A humming word

Feminism, as per dictionary.com, is equal opportunities to both men and women. But often, this definition is reduced to male bashing and disempowerment of their rights. And, Feminist Rani (published by Penguin in collaboration SheThePeople.TV), make an honest attempt to capture voices of feminists. Feminist Rani by Shaili Chopra and Meghna Pant is a record of conversations with fourteen modern men, women, and a transgender. It doesn’t complicate the concept of feminist. Instead, it gives layers to its meaning with each of these celebrities adding a colour with their life story. For them, feminism is not a choice but a way of life. Kalki Koelchin to Gauri Sawant, the range of dialogue, discussion and dissent is vast and deep. The most popular version of feminism is humanity and defying the mind-numbing rules that serve no purpose but demean women and their desires. While Kalki did not want to be boxed into any role in Bollywood and enjoyed the variety of roles she perform...

After an enriching day of talks on Art and Protest and a day of learning at the conference in Bangalore, I washed my eyes with an art exhibition at the State Art Gallery by Bharath Yadav, who belongs to the cowherd community, displayed an array of exhibits and paintings focusing on buffaloes, pollution, meat shop. What intrigued me was the art installation by this gentleman which was a bullock cart of rusted pipes and a synchronous arrangement of milk cans with a small wooden box with a slit. How often do we think of buffaloes with a pollution mask? Never, right? And with people with masks around, it was amusing so see so. The artist effectively proves his point on how environmental damage is leading us to the claustrophobic polluted air that we've manufactured for ourselves.  The past few weeks, I was inundated with good art that have been linked to protest and focus on the margins. And a play titled Mosambi Narangi, a play abou t  two failed junior artist...