kriticulture

Saahil Raina (Grade 1) (Saahil is the youngest contributor to this blog. I hope you enjoy his fine story. - RKS) Illustration: Google Clip Art Once there was a boy named Duck. He took a trip to the zoo with his dad. He got lost because he climbed up the tree to see the monkeys. The dad asks animals to help find where his son is. First, he asked the lion. The lion said, “He is in a tree but I can’t reach.” The dad asked the tiger and the tiger said, “I can’t reach either.” Then he asked the leopard. The leopard said, “None of the animals can reach except the camel.” Then the dad asked the camel and the camel said, “I can’t reach.” “The leopard said you could,” said the dad. The camel said, “The leopard is not smart. Go ask the giraffe.” The dad asked the giraffe, “Can you get my son out of the tree?” The giraffe said, “Yes.” The giraffe reached out his long neck and the boy climbed down. Then he went home with his dad.

A Short Story by Bushra Ejaz. Translated by Paramjit Singh Ramana . Once she decided to banish love out of her life, her world turned upside down. She had never thought that later she would face any such problem that she won’t be able to solve. And trying to solve that problem, she would herself become a problem. She had never thought that in loveless times the flowers fade, the breeze turns into scalding wind, sadness engulfs the walls of your home and despite the cacophony of noises emanating from the courtyard, a deafening silence overwhelms you and takes possession of your heart like a cobra with its hood raised, whose hissing sets your very being on such a fire that neither the cold water nor the icy winds can ever extinguish. The heart burns, the cobra hisses, the fire rages and doesn’t die out. Whatever you do, it does not die out; it just refuses to die out. She put her left hand on her chest and walked slowly towards the window. It was pitch dark in the street oppo...

Good man Muthalik, patriot— He downright honest man; He do not like this dirtiness, He clean up all he can. One problem he is having, though, That require CT Scan: The dirtiness he thinks he see Is all inside his brain. Muthalik, he like Amreeka For dollar and internet; But for keeping mahila disciplined Taliban are his pet. Kama Sutra, Khajurahu— Very spiritual are; Naked sadhu maharaj jies Spread that message far. Mahila, she is not to act, But to be acted upon; Bharat ki naari tu tou hai Very much mahan But only when you do observe Proper laaj and sharam; And oblige without argument When Muthalik is garam. Between these poles resides the crux Of your param dharma. Badri Raina badri.raina@gmail.com

by Naomi Klein (Courtesy The Nation , February 5, 2009) Watching the crowds in Iceland banging pots and pans until their government fell reminded me of a chant popular in anti-capitalist circles back in 2002: "You are Enron. We are Argentina." Its message was simple enough. You—politicians and CEOs huddled at some trade summit—are like the reckless scamming execs at Enron (of course, we didn't know the half of it). We—the rabble outside—are like the people of Argentina, who, in the midst of an economic crisis eerily similar to our own, took to the street banging pots and pans. They shouted, "¡Que se vayan todos!" ("All of them must go!") and forced out a procession of four presidents in less than three weeks. What made Argentina's 2001-02 uprising unique was that it wasn't directed at a particular political party or even at corruption in the abstract. The target was the dominant economic model—this was the first national revolt against contempo...

Book Reviews by M.L. Raina Identity, Culture and the Post-modern World By Madan Sarup.Edited by Tasneem Raja University of Georgia Press, Athens, USA pp.xvi+192. $15.95 Strangers to Ourselves By Julia Kristeva Translated from the French by Leon S.Roudiez Columbia University Press, New York pp.xii+230. $15.50 For starters let us consider the following three statements. The first from the addenda to Samuel Beckett’s Watt: “For all the good that frequent departures out of Ireland had done him, he might as well have stayed there”. The second by the first Duke of Wellington. Asked what his identity was, he curtly replied: “Sir, one is not an ass because one is born in a stable”. The third statement occurs in Naipaual’s Among the Believers to the effect that even though all Muslims are perceived as brothers in Islam (ummah), no Muslim country allows access to the citizens of another Muslim country without a valid visa. None of these statements is to be found in the above books, but each one...