-Prachurya Ghosh Fort William stands today on the eastern edge of Kolkata looking calm almost gentle beside the wide flow of the Hooghly but this calm is deceptive because this ground was once one of the most violently contested pieces of land in South Asia. Before its stone walls rose before cannons and barracks this […]Read More
-Oishee Bose The sport of badminton is not a result of a single invention but the product of countless ordinary decisions made in different places. The game can be read as a social object: shaped by craft, by how people fixed broken gear, by local shops that stocked cheap frames, and by committees that argued […]Read More
-Debashri Mandal What is Pheran? The pheran is a long, loose woolen gown with wide sleeves, a type of cloth traditionally worn by both men and women in Kashmir. It generally reaches the knees or ankles and is layered to trap warmth in the valley’s harsh winter. More than a mere clothing, the pheran has […]Read More
-Prachurya Ghosh The Power of the Unseen History usually rewards those who speak loudly. Kings who conquer, generals who expand borders, emperors who leave inscriptions bragging about victories—these are the figures who survive clearly, their voices carried forward through stone, metal, and carefully preserved texts. Queen Himiko does none of this. She leaves behind no […]Read More
-Oishee Bose What made people spend time braiding, oiling, winding, braiding again, knotting and adorning hair across centuries until whole guilds of specialists existed to do it for them? Hair reveals much about one’s age, lineage and care and unlike clothing, it cannot be changed by a single purchase. In South Asia, hair became a […]Read More
-Prachurya Ghosh There are objects in human history that refuse to stay silent. Long after the hands that touched them have turned to dust, these objects continue to gather stories around themselves whispers, warnings, justifications. Diamonds belong to this category, but black diamonds more than any other. They are not merely admired; they are suspected. […]Read More
-Oishee Bose The popular Bengali lullaby, “Khoka ghumālo, pāṛā jūṛālo, Bargi elo deshe” sounds like an ordinary domestic verse. However, the lines carry a weight: a mother’s low voice folded over the image of a ruined harvest, vanished savings and a threat that arrives with the night. This lullaby is not merely a song to […]Read More
~ Debashri Mandal The name of Shiva isn’t unknown to the world. People from the various corners of the earth have known him for ages and generations, irrespective of their religious values and communal beliefs. Lord Shiva, known as Devo ke Dev: Mahadeva, means the God of the Gods in Hindu scriptures such as the […]Read More
-Oishee Bose For many observers in the mid-twentieth century, Japan presented a convincing image of social discipline: regimented schools, deferential workplaces, and a tightly policed public morality that valued conformity, hierarchy, and a narrowly circumscribed feminine ideal. That very culture of visible order and predictability makes the sukeban phenomenon all the more contradicting. From the […]Read More
-Aritra Biswas The post of INS V Kaundinya holds a unique position in the Indian Navy not only as it fulfills the role of its work but also as the name itself has a strong historical connotation. The vessel is a symbol of a rare intersection between the Indian traditional nautical culture and its modern […]Read More