path
Beyond the walls of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, the Dahisar river flows crystal clear under the boughs of Casuarina and Gulmohar trees. A hundred steps later, vibrant life gives way to concrete inertness, and the river turns septic.
In Maharashtra's villages, Dalit families' decades-long battle to reclaim rightful watan lands
The Bombay Inferior Village Watans Abolition Act, 1958 aimed to protect Dalits' access to land. Over 6.28 lakh acres of 'watan' land was awarded to Mahar and Ramoshi communities across Maharashtra. But the intended beneficiaries have been locked in a long and uphill struggle to lay claim to this land.
Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta: Rise in sea-levels to put densely populated region in peril
Being one of the most vulnerable regions in the world, the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta presents a major challenge for climate change adaptation of nearly 200 million inhabitants. It is often considered as a delta mostly exposed to sea-level rise and exacerbated by land subsidence.
Kaveri delta: How Tamil Nadu's new protected special agricultural zone will impact livelihoods
Kaveri Urimai Meetpu Kuzhu (Kaveri Rights Retrieval Committee) coordinator P. Maniarasan says that he and hundreds of other farmers are sceptical not about the spirit of the bill but about its efficacy to address the emerging threats.
In Kolkata, a group of Hindu priestesses storm a male bastion and confront patriarchy, caste
'Shubhamastu', a Kolkata-based collective of priestesses led by Dr Nandini Bhowmik, Ruma Roy, Semanti Banerjee, and Paulomi Chakraborty, has been presiding over Hindu ceremonies of weddings, memorial services, housewarming rituals, among others, for over a decade now.
At Kolkata's Park Circus Maidan, how a homemaker's call to resist CAA-NRC blossomed into a protest
Almost a month after the Shaheen Bagh sit-in was initiated in Delhi to resist the CAA, NRC, and NPR, Kolkata's Park Circus Maidan witnessed a call for protests on identical lines, led by a 45-year-old homemaker, recovering from a kidney transplant surgery. The women of Park Circus Maidan come from all walks of life, cutting across age groups, class and religion, assembling in the hope of a peaceful tomorrow.
Kalyan Varma's documentation of the Dhangars reveals existential threat facing pastoral tribe
Noted wildlife photographer and filmmaker Kalyan Varma first got a chance to explore the lives of Dhangars back in 2013. Since then, he has been interacting with the community sporadically over the years, and understanding various facets of their everyday existence.
Meet 21-year-old Kalpana Mondal — social media star who’s Kolkata's youngest female bus driver
A video of a young girl driving a bus in the bustling streets of Kolkata went viral almost overnight. Little did Kalpana Mondal — the city’s youngest female bus driver — know that she’d encounter fame at the bend of the road, quite literally, while going about her life and work every day.
A bird festival in Gujarat's Dang forests raises awareness about biodiversity in Western Ghats
Dang forests form the northern end of the Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot. Among the Western Ghats endemic species, sightings of Malabar trogon, Malabar whistling thrush and white-bellied woodpecker were most noteworthy said the organisers.
From Bonn to Vienna: In Search of Ludwig van Beethoven on his 250th birthday
As the world gears up for the 250th birth anniversary of Beethoven, a pilgrimage from Bonn to Vienna in search of the man offers new insight into the composer's life and art.
On board the Vivek Express, India's longest train journey, covering 9 states in 5 days
India’s longest train journey begins at Dibrugarh in Assam, and ends at the country’s southernmost point — Kanyakumari, in Tamil Nadu. Along the way, the Dibrugarh-Kanyakumari Vivek Express covers a distance of 4,286 km; a five-day journey that sees the passengers traverse through nine Indian states.
In Deepa Dhanraj's 1984 film on Hyderabad riots, a record of early signs of communalism in Indian politics
With Kya Hua is Shahar Ko? Deepa Dhanraj not only puts forth a portrait of the city of Hyderabad amid communal violence, but also documents the birth of a politically-infused fundamentalist ideology that over the years would become a dominant narrative in Indian politics.
How Rakesh Sharma ensured his documentary on Gujarat riots reached Indian audiences
Rakesh Sharma explains how his critically lauded film, Final Solution, bore witness to the aftermath of the Gujarat riots and became among the most widely circulated documentaries in India
Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai: Nakul Singh Sawhney examines the anatomy of a riot
More than 60 were killed and around 40,000 were displaced in a riot that took place in western Uttar Pradesh in 2013. Over 90 percent of those affected were Muslims. Whether they were ‘riots’ or a politically-calculated move is the premise of Nakul Singh Sawhney’s documentary Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai.
1984, When the Sun Didn’t Rise: Scars of anti-Sikh violence won't fade, Teenaa Kaur Pasricha finds
1984, When the Sun Didn’t Rise opens in Delhi’s Tilak Nagar which, over the years, has come to be known as 'Widows Colony' — many of the families of those killed in 1984 live in this quaint neighbourhood.
What the Fields Remember: Subasri Krishnan on the human cost of the Nellie massacre
The Nellie massacre is among the bloodiest chapters in the history of India. Yet it remains on the fringes of the nation’s collective memory. Documentary filmmaker Subasri Krishnan’s film What the Fields Remember is an effort to chronicle what is/has been forgotten.
Khambhat violence: Residents recall 2002 riots as communal clashes erupt in Gujarat town
The riots in Khambhat come at a time when Delhi is reeling under communal violence after Hindu and Muslim protesters clashed over the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens.
Under the Open Sky: Mumbra's girls find freedom, reclaim public space through football
For a group of girls in Mumbra, playing football has helped challenge prevalent social attitudes. A documentary titled 'Under the Open Sky' depicts how these girls came to engage with the sport, the challenges they overcame, and what their reclaiming of public space means
Sharda river's changing course is creating perpetual refugees, rendering infrastructure futile
As the Sharda River submerges their land and homes, refugees from then East Pakistan and of Uttar Pradesh are being displaced again and again.
In desert regions of Pakistan's Umerkot, a women-led initiative to grow jujube berries yields a sweet harvest
The journey began in 2015 when 10 women planted 50 fruit berry (jujube) trees grafted with indigenous wild berries. The extension of such orchards could fulfill the nutritional requirements and could reduce malnourishment among pregnant lactating women, children and women in drought affected areas of Umerkot and Tharparkar.
Inside ‘Bombay 70’: Finding ‘asli hip-hop’ in Naezy’s neighbourhood
In conversation with the director of the documentary Bombay 70, which explored Naezy's identity, his anxieties and why he makes music
Inside 'Baraf': The ice industry at Sassoon Docks which keeps Mumbai's fish fresh
Taking a walk through Mumbai's Sassoon Docks with Niyantha Shekar, whose film Baraf chronicles the city's ice industry. The workers in this 40-year-old industry hail from Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district
Inside 'Aunty Sudha Aunty Radha': Two women ponder life and death in UP's Lahra village
In Aunty Sudha Aunty Radha, Tanuja Chandra shows how empowering it can be to live life on your own terms during old age. Set in Uttar Pradesh's Lahra village, it follows the shared existence of her aunts, which is as colourful and thriving as the garden they lovingly tend to in their house
Recent floods force farmers at Maharashtra-Karnataka border to straddle two states, owing to compensation policies
Farmers living along the Maharashtra-Karnataka border with homes in one state and farmlands in the other were impacted by the 2019 floods in western Maharashtra and their situation was aggravated as their lives straddle two states.
Where does my data body live? Thoughts on the online trail we leave behind
For each of our physical bodies, intimacies and experiences, we have several data bodies, too. Ranging from the websites we visit to the CCTV footage we meander into, these digital bodies are not simply extractive data points, but extensions of our very selves. They paint complex portraits of who we are — or at least, who companies believe us to be.
Kashmir: Mining expands on rivers despite dire warnings, threatening local livelihoods
Despite warnings from research commissioned by itself, the government has thrown open mining auctions in Kashmir, threatening the stability of the riverbed, flood control mechanisms, and local livelihoods
My Kolkata in Kolkata: Local photography enthusiasts showcase the ethos of the city through their own lens
In an attempt to see the city through different lenses, Kolkata Centre for Creativity in association with the West Bengal Tourism Department invited photography enthusiasts to send in pictures that showcase the very ethos of the city with the theme ‘My Kolkata in Kolkata’.
Mahakali: An account of women's lives along the river basin as men migrate in search of work
Men are conspicuously absent from the villages and towns on the banks of the Mahakali – the transboundary river that marks the western border of Nepal with India.
Public clocks of Bombay: In documenting the city's timekeepers, musings on the nature of time
How assisting Chirodeep Chaudhuri for a project on the city's public clocks evolved into a meditation on time, and memory | Surysarathi Bhattacharya writes