Charges of secession, separatism against political commentators is a chilling indicator of an inherently illiberal, authoritarian response to dissenting opinions. Ultimately strikes at the very foundations of a democracy.
#DrMedusa #NehaSingh #TheRantingGola #Pahalgam

nwmindia.org/statements/p...

One day, he meets someone from his village and pleads to be taken away. What he receives instead is a bar of sandalwood soap—to wash off the life he cannot leave. Translating this story wasn’t an act of craft. It was a confrontation. Murugan offers no comfort, and as a translator, neither could I.

A nameless boy, whose job is to knock on toilet doors in a city bus stand summoning people out. The job leaves him with a feeling of 'shit stuck on his back.'

Perumal Murugan's Sandalwood Soap wasn’t just a story I translated—it remains the one I couldn’t walk past.

😞

So here's to Alamelu Mangai Thayarammal and the numerous other women who were active in the Dravidian movement! Without them, we wouldn't be.
thewire.in/history/alam...

It was an exciting moment of discovery, and I knew I had to do a story with whatever little information I could gather. I hope we will soon uncover another lost book of Thayarammal—a woman of ancient Dravidian land—and more details about her life.

A chance conversation between husband and Chiththaanai, who works with the Tamil Virtual Academy, gave me a lead. He said he had a photograph of her and a note about her, published in the Who's Who of Madras (1935). Chiththaanai sir sent me a digital version of the journal. It felt like a lottery!

Not much is known about Alamelu Mangai Thayarammal except her participation in the SILF and that she was an MLC. For years, I was looking for some information on her—a trailblazer—and couldn't find anything, not even a photograph.