Whispers of Laughter and Tears: Tagore
The colours of my May are as yellow as the golden showers. The 7th of this month, the twenty-fifth day of Boishakh in the Bengali calendar, marked the...
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My Journey with Natyashastra (Part 1): A Personal Academic Exploration
A decade ago, in March 2013, I visited Manish Da’s (Manish Mitra, the director of the Kasba Arghya theatre group) home for the first time for a lu...
A Memoir of Kaurav (Chapter 1): The Night Journey
Chapter 1: The Night Journey The applause had died hours ago, but its echo lingered in the empty auditorium like dust settling after a storm. The cri...
Insight from the Corpus
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“In human lives, I have observed three main desires: wealth, power, and knowledge. I have one more—Rasa (The Universal Emotion). This desire is so intense that it can easily overshadow the other three.”
A Review of Indian Aesthetics and Applications in the Vishnudharmottara Purana (Part 1)
My initial encounter with the Vishnudharmottara Purana occurred while pursuing a diploma in Indian aesthetics at Ramakrishna Mission, Golpark. Despite...
A Memoir of Kaurav (Chapter 2): The Dream of Cards and Dice
Chapter 2: The Dream of Cards and Dice The bus station materialized around him at dusk, though he could not remember the journey there. The familiar ...
A Memoir of Kaurav (Chapter 3): The Arithmetic of Exhaustion
Chapter 3: The Arithmetic of Exhaustion Kaurav found himself calculating the days like a prisoner marking time on a cell wall. January 3rd had been t...
Reader's Pause
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“প্রথম ক্রিয়াতেই খেচরীমুদ্রার অভ্যাসে মন চিন্তাশূন্য হয়, ফলে ক্রিয়াবান সদা আনন্দে অবস্থান করেন, এবং কুণ্ডলিনী মহাশক্তির জাগরণ এই স্তর থেকেই আরম্ভ হয়।”
Read EssayA Memoir of Kaurav (Chapter 4): The Question Without Answer
Chapter 4: The Question Without Answer The discomfort had lasted for hours after that first viewing, a persistent ache like hunger or homesickness. A...
A Memoir of Kaurav (Chapter 5): The Weight of Names
Chapter 5: The Weight of Names The bus swayed through the Karnataka night, and Kaurav found himself thinking of that evening two years ago when every...
A Memoir of Kaurav (Chapter 6): The Thousand Books
Chapter 6: The Thousand Books The memory of that first lunch came to him now as the bus climbed through the Ghats. Roni-da had listened to his poems ...
My Journey with Natyashastra (Part 2): Philosophy Beyond Performance
Natyashastra is not merely a handbook or manual for the art of Theatre; it is a philosophy that speaks of Purushartha (the four aims of human life) wi...
My Journey with Natyashastra (Part 3): The Complete Training Manual
Without further preamble, let us now consider the chapters and topics of the Natya Shastra. For until we know exactly which aspects are being discusse...
Insight from the Corpus
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“Airavata served as Indra's mount, helping the sky-god release rain by shattering clouds with thunderbolts. In agricultural societies dependent on monsoons, elephants naturally symbolized fertility and abundance. Only well-watered, vegetation-rich lands could sustain these massive creatures. By receiving Airavata's head, Ganesha inherited this rain-bringing power.”
My Journey with Natyashastra (Part 4): The Sacred Purpose of Art
No matter how much Sri Krishna directs towards Brahmajnana in the Gita and advises against desiring the fruits of one’s actions, if Arjuna did not f...