Book Review: A Book of New Beginnings: Some Words for Living – Edited and with an introduction by Jerry Pinto (Speaking Tiger, 2022)

Namrata reviews A Book of New Beginnings: Some Words for Living – Edited and with an introduction by Jerry Pinto (Speaking Tiger, January 2022) and calls it perfect food for thought.

Long after I was done reading this book, I kept thinking about the one story I had read long ago in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series which had changed the way I think drastically. I come from a dysfunctional family, where abuse in any form is normalized. I grew up believing that to be the way the world functioned. There was no reason for me to think otherwise as everyone I was surrounded with had a similar story to narrate. The ways of abuse changed, but the abuse was the common thread that bound us all, I felt.

Coming to the story from Chicken Soup for the Soul- I do not remember the author’s name or the complete story verbatim but I remember the basic crux which I will share with you. It was written by someone who was a prominent name at that time (in the UK if I am not wrong) and credited his mom for making him what he is today. He shared an incident from his childhood to emphasize this – As a young kid, he once broke a bottle of milk while trying to pick it up. Instead of the usual anger or shouting, his mother had a very unique approach to this accident. She asked him if he would like to play in that spillage, to which he nodded a yes.

Read the full review on Kitaab.

Movie Review: If by Tathagata Ghosh – A Tender Portrait of Love, Loss, and Possibility

If , a 26-minute short film by acclaimed Bengali filmmaker Tathagata Ghosh, is a sensitive, evocative piece of storytelling that lingers long after the credits roll. Set against the everyday rhythm of life in Kolkata, the film delicately unpacks the story of a lesbian couple torn apart by the weight of societal expectations and dares to imagine a different future, one where a mother's love might just change everything. What struck me first was the film’s raw, grounded realism. The characters feel like people we know, middle-class families navigating a complex world with quiet resilience. The world of If is filled with silences, glances, and stills, rather than heavy dialogue. Ghosh masterfully uses these moments to speak volumes, allowing viewers to sit with discomfort, interpret the unspoken, and feel deeply.

Book Review: The Story of Eve: Selected Poems by Zehra Nigah

Few voices in Urdu poetry have carried the weight of history, resistance, and deep personal introspection quite like Zehra Nigah. One of the first women to break into the traditionally male-dominated world of Urdu poetry, Nigah’s work stands as a testament to the power of words to illuminate, question, and challenge. The Story of Eve: Selected Poems, translated by Rakshanda Jalil, brings together some of her most powerful nazms and ghazals, showcasing both her literary elegance and her unflinching gaze at the human condition, particularly through the lens of gender, social injustice, and political turmoil.

The Urban Gaze : Reimagining the Village in Contemporary Indian Cinema

Indian cinema has long been fascinated with the village. From the earthy, socialist realism of Do Bigha Zamin (1953) to the melodramatic lament of Mother India (1957), the village once stood as both heartland and hinterland — a space of moral clarity, rustic struggle, and often unyielding fate. But as the urban middle class began to dominate cinematic production and consumption, the depiction of the village increasingly came to reflect an urban gaze, that is, a perspective shaped by distance, nostalgia, condescension, or even outright fantasy. In recent years, this urban gaze has taken on new shades, evident in the way mainstream and indie filmmakers alike have re-engaged with rural India. While some have tried to explore the village as a site of resistance, authenticity, or even horror, others continue to reproduce sanitized or exaggerated versions of village life that serve urban sensibilities more than rural realities.

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