Contemporary

Displaying 1 - 10 of 27
Dinesh Kafle
in Image Gallery
Dinesh Kafle
Vijay Kumar Yadav, 40, is a truck driver from Sant Kabir Nagar in Uttar Pradesh. He likes to hum a couplet[1] when he drives his truck. It speaks of his predicament, he says, for ‘a driver has no home other than the truck he drives.’[2] In his 20-year career as a driver, Yadav never got such a…
in Article
Dinesh Kafle
Trucks are universally known for their utility in freight transportation. But in South Asia, they have a special place in the public imagination: they are seen as mobile canvasses for art with their bodies decorated with colourful paintings and artistic expressions. A significant part of truck art…
in Overview
Dinesh Kafle
Trucks are universally understood as means of freight transportation, but in India as in South Asia, they serve as sites for literary production as their bodies are decorated with poetic expressions. Those expressions often represent the truck driver’s worldview, as they deal with the ideas of home…
in Module
Haritha Vijayakumaran
in Image Gallery
Haritha Vijayakumaran
Krishnan A, who hails from the Kollengode region of Palakkad, has been a porattukali performer for the last 34 years and is the master trainer of his troupe. Although his many physical ailments have pushed him towards retirement, he perseveres because he wants to preserve this dying art form.…
in Interview
Haritha Vijayakumaran
Porattukali or porattunadakam is an art form that originated in the Palakkad district of Kerala and is performed by the Panar community which is an underprivileged caste. It has been in existence for around 170 years and yet is unfamiliar to the best part of the state’s population in a state where…
in Overview
Haritha Vijayakumaran
Porattukali is a multi-disciplinary art form performed in the Palakkad district of Kerala. Developed by the Panar community, it is exclusive to the Dalit communities of the region and is a representation and celebration of their lives. Since the Dalit people were kept out of the temple premises…
in Module
Goutham Raj Konda
in Image Gallery
Goutham Raj Konda
Vikram is a 20-year-old breakdancer—hence, B-boy—in Dharavi, and has been teaching b-boying in Dharavi for almost two years. His fascination with breakdancing began when he saw a bunch of dancers who practised daily in a ground close to his home. Later, with the help of his friends and the crew…
in Interview