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2003
Firdaus Kanga was born in Bombay with osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease), a condition that prevented his bones from growing beyond a certain point. Also this condition meant that his bones had the potential of breaking easily. As a result, he spent most of his early years bedridden, not attending school, leaving his home only occasionally to attend the cinema with his family. It was not until he was nineteen that he obtained his first wheelchair. Kanga \u27s family expected him to become a solicitor, but he did not find his experiences in law school satisfying. On the other hand, he did study journalism and, in 1987, was awarded a prize in a British Council short-story competition. After receiving a degree in history from the University of Bombay, he moved to England in 1989 and it was there that his publishing career began with the appearance of Trying to Grow in 1990 and a travelogue, Heaven on Wheels, the next year. He is now working on a second novel, which is set in...
Firdaus Kanga's novel, Trying to Grow, tells the story of Brit Kotwal, a young Parsi boy with osteogenesis imperfecta, negotiating his life in the Bombay of the 1970s. From the beginning, this semi-autobiographical work draws our attention to the common religious and medical perceptions of disability in Indian society. This paper proposes to study how the novel focuses on several aspects of the lived reality of a person with " brittle bones " who does not grow more than four feet tall. The paper also explores how the novel focuses on and confounds the commonly perceived notion of the asexuality of disabled individuals. Brit's voice is extremely aware and articulates positions of difference within disability and sexuality discourses. He is able to occupy what can be called a truly modern disability subjectivity. But, this paper shall show that Brit presents the reader with this modern, emancipatory rhetoric of disability because of the privileges of his gender and class status in the Indian context. Within the same text, Brit's disabled female cousin is literally and figuratively mute and meets with a very different fate. The paper shall thus investigate and try to complicate the representation of disability, sexuality and the " modern " disability subjectivity in Kanga's novel.
The Ceylankan
Unfolding of a Ceylonese Author2022 •
Further to my article in the November 2020 issue titled The Extraordinary Alagu Subramaniam, I present the findings from my research into how this short story writer formulated some of his stories almost a century ago. He was commended in the Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English as an exemplar of professionalism in the short story and that he wrote fiction of merit 1. So, I think my effort on his work is worthwhile.
Studies in History
Glimpses from a Writer's World: O. Chandu Menon, His Contemporaries, and Their Times2004 •
An artist whose paradigm is beyond capture, social reformer and progressive thinker, Ismat Chugtai remains one of the most formidable among the South-Asian writers. A few translated works available give us only a tip of the iceberg. In a reading of some selected short stories available to us in translated form we come across the different themes that distinguish Chugtai's work and make her an awe-inspiring writer of all times. Full Paper: Ismat Chugtai is one of the most revolutionary writers of all times. Thinking beyond her age, she has been a radical influence, a philosopher, a reformist and a feminist in the truest sense of the term. Born at a time when slight provocation to tradition spelt doom, Chugtai had the courage, the passion and the straight-forwardness to challenge the societal chains to the questions of womanhood. Her forcefulness in stating her observations of what happened around her, to ponder over the reality and its 'real' happenings made her at once a writer much appreciated and rumoured about. Her field of work was not expansive and concentrated mainly around the familial ties and along the path that she grew up, people she met during her studies and in her path to professional writing. It is beyond doubt Chugtai's emotionalism and her deep understanding of human psychology that makes her stories so endearing and close to our heart. However, Chugtai refrains from being judgmental and issuing a verdict. She presents people, situations and incidents. She draws pictures on her canvas and leaves it to the reader to explain its meaning. It is the reader who is left at most times, with a pungent taste. Chugtai's sensitivity to her characters makes even the most spurious person appear to us as possessing a human soul. She insists that man is forced to react by situations, incidents and circumstances in which they live. She was bold, unfettered, fearless, the pioneer of Urdu fiction and one of the foremost feminists in South-Asian literature. Tahira Naqvi in her essay, " The Beguiling Ismat Chugtai-through her own words " refers to what " the other great Indian writer Quarratulain Hyder , dubbed her 'Lady Changez Khan' partly because she could trace her lineage to Changez Khan but mostly due to her audacious and strident approach to life and writing. " Chugtai writes
The Literary Herald
The Emergence of Disability Life Writings in India as a Counter-Narrative2023 •
People with disabilities are represented by the so-called "normal" or "ableist" perspectives throughout history. As a result, the common understanding of disability is highly misleading. However, in recent decades in India, people with disabilities have begun to represent their own voices and subjective experiences by engaging in various movements and activities. As a part of this, few individuals with disabilities have started writing about their experiences in the forms of life writings such as autobiographies, memoirs and auto-fictions. Hence, this research paper aims to explore how Indian disability life writings serve as a counter-narrative against the misconceptions of disability. It also seeks to examine how these writings expose the process of marginalization providing much-needed voice against the dominant cultural narratives of ableism.
2023 •
In this interview, Bangladeshi Anglophone writer Saad Z. Hossain (1979-) addresses several important issues involving his works, worldview, and writing career. First, he explains when he began writing, what inspired him to write, why he chose to write in English, and whom he writes for. He also discusses his writing and reading habits, his favourite authors, how he negotiates between his seemingly opposite interests as a businessman and a writer, and his view of the present state of English writing in Bangladesh. Moreover, Hossain talks about his narrative techniques, how his fiction has evolved over the years, how he works out a plot from his multi-thread narrative, his predilection for characters over plot, and how he compares his experience of writing prose fiction in different forms: novels, novellas, and short stories. Finally, the author reflects on his themes, use of humour, view of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and what he is currently writing.
Abstract: Raghupati Sahay was a renowned poet in Urdu literary canon who received critical acclamation in his lifetime. Loneliness and constant search for beauty are repeating themes in his verses that made him a popular poet of Urdu literature in India and abroad. He profoundly felt that he was separated from beauty in reality and this could be a reason for him to take the word, ‘Firaq’ which means ‘separation/quest’ as his takhallus or penname. Firaq is a rare poetic personality who could direct his disappointment in life into creative channels. Despite his short temper, a major flaw in his personality, Firaq carved a permanent place for himself in Urdu Literary Canon with his literary efforts. His poetic journey becomes significant in the light of the setbacks in his personal life and his short temper which was his biggest weakness. Firaq Gorakhpuri like his predecessors Mir Taki Mir, Ghalib, Miraji, and contemporary poets Jigar Moradabadi and Majaz Lucknowi achieved significant critical esteem in his quest for beauty. This article briefly studies the path taken by this eminent poetic personality in achieving lifetime recognition in Urdu literary canon. Keywords: Urdu Literary Canon, search for beauty, Urdu poets, Firaq Gorakhpuri
Disability Rights Movement in India has a history with less takers when analyzed on par with the movements outside the country. Arun Shourie belongs to the class of initial fighters, a handful of parents who raised their voice on behalf of their kids demanding attention, shouting to the world outside, „we are here‟. Shourie popular in the country as an economist, politician, Union Minister and journalist exposes a different facet of himself in his book – Does He Knows a Mother‟s Heart: How Suffering Refutes Religions. The book calls into attention the hard times put in by the family of disabled and Shourie draws in various philosophical enquiries with equal dose of religion. The book deserves close study from the perspective of the contribution of life writing in developing the confluence of disability studies and disability rights movement. This research paper has attempted to locate Shourie‟s book in the time line of India‟s Disability Rights Movement. The vulnerability of the disabled in the country is being exposed in this paper through Shourie‟s memoir. A critical scrutiny of the opinions expressed by the author is done in the core of the paper high lighting the psychological repercussions and philosophical inquisitions of the author.
Meridian Critic
Anime as a Universal Language: The Zenith of Manga2023 •
Fairy Investigation Society Newsletter
Ketil and the Daemones: the Second Sight in Medieval Yorkshire2024 •
Supplemento a "La Repubblica", 2 aprile 2021
Per patria il mondo. Sulle tracce del sommo poeta2021 •
2023 •
Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
Fertilization of an oligotrophic lake with a deep chlorophyll ma×imum: predicting the effect on primary productivity1997 •
Social Science Research Network
Gendered Patterns of Time Use over the Life Cycle: Evidence from Turkey2017 •
Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA eBooks
Asymmetric Organocatalysis: A New Stream in Organic Synthesis2007 •
2016 •