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Aug 16, 2024 | 
indianexpress.com | Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
I reaped the benefits of all of these. I did not have to go through the grind my parents did. No walking for miles for me to get to school or relying on an old bicycle for distances beyond. There was always the school bus, once an aspiration for them. They had no one to turn to for career advice. I had Employment News and Pratiyogita Darpan bought assiduously for me by my parents who read it with the same deep intent that they urged upon me.
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Jun 9, 2024 | 
scroll.in | Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
“I am a fucking cripple.” Deidre van Deventer – White, 53 years old, a resident of Cape Town that is borderline dystopian – says this dejectedly to Miriam, her Coloured neighbour, as she is trying to help Deidre. Deidre lost a leg at the age of 18 in an accident which, undoubtedly, shaped the rest of her life.
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Mar 19, 2024 | 
fountainink.in | Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar |Ashley J Tellis
One afternoon, as I was stepping out of my
rented place in Chandil to return to my office, I felt that there was someone
lurking outside the gate. I unclasped the latch and looked around. There was a
teenage girl in school uniform who hurried away upon seeing me. I saw that she
had a steel tiffin box in her hands which she was trying to close as she walked
away.
What was she up to? I wondered.
Then I understood.
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Nov 6, 2023 | 
platform-mag.com | Manoranjan Byapari |V. Ramaswamy |Manoj Rupda |Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
The JCB Prize for Literature, a prestigious ₹25-lakh award presented annually for an exceptional work of fiction, unveiled its 2023 shortlist. This provides an excellent opportunity to delve into the books that have earned a spot on the list, showcasing the diverse and boundless avenues through which ideas can resonate and manifest via various authorial voices. The winner of this esteemed prize will be revealed on November 18.
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Oct 19, 2023 | 
frontline.thehindu.com | Manoj Rupda |Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar |Manoranjan Byapari |Aditya Mani Jha
Manoj Rupda’s 2018 Hindi novella, Kaale Adhyay, translated into English by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar under the title I Named My Sister Silence, is in the JCB Prize long-list. The novella follows a loose, unconventional structure from the word go.
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Sep 30, 2023 | 
caravanmagazine.in | Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
Blessed are the towns and places that have public libraries. Especially small towns. Towns in mofussil areas, in the hinterland, where there are dreams and ambitions aplenty but limited resources. Where there are readers and a demand for books, but perhaps not the circumstances to procure those books. Public libraries—such as those I saw in Deoghar, in July this year—are probably among the best and most useful social concepts in such places.
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Jun 17, 2023 | 
exbulletin.com | Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
I think it happened somewhere outside, maybe on a walk, with friends, when we passed by a tree that someone identified as kachnar. Mountain Ebony. Immediately, someone from the group said, “Kachchi kali kachnar ki todi nahi jaati”. You do not break the bud of the mountain ebony flower. Soon someone also offered a line: “Ek baar hui jo dosti todi nahi jaati”. Friendship, once forged, does not break.
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Jun 16, 2023 | 
scroll.in | Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar |Manoj Rupda
After stepping out of the police station, I walked briskly towards that point where there were two tracks: one, towards the road that took one from the village to the city, and the other that led to the forest. I did not think twice about choosing a path. I took the one that went into the forest. I found a barrier and a check post a little ahead. There were two policemen at the check post, standing behind stacks of sacks filled with sand, their machine guns positioned over them.
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Feb 23, 2023 | 
thehindu.com | Manoranjan Byapari |Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
Rickshaw puller-turned author-turned politician Manoranjan Byapari’s writing teems with vivid descriptions of poverty, squalor, the helplessness of the poor and the working class, the precarity of being a refugee or a person displaced for political reasons, and the machinations of politicians. Plus, caste. Nearly all of Byapari’s books denounce caste, the upper castes and their efforts at propagating discrimination, and communalism in the strongest of terms.
