New on the Website: July
www.thealiporepost.com
Hello!
First up, apologies for having skipped this section for the past few months. The regular newsletter kept getting longer with new discoveries and a need to express.
As some of you may know, apart from the newsletter, The Alipore Post is also a creative journal that highlights contemporary art, poetry, photography and comics. We’ve been publishing some fabulous work from India and the world here, and it often gets lost in the infinite IG feed. So over the next few days, I’ll be making these monthly compilations from July - September for you to read and enjoy at leisure. I’m also going to be better about scheduling these once a month so there’s no backlog :)
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ART
Recommended Reading: Shaheen Bagh: A Graphic Recollection by Ita Mehrotra
“Working on the book was a way to record different perspectives around the anti-CAA movement, through conversations, from the Dadis of Shaheen Bagh to younger women who work in the area and are envisioning what their futures in India will look like. It is a 'recollection', because it holds together moments and memories, pieces of a vast uprising which continues in movements that are unfolding even as we speak; it is recent history and yet completely connected to urgent questions of our present and future, as individuals and as a democratic nation.”
-Ita MehrotraRead all about the graphic story here.
“I am a graphic designer. Three years ago, I decided to express my art through paper. For me, it has been a beautiful journey full of inspiration and learning. In my work, I apply my knowledge of design, drawing and paint that I have acquired over time."
-Marcela Liz (@Petalosdesign)Check out Marcela’s paper flowers here.
Artist Showcase: Andrea Monterrosas and her love affair with India
“When I started my degree in Visual Arts, I mixed my studies with my love for India and that culminated in research on cinema and illustrations mainly inspired by Indian miniatures. With the help of my illustrations and using an Instagram account, I share the art and culture of India with the people of my country. My goal is to get more Mexicans to know and get closer to India because I consider that both cultures and countries are similar and we do not know it."
-Andrea Monterrosas
See more of Andrea’s work here.
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POETRY
Excerpts from the poems published in the journal in July:
A Poem of Hiraeth by Shirley Lalrinfeli
Home is never really home without you.
It's just an empty box of wood and concrete, stones and glass.
The foundation breaks at the slightest wind.
Crack.
It falls apart. Crumbles.Read the full poem here.
for papa by by Kaavya Ranjith
i am my father:
my patience knows no bounds
until it does
i am my father:
bones, appetite, temper
i am my father:
eyes like honey, heart like armour
i am my father:
who hated his father
i am my father:
language without the words
i am my father:
calls once a month
says ‘where’ve you been’
means ‘i was starting to worry’
says ‘do you need any money’
means ‘i’ll always take care of you’
says ‘okay, i’ll leave you to it’
means ‘i love you. call me.’Read another poem by Kaavya here.
A Poem for All the Poems I Send to My Lover by Bhawna Jaimini
I always wanted to fall in love
With someone I can send poems to.
The sad poems, the happy poems
The pretentious poems, the poems
With an identity crisis, depressed poems
Bad poems written by good people
And good poems written by predators.
There is only so much your own poems
Can tell. Sometimes, only borrowed words
Can help you describe the shape of that one
Face you would want to see after your cat dies
And when that face walks away from you and
Your dead cat to walk the dog of a shiny new thing
In their neighbourhood, you can come back to your
Empty apartment and cry yourself to sleep after
Reading every poem you ever sent them.Read the full poem here.
A Tale of Stories by Ankur Animesh Surin
Drought became us
Turned us into grains of sand
The blithe breeze that poets sung of
Weren’t that kind to us
When they were done caressing their faces
And having their way with the locks of women’s hair,
They turned a new leaf for a new storyRead the full poem here.
I want to be Vijay Sethupathi by Srividya Sivakumar
I want to be as unaffected as him, sauntering into the foyer of the high-end House with hair flopping on the face, settling myself into a sofa in red shoes and an old pair of jeans with a shirt that gapes open at the buttons
as the others sit perched on the edge of their uncomfortable chairs like angry women confronting girlfriends and trying hard to show disdain, sipping from over-
large mugs in strangely small hands, all ten fingers wrapped around tight
to illustrate vulnerability but also that killer manicure,
in dresses that show off Instagram feeds with a look that's too much makeup and some unwashed hairRead the full poem here.
It was last winter I saw an otter lying dead at the edge of the creek,
body flaccid, scaled like that of a bird’s.
That was also the time we swung our palms loose,
heading down February over a speed bump, and our mothers-
calling us out, yet the distance too large and the gravity too strong
for us to hear their voices.
It was the way we slid over frozen ice – the carelessness,
the tangling of bones, that reminds me of how
this time and that time was all but a series of endings.Read the full poem here.
Lullabying: A Nautical Nocturna by Candice M. Ralph
Cradled by melodic notes,
babes set sail
in downy boats.
Songs of stars that twinkle bright
hush their gale
of cries at night.
Mother’s voice steers them abroad
waves that trail
to land of Nod.Read two more poems by Candice here.
Fifty-seven minutes by Rhythm Buaria
I set-up my establishment around the busiest corner of the street,
Six days a week and for twelve years now.
No sooner than the first batch of fritters is out of the pan,
Customers gather around, the usual ones, the first ones,
Some of them whom I see six days a week, and have seen for twelve years now.
It is a cycle of fifty-seven minutes,
For each batch takes so much time to be cooked, sold and consumed.Read the full poem here.
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PHOTOGRAPHY
"G.C. Laha has played an essential role in how art evolved in Calcutta. Being more than 100 years old, it has not changed much. The same old logotype and other ancient souvenirs from the British Raj make the store a living testimony of the art scene in India during Pre Independence.
The store was a catalyst in the careers of many great artists from India. Rabindranath Tagore, Raja Ravi Verma, Satyajit Ray and many other artists often acquired paint supplies from G.C Laha.”
-Radhika Kedia
See the full photo essay here.
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COLLABORATIONS
Celebrating our eco-heroes with Mongabay-India
On World Mangrove Day, we collaborated with Mongabay-India, a nonprofit environment and conservation news platform that brings high-quality, original reports from nature’s frontline in India, to highlight Wetland Champions, a series of illustrations and stories celebrating champions who protect our mangroves, lakes and other wetlands.
Through 25 stories, the Wetland Champions series goes around the country, from the mangroves to the mountains, from big rivers to small streams and from individual heroes to active communities.
Read our favorite stories here.
Poetry on a banana leaf: The Alipore Post x MAP Bangalore
The Alipore Post collaborated with Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), Bangalore to indulge in some food poetry for the soul and celebrate MAP's online exhibition Stories on a Banana Leaf, which explores the intersection of art and food. We invited our readers to share their food poems with us, and we got an overwhelming 100 poems to pick from.
Read our favorite submissions here.
Animation Showcase: Kōan by Moti Media
Combining ancient wisdom with modern technology , Macau-based Moti Media is trying to create a better future in the realm of wellness and positive psychology. Founded in 2020 during the height of a global pandemic, Pak H. Chau established Moti to help people from all walks of life to cultivate a deeper sense of self and a more profound sense of meaning and purpose.
Moti’s exploration of Kōan concepts utilises these stories with a humanist conceptual through line that entertains and encourage viewers exploration of these existential concepts. With profound simplicity, Moti’s Kōan quietly stirs an awe-inspiring appreciation of the world around us.
Know more about the animated series here.
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PROSE
of watermelons and graves by Prashant Mishra
“There is a field under the Ganga bridge here in Phaphamau. I've been occasionally seeing it for over two decades, and on a more regular basis in the past five years. It extends from west to east, horizon to horizon such that if one is on the bridge at the right times of the day they would see the sunrise and sunset from and into the river. Farmers cultivate watermelons on these sandy fields, fishermen fish on their boats and on one distant corner of the bank is the cremation ground of the area. The ancient pillars of the Lord Curzon bridge have seen the dichotomy of life and death unravel before them.”
-Prashant Mishra
Read the full piece here.
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P.S. There won’t be an open call for submissions any time soon since there’s already a lot of lovely work scheduled till November. Watch this space for the next one.