Long Reads News - Page 8

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

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.