Click here to buy a print copy of the August 2012 issue of Spark themed ‘India Decoded”.
The theme we have chosen for the August 2012 issue is ‘India Decoded’. This is the third time we have picked the same theme for an August issue. Interestingly, in spite of repeating the theme a third time, we have a whole new set of perspectives to India presented through this month’s selection of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, photography and interviews. We hope you enjoy these as well as our lovely line-up of articles we have featured in ‘The Lounge’ this month. Click here to access the August 2012 issue on the e-reader, ISSUU.
SOCIAL LENS | VOICE OF THE MONTH In an interview to Vani Viswanathan, poet-feminist-activist Kutti Revathi opens up on what prompted her to write poetry, her focus on the woman’s body as a means of fighting against the patriarchal Tamil society and her contribution to the Tamil literary space through her publication Panikkudam.
VOICE OF THE MONTH | In an interview to Spark, Jaya Bhattacharji Rose, publishing consultant and columnist talks to Anupama Krishnakumar about interesting trends in the Indian publishing industry including the popularity that commercial fiction is enjoying in India these days, the growing trend of buying books online and the advent of e-books in the Indian market.
Pramila, mother of convent-educated and Engleesh-speaking Jyothi, often goes down the memory lane in her extended monologues. N.Shobhana pens a story that touches on the role of English in upward mobility for Indians, the concerns of urban, nuclear families and the pride of a parent in her child.
As the number of Indian families living outside India increases, there is a new category of parents that emerges. Parth Pandya talks about the IBCP –the Indian Born Confused Parent – whose biggest dilemma is about how to appropriately mix the culture of the homeland and the culture of the place they live in and present it to their children, the American Born Confused Desi (ABCD) being a case in point.
India is often referred to as a bundle of contradictions. Through her poem, Vinita Agrawal discusses the exquisite textile that her homeland, India, is, while also pointing out some of the knots in this colourful fabric that need to be untangled.
An expression of the complicated relationship that the “mainland” shares with the north-east, sparked off when Ngo te kher – a bracelet of beads – travelled to the mainland and found itself a place, first at a mela and then on the wrists of a few tens. A poem by Shraddha Vinod Kutty.
Deepa Venkatraghvan talks about ‘The Story of India,’ a PBS-BBC documentary that leads her to discover sides to India she never knew about, and what we as Indians can learn from our own history as our country grows in clout internationally.