Long Reads News - Page 8
ICC U-19 World Cup 2020: How battle-hardened Yashasvi Jaiswal took his first step towards the big league
As an 11-year-old, Yashasvi Jaiswal lived in tents, sold pani puri's, slept starving for nights and played cricket with the bare minimum facilities but now seven years later, he's a vital cog of India U-19 team at the World Cup in South Africa and already a crorepati with a 2.4 crore contract in the Indian Premier League with Rajasthan Royals.
Shaheen Bagh's resistance must be viewed sans liberals' romanticism, Right's identity politics
We will better understand Shaheen Bagh by focusing on what it has done to the discourse of resistance against CAA. Our attention ought to be on its contribution to the resistance against fascist politics and the CAA. Instead, our attention is fixated on who they [protesters] are and how they have managed to come together.
Mahakali: Conflict escalates as locals lose out on livelihoods; municipalities at loggerheads over revenue
Mahakali is also the main source of income for the municipalies [Bhimdatta municipality and Mahakali municipality], heightening tensions, since they were given the power to manage the river resources two years ago.
In Nepal, locals along Mahakali river deprived of livelihoods as contractors take over, laws flouted
It needs an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report to collect more than 250 cubic meters of sands and pebbles. Neither the Bhimdatta or Mahakali municipality have produced such reports.
When gunfire wouldn't silence chants of azaadi: An account of the hours leading to Jamia shooting
On the night of 2 February, around 11.45 pm, as I sit on GD Birla Road, recording and editing videos of the Shaheen Bagh protest, a boy tells me shots have been fired at Jamia again | Priyadarshini Ohol writes
From Thelma & Louise to Once Upon A Time..., Brad Pitt as actor, star and supreme visual fetish
William Bradley Pitt was born in 1963, but Brad Pitt sprang forth in Thelma & Louise's 13-second ode to eroticised male beauty, initiating a closely watched career and life, dozens of movies, and libraries of delirious exaltations, drooling gossip and porny magazine layouts | via @nytimes
Hyderabad exhibition shows a bygone Kashmir and its people, as captured through RC Mehta's lens
'RC Mehta — Exploring the Familiar and the Iconic’ was showcased in Hyderabad to mark the 17th edition of Krishnakriti Festival of Arts and Culture. The exhibition is a retrospective of the photographic work of RC Mehta, comprising both his practice as a studio photographer for the family run Mahatta Studios, — the first Indian-run photography studio in Srinagar — as well as his personal work that covers his interests in the land, the people of Kashmir, and the significant political events that he witnessed during his lifetime.
Zanzibar in the rains: On a waterlogged trip, discovering a different side to the island getaway
You have to be careful, when writing about a place like Zanzibar, to not reduce it to a series of prosaic meditations on brilliantly sunny skies, blindingly white beaches and beguilingly azure waters. But a soggy week on the Tanzanian archipelago led to a mysterious curio shop, a taste of Zanzibar pizza, conversations with locals and a bit of spice lore | via @nytimes
Watch: Spoken word poet Jurczok 1001's verses take on the media, politics and fake news
At the very start of his poem 'New News', spoken word poet Jurczok 1001 jolts you into listening with his warning. Such warnings are interjected with false promises — of love, "great news" and news that is up-to-date. 'New News' is part of the poet's new collection titled Spoken Beats, which comprises the spoken word poems he wrote in the last decade. He performed from the collection at the last edition of the Tata Literature Live! in Mumbai.
In Bhutan, misinformation, lack of funds pose major hurdles in move towards electric vehicles
Even if the introduction of 300 electric vehicles pans out as expected by 2021, the UNDP funding stops there. If Bhutan hopes to continue with an electric vehicle programme beyond next year, the government will have to find new sponsors – a process that could derail the programme’s future.
Two filmmakers seek to explain the climate change crisis by showing its human cost in Nepal
Concerned about the increasing climate crisis , two filmmakers are on a journey to capture people’s attention through human stories from the frontlines of climate change in Nepal.
Beyond Achro Thar's scenic landscape, harsh reality of salt miners' living conditions, wages
The miners working on these salt lakes in Achro Thar live in destitute conditions with no access to healthcare and no money to travel out for miles to visit a medical centre
The revolution will be archived: How a nation's turmoil will be recorded for posterity
History has two stewards: record-keepers who guard the veracity of detail, and storytellers, who breathe moral life into factual record, writes Rega Jha
A Jimi Hendrix experience in London: On the musician's trail in city he thought of as 'home'
Thanks to surviving landmarks and an impressive museum exhibit that recreates one of his old flats, London offers a lot to Jimi Hendrix fans, 50 years since the performer last called it home. | via @nytimes
In India's Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres, holistic care for mother and child combats malnutrition
The Government of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has established 1,151 Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs) across the country under the National Health Mission. They provide facility-based care for children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and medical complications. These NRCs offer appropriate feeding of children, careful height and weight monitoring, and counselling to mothers and caregivers on age-appropriate caring, nutrition and growth monitoring.
In India, how the crippling reality of severe malnutrition stems from religion and caste-based politics
With 9.3 million children under the age of five affected by Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), India has the largest burden of severe malnutrition in the world. Despite the vast network of women working to bring about change, SAM continues to be a harsh socio-economic reality in the country, taking millions of children victim each year.
Loose threads: Once a thriving weavers' village, Anakaputhur's mills are fast being abandoned
Less than 20 years ago, every house in Anakaputhur had its own handloom mill. The weavers' village has been left devastated by the Chennai floods of 2015, and lack of support from the state government
How women shoulder the efficient running of Anganwadis — a system riddled with issues of pay, low morale
Anganwadis, or rural childcare centres were first introduced as far back as 1975 as part of the Integrated Child Development Services programme to combat child hunger and malnutrition. These centres provide supplementary nutrition, non-formal pre-school education, nutrition and health education and counselling, immunisation, health check-ups and referral services in conjunction with public health systems. The Anganwadi workers are the ones who make regular home visits in surrounding villages, keeping meticulous records of the health of adolescent girls, expectant mothers and children under the age of six years.
Despite India-China bilateral agreement, water data on Brahmaputra might be inadequate
While much of the flow in the Yarlung Tsangpo that enters Arunachal Pradesh in India as Siang is generated in the south aspect of the Himalaya, there seems to be an absence of flow data in the stretch of the river from the crestline to the China-India border.
Geometry sings the blues in Indian-American mathematician's radical new music system
Several compositions on a CD, to be released on January 17, exemplify how the framework transcends civilisational genres of East and West
Following abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, forest land identified for industrial development
In Kashmir, 15,000 acres of state land, mostly around eco-sensitive zones such as wetlands and rivers, has been identified for infrastructural development by the new regional government. In the Jammu region, over 42,000 acres of land has been identified.
The most anticipated games of 2020 — from The Last of Us II to Half-Life: Alyx and Cyberpunk 2077
Hopefully, game realeses in 2020 will be better than the last year. May the loot box odds be ever in your favour.
Chennai: How a restored wetland brought relief to residents in city's drought-prone area
Illegal encroachments, untreated sewage inlets, garbage dumping, land reclamation, infrastructure and development projects have degraded more than 85% of these water bodies in Chennai over the last three decades.
The highs and lows of gaming in 2019 — from Control to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Fallout 76
2019 was a tough year to be a gamer, particularly for those of us who mark the hours creeping by until the release of Cyberpunk 2077 delivers us from our fleshy existence. Still… a few notable things happened in the gaming industry over the last year, some of them bad, but surprisingly, a few of them were good too.
Goa Photo Festival chronicles the pathos in people's lives, their private spaces, and food practices
The third edition of Goa International Photography Festival was held from 6 to 8 December in the village of Aldona (North Goa), known for its rich architectural heritage, which later inspired the overall theme of the festival — of working with 'living heritage'.
A decade of Beyoncé: The pop singer's fandom and music sparked vital conversations
The frenzied behaviour of Beyoncé's fans, called The Beyhive, along with Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters changed fan-celebrity relationships. It marked a neoliberal turn towards intense inter-fandom competition and worship that helped lay the foundation for the today’s pop fan culture.
From Magnetic Fields 2019, snapshots of the most original festival fashion
Taking place every year in Alsisar Mahal in Rajasthan, Magnetic Fields is a three-day micro universe of outstanding music — and of course, incredible festival fashion.
A civil war's cost: Brutal chapter of Sri Lankan history documented in a graphic novel
In July 2012 I was introduced to an artist, Lindsay Pollock, who was living in north London. I sent Lindsay some photographs of Vanni and he replied by illustrating the images. The mission was immediately set: we were going to tell the story of Vanni as a comic book.
In Kashmir, internet shutdown following Article 370 abrogation rekindles reading culture
More than four months long internet shutdown in Kashmir, imposed since 5 August, while wrecking the IT industry and other internet-dependent businesses, is bringing people closer to the print medium, resulting in the increased sales of books, newspapers, and magazines from bookstores and news agencies.
Jharkhand’s groves of faith: How conservation schemes are protecting sarnas from developmental projects
Fear of sarnas gradually vanishing is deep in areas where lands have been acquired by the state government for development projects.