KASHISH 2023 – be fluid, be you!
The 14th edition of KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, South Asia’s biggest LGBTQIA+ film festival, will be celebrated in-person at Liberty Cinema from June 7-11, 2023, and June 8-10 at Alliance Française de Bombay, with an online festival in the following week, June 16-25. If you're quick you can grab an early bird discount on Full Festival Passes for...
Debut novel depicts the challenges of a young Asian woman expelled from Uganda
Winter was just setting in when I first saw the images of Ugandan Asians disembarking at UK airports. The weather was foul and l’ll never forget the look on the faces of the new arrivals, as they started their new, diminished lives. The year was 1972 and I was a teenager leading a comfortable life in the English countryside....
KASHISH 2024: A Sleeping Dragon is awoken
SLEEPING DRAGON12 min | 2023 | UK | EnglishDirector: Rob Falconer Director Rob Falconer returns to KASHISH with a short documentary that brings a beautiful snapshot of George Hodson, an artist, writer, and long-term HIV/AIDS survivor to vivid life. Those of you who watched Legendary Children at last year's festival will undoubtedly recognise George. The film is a piece that...
The Chattri Memorial Service: India’s war sacrifices remembered in Brighton
The Royal Armed Forces, veterans associations, relatives of Indian soldiers, and senior members from civic and political life attended the Chattri Memorial on the Downs just north of Patchman on 9 June to remember the war sacrifices of soldiers during First World War, from undivided India. Hindu and Sikh soldiers were cremated in the site of the memorial, having...
Triumph of good over tear-gas: an extraordinary story of Hong Kong Bengali Association’s Durga Puja
‘Wherever you go, a bit of Calcutta will go with you. I know, because it’s happened to me. And every Puja, I am overcome by the magic of Bengal. It’s a feeling that’ll never go away.’ Vir Sanghvi ‘If you want a city with a soul: come to Kolkata’ True that! The Kolkata virus never quite goes away, and the infection...
Local group helping to save the wildlife of London’s River Thames
The Thames has a long and murky history. It wasn't just the main thoroughfare to move products and raw materials all along its length, but it was also used to dump industrial waste, among other things. In 1957, the Natural History Museum declared that the river was biologically dead. However, over the years there have been many improvements, such as...
Remembering Chiku, our squirrel child
This poem's been inspired by real events and has been written to make children understand the power of compassion towards animals. It is meant to encourage them to love them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I heard the crows scream out quite loud And ran outside to see, There lay on the grass in our Mumbai backyard Tiny balls of three! It was early hours, we were barely awake But...
Back in cinemas, the 2021 London Indian Film Festival
In a challenging year for India and South Asia, the Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival and its sister festivals in Birmingham and Manchester, will be a love letter to the homelands, continuing to premiere the very best of new indie films from the Indian subcontinent and diaspora, from 17th June to 4th July 2021. Supported by the British Film...
Multi-faith celebration marks 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak
Multiple faiths truly came together in Edinburgh at an event held to celebrate the 550th anniversary of the birth of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. It was a ground-breaking evening arranged a Muslim organisation, supported by a Hindu organisation, and hosted by the Christian Lord Provost. It was attended by all faiths and was a wonderful showcase of...
US right-wing QAnon conspiracy theories morph after spreading to India
Conspiracy theorists in India are seizing the opportunity to co-opt what in the Western world is better known as the QAnon conspiracy theory. Before his Twitter account was suspended, Indian lawyer Vibhor Anand published some big “revelations” to his 87k followers. Anand shared a tweet with pictures of Bollywood stars Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandes, as well as members...
