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I ONCE WAS VERY OFFENDED WHEN I RETURNED FROM CHURCH AND I WAS INVITED TO A LUNCH PARTY FOLLOWED BY THE MASS.
One of the guests was trying to explain a girl, and the only description she could give,” Oh the most beautiful girl.” And someone else retorted, “ The one in the blue dress?” “Yes, that’s the one.”
Beauty is unanimous
As a teenager, I shied away from cameras. I’d always imagined when growing up, I was bound to hear, “My goodness you’ve become a beautiful woman.” But in my house, it was something I was rarely told, and definitely not something that leapt from my grandmother’s lips. There were some days; I looked into a mirror deeply hoping to find some semblance to my mother. Nothing, but I knew my restless eyes were hers, Ammachi’s. Unlike hers, mine never understood the ways of seeing.
Growing up with someone brutally honest, I knew she always wanted to teach us beauty lay in how content we were with ourselves not the one that thrived in compliments. In the end, another person’s opinion of how you look never mattered if you don’t know how you look. So then I, with a naked face, began to look into the camera, unafraid.
I’ve been asked many a time, why I don’t wear makeup. It definitely rooted from the rare photographs hung at unexpected corners of the ancestral home. My grandmother is never difficult to spot in the photographs. Which lead to my fascination with how she felt being photographed. Never for more than a few seconds, she would sit in. She famously has large brown beady and rhetoric eyes. Of great rarity, she powders her face or even has the slightest hint of makeup. She keeps her lips pursed, always chiding me for my lunatic smile. And with the right posture, a photo’s never incomplete without her kempt hair that’s always combed flat with some slick coconut oil. She never glares at the camera for attention and moreover, she never bothered how her eyes or even how her face looked, in return you’re drawn to her confidence and her unsullied reputation. There’s a way she sits in front of a camera, she acknowledges she’s photographed but she’s never intimidated how it turns out. She always outshone the fact that a woman isn’t always judged by her face. See she seldom looked into hers, though there was a tall standing mirror in her room.
And in years I understood she’s a woman who compliments wisely. Growing up with someone brutally honest, I knew she always wanted to teach us beauty lay in how content we were with ourselves not the one that thrived in compliments. In the end, another person’s opinion of how you look never mattered if you don’t know how you look. So then I, with a naked face, began to look into the camera, unafraid.
79 IN TIME BY ATHEENA WILSON
01: PROLOGUE
02: WHEN WAS WHEN
03: TAKEN BY THE CURRENT
04: BEAUTY
05: IDENTITY
06: BRAVERY
07: LOVE
08: EPILOGUE
Run parallel, meet at intersections, skip a few lines, the line of thought has journeyed across a few latitudes and longitudes. To more miles before the big sleep. Cheers, Atheena
Its been a journey from being a young soul where I have felt only love but unaware of its importance in my life I searched for love all over and only felt pain, scars and reality but never true love I still keep searching.
If there’s anything that I have stolen from my grandmother’s shelf of knick-knacks is a spoonful of pickle and some sweet and sour sarcasm. And yes, thanks to that I landed a job as a writer in a magazine.
You wear a saree only when you become a woman.” It sounds like a sentimentally wise thing to say, but let me break it down to you. In other words, it also meant, “When you’re ripe enough for the marriage market.”
Chilean poet and featuring artist at the Kochi Muziris Biennale 2016 on the possibility of an artistic response to the human crises of our time, including the refugee crisis surrounding the conflict in Syria. The sea, which became a grave for hundreds of people, including children.
Theyyam is a vibrant and colourful form of ritualistic worship that is deeply rooted in the culture and traditions of Kerala, India. This living tradition involves elaborate rituals, music, dance, and vibrant costumes that bring to life the divine spirits being invoked.
A new beginning is always infused with hope. Life is full of moments that we believe to be beginnings only because of the presence of hope. A physical symbol of these moments of hope is the flower. The films attempts to capture the emotion of these beginnings.
Dravidian Catharsis is the fruit of this deep immersion in the culture, the theatre, the traditions, and the soul of this mythological universe of the Tamil people. The powerful presences of spirits and living gods are embodied under masks.
Legend says that somewhere deep in the forest of the Himalayas is a strange bird that lays psychedelic eggs. Eating them will give you highly vivid hallucinations. The indigenous shamans believe that these visions are from your past life.
Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away this year on 28th March leaving behind a legacy of innumerable musical compositions that'll keep him alive in countless hearts across the world. However, I'll always be haunted by the fact that I couldn't let him know that I'm still alive because of his music along with many more.
Search for the questions to the answers written on the skin...and i asked. am i connected to the deep inside you? with the invisible roots from the layered skin of you? all the energy you transfer to the heart of your thoughts?i asked again am i still connected?
01: Ayurveda in Travancore Kingdom
If you expect stories which starts: Once upon a time, there was a princess... stop reading. Her Highness Princess Gouri Parvathi Bayi of the Travancore Royal Family will introduce us very modern and open minded view on today's Kerala society and ayurveda.
Stories of communities about origin, spread and apocalypse being presented through episodic memories, narrative and visual texts, travel writings, murals, divine objects, church paintings, and songs provide a dense and myriad repository of historical and artistic imagination.
IN OUR VEINS FLOW INK AND FIRE
This edition of the KMB 2022 embodies the joy of experiencing practices of divergent sensibilities, under conditions both joyful and grim. There is optimism even in the darkest absurdity, and this is what leavens the direness of our time.
KR Sunil goes beyond his frames to explore and discover soulful human stories. In this journey, he pursues a long forgotten life, that of a Tamil boy who endured the worst in a journey to Kerala. As the World Cup fever peaks, here is a story.
Presenting to you the most exciting project that we have worked on this year! A short film shot entirely on phone, this project has been a dream & after a lot of anticipation & hard work from all of us here, we are super duper excited to finally bring this to you!
Nitesh Noor Mohanty is a visual artist who works at the fluid intersection of arts, culture, communication, media and self-reflection. His theoretical interests are also wide, often inquiring about the roots and fundamentals of art history, storytelling, and philosophy.
Life & Times of Amrita Sher-Gil
Amrita Sher-Gil, considered the mother of Indian modern painting, became known as the Indian Frida Kahlo. With her paintbrush she explored the sadness felt by people, especially women, in 1930s India, giving voice and validity to their experiences.
