In this issue

On my first day as a trainee at The Statesman, more decades ago than I care to remember, I wracked my brains for an hour trying to write a tiny paragraph about a flower show. Finally, a senior reporter, feeling sorry for me, asked me to move over and wrote the whole thing in the blink of an eye. Had he not showed me that professionals must, at some point, stop fretting and just begin, that first day would have been my last in journalism. Starting to write, whether it is your first newspaper article or your twentieth novel, is daunting. It’s the fear of the unknown, a fear that we must conquer or forever regret the road not taken.
Arundhuti Dasgupta and Utkarsh Patel explore creation myths in many civilisations, while Razib Khan attempts to trace the origins of Indians and scrutinise notions of purity and Nityan Unnikrishnan, in his comic, tackles the challenge of the blank page. Manidipa Mandal writes about the changes wrought by the birth of a child can bring in its wake, the way birth can upend expectations. Shreevatsa Nevatia mulls over escaping his family and starting afresh. And Rimli Sengupta delves into the history of Vande Mataram; while Harsha Vadlamani photographs protestors in Delhi. To protest, of course, is in part to imagine a new beginning.
As ever, the essays in this issue range widely, and the fiction and poetry sections are rich. Reading that will be a balm in the days ahead, when, courtesy Coronavirus, we will be languishing in self-exile.

The Art Scene

For the new kid on the block, it certainly has pedigree. The Centre for Con-temporary Art, housed within Delhi’s Bikaner House complex, finally opened its portals to welcome art aficionados during this year’s edition of the India Art Fair. Nature Morte was invited to stage the centre’s much-awaited inaugural show, an opportunity the gallery found too irresistible to pass up. The ambitious exhibition it mounted, The Idea of the Acrobat, occupied both floors of the recently renovated building and brought together the works of a dozen well known artists in a multitude of media. The line-up included Bharti Kher, Atul Dodiya, Dayanita Singh, Shilpa Gupta, Ayesha Singh, Khyentse Norbu and LN Tallur to name but a few.

3 mins

The Unknown Soldier

One man wondered and worried about his disappeared brother all his life.His granddaughter continued the search. Preksha Sharma resurrects a man and his story

10+ mins

The Nawab's Last Sigh

Rudely awakened by the fact of independent India, an aristocrat in Meerut clung to his past. Now, he tells Sunaina Kumar, all he has left are his memories of a glorious age.

10 mins

The Image-Maker

Sukumar Ray’s most vivid images were saved for his classics of nonsense verse, but his singular eye, writes Nabarupa Bhattacharjee, found its earliest expression in photography

8 mins

A Goan Childhood

Fragments of memory of a time long gone, from a life lived far away. By Selma Carvalho

9 mins

Long, Long Ago

Arundhuti Dasgupta and Utkarsh Patel recount obscure creation myths from around the world, many echoing each other

10+ mins

The Birth of a Parent

The beginning of a new life can create other strange new lives, reflects Manidipa Mandal

10+ mins

The Birth of an Anthem

From right-wing slogan to moving patriotic song and now back to Hindu nationalistic war cry. Rimli Sengupta on the evolution of Vande Mataram

10+ mins

Family Business

AT THE DINDUKKAL BUS DEPOT, the abortionist pushed her way through the crowd thronging the bus and finally managed to board it. She placed her travel bag beside her on the seat, calling out to her niece to hurry up. The young woman renewed her efforts to break free of the tangle of limbs and claim the seat reserved for her.

10+ mins

The Guest

Vaiyavan is the nom de plume of MSP Murugesan. Born in 1936, he did sundry jobs before obtaining postgraduate degrees by correspondence and then served as an English and Tamil teacher till his retirement in 1996. His writing career began in 1956. Multifaceted and prolific, he has to his credit a long list of short story collections, novels, plays, literary essays, poems and children’s stories. He has won several awards including Tamil Nadu government awards for best book on culture (1982) and best science book (1992) and the Malcolm Adiseshiah award for active participation in neo-literacy activities (1996). In his short stories and novels, Vaiyavan revels in a zest for life. Humaneness is the hallmark of his work, as the pain and pleasure, trials and tribulations of people in different rungs of society are described in minute detail. —CGR

10+ mins

Read all stories from The Indian Quarterly

The Indian Quarterly Magazine Description:

The Indian Quarterly (IQ) is a national and international magazine. We hope that just as The New Yorker exhibits a distinctly Manhattan sensibility and always contains articles about New York City, IQ will manifest the fact that it is edited and published in Mumbai through its cosmopolitan and open-minded perspective on the world and on India.

In fact, we hope to provide a unique way of interpreting our ever changing culture, and to define our own experiences through the strength of thought, ideas and imagery, be it in the form of fact, fiction, poetry, illustration or photography. IQ is therefore a paean to the polyphonic nature of reflection and the creativity that is its outcome.