Every now and then, a wisp of memory invades that foggy space between sleep and waking in the middle of the night.
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Commentary
Who gets to say what “Pakistaniness” is?
I have an identification card that I try to keep hidden in a drawer at home. It’s a constant reminder that I am not de-colonized, not self-determining, not free of Canadian paternalism. Welcome to the world of the Indian Status Card.
We turn people into caricatures of themselves. It simplifies things for us.
Kalpesh Oza's journey from India to Canada unfolded in three pivotal returns.
“The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” — Steve Bantu Biko I remember. I probably shouldn’t, but I do. It’s a distant memory. Still, like my parents and their parents before them and so […]
Sometime in the late fifties, as a 10-year-old child in what was then known as Calcutta (now Kolkata), I wandered around in the neighbourhood I grew up in and would stop at a books and comics store, which was nothing […]
Caveat: There is a reason I’ve largely avoided the Italian crime thriller/poliziotteschi genre all my life. That’s what Tele-Italia aired on Montréal’s defunct ethnic TV channel, along with La Piovra mafia series and commedia sexy all’italiana (Edwige Fenech, Banfi or […]
Recently, I read a collection of reminiscences on the hunger strike of 1981 carried out by republican prisoners in the north of Ireland. The hunger strike began March 1 and ended October 3. During those seven months, 23 […]
For the foods we chow down on every day, labels and nutrient values do not tell us enough about the history of their evolution or the processes used in their production. When we eat, we don’t always know […]
I adjust my non-existent headphones and I add castanets, maracas, timbales, and I try to change the beat
Introductory note: The term “conflict” play is occasionally used as a form of shorthand to describe the nature of the plays depicting the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The Palestinian community at large rejects the description of their reality as a […]
The affair quickly blew up into a media-and social media- driven frenzy, triggering resignations, condemnation, a petition and calls for boycott.
Independence from British rule did not really improve matters for either the Dalits or the tribespeople as a whole.
We too are wild In the past year we have seen hundreds of kangaroos flee bush fires in Australia, half a billion birds and reptiles perish, and many people lose their homes or in some cases, their lives. […]
I Bob Carty’s Arctic report and how it froze my heart Scientists do not write in the first person, since their findings seek to reflect processes that unfold beyond the vagaries of human will. When they say that […]
“In its encounter with Nature, science invariably elicits a sense of reverence and awe. The very act of understanding is a celebration of joining, merging, even if on a very modest scale, with the magnificence of the Cosmos. And […]
Teesri Duniya Theatre was established in 1981 by Rana Bose and me as co-founders. Others involved were the cast and crew of the company’s launch production, Badal Sircar’s Julus. At the time, there was no other South Asian theatre company […]
Ma voix se dévoile Je me souviens lorsque j’étudiais le chant classique au Collège Ste-Croix. Thérèse, ma professeure, me répétait sans cesse de relâcher ma mâchoire pendant que je chantais. Elle était si rigide et si tendue qu’elle rendait […]
Beliefs and affiliations There are many people who relate the concept of “class” to level of income. This is understandable given that a majority of people see “class” as an extension of an archaic English approach towards social “classification” […]
Je voudrais dire wliwni (merci!) de vivre à Montréal, qui est en TERRITOIRE MOHAWK NON CÉDÉ! I would like to say wliwni (thanks) for being able to live in Montréal, which is in UNCEDED MOHAWK TERRITORY! Kwaï! Bonjour! […]
...it would have been easy for me to fantasize that this landscape is the unspoilt one of ancient times, but I am focused instead on a radio program about a rural shooting that happened a few days ago.
1. Tradition NANA PEAZANT (narrating) “In this quiet place, simple folk knelt down and caught a glimpse of the eternal.” (from the screenplay) Traditions can be looked at as auras of history. Specific traditions associated with individual families are […]
As we observe that the multitudes of heritages operate in competition with each other (“mine is bigger than yours…”), we find that ramifications of this scramble for influence pervade a multitude of cultural, political and economic spheres. In what follows, […]
[NOTE: A different and shorter version of this essay, with another title, has appeared elsewhere.] Kabari ani? How are you? Hoori. Good. I introduce Morga, an invented language, with the above phrase, in my forthcoming novel, Land for Fatimah. […]
So now, the poor be damned! There was now one single model, based on individual indebtedness, promoted around the world as UN policy and supported by the World Bank, the IMF and multiple governments.
Such systems are attempting to learn to recognize and identify voices, images, vocal tones and facial expressions, and develop a response that will go beyond a databank-based response system.
The 70 per cent of Canadians living in poverty are part of the “working poor:” people who are working, but don’t make enough to get by.
Like worms in the soil, we love to slide and wriggle down this wonderful rectilinear cement-way of uniformity.
On the face of it, Icaros: A Vision brings together two pathologies, a shaman’s developing blindness and a rich Westerner’s spreading cancer. Both the blindness and the cancer will be victorious, in spite of a healing forest.
