Mandela

Dear friend,

Perhaps the strongest false memory in my life is the utter conviction that I watched the mid-air collision of two passenger aircraft over a village in Haryana on TV. There was neither live footage nor photographs, but I can’t shake the distinct memory I have of having seen this unbelievable and terrifying thing. 

That was the second reason I jumped at the chance to work with Bhavya Dore on a story about the crash. The third reason was the sheer number of people I’ve spoken to, especially under 25,* who haven’t the faintest idea that this accident happened. 

The prime reason is that Bhavya is a great journalist. Hers is the first story in a publication I’ve been working on with my colleagues at All Things Small. It’s called Fifty Two and will send out a new story every week. Bhavya’s work kicks off a series of reported essays about history, culture and politics on the Indian subcontinent, and how they made a difference to the lives of some/many of us. (The Charkhi Dadri crash changed global aviation rules, for example, which makes it even stranger that there’s relatively little public memory of it.) 

Please read Collision by Bhavya Dore here, and let me know what you think. If you’ve feedback on the site, I am agog: it is a work in progress. And please write for us! We are eager to commission new work from writers around the subcontinent. 

In other news: in late August I participated in a pitching workshop run by the Network of Women in Media, India, for which I wrote up a set of pitching guidelines for writers starting out. Here’s a pdf of that document. Please feel free to share the link with anyone who might find it useful.

Early this year I sent Meher Varma a brief essay for a project she’s been working on. Our double-billed article on the styles of Delhi (Meher) and Bombay (myself) women came out in Himal in June. Please find it here.

In Mumbai Mirror this month, I wrote about books by Zadie Smith, Kate Manne, Aparna Vaidik and others. The columns are here. In writing about Vaidik’s book I wasn’t sure if I was elaborating or repeating the themes of two older essays I wrote for the Atlantic, about lynching after Mohammed Akhlaq, and sexual violence, after Kathua. I submit them here, for the record.

My other work this month has included beating my standard time on making a chicken pulao; refraining from getting into fights on the k-drama subreddit; and losing hours to solving (and starting to make!) crosswords. 

Please look after yourself and those around you. I’ll write again next month.

Supriya

* I know this sounded like a humblebrag but yes, it’s true, I do know persons under the age of thirty.