KASHISH 2021: Film Submissions open for South Asia’s biggest LGBTQI Film Festival
The twelfth edition of KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival is scheduled to be held online next year from May 20 to 30, taking into consideration the prevailing pandemic situation. The organisers have mentioned that they are still considering a two day on-ground festival if the situation improves, a decision which will be taken only in February 2021. Festival director Sridhar...
Dallas textiles firm supports US medical workers by pivoting into PPE
More than 35 million (and counting) pieces of personal protection equipment (PPE) have been shipped to hospitals, school districts, and government agencies around the country through Nextt Shield, a new division of Dallas-based textiles company Nextt Affiliated, created during the pandemic. Known worldwide for its sheets, bedding, and towels, Nextt -owned by Indian-born Arun Agarwalhas - has now pivoted to...
Lockdown Diaries: Reflections In The Wake of COVID-19
Most of us Indians across the globe perhaps share a similar story at this juncture. We are in the same boat, stranded mentally if not physically. For those of us whose families are far away in India, the question that has inevitably crossed our minds is: “When will we get to go home next?” It's my 83rd day today,...
Lockdown Diaries: Respecting the anxieties of a five-year-old during the prolonged lockdown period
I am keeping lockdown diaries of my five-year-old daughter Inishka Bhattacharya for research. I talk with her to understand the tensions that she is going through during the lockdown period. All the bits shared at the bottom are her words from my COVID-19 diaries. I thought it would be good to share these as it can help other parents to...
Lockdown Diaries: The hope that makes us go on and on….dancing
We celebrated Mother’s Day last weekend. It was just another day in these times of Coronavirus-pandemic-related lockdown existence. My day to day routine at home revolves around balancing home, office, and the kids. It is quite a juggle, but not quite different from what most other mothers all across the world go through every day. Many of these mothers...
Lockdown Diaries: Showing resilience in coping with Covid during the grey years
India has 110 million elderly, projected to become 177 million by 2025. Of this West Bengal has 750,000 senior citizens and Kolkata itself records 550,000 of them. In a recent research study the Calcutta Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology (CMIG), Regional Resource and Training Centre on Ageing, conducted individual case studies to explore how senior citizens were coping during the...
Lockdown Diaries: Abhishek Buddhadev seizes the lockdown as an opportunity, self-isolation as power of growth
Life always gives us the opportunity to improve ourselves, raise our voice, head, and self-esteem to overcome negativity. I was a bullied kid in school and lost the confidence to live life, but I recall the quote of "Do or Die". It's better to Do something else, as I already felt the situation of Dying in my depression. I started...
Kumartuli saga 2020: the hands that shape the Gods
The word ‘unprecedented times’ perhaps has found a new definition, since the Coronavirus pandemic hit different parts of the world since December last year. Among all the turmoil caused, the pandemic has changed the Durga Puja festival, the biggest celebrations for Hindu Bengalis around the world, where they gather for five days to seek the powerful matriarchal blessings of...
Lockdown Diaries: Ankit Bhuptani’s views on self-isolation and how our actions will define a generation
50 or 100 years from today we will not be able to talk about the year 2020 without talking about this COVID-19 pandemic. I wonder, will a teen of that time be able to believe that all the commercial planes of the world were grounded? Businesspersons, film-stars, industry leaders and other powerful people who hardly had time to eat a meal peacefully,...
Creativity unlocked: an inspiring story from India in the times of the pandemic
While the pandemic has been challenging for us in different ways, Pulkit Datta shows us how he used the lockdown to unlock his dormant creativity “When an admirer offered to pay for one of my sketches, my 10-year-old daughter, standing beside me, literally jumped in joy. I clenched my fists instead. The moment had arrived,” says Pulkit Datta, a mechanical engineer by trade, and an...
