In this issue

Today, we worship at the altar of the body. The obsession with the body has never been as intense or widespread as in our narcissistic age. Gym-sculpted bodies proliferate, as if emerging from 3D printers. Perfect bodies occupy our screens, our magazines and aspirations.

The Body is the theme this issue. With mordant wit, surgeon Ambarish Satwik looks back at his lessons in anatomy, while Sandip Roy traces the fascinating story of Bengali machismo. Paromita Vohra traces the “evolution” of the Hindi film hero, now primped and hairless; and Shougat Dasgupta laments the commodification of sportsmen and growing soullessness of sports. Manjula Padmanab- han’s hilarious take on learning about the human body has a personal twist. And Leela Samson writes about the equilibrium between the body and mind in dance.

Elsewhere, Prashant Panjiar's quixotic photo essay captures the “we-are-like-this-only” aspect of Indians. Kishore Singh explores the connection, if any, between where an artist lives and his work. In a particularly rich fiction and poetry section we have the last poem by the celebrated French poet, Yves Bonnefoy, written shortly before he died this year.

Home and Away

Where do artists come from, asks Kishore Singh. What nationality do we ascribe to works of art? And should it matter?

9 mins

Bengali Macho

A race of weaklings? Effeminate aesthetes more likely to be writing poetry than lifting weights? Sandip Roy delves into a surprising history of musclemen, barefoot footballers and Tagore the wrestler.

10+ mins

Automatic Bodies

Primped, hairless and buff, the Hindi film hero has little in common with his predecessor. It’s a product, argues Paromita Vohra, of a new politics of aspiration.

10+ mins

Morbid Curiosities

Ambarish Satwik on his days as a student of anatomy, poking around in cadavers and studying photographs of extravagantly diseased bodies.

8 mins

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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.