Culture

Durga Puja joins UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list

Durga Puja joins UNESCO’s intangible cultura...

December 11, 2021

India had applied for Bengal’s biggest cultural and spiritual festival, Durga Puja, to be included in UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Culture Heritage for the meeting that began on Monday. West Bengal government had earlier asked the central government for ...

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‘Margazhi Matram’: New festival for differently-abled

‘Margazhi Matram’: New festival for differentl...

December 5, 2021

In Chennai, a 5-day cultural festival is taking place featuring the artists, who are unable to exhibit their talent to the world due to their disabilities. Non-profit organisation SciArtsRUs is hosting the second edition of their annual art festival, especially providing a stage ...

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Karthigai Deepam: The fire on the mountain

Karthigai Deepam: The fire on the mountain

November 19, 2021

Karthigai Deepam is annually celebrated on the day of full moon in the Tamil month of Karthigai according to the Indian calendar that generally falls in November or December each year. Though it is celebrated across the vast swathes of southern India, but one of the best places t...

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Body positivity: Championing lasting change or passing fad?

Body positivity: Championing lasting change or pas...

November 13, 2021

The advent of the social media generation has resulted in an almost blind dependence on filters. Whereas earlier, magazine editors would massively photoshop women’s bodies to look perfect, now every regular person can just swipe through endless options for a slimmer waist, a sm...

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From Mohenjo-Daro to today’s Bastar: Dhokra Art

From Mohenjo-Daro to today’s Bastar: Dhokra Art

November 11, 2021

It is an art that connects the collectors as well as the creators with the Indus Valley Civilisation that flourished in large part of northwestern India and modern-day Pakistan. The most famous creation of this art, called Dhokra, also belongs to the Mohenjo-Daro, the hub of Indu...

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Parumala Perunnal: Homage to India’s first canonised saint

Parumala Perunnal: Homage to India’s first c...

November 2, 2021

Parumala is a hamlet and island on the Pampa River in Thiruvalla, Pathanamthitta district in Kerala. The grand annual Parumala Perunnal festival takes places at Parumala St Peter’s & St Paul’s Orthodox Church. Geevargese Mar Gregorios established the church and he...

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Fiery works of Indian feminist writers

Fiery works of Indian feminist writers

October 29, 2021

Often shackled by a society that still runs on a patriarchal set of values, for centuries feminist fiction has been an imperative way for Indian women to bare their hearts through writing for centuries, starting with iconic Mughal women like Nur Jahan and Zeb-un-Nissa. During the...

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Ramayana, Mahabharata through queer lens

Ramayana, Mahabharata through queer lens

October 27, 2021

Even after the decriminalisation of homosexuality in India in 2018, one of the most common arguments against homosexuality in India involves a verbose monologue about the absence of such phenomenon historically. However, historians and gender activists have time and again asserte...

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Male beauty influencers in India break gender stereotypes

Male beauty influencers in India break gender ster...

October 24, 2021

As in most countries around the world, India’s USD 11 billion beauty industry has always largely focused on women. Even when the target is men, attention is mainly limited to skincare, geared towards skin whitening or bleaching or making someone more ‘masculine’. Anything o...

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Reviving the lost melody of Sarangi

Reviving the lost melody of Sarangi

October 20, 2021

In the world of Indian folk and classical Hindustani music, a humble, bow-stringed instrument carved from a single piece of wood, called Sarangi, is acclaimed for resembling the sound of a trained vocal artist. The Sarangi is the only instrument which can produce almost all the ...

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