Ketan Dattani speaks on how to rebuild in the post Covid economy
No event in recent history has affected us as profoundly and pervasively as the pandemic. It signifies a completely unprecedented circumstance, as novel as it is life-changing. The virus has not only infected thousands, but has thrust us into an economic recession. How long, how deep and how many are impacted by the recession will be influenced not just by the...
Edinburgh’s community spirit during the “new normal”
We are living in a “new normal”. Social distancing, wearing masks, sanitizing hands, and along with that being “digital/online”. Considering that large public gatherings are not permitted, keeping in mind the current prevailing COVID-19 situations, SABASH (Scottish Association of Bengali Arts and Sanskritik Heritage) and the Scottish Indian Arts Forum (SIAF) organised online Durga Puja and digital Dusherra celebrations...
Lockdown Diaries: My fight with coronavirus boredom
My name is Ishaan Saxena and I am a student of year 5 in an international school in Hong Kong. My school has been closed since January end amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Home learning is one job to do but once you finish it, it gets boring. So I thought I could use this time to explore my interest and do something...
KASHISH 2020 to screen India’s first gay film ‘Badnam Basti’, lost and found after 49 years
Register for KASHISH 2020 at http://mumbaiqueerfest.com/attend/ Director Prem Kapoor's 'Badnam Basti', India's first gay film released in 1971, only to be lost to obscurity for around five decades, and found in a Berlin archive, will be screened at KASHISH 2020. Considered as one of first Indian films to explore same-sex relationship, Badnam Basti was made in 1971 and features a...
Of poetry and lockdown diaries
As a writer, raconteur and storyteller, I like to find my material, my stories in the real world. I then imbue them with a setting, a context and characters that find a voice to cut across the real and bring to life a message in my work that needs to be repeated constantly. My most recent work which came...
Lockdown Diaries: Sumit and Apurva of Cafe Guftagu appeal to raise funds, feed the needy in Mumbai during lockdown
The adverse impact from months of lockdown following Covid 19 and the hardships faced by thousands in one of the worst-hit cities in India, Mumbai is now a growing concern. While many have lost their livelihood opportunities, start-ups and businesses are struggling to stay afloat, certain vulnerable communities like the transgender people, sex workers, daily wage earners and other marginalised queer individuals...
KASHISH 2021 rescheduled to August due to the pandemic
The 12th edition of KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, South Asia’s biggest LGBTQIA+ film festival which was to be held online in May has been rescheduled from August 19th to September 5th 2021 owing to the current situation of the pandemic in the country and across the world. In a statement released recently the organizers of the film festival said “considering the...
Concerns are growing over the ‘deep’ racial inequality that the spread of the virus has exposed in Britain
Black and Asian people are more likely than white people to be fined in London under coronavirus laws, official data showed on Wednesday, as tens of thousands gathered in the British capital to protest against racism. More than half the penalties issued by London police between 27 March and 14 May for breaching new laws created to stop the spread...
Lockdown Diaries: Captain Sir Tom Moore, 100, dies with Covid 19 at the NHS Bedford hospital
Sir Thomas Moore, the 100-year-old legendary war veteran and NHS hero who won the nation's heart by raising £32 million for the NHS Charities to support their services during the coronavirus pandemic has died at the Bedford Hospital on Tuesday. He was admitted at the hospital on 31 January, after being tested positive for COVID-19. His condition deteriorated as...
Lockdown Diaries: Director-Producer Faraz Ansari raises funds to support transgenders and daily wage earners in the film industry
The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the worst epidemics that the world has witnessed within living memory. The lockdown imposed by governments across the world has been a huge setback for industries across the world, and for many in the busy Bollywood industry, this shutdown has spelt doom for the thousands making their living out of it. Faraz Arif...
